In the steps of Mole - Chipping with BC

 Wednesday 4th March 2026

Spring commandeered Mole in Wind in the Willows:

“O blow!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously...

and so it was with me receiving a call from "imperious"Bowland Climber ( good word not quite appropriate,for BC but I couldn't resist it) on Tuesday evening uggesting a walk on the morrow knowing I had the dreary job earmarked to replace a rotten threshold on my front door - there was no hesitation in my acceptance.

BC has his arm in a sling but apart from being unable to drive he is managing well.

Chipping was our starting point. Steady climbing on a well laid concrete road through parkland took us to Laund Farm where we found sheep sheering in progesss, and we chatted a while with the sheerers.  In an animal shed there was also a flock of Blue Faced Leicster sheep who despite being well provided for in their quarters were straining to crop the grass they could just reach on the outside of their enclosure.

The parkland dates  to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries when it was owned by the monarch as a deer park and now remains as a pleasing quintessential example of part of the makeup of our countryside..

Eventually the concrete road finished and we had a short trek across upland tussocky ground under the foot of Parlick and its associated Bowland ridge. It was heartening to witness curlew and lapwing in some numbers and overall on this walk much more bird life than I have seen elsewhere for some time, although I suppose the start of spring  has them  all tuning up. Unfortunately there were no hen harriers, they have been systematically exterminated here.

A descent took us to stepping stones over Leagram Brook where care was traken by both of us. Later on during  a call from BC's son BC mentioned this esposode, and with BC's fairly recent dramtic entanglement with is kitchen furniture BC's offspring are trying to execrise some control and questioned the wisdom of walking with me.

Pleasant quiet road walking took us back into Chipping and a look round the church including the grave of Elizabeth Dean. In 1835 Elizabeth was thwatred in love. Her intended bailed out and married another. On the day of the wedding Elizbeth hung herself from a high window of a building opposite the church  entrance. The first thing the newly marrried erstwhile boyfriend would see on exiting the church would be the sobering site of Elizabeth hanging on high. Elizabeth's ws well liked in Chipping and despite  the taking of one's own life  denying the burying in consecrated ground, public opinion prevailed over the clergy and Elizabeth was buried in the church graveyard. Her ghost is said to be seen from time to rime.

That was a most enjoyable walk and finished off in style with BC treating us to  ten-out-of-ten coffee and lemonn drizzle cake to die for at the excellent café in Chipping.

A contraption for unfurling the rtoll of fencing wire with a teactor we deduced.

Royal parkland from the 14th century.

The eastern end of Longridge Fell

Any slower and I weould have been static.

Blue Faced Leicester sheep - The grass is always geeener..?

It was our turn next after this zoom shot from some distance

With his other arm out of action BC has to be extra careful. 

Parlick

The old H J Berry chairmaker factory. The felled timber for chair construction was hauled from wagons on the road by the crane. Note also the steps down to the stream in the forground, presumably where washing was done?

Elizabeth Dean's grave

1675. It surprises me that the average height of we humans has increased so much in such a relatively short period considering the eons of time for evolution. These doors must be not much more than four and a half feet high.

Anti-clockwise from Chipping

"There's such an air of spring about it"

Tuesday 24th February 2026

Amongst numerous recent diary entries I have had a hearing test and been given hearing aids. That stemmed from not being able to assimilate conversations in the environment of a two hundred guest wedding between Christmas and New Year, otherwise I can hear pretty well in normal one to one convesations, and I can hear the birdies sing. But the hearing test, and its science said I was severely deaf in one ear, and well on the way with the other - all very strange.

Although I haven't recently had the good fortune to emulate Ella  -  "I can hear a lark somewhere sing about it" - I have been able to hear more of birdsong in general when I had thought that was at a satisfactory level before. On top of that I can hear the carpet scrunching under my feet and any rustling or crinkly paper emitts an incredibly high pitched kind of crackliness.

So yesterday at last I was able to take a break from my model making ( currently a Red Arrows Hawk trainer) and head off on a long awaited walk.

The appearance of crocus, snowdrops and daffs  is a short lived event that I did not want to miss and I was reasonably well rewarded.

 

All Saints church, Underbarrow

Challenging graveyard terrain?

Leaving the tarmac

Crocus and snowdrops

Zoom to Underbarrow village

I imagined a giant had been employed as a wall builder - Tranthwaite Hall farm

Down to a ford where...

I thought I was going to get wet feet, but...

...saviour.

Lindreth Brow cottage. I was a couple of hundred yards off route but that error serendipitously provided a perfect lunch spot just the other side of the far hedge, see next photo

Anticlockwise from Chapel Bridge

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I saw Ella st St. George's Hall in Bradford in the early sixties perhaps a bit earlier than the time of this recording - a highlight of my lifetime.

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Namby-pamby

 Wednesday 11th February 2026

An accumulation of appointments and bad weather have conspired to prevent me from walking anywhere for weeks, and if I'm honest, advancing old age  imposes a reluctance to face the COLD.

My son W. has oftrn lampooned me with his perception that I am at my happiest when I voluntarily go out into lashing rain and wind to do a walk  at the limits of my endurance, but I reckon those days are over.

On top of all that, blogging seems to have more or less died a death with few posts from bloggers I follow and a sobering absence of comments from those who were previously literarily vocal. Hateful  banal social media  (a hateful term in its own right,)  seems to have taken over. 

Ok, so no walking as I await spring and watch from my window the birds on my feeder compelled to brave the rain for their survival. I think of my past, undertaking my own masochistic enjoyment, which in some ways has helped to keep my "mental health" under control...

 ...yes, everybody has "mental health" these days, so why not me? I'm a bit cynical about the indiscriminate use of that term which every "celebrity" and the rest seem to have something to say about, but I  in no way detract from those who do seriously succumb to  its various medically diagnosed forms.

In some ways the link to an article in today's Guardian encapsulates a namby-pamby approach which these days seems to be prevalent, with excessive health and safety, much of youth expecting everything to be done for them,  and global politics kowtowing to  dictatorial regimes.

After reading the review I felt unable to watch this programme which I had recorded because the tv résumé indicated that it had something to do with mountaineering in the sense that I understand that activity.

I do feel guilty sounding off about this, not having watched it myself, but hopefully I may have saved some readers the waste of time in doing so?

CLICK HERE

 Friday 30th January - 10:30pm.

If you have any doubts watch this:

https://youtu.be/Pn6a02nyVgQ?si=zAj2R3TRoGFHXBhy

Comparisons with Nazi Germany are not exaggerated (in my opinion.)

Further concern

 Thursday 29th January 2026

I have page-views often in excess of 1000 per day, but I think they are mainly from Internet searching facilities that I don't understand, but even so there must be a number of folk who actually read my blog but I am getting almost zero comments. Ok, this  is the way of the world but I am hugely concerned about the comments I made in my last post and it worries me about how uninformed the UK public are about what is going on across the Pond.

There are many channels on You Tube detailing the appalling happenings including holocaust style concentration camps, arrest without due process, random attacks  on minority groups, and massive inputs of misinformation, and downright lies about the state of the economy and much more. On top of  all that is a disregard for and deliberate ignoring of the law, and dubious political  and illegal manoeuvrings that seem to have no consequences.

One of the most respected channels which I believe strives to get all this across using verified sources and factual accounts can be viewed from the link below. This is just one episode from daily posts made here and it would be worth continuing to follow, that is if you are able to stand the resulting distress and and disgust at what is truthfully akin to what happened in Nazi Germany. 

I suspect that many people  think they are au fait with what is going on  having followed UK media but there is nothing like the required depth of reporting. It is worrying that the far right here are jumping on a similar bandwagon with increasing numbers of our population inexplicably blind to what is happening.

Please watch:

Click here

Fright

 Sunday 25th January 2026

There seems to have been limited coverage of the goings on across The Pond in UK media for reasons that I do not want to discuss, but I suggest that with scarcity of reporting here it may be appropriate to look a bit further afield. 

However, The Guardian has published a detailed account from an eye witness of the latest atrocity this morning. Ok, the BBC would probably shy away from publishing this without their supposed strict verification, but there is no doubt in my mind that this is an accurate and bone fide report. It is sickening to me to the point of physical nausea, especially when you can also see graphic video of the appalling violent crackdown by armed storm troopers on unarmed and peacefully protesting citizens with indiscriminate use of tear gas, pepper spray and bodily physical violence. 

I am scared. Similar trends are developing here, illogically supported by a large percentage of our population who must be blind or uninformed not to see the pattern emerging.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/24/alex-pretti-killing-witness-testimony?CMP=share_btn_url

There are many You Tube channels chronicling in detail what is going on and care is needed to assimilate the reliability of some. Perhaps the most reliable is:

@MeidasTouch

(When you open the link go to The Meidas Touch Podcast section for the continuing update of news.)

They are given to somewhat hyperbolic headlines, but pride themselves on the veracity of their research and sources.  These people are under threat and fear for their safety.

Crooklands, Endmoor and Lancaster Canal

 Sunday 28th December 2025

Just a quick four miler before heading north tomorrow to a huge family wedding.

I have just returned from the event. There were 250+ guests, six bridesmaids, six groomsmen and best-man. A pre-wedding gathering for the two families the night before, then a church wedding, reception and evening do all to a lavish standard - quite a thrash.

Back to the walk. A pleasant trip up a non-navigable part of the Lancaster Canal from Crooklands followed by old lanes and then a steep climb on a footpath to a commanding view down to Endmoor and descent then to follow the beck back to Crooklands.

Lancaster Canal from Crooklands

Odd goings on here and the photo below. I think the local landowner must have a sense of tumour

Click to enlarge.
 There were similar notices on other gates further on

Distant view to Whitbarrow limestone escarpment, a favourite venue of mine over the years

Commonmire

On the market for £715,000. If you Google you will see why

On the other side of the road

On the steep climb to the hill above Endmoor. Looking down to the well hidden static caravan site at Stubb Farm - well evident from here but not so from lower locations

Now looking down to Endmoor. My lunch spot at the clock in Endmoor can be seen between the righthand end of the houses and the dark tree, right edge of photo

There was a bench where I had my smack and coffee. A gent from the house behind emrged and came to chat. He was off to try and view otters which have been seen on the canal at Crooklands. Quite susrprising

This and below on the clock - click to enlarge

Clockwise from Crooklands

Later that evening I was watching Robbie Cumming on Canal Boat Journeys (You Tube.) Robbie mentioned two canals he has not yet covered - The Lancaster and the  Llangollen, both of which I have coincidently walked in their entireties - made me feel quite smug.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYBODY