Hellooooooo! Have you missed me? Aww, I’ve missed you, too.
I'm sorry that there have been no walks for nearly a week. I had to take a little news-and-screen break to allow my brain to reset. I wholeheartedly recommend it if your head’s getting a bit too full and you need to switch off. Nothing wrong with that, ever, and especially not now. Take care of your brain, pals.
But I would like to catch up on the walks I’ve missed, so some days I might do two little ones. Or I might not – no need to put pressure on myself when it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, eh? We’ll see.
Matthew didn’t come with me today. I know you’ll have missed him too, but he’s fine. He's settled back into some lazy habits, same as me, but I’ve told him he has to walk tomorrow.
Anyway, Hest Bank today, where I hopped onto the canal. I had planned on going to that stretch we did a couple of weeks ago, where the rich people live, but I turned right at the top of this path instead of left and found myself on a section I’ve never walked before. Sweet – an adventure!
Looks the same as any other bit, with a little path and narrowboats and wild flowers and all of that. But, my goodness, it was wonderful to be out after being inside for most of the week. Don’t get me wrong, five days of non-stop Downton Abbey is one of my ideas of heaven, but finally stretching my legs on this glorious day was a whole ‘nother level. Without a word of a lie (sorry, looks like I’ll be mostly speaking in Northern idioms today!), I grinned for the whole of my walk today. I fair bounced along that canal path, greeting everyone I met from an acceptable social distance. All very pleasant indeed.
Bounce, bounce, ooh, look, trees! Bounce, bounce, ooh, look, bridges! Bounce, bounce, ooooooh, look, the nature!
Masses of wild garlic around here. I don’t know why I find that a bit fascinating. Is it edible? Can we gather it and cook with it? Not sure I’d pick it here anyway since it’s likely to have been peed on by dogs, but it's nice to look at.
I had a little look back the way I'd come to see if I could see the Lake District, which I could, but I don’t think you really can in the photo.
Then, like some celebrity YouTuber, I started taking selfies. This was really for myself, to prove that I’d got dressed (not in pyjamas) and even put a bit of a face on. See the joy (madness) on my big face? Thrilled, just thrilled to be outside. I think I frightened a few people with this unbridled enthusiasm for the outdoors.
Mmm, that side bit needs a trim. I’ll have to get Thomas to do that for me.
I took photos of every bridge I passed, and I even put them in this post. But you’ll be happy to know that I took most of them out again because they were all very similar - beautiful, but you don’t need to see every one. I was very snap happy indeed. What was very nice to see, though, was that I was not the only one today. Usually, I’m a lone photographer, snapping away, making Matthew wait for me so I can photograph a plant we’ve seen a hundred times or an empty road (I think those days are gone ... for now). But today there was a nice German fella, out with his fancy DSLR, taking pictures of reeds and tadpoles, I think. He kept kneeling by the bank and peering into the water.
Once I was past the edge of the ... I don’t know what to call Hest Bank since it’s not really a village and definitely not a town. Anyway, once I’d got past it, the landscape opened up and there were empty fields, properly rolling in that famous English way hills are supposed to roll.
And then I spotted these little dudes. First one, having his lunch ...
Then a whole mass of them, all swimming in the same direction.
And no wonder when there was this amazing buffet on offer. Eat, wee tadpoles; grow legs and be free! How many tadpoles get eaten by birds and fish, I wonder.
While I was kneeling on the bank to watch my little friends, I saw this pretty flower that I’d never noticed before. My new plant-identifying app told me that it was ... hang on ... Germander speedwell, which I think is the most amazing name and I should note it down for when I write my book. Germander Speedwell sounds like an interesting character.
But I didn’t stay still for long. I’m never quite sure how far I intend to walk, so I just usually keep going until it seems sensible to stop and turn back, and when you’re in a place you don’t know, you never know what you might find.
And then, ohhhh, I can’t explain this to you properly and I couldn’t get a photo to show you exactly what it looked like to the eye, but I passed this field. It was huge, so I tried to get a panoramic photo, but that didn’t work either and just made it look small. But it wasn’t particularly its size that struck me; I don’t actually know what it was that I loved about it – I just thought it was beautiful. It was empty and high up and ... errr ... majestic, in some sort of way. Yes, a majestic field. I want this field. I want to own it so that I can walk in it and have picnics and look at the view from it. I will add it to my dream pile.
Minnows! Not really surprising in a canal. I didn’t know what these were because I don't know about fish, but Matthew told me later.
I trampled along for a good mile or so more, still with lots of energy and still grinning and greeting everyone I passed. I set myself a mini challenge of not stopping until I found a bench to sit on. I’d passed a few already, so I didn’t think this would be a difficult challenge. Of course, no sooner had I started to think about benches than they seemed to disappear. There were none.
Eventually, I reached a field of cows. Cows are common enough, but I don’t think we have that many dairy farms around here, which is why these are the first cows to feature in our blog.
Very pretty cows, and definitely on the right side of the canal. I know it’s completely irrational, but I am afeared of cows. One ran straight at me and stepped on my foot when I was about 9 and I’ve never trusted them since.
And then, hmmm, interesting, I found that I’d reached a huge bridge. ‘No, it can’t be,’ says I, scratching my head, ‘I can’t have reached the new road already ... that must be about four miles from where I parked.’
But this was clearly a very new bridge and there is only one road this big in these parts. It was definitely the new road.
Arty bridge shot:
I had to know if I was where I suspected, so I left the canal for a minute and climbed up onto the bridge. Bloody hell, I’d no idea I’d come this far! This is the spot I’ve walked to a few times to sit on the bench right at the top there. There’s the muck spreaded field on the left, my bench in the middle, and the new road on the right. You could’ve knocked me down with a feather! If I hadn’t have left my car three or four miles up the canal, I could’ve walked home from here and been home in ten minutes!
In fact, I phoned Matthew and asked if he wanted to come and meet me, but he didn’t – he was in the middle of an episode of Trollhunters, so very busy.
Well, I’d challenged myself to find a bench before stopping and so I had found one. Time for a rest. There’s Morecambe.
And there’s Lancaster.
Now, I’d been out quite a while by this point and I’m not very good at distances, especially when I’m photographing minnows and such. As I sat here, pondering how long it might take me to get back to the car with a sore foot and achey hips (this is normal, I have these all the time because I’m getting old), I tried to estimate how far I really had come. I had dilly-dallied a little bit, but it is quite a way from my house to Hest Bank. However, I realised I had completely overestimated because I hadn't taken into account the fact that the canal takes a more direct route than the roads. I Googled when I got home and what I thought was four miles turned out to be two, so don't ever rely on me for any kind of directions or guesses about distances.
So, still a decent walk for my first one after a week of reclining – four miles is not to be sniffed at!
Here's that gorgeous field from the other side – it's the paler one in the middle of the shot, slotted in between two other not-quite-as-gorgeous fields.
And this is the house I guess it belongs to. You know I don't usually take photos of people's houses, but this is another that's probably already been in Lancashire Life, so I'm sure they won't mind. Ooh, it's gawjus.
Since I thought I still had four miles to walk back, I thought I'd best get a shift on so I kept up a very brisk pace on the way back, thinking that it was going to take me at least an hour. Obviously, it didn't take anywhere near that long. But that's okay.
I paused for three seconds here and there to take a quick picture because you know I like taking pictures. Some of those nice tree reflections. Lovely.
Aha! A bench. Stopped for a breather.
And then I spotted the last bridge before the car and had a little giggle to myself when I realised that I definitely had not just walked four miles back.
And that was it, walk done. Very proud of myself. I must be a lot fitter considering that I found it tiring to walk one mile when I started all of this.
So, until tomorrow, when we'll do it all again. Is this getting a bit repetitive? Probably. That's just how life is right now.
WQ
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