Monday 4th June 2018 - Raven's Barrow monument* and circuit
*SD 412 879
Today I awoke without a plan.
I have done gardening to death over the last few days; I have scant knowledge of the subject and generally dislike the activity, especially lawn mowing, but I watch Gardener's World because it seems to be good for my soul, and I do feel proud of my garden on the spasmodic occasions when a burst of energy has conquered it, but the problem is that the makeover lasts for such a short time before you have to start again. Gardening guru friends advise me that "a little and often" should be the plan, but that is easy to say but not to achieve, especially when one has another pass-time that takes precedence.
Fellow blogger
beatingthebounds who lives within a couple of miles of me has a habit of posting about places in our locality that I have not been to. That is despite me having lived here for eighteen years and egotistically believing I have walked the majority of footpaths and visited most items of interest on the map within a fair radius of our abodes.
Back in May
btb included a visit to an enigmatic cairn on Raven's Barrow fell
CLICK. and it was promptly added to my mental "to do" list.
As I lay in bed I knew the larder was nearly bare and I would have to submit to the chore of shopping but my thoughts rebelled and turned to that cairn, and I convinced myself that one of my curries from the freezer would see me through my evening meal, and I was up and about and motivated.
I plotted a four mile route to take in the cairn halfway. The whole walk was on perfect tracks, some hard core, and some cropped turf, varied through woods, and then open fells, and never a cow trodden field. I diverted to access the cairn from the west using the height that I had gained rather than having to make a steep ascent later from the east, and just before seeing the cairn I mounted a hillocky high point which dropped suddenly and steeply away giving a surprise and dramatic view down into and across the Winster valley - magic.
The cairn is designated as a monument on the OS map but I can find no history of its origin, so perhaps OS are being presumptuous? I would be interested to hear if anybody knows any more. There is a recess which makes a good seat and I had taken a flask of coffee and some biscuits and took much pleasure in soaking up the extensive views.
SUGGEST CLICK FIRST PHOTO TO ENLARGE FOR SLIDESHOW
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| This and next two: Sow HowTarn. Very pretty, but difficult to photograph without trespassing, but there are some good photos if you Google |
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| The only people I saw on the walk were a couple sat at the bottom left hand corner of this farm building. They didn't see me passing so there was not even a greeting. |
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| On the way to the cairn/monument - just over the horizon |
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| South down the Winster valley to the Kent estuary, and across to Arnside |
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| Mission accomplished |
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| North-ish up the Winster valley with distant Lake District hills, and the northern end of Whitbarrow intruding from the right. I was fascinated by the larger than usual expanse of irregularly shaped fields. |
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| Foxfield |
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| One for Alan R. looks a bit different? |
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| If you click to enlarge you will see red dots marking my outward route. The cairn/monument is just on the other side of the righthand end of the central light green plateau |
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| Clockwise starting from left at carpark annotation |
Our lifestyle means that little and often is not possible with our garden. Instead it gets a full-scale attack when we are home, and at this time of year the task can look a bit daunting at the outset. Thankfully we've had a good run of weather since we got home a week ago and have left it tidy-enough (with a pleasingly dead-looking lawn, which hopefully won't grow much in the next few weeks) as we abandon it again and head towards mainland Europe.
ReplyDeleteGayle - again no email notification of your comment.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a planned itinerary?
My friend and I were hoping to get our last two days on the Bronte Way completed by using public transport and an overnight b and b but it looks as though the rail problem has scuppered that. I don't fancy being stranded in Bradford - I lived there long enough and was glad to get away. The rail situation is truly appalling and apparently insoluble in the short term.
ReplyDeleteLike yourself, i'm happy when I can see the effects of my efforts in the garden. What makes me less happy is how fleeting the benefits seem to be.
My mother-in-law, in the days when she was more mobile, was a wonderful gardener; always choosing exactly the right plant for the situation where it was to be sited. I'm forever looking at shrubs and thinking they would have been better positioned in a different spot had I only had the knowledge.
Ah, well...
I think the comment notification ‘somebody turned off the switch’ problem is widespread. It’s a shame that Google either can’t be bothered or don’t know how to fix this fairly fundamental issue. Perhaps they have included this in their list of ‘retirements’ of features that are making way for ‘new and exciting features’ for the Blogger platform! Oh what a world we live in.
ReplyDeleteAnd that btb man still seems to get everywhere. He clearly doesn’t use rail transport... (I know, I know, Mark’s is a great blog.)
PS I quite like mowing the lawn. It’s all I am allowed to do as Mrs B is intent on converting the garden into a jungle. I’m even in trouble for trimming overhanging vegetation to make room for the mower to trim some of the wild flowers that have been introduced to the lawn!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the gardening; I have occasional bursts of enthusiasm, but then revert to benign neglect. I really like that area, which also has the magnificent Masons Arms (not that I've been there for a while). The farm building in your picture was built as a Friends Meeting House when non-conformists were prohibited from gathering within a certain radius of any towns or villages. You weren't attacked by Buzzards then?
ReplyDeleteI find gardening to be very therapeutic - it gives me a huge amount of satisfaction once I've done it....but I resent the time I need to spend on the chore. It does look nice(ish) once I've actually made the effort.
ReplyDeleteIt never ceases to amaze me how many interesting routes there are that are local to me, even when walking from my front door. They're not as interesting was your local routes - but South Manchester isn't very rural so many routes take in built-up areas.
Re: Blogger comments, I rather hope that this isn't the thin end of the wedge, 'their' way of dissuading 'us' from using Blogger. We may receive notification that the service will be 'improved' for our convenience .....like when the very excellent and much lamented Picasa was withdrawn.
From the Help forum:
ReplyDeleteHi everyone,
We are aware that there is an issue where users are not receiving email notifications for comments. We're currently tweaking our emailing system, but we expect it to be working again soon.
Thank you for your patience - we appreciate it!
Kelly
Blogger Community Manager
'Soon' A week? (no). A month? (Perhaps). Or maybe this is something that everyone uses but is worthy of 'retirement' as too hard to fix?
ReplyDeleteOh dear, I am getting grumpy...
Dave - I never had a mother-in-law, but I do have two people in my life who fill a similar function to the one you describe.
ReplyDelete---------------
Phreerunner - I'm surprised to hear you have any time at all to even give the lawn your cursory mow considering your non-stop activity in other directions. Thanks for your contributions. I do enjoy writing and strive to produce good English and was pleased to note your criticism of the use of the vague "soon," a word that could be, debatably, dropped from the English language, along with "very." although I have used the latter on very rare occasions.
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Mark - Thanks for the info. on the building. I did wonder, thinking it was too elaborate to be just a barn and not sophisticated enough to be a dwelling, but my questionably enquiring mind gave up on it after that. I would have thought your interest in flora would have given you more than a passing interest in gardening, but perhaps cultivated species are not your thing?
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JJ - Thanks for producing that gem of enlightenment from Blogger. It is difficult to imagine who these people are, where they are located, what they do all day, how do they dress, and most of all what goes on in their minds. I try to draw a mental picture but it stalls - that's perhaps why I don't write fiction.
We have no planned itinerary and only the vaguest idea as to where we're going. As with all of our European motorhome trips, it will be a mystery your that we make up as we go along.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I typed 'tour' not 'your'. I'm blaming that one on autocorrect.
DeleteGayle - That makes sense to me.
ReplyDelete