Poor Matthew needed another day off today, so I was on my own again. I was at a little bit of a loss as to where to go – I had intended to take a short drive somewhere a bit different, but the car battery was dead again from lack of use. That'll have to go on charge tomorrow, as my young gannets have eaten all of the food again. Ye gods, they can eat!
My children don't make this noise, usually, but actual gannets do: https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/northern-gannet/
Well, I packed my flask of tea and headed up the street, deciding to just see where my feet would take me. They were pretty tired after all of those bridges yesterday, so I didn't expect them to take me far. Trusting fool!
Do you like this roof? I've always liked it. It's at the top of the hill round the corner from my house. I don't know who it belongs to, but I've often wondered if they're part hobbit.
On the other side of the hill, I found this today. It's a leftover fence. Or would we call it a set of railings? Either way, it's left over. It used to belong to the garden centre that was here before the new road was built. I can't imagine why someone decided to just leave this bit when they cleared the rest.
What's really weird about it is that they left the sign with the opening times as well.
My feet decided that, since I was by the new road, I might as well climb up to it and walk there for a bit. So I did.
The new road has a name, but I think it will just be called the new road for a generation or two. Empty again today, of course.
I'm not telling you the name of the new road – it's the crappest name for a road ever thought up by road namers.
Before it was built, there were protests because it was going to cut through a green belt. I think it was decided that there should be an attempt to make the road blend into the countryside – this was what they came up with. Some panels of toughened glass. Effective, eh? I had to double check to make sure I was on the road because that very effective glass made it feel as though I was in the middle of a field.
This field used to have a couple of horses in it, but it was always flooding. Whoever owns it clearly gave up the fight and decided to just let it be a pond. That's not a particularly interesting fact, it's just that I only noticed today that the horses have gone.
A bit further along is the crematorium. You'll remember that this is where Matthew and I stopped for our tea break last week. That's the spot, right there, just in front of the gate. From this angle, I can see that it was quite a peculiar place to stop for tea. But, you know, when you need a cuppa, what can you do?
And a bit further along still, I smelled it before I saw it, our old friend the muck-spreaded field. My dad used to say, of the sweet and sickly odour of muck-spreading, that we should breathe in a good lungful – 'go on, aaaaah, it'll put hairs on your lungs, that will!' I guess it's a Lancashire thing.
Here you go – I know you like the dramatic evening skies we're being treated to at the moment. If you're not getting out for your own walks right now, you can enjoy them vicariously. It was a truly gorgeous evening to be out. I stopped here for a bit to have my tea – a whole flask to myself. Nice.
Look! A celestial body!
Refreshed from my sit down and cups of tea, I very nearly carried on up the new road – that daft idea could've taken me about seven miles from my house. Sadly, or thankfully, my feet had completely the opposite idea and they took me back down off the road and along the crematorium lane. They're hurting a bit today. Poor feet.
Tough! They're not getting a day off – I've made a commitment ... to what or whom, I don't know.
There it is – the monstrosity that well and truly cuts its undulating way right through the green belt. About ten years ago, we almost bought a derelict farmhouse with a barn and some land, just on the other side of this road. The road wasn't there then. I'm not sure if I'm glad we didn't buy it. This would have been the eventual view from our living room. But when I sit on the bench to drink my tea and I see right across Morecambe Bay, over to the Lakes, and the whole of Lancaster if I look the other way ... well, those are pretty awesome views that you don't see from down here.
Tomorrow will be a short walk because my feet really are killing me now!
Until then, sweet peas.
WQ
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