For newcomers

At the bottom of each post there is the word "comments". If you click on it you will see comments made by followers, and if you follow the instructions you may also comment and I always welcome that. I have found many people overlook this part of the blog which is often more interesting than the original post!

My blog nick-name is SIR HUGH. I'm not from the aristocracy - my middle name is Hugh which relates to the list of 282 hills in Scotland compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891. I climbed my last one (Sgurr Mor) on 28th June 2009

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Wednesday 30 December 2020

Lune Valley Ramble 3

Tuesday 29th December 2020

Aughton to Loyn Bridge 

Many circumstances have prevented me from walking for weeks. Any leisure time has been filled with my model making. The De Havilland Mosquito was finished and I am now embarked on a Mk1 Spitfire, but at last a decent weather forecast coincided with a blank calendar and the opportunity to leave WW2 and The Battle of Britain for a while.

On 19th August I walked the second part of The Lune Valley Ramble. Since then I bought an E-bike at vast expense with the idea of using it to combine car and bike for linear sections of such walks. I have never really had my heart in cycling, although its benefits were much enjoyed when I was using a mountain bike for Munro bagging. After a couple of outings locally on the bike it languished in the garage until I was honest enough with myself to ignore the cost. which kind of forces one to  pretend it was a good idea, and admit that I just didn't enjoy its company. Particularly on busy roads I was apprehensive and nervy. A couple of weeks before Christmas the bike was advertised and I was thankful to get back £100 less than I had paid for it.

Linear multi-day walks will now have to be tackled using circular routes only with half the distance contributing to the main objective. I have now realised that this is of no consequence: a walk is a walk  and a being in its own right and if half happens to be part of an objective that is a bonus.

The car was iced up. I started up and adopted the security risk of leaving it running with all the defrosting heater thing blasting away. The last time I did this I went back inside and left the keys there only to find when I arrived at my destination to meet BC for a day's walk I could not re-start the car without the keys and I was brought back home by Green Flag on the back of their recovery vehicle hoping that the neighbours would not be looking. Great care was taken today to avoid a repeat.

I was able to use a car park opposite the church in upper Aughton. A steep road descent into the lower part of the village needed care with patches of non-visible black Ice here and there. There is a cottage and outbuildings down by the river where I finished last time and I looked with mixed thoughts at the open ended barn I had earmarked as a good place to conceal a bike when I next resumed, and here I was now with the revised plan.

Although there was a heavy frost fields were still gloopy and hard going. It took perhaps quarter of a mile to get back to the river - it really is a big beast at this stage and the views upstream exemplified the  now spectacular scale.

I was soon into wooded sections with steep rough muddy mini switchback paths,  often intimidatingly above the river and with treacherous tree routes and numerous crossings of deeply gouged tributary streams - all generally arduous going. Hardly a pleasant "Lune Valley Ramble." This continued with odd sections of muddy fields. At one point there is a little cottage called The Snab. I had of course to Google this back home but although it is mentioned by other walkers  derivation is not mentioned. Googling "snab" alone came up with:

Sellers-Nuffield Advanced Biology (SNAB) is an advanced level Biology course. The course uses real life contexts as a starting point to introduce relevant knowledge and understanding of biological principles.

I don't think I'll be signing up for that anytime soon even though it may be more palatable using "real life concepts."

My "furthest north" was the familiar Loyn Bridge passed on our Wainwright's Way with BC and on many other occasions but not from this direction. I italicised being reminded of what I thought was a fantastic bargain - a grand first edition of "Nearest the Pole" by Peary (1907) found in a secondhand bookshop for thirty shillings. Gloating on this coup I examined further back at home -  looking at the list of illustrations I noted: "Frontispiece, colour, Peary planting the US flag at the "the furthest north." Excited I realised that this must have been a very rare colour photo at the time thus potentially increasing the value of my find - the frontispiece had been removed.

The return by roads and paths was enjoyable climbing back to  higher ground with extensive views of the Lune valley. I think I will need two more of these circular trips to finish off this project; return paths are not so evident but I have not yet planned properly.

Worth clicking photos to enlarge

The  exciting centre of Lower Aughton


Picking up from my last finishing point. The river is rejoined near the distant trees. Note the metal gate on the right of the stile then my next photo


Not sure if this old gate was supposed to be that shape or if it somehow got that way. The top bent bar appears to be a re-used scaffolding bar




Rough going perilously above the river




The Snab

They were several hundred yards away down below. I thought they were up to no good and took this long zoom but when I was closer I could see they were fishing. At least I was on the move keeping warm, they must have been frozen, but they seemed to be well clad

The river Wenning joining the Lune





Loyn Bridge "furthest north"
Flights of fancy?

Wednesday 23 December 2020

FOR DAVE: "THIS IS THE WAY" formerly "THE OSS ROAD"

 

Hi Dave,

Just looked at your new blog: https://ossroad.wordpress.com/author/ossroad/

How does one make a comment?


Conrad.

Tuesday 15 December 2020

Season's greetings.

 Wishing all an enjoyable Christmas and a better New Year.


Our alternative Christmas tree. Pink Teddy on the top goes back two generations - I think he could do with some attention from The Repair Shop The conventional tree is in the other room.
I will be apart from daughter and granddaughter this time, just me and son W.




Sunday 13 December 2020

Don't underestimate sheep

It seems Bonzo had Floppy put in jail pending trial. Fortunately Floppy has a friend called Unshorn who is a bit of a sleeper belying, as a sheep, her presumed timidity.  Unshorn, again during the night, had noticed that Bonzo was, shall we say, otherwise occupied with Quacky. Unshorn, whose hero is Barrack Obama, has a gift for oratory and persuasion and she rallied the pack from their slumbers and preached the benefits of supporting Floppy as leader of the pack not least because Floppy was much more into chasing things across fields, wallowing in mud, and having a good time which was not the kind of thing Bonzo would be offering them, he being more interested in fighting other dogs and biting humans.


Unshorn had a plan. Whilst persuading the pack to mobilise somehow the Red Foxes had gleaned what was afoot and they tried to intervene, but the pack were now united in the plan to overthrow Bonzo and through force of numbers they soon had the Red Foxes handcuffed.

Off they all went to the jail, Unshorn leading the way in her chauffeur driven Land Rover. A stout chain was attached to the window bars of the jail and in true cowboy style, but using a Land Rover instead of a horse the bars were pulled out and thrown down below onto the hearth where I found them this morning. 

I have heard on The News that Unshorn as the ultimate peacemaker has been able to takeover as leader of the pack because Floppy was too much of a softy to take on that role. Bonzo and Quacky have been appointed as guards to look after Unshorn’s herd of relations on the adjoining side-table and also to guard the mantlepiece while the rest of them are off frolicking across my tartan carpet during the night chasing goodness knows what.

As for The Red Foxes they have been appointed as joint chauffeurs to Unshorn and also with responsibility for maintaining her Land Rover.

WORTH CLICKING PHOTOS TO ENLARGE, ESPECIALLY ENGINE ON LAND ROVER AND COCKPIT ON MOSQUITO
Oops! Just tried and enlargement is only being picked up on four of the photos for me.

The pack off to the jail following Unshorn in her Land Rover

The Red Foxes up to a bit of maintenance while Bonzo, Quacky, Floppy and Unshorn watch on




All back at home. Bonzo and quacky on guard. I think Red Fox Two is underneath draining the sump
The stone in the background is from the summit of my last Munro: Sgurr Mor (NM 965 980) - 28th June 2009


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Mosquito update



Brother RR did National Service in the RAF as a radio technician. I wonder if the radio here would be familiar to him, although I think it may be older than the ones he worked on.


Tuesday 8 December 2020

Attempted putsch in Arnside

 Tuesday 8th December 2020

Various circumstances have conspired recently against forays into the outdoors.

Meanwhile I have had a revolution on my hands. 

I have a collection of Beswick dogs on my mantelpiece and granddaughter Katie has always enjoyed seeing them. Katie presented me with Bonzo the bulldog on my birthday, a powerful guy with a strong will. He immediately took over as leader of the pack and appointed Quacker the duck as his second-in-command.

Yesterday I learned there had been an attempted overthrow by Floppy the springer. I think it happened in the night, but fortunately Bonzo and Quacker were able to  quell the rebellion but only with the help of their special agents, The Red Foxes.

I await the outcome - it may be that Floppy goes on trial but I hope he doesn't have a mysterious and unexplained fall off the mantlepiece.


The Mantlepiece Gang

007 and 007A: The Red Foxes



Katie after handing over Bonzo on my birthday