Matthew was full of energy today, so I let him decide where we should walk and he fancied a hike up to our bench on the new road. It was warm enough not to need coats, and we packed our flask of tea and some shortbread biscuits.
I've never shown you this tree at the end of our street. Isn't it nice? I would love to steal it – dig it up and transplant it to my garden.
I think Matthew particularly likes the walks where we just set off from our house and choose a road to follow. I do, too. It's a bit disconcerting when you see a car on the pavement, but this one wasn't moving so it was all fine.
Don't you just love leafy lanes? This isn't the prettiest road in the world, but the trees do make it quite pleasant to walk along.
In no time at all, because we're very fast now, we were at the new road. We had to do some social distancing because there were other people around today. People in Lancaster seem to be keeping it up very nicely. No one gets too close on the pavements, and people stop and take a step back if there's not much room to pass. And everyone smiles and says at least a hello. (Apart from my nextdoor neighbour, who hates us. He looked daggers at me when I passed him yesterday.)
We keep seeing these on the new road. Let me zoom in ...
These. Anyone know what they are? I thought they were those little compressed CO2 pellets you can get to blow up your bike tyres really quickly, but I don't think those are this small. I also don't think they'd be found here where we never see any bikes.
Oh. I've Googled them. It's drugs. I'm so naive sometimes. Nitrous oxide, apparently. Well, I wouldn't know these things because no one ever offered me drugs in my going-out days!
Moving on, we stormed up the new road, which used to seem soooooo long to us, and we reached the pond. I'm becoming very fond of this little area, which you've seen a lot now. I think some effort was made to keep it nice and green and to encourage a good variety of wildlife after the new road was built. It's very pleasant indeed.
And now you can see even more of our walks all tying in together, because there's Clougha Pike. We haven't been up there yet because the car parks are closed, but it's very close to Littledale Rocks, where we were last week, in the fog. It's like the little bits of our walking challenge are starting to meld into a coherent mass of something ... I don't know what, but something!
Then we saw a man pull over and get out of his car to take a wee by the side of the road, so that was nice.
The skies are dramatic again this week, making the view from our bench well worth the speedy hike. We were covering our miles in record time today, completely unintentionally. We didn't even have the right shoes on, as you saw in the drugs picture above. I'd been outside in my sneakers earlier in the afternoon and had forgotten to change into my trainers to walk. My sneakers have soles about as thick as a sheet of non-corrugated cardboard, and Matthew's aren't much better.
But back to the view. I only ever really see dragons in the clouds. Matthew sees various Pokemon. What do you see, readers? Tut, shut up, Linda – this isn't CBeebies!
Look at that tree. That's a corker, eh? What a shape. I've never noticed it before, but I'll notice it every time I'm up here from now on.
Because this was Matthew's energetic walk, he got to choose whether we stayed on the new road to Slyne or got off and found another way home. He chose the canal. See how the walks are melding? This was where I thought I'd accidentally walked four miles a couple of weeks ago but I'd only walked two. Ah, the memories. I bet you're getting all misty eyed like I am, eh?
I think it's quite cute how they've tried to make that great monstrosity of a road fit into the countryside as prettily as possible. For the most part, I think they've done quite well. I wouldn't walk here so much if I didn't think so.
Just for context and so you remember what the canal looks like:
Someone had left a little offering:
My plant identifier hasn't got a clue what this little thing is. Do you know, Auntie Trish? Probably some invasive weed. Pretty though, ain't it?
Dum-de-dum, springing along the canal, chattering gaily, having a lovely time. Trees and fields, reflections and blue sky, and all of those nice things.
We were pulled up sharp by some strange-looking animals in someone's back garden. I think my friend Helen used to live here and her garden backed onto this little field, where I seem to remember her having a few sheep friends that she would feed. Thirty-five years ago, or something like that ... 35! That's how ancient I am.
Anyway, there's a pony in this field, but the two brown things seemed to be alpacas. They were too busy eating to look up, so it was difficult to get a proper look at them. Pretty sure they were alpacas, though.
We could've got off the canal here and gone home, but who wants to go home when it's a lovely warm day and there's no pressure to do anything else? I don't, and Matthew didn't, so we carried on.
'Hey, Matthew,' says I, 'there's a swan ... isn't it beautiful?' 'No,' says he, 'I told you, they're ugly.' Fair enough.
Wait just a gosh-darned minute! Last time we were here, waaaaaay back at the start of the lockdown, this bridge was blocked off and we saw a heron, remember? And we couldn't get onto the aquaduct, which was a shame. Well, someone had been and finished their work and the aquaduct was accessible again today. It's just there ...
See? Ooooh, fancy. Honestly, when I was little and then when my kids were little, the aquaduct always scared me a bit because it's very high up, and if you happened to be taken by the urge to lean right over and look down, you'd probably break your legs if you fell in the river because it's not very deep here. But it's a marvellous feat of engineering and I do like it, all the same.
You go that way a bit north and more east, to Yorkshire ...
And go this way south and then west to the sea. Now there's a view, eh? Lancaster Castle, looking rather impressive. I like to imagine what this all would have looked like a thousand years ago. Well, completely different, I suppose.
For many decades, I'm sure, their parents keeping them away from the edge of the canal, toddlers have been terrified of walking on this side of the path because these ... errr, things ... what would they be called?? Well, they're spaced quite widely and they're definitely gappy enough for a small person to fit through. I can very clearly remember worrying that I might die here, or that one of my children might break free of my vice-like grip and hurl themselves off the bridge. Ah, great memories.
Corrrr! I've not been totally impressed by this iPhone's camera, but that's a shot and a half, eh? This doesn't look like my town – looks like some kind of hidden and ancient Mayan temple site.
I do recall sitting here for a picnic once. Slightly strange spot, perhaps, and we did get some funny looks, but we've never been a family to care about that sort of thing. Sometimes we just sit on the ground in the middle of town to eat when we're hungry and tired. So what?!
One more, as a special treat for you. And yes, people do climb over to sit on the ledge and dangle their legs. Not I – bugger that! I absolutely know I would be one of the unlucky ones who'd wobble and fall to my death. In fact, I need to move on because this is giving me the willies.
We had to go back the way we came because the aquaduct was still closed from the other side. Our feet were hurting now (wrong shoes, as I said), and Matthew was also starting to get a blister. I was a bit concerned that I was going to have to leave him and jog home to get the car because we were still a good mile and a half out from our house, but he soldiered on.
My auntie Laraine lives that way, in a village called Halton. Hiya, Auntie Laraine!
We saw this and though of you, dear reader. Happy Tuesday! Have a flower.
We visited one more place on this epic walk. Since we had to walk home, it didn't make much difference which way we went, so we popped across to Gardner Road, which was where I lived when I was born and until I was eight. This street used to look much bigger when I was tiny, and I can remember every paving stone and every doorstep. I can remember exactly what our house looked like inside and I can remember lots of lovely memories, like the time a breeze block fell on my foot and I had to have crutches. I can also remember the books I read by the light of the moon coming through my bedroom window when I was supposed to be going to sleep. I almost bought a house here when I was 24 – I've always been a little sad that I didn't.
Gardner Road is a little less than a mile from our house, so we were home fairly soon after this. I stopped taking photos, though, because you've seen the park and my street a hundred times now. But 5.3 miles today – get in!
Until tomorrow, nostalgia fairies.
WQ
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