Another day last week, I tempted Matthew outside for a walk when it was nice out. Haven't we had a lot of rain lately? Well, if you don't live here you won't know, but we have. Typical July, now that the climate has changed so drastically. Anyway, it wasn't raining on whatever day it was we went over the river.
I decided to drive all the way round town to get here, even though we only live half a mile away, because I thought that extra mile might do me some damage, being as walking was still quite painful last week. Matthew was quite up for seeing the Scandinavian houses, even though he's not as fond of them as I am. So we parked up here, near the building sites.
There seem to be people living in these now, which is a bit odd because it's student accommodation, but we're in the summer holidays. And also I think most students went home at the start of the lockdown. So who's staying here?
Matthew was rather shocked to see that, from this side, our own side of the river actually looks a lot nicer than it really is. Something about the grass always being greener, something, something, blah blah. I meant to say something very witty and hilarious about this, but I'm just too tired because it's midnight. I must just perk up to get this written for you, though, because I've now got three more posts waiting for attention and it's starting to feel like when I was at uni and the assignments piled up and all I wanted to do was go to the pub with my mates but I couldn't because that was the exact reason for all my assignments piling up in the first place! Course, this blog, wittering and waffling as it is, is a lot better written than any assignment I ever wrote at uni. I can't believe they gave me a degree.
Well, so, walking. I'm not sure what I expected Matthew's reaction to be when he saw the Scandinavian houses up close, but I'll give him this, he never fails to be underwhelmed. 'What do you think?' says I. 'Oh,' says he, 'yeah, good.' 'Do you like them?' says I. 'Yeah,' says he, with a sniff, 'sure, why not.'
A bit further on, Matthew says, 'I like them, but they look like they should be by the sea or something.' 'Well, they sort of are, Matthew,' says I, 'the sea's just down there.' It sort of it is – the river bends a couple of times and then goes out to sea just past Glasson, at Sunderland Point. 'Oh yeah,' says he, blatantly thinking I was a bit thick because a river is not a sea.
This street sign caused a great deal of discussion. Cotton square. To me, that means little scraps of fabric, so I stood here, chuckling to myself, with Matthew next to me, frowning and trying to work out why I was laughing. 'Cotton squares,' says I, 'you know, like, little cotton squares?' 'Huh?' says he, 'I don't get it.' It took me some minutes of explaining to realise that he didn't know that clothes and such can be made from cotton – he thought it was just a plant. Interesting, the gaps we can have in our general knowledge without realising.
Oh dear. I popped off for a minute to Google 'cotton squares' to see what other people think they are, and I accidentally on purpose ended up buying 250 squares of material to make a quilt. Plus loads of coloured thread to stitch them together. Cheap as owt, but not exactly essential since I have a quilt already.
We left the Scandinavian houses behind pretty quickly because Matthew was soon bored of staring at them, and we ambled over to the river using this handy path. You've seen this before because I did this walk by myself not so long ago.
Ta-da, the river! Lovely. Now, because this was over a week ago, I can't remember any details and am really using the photos to jog my memory about anything interesting that we talked about. My memory is letting me down a bit, but I know that this was about the time that Matthew started talking about Pokemon, and when he does that I start to get a bit lost in the conversation and it can be difficult to get a word in. I think I mostly walked along in silence, occasionally saying 'mm-hmm' to encourage my son to keep talking because he hasn't seen any friends for four months and it's good to talk.
I interrupted part way through Matthew's list of favourite Pokemon characters to ask what he thought might have been here in the past, because there was quite a lot of fallen and half-buried stone that looked as though it had once been part of a wall or a building. Matthew didn't know what might have been here and carried on with his list. He was actually so engrossed in mentally compiling his list that he walked off along the river for quite some time before realising I'd stopped for a rest.
It's interesting how a path or a road or whatever seems a lot longer the first time you explore it. When I walked here by myself, I felt as though I'd walked miles by the time I reached this place, with the fence and the tree and the fields beyond, but we were here very quickly on this day. Perfect spot for a proper rest and a cup of tea.
I sat here for a bit. Matthew didn't fancy perching, said it looked a bit too wobbly. It was quite wobbly, but I had to sit somewhere and I feared I'd be stuck if I sat on the floor. Plus, I really do like to climb, even just a little bit.
You'll recall that I walked along this ridge, earthwork, moat-type structure thing last time. Since the main purpose of today's walk was to see the pools, we had to go this way back. I did wonder if we could have followed this structure around past the gate I'd just been sitting on, but the gate was locked and I don't know the rules about locked gates in these outdoor places. I should probably be a bit more daring. I'll work on that.
We walked past the pools, with Matthew again being completely underwhelmed. 'Oh,' says he, 'I thought they'd be bigger.' 'Right, fine,' says I, 'let's just carry on then, shall we?' Honestly, there's just no pleasing some teenagers. It got worse, though. 'Ugh,' says he, 'there's one of those ugly swans.' Then he carried on listing his Pokemon. Do you get the sense that Matthew is properly entering his teens? Do you remember all those weeks ago when he was a delight and I never had to guilt him into coming with me?
I'm kidding, of course, he's still a delight. He's just tired because he's been doing some growing.
So, at the end of that earthwork thing, we found the gap in the wilderness that we needed to find to get back to the road. It had been nice by the river and all, but we had to bear in mind that I couldn't go too far, else I'd get stuck with my pain and have to be air lifted – fun as that would probably be, it would also be a waste of time and resources just now. So we scuttled down this steep path and over the weeny fence. It's just a tiny fence, but I love this particular little bit of overgrownness. I think it's very pretty.
We then came to the fork in the road and I could not for the life of me remember which fork I took last time, so Matthew chose the right one. I mean the one on the right, which was actually the right one, because the left one was not the right one because it was the wrong one.
Someone's been working here because all the brickwork is now down, and just the metal framey bits left. Honestly, I don't know why so many of you are still reading this when I so often struggle to string a sentence together when it's about something I know absolutely nothing about, like construction, or trees, or birds or cows and stuff. You're the most patient and lovely readers a blogger could have.
We shall be back here over the coming months and perhaps this building will be gone entirely. I wonder if they're building something nice in it's place. I guess they won't be allowing the wilderness to reclaim the land.
You'll recall that last time I was here I just looked at the Glasson path but didn't set foot on it. We had a little bit of energy left on this day, Matthew and I, so we decided to go and see what was down this lane. I already knew because, as I told you, I've cycled this route a few times, but I don't think Matthew has ever been down here. Don't you just love a leafy lane? One of the best things in the world.
Ooooh, nice. Just in the distance, past the horses, is the earthwork where we'd just been. This is a good field, I like this field. It hasn't got a hill in it, though, so it can't be my favourite. As you know, any hill that I eventually own will need to have a hill in it.
'They hang the man and flog the woman that steals the goose from off the common but let the greater villain loose that steals the common from the goose.' The law demands that we atone when we take things we do not own, but leaves the lords and ladies fine who take things that are yours and mine. Never a truer word written. But when? Who knows.
I was relieved by this very interesting diversion because it temporarily stopped Matthew's Pokemon chat. I read it out to him a couple of times and he spent several minutes trying to decipher the meaning. I pretended to allow him those few minutes to work it out, but I was actually trying to work it out for myself. I got it in the end, but I did need to read it four times. I'm not sure how I've never heard this verse before when it seems to be so famous.
Lancaster town lies that way. We'll venture down there another day, but much too far for today when we'd already done a few miles.
We came to the end of the lane and lo! The rest of the earthwork. At the other end of this field is the gate that I sat on, so we should've just climbed over it, especially since they haven't even bothered finishing the fence at this end. Not to worry, it was only an extra half mile that we'd added, and what's half a mile between friends.
We were tired and sore now, and that was when Matthew realised just how far it was back to the car and that this was roughly only the halfway point. Poor lad. And we had no food at all to give us a boost. We'd just have to dig in and get the job done.
But first, I just wanted to have a quick look over here, down this next lane. We looked at it and admired its straightness. 'That's quite a lane,' says I. 'Yep, it is,' says Matthew. He looked sideways at me – I know this because I have very good peripheral vision and can almost see behind me. 'Don't worry, son,' says I, 'we're not walking down there ... this time.' He was relieved and immediately turned on his heel and set off back to the car. I don't like rushing back when I get to the halfway point, really. I like to stay for a little while, do nothing, look around me, be quiet, that sort of thing. Matthew likes to get it done and go home.
Now there is a field I could quite happily buy. Not the one in the foreground, but the one beyond it. It's got a very nice hill, perfect for picnics. Although it doesn't seem to have a tree. I'll need a tree.
Young Matthew pretty much speed walked back to the car, allowing me no time at all for photos, you'll be very pleased to hear. I think this is a good thing when we're walking back the same route – we don't want to see it all again in reverse. We did cut out the pools though, so it wasn't quite as far. Four miles in total – bloody hell, it hurt by the end!
Right at the end of the walk, we saw Daniel Craig, which was really strange. He was just there, but sort of not, on a semi-transparent banner thing. I don't know what's going on here.
Until tomorrow, odd bods.
WQ
Comments
Post a Comment