You might have noticed that it no longer says 'My Daily Lockdown Walk' – this is not because I don't want to walk every day (and I haven't managed to walk every day for ages anyway!). Nope, not the case. I do, in actual fact, want to walk every day. However, this wee blog is becoming rather difficult to keep up with, and mostly because of the number of photos I take on each walk. I've made them so detailed that they've become like homework, and every week I have to catch up and miss out on walks to do so, which is really defeating the object of the whole exercise – to get me fitter. So what I've decided to do is take my daily walks, but not necessarily write about them all. I will write about the best ones, and I will still write a few times a week. But if I'm just doing a quick skip down to the river, which you've seen ten hundred times already, I might not tell you. I might not even tell you when I go to the Favourite Place. I hope you don't mind. But I think it will be very nice for me just to go for my little constitional without taking any photos at all, and without looking specifically for things to write about. Good. Excellent. Of course, I say this, but whether I will be able to stick to it and not document every step remains to be seen. Knowing that I've walked without creating a post might create an itch that I can never be rid of!
I will write about this one because I've already plonked the photos in here, so I might as well. Matthew wanted to see what Miss Whalley's Field looked like, so we went there in the middle of last week – or maybe the week before – I honestly can't remember when.
Sometimes there's a slight nip in the air now, isn't there? But it's still a toss up between taking a coat and being too hot after five minutes or not taking a coat and being too cold for a little bit. When it stopped being nicely warm a couple of weeks ago, I was a little sad because we've had such a good summer weather-wise. But actually, getting wrapped up in my nice warm coat, with gloves and a scarf and my new bobble hat (oh yes, it has a bobble – what's winter life without a bobble? Are you crazy?!) is the next thing I'm really looking forward to. Bring on the winter! I'm ready.
So, Matthew liked Miss Whalley's Field, small as it is. We sat on the bench and surveyed our kingdom for a little bit, and Matthew chatted away very happily, glad as he always is to be able to talk about whatever he wants without someone rolling their eyes or telling him to shut up (people at school are mean). I've been trying to get him to pay attention to the scenery while he's rabbiting away, and it seemed to be quite easy for him to do that here. Well, it's a splendid view.
A boggy one though, on this day. I can't remember if it had been raining a lot, but it was all just a bit damp, and I was wearing the wrong trainers, so we had to pick our way carefully across the bottom of the field. But you can't just walk to the bench and back – that's not even a quarter of a mile. We decided to ... surprise, surprise! ... go to the canal. But we chose a different way, to see how many alleys we could see. This was one.
And then just down the road, this one another. A really narrow one, but very tidy looking – which surprised me because this isn't a posh bit of Lancaster.
We went down this titchy little street of teeny little houses. So cute!
And then we found another alley that has a bridge in it and some not-very-interesting graffiti.
Obviously, the only reason for bridges in Lancaster town centre is to get over the canal, and that's where we were next. Another one of those very fine, clear evenings, as you see. Excellent. I know we go to the various bits of the canal a lot, but as soon as I step onto a canal path, my mind does clear immediately, what with all the trees and reeds and grass and what have you. And rats. Whooaaah! We saw rats.
Just here was where they were, in this grass. Too quick to snap a photo. We hung around for a few minutes to see if they'd come back, but I think they were onto us.
So we carried on, remembering that we were out for a walk, not a stand. Gorgeous! The leaves have definitely turned now, all golden and crispy. Ahhhhhh, breathe it all in. Nice.
I think this looks a bit like a sunrise, except that I know it's on the wrong side, and I don't remember the last time I saw a sunrise. I'd like to see one again, and that's entirely possible now that winter is coming. Watch this space!
Awwww, I bet this used to be a really lovely place to sit for a break if you worked in town. A bit forlorn and neglected now. Maybe we'll sit here one day, cheer it up a little bit, poor thing.
But we couldn't stand around staring at old benches all evening. Onward! To the White Cross pub. No one was sitting outside, even though we weren't in Tier 3 lockdown then.
Matthew wanted this to be our halfway point and said we should go back to the car. You'd think he'd know by now that every time he says that, I'll push him a bit further, and so I did. 'Nah,' says I, 'let's go to the next bridge.' Matthew almost rolled his eyes but stopped himself just in time, then grinned at me. 'Haha,' says he, 'I nearly did a teenage moody thing!' Well done, that lad!
I like these scratty bits of canal, where the trees are all completely wild and covered in ivy, and the railings are rusty and neglected. Really pretty.
The next bridge wasn't much further, so we did an about-face then and headed back. We didn't really hang about because, as usual, we were hungry.
We did stop briefly so that I could sing a little bit of West Side Story when we noticed this fire escape. Matthew didn't know why I was singing that, so that took up the conversation until we were almost back to where we'd started.
Conversation was cut short when we saw the rats again. Only they weren't rats – they were big mice. See it? Awwwwww! We saw four, and when we stood still and became invisible, they came out to play for a bit. But then lots of other people walked and cycled by, probably on their way home from work, which scared the mice off, so we gave up and left them be.
We split up for five minutes on the final leg of our little journey – Matthew went back through Miss Whalley's Field because he had darker trainers on than I did and he wasn't too bothered about getting them dirty. I went the long way round to save mine, and I'm glad I did because, when I got to the top of Miss Whalley's Field, this was what I saw. My little Matthew, sitting on the bench, looking out over the town. I didn't know as I watched him, but he was writing something. I didn't ask what because it was private, but that was just the sweetest thing!
So, until tomorrow, canal rats.
WQ
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