A little bit of a treat today because I was joined on my walk by my brother, Terry. Even though I am not a particularly stupid person, I have no real idea how to interpret the slightly eased lockdown rules, so Matthew didn't come with us. That had nothing to do with the rules, really – he just didn't want to.
Now, Terry lives on the posh side of Lancaster. It's where the university lecturers live, and teachers from the two grammar schools and lots of doctors and nurses from the hospital, because the university, the grammar schools and the hospital are on the south side of the river. On my side of the river, we have ... not a lot. Lots of houses, a few supermarkets, some industrial estates and the two roads that lead to Morecambe. That's about it really. I would quite like to live on the south side but it's a bit expensive. Maybe one day, when I've written that novel I've been banging on about for 12 years.
I haven't really walked on this side of Lancaster because I don't live here and I don't know the area all that well. Terry does, of course, so he led the way. We had no plan and just went where Terry's feet took us, which was quite wonderful.
Narrow streets, so social distancing had to be done consciously. We managed this perfectly well.
Haverbreaks. Now then, this is dead posh. So, I went to the girls' grammar school, but I was one of the poor kids from Skerton. There were lots of girls at school who lived on Haverbreaks and they didn't have the same Lancashire accents as those of us from north of the river – in fact, they had no accents, although you might say they spoke in RP. But they were still lovely and lots of them were my friends. Having said that, I only went to Haverbreaks once and if you lived here now and asked me to give you a lift home, I'd struggle to find it. Terry says he walks and runs around here all the time, which I think means he's now posher than me. Look, how posh is he, eh? Also, do you think that distance between us is socially acceptable?
So, anyway, off we trotted. And we did trot, because Terry has a decent walking pace. But I didn't struggle to keep up, which was encouraging. Definitely much fitter. Yesssss!
Notice how the countryside on the south side of the river looks ... very similar to the countryside on my side.
Except that there are cows over here! Holy cheesemongers, Batman! Fortunately, they were way over the other side of this field, and also not arsed at all. Still, you never can tell with cows.
I wanted to take a bunch of pictures of the posh houses on Haverbreaks but I couldn't because all of the people who live in them were out and about, tending their gardens, enjoying being furloughed. I decided to take one, just because it had a great chimney. I was about to take a very artistic and carefully framed shot of the chimney over the wall, but, 'wait,' says Terry, 'you'll get a better shot from the gate.' So I didn't take my photo and skipped over to here to get a better shot. Except that it wasn't a better shot, it was a crap one. But you know me, I never go backwards, so it was too late. Onwards!
Waaaait a minute, says I to myself, that's the canal. It was indeed the canal. I can't seem to get away from it, eh? It has featured in so many of my walks now that it feels like a great friend. Almost a character in its own right. If we're not careful, I'll start talking to it and giving it dialogue.
Just to be sure, another photo. Yep, definitely the canal. Well, I never!
But no time to dally about; more walking to do. This was when I started to have no real idea where I was, even though there was a map. Okay, so what happened here was that I took a silly photo of the National Lottery sign and then Terry said that he had made the map and installed it, but I couldn't really be bothered to take another photo at that point, so you just get the key and a couple of fields' worth of the map my brother made. It's alright; it's not his best work. (If you want to see some of Terry's work, you should follow him on InstaG @sticky.bandit and @houseonawindyhill – he's super talented.)
But we didn't need a map because a) Terry knew the way, and b) you can't get lost if you follow the path.
It happened again today, that thing that I had the other day when I saw a field I wanted to buy. I think it's becoming a thing, that I'm developing a love of empty fields. Is there a name for it? I've just Googled 'is there a name for a love of fields', but it just came up with Glastonbury and an airport in Dallas, so I don't think it's a recognised thing. Maybe I'm the first person ever to fall in love with fields. What's interesting, though, is that I'm yet to walk across one in this lockdown. I've walked across lots of fields before, but not since I started this little project. I've kept to paths and roads. I think this needs to change. I'm 43 years old; I should be wandering off the beaten track by now.
But not today. Today we kept to paths. Paths are also great, and gravelly ones make an amazing sound. Imagine if I'd never started my walks and so had never known the wonderful noises made by trainers crunching stones on paths.
Another field, but that's not what I was photographing here – no, I spotted a little insect home on a post. Someone made a tiny insect home and put in on a post at the side of a field. What's that about then? Are there some insects that will only live inside little hidey holes in pieces of cane?
Still keeping up our brisk pace, I absolutely loved this path we were on. It was very narrow – fortunately, we didn't meet anyone coming in the opposite direction because some of us might have had to jump into the beck to avoid physical contact or the possibility of breathing in airborne covid particles. But anyway, the path was lovely because the hedges on either side were very tall so it felt a bit like a maze. The sound from the roads was deadened as well, which was a nice thing.
By now, I'd no idea which part of Lancaster we were in. I knew we were still on the posh side because the houses were still posh and we very obviously hadn't crossed the river. But I couldn't have found my way back to Terry's house on my own.
Saw this gawjus tree! It's not perfect because it's too small to climb (that's something else I haven't done yet, and it's one of my things – I love to climb trees), but it's still very pretty. Terry's camera couldn't fit the whole tree in, so we had a brief discussion about the respective merits of the cameras of the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 11. We decided that both were very good and that no one cares which iPhone you have.
Still hadn't the foggiest where we were, but it seemed like a good time to stop so Terry could drop his best pose.
He had a mind to show me some of his favourite houses in the area (whichever area this was), and this was one of the contenders. Nice, very nice. This is the back of the house, I think. Big. Posh. Expensive.
Oooooh, but then we saw these beauties. I can't remember the name of this little terrace, but it seemed to be a private road and I think we were trespassing, so I snapped a quick shot and we legged it. Aren't they nice, though? We both agreed that we like old-looking on the outside and new-looking on the inside. We also both agreed that these were the nicest houses we'd seen today.
There was lots of talking on this walk, as you can imagine, because we hadn't seen each other for a couple of months or so, so I kind of lost the thread of the walk somewhere. I kept pausing to photograph a field or a path or a bird now and then, but I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing. I think this was the one that made me gasp a bit, so something has clearly gone wrong in my brain ... I mean, I know it's just a field, but damn, it's beautiful! Look at it – it's got a goddam hill in it!
Now, I promise, this was definitely a pheasant. I saw it with my eyeballs and I know what a pheasant looks like, and this was definitely one of them. The one in the middle, not the one to the left – the one to the left is a pigeon. I know the difference.
It even sounded properly pheasant-like: https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/common-pheasant/
Somehow, and I have no idea how because I was just following my brother, we ended up on the canal. This bit of canal is quite familiar to me because it was part of my school's cross-country run that every girl had to do in the winter months. Everyone hated it and hardly anyone took it seriously. I think I was usually last or nearly last because I hated running and will always hate it. It just does not make me feel great in the way that it makes other people feel great. It makes me feel sick and like I want to die. Walking is ma thang because I'm not in a rush.
Holy hell, what the eff is that?? A chicken duck? A waterproof dragon pigeon? Is it unwell? Has it had an accident with some nuclear waste? Is it dangerous??
In all my days, I've never seen such a creature, which is perhaps surprising because, apparently, it's just a Muscovy duck and they're very common.
Photography took a back seat after this because, well, nothing could possibly be as interesting as the dragon goose pigeon duck.
I did halfheartedly snap a couple of strange slopey fields, but that was really just for myself, not you. You can look at them, though. This one had horses and sheep in it, and those trees at the top were really loud – they sounded like running water, and it was definitely them and not the canal, because the canal doesn't move.
And then there was this field, which looks like it might belong to a farm somewhere in Kentucky. (If you own a farm in Kentucky and are grossly offended by my comparison, I apologise; but I've never been to Kentucky myself and have only seen pictures of its very pretty farmlands – they all look like this, but greener.)
We did walk quite a bit further but, unusually for me, I took no more photos and I can't remember where we went or how we got back to Terry's. I'm not used to not knowing where I am, but I liked it! The next challenge will be for me not to know where I am when I'm on my own, but without actually getting lost. Challenge accepted.
Oh, and today's walk was about 5 miles – well done, everyone.
Until tomorrow, fearless explorers.
WQ
Comments
Post a Comment