I can't believe granddaughter Katie is now seven. On Sunday her mum was toiling under pressure with GCSE marking, so I was off with Katie for a walk. A modest three miler around the paths and lanes in the little hills south of Ings was perfect. I have previously posted about this area, and the rocky summit with a spot height of 249m and a view of a secret tarn was to be our focus towards the end of the walk.
Straight from the car Katie was walking along the top of a partly demolished, rickety dry stone wall with the agility of a circus performer. I had to intervene before damage was done to either K or the remains of the wall. An undulating turf path lead us into a spooky wood - sadly no Gruffaloes were seen. After some uphill roadwork we were onto paths with Katie leading the way much of the time and full of chatter. Back on more tarmac we were taking advantage of a weathered seat in long grass when a small group came by and volunteered to take a photo of us both together.
At a farm we came across a lady and daughter harnessing a small pony. I was asked to stop using my walking poles - their tapping noise on the tarmac had spooked their timid beast - well that was a change from being frequently accused of inciting dogs to savagery by wearing a hat.
We ascended our hill. K was onto the rocky top well ahead of me. A strong wind nearly blew her over, but with hair streaming she was shouting with glee and waving, full of fun, then the hat I had lent her blew off causing even more laughter and a wild chase for its retrieval.
We descended fifty feet and hunkered down behind a wall for sandwiches and cake. Whilst I had no doubt Katie was enjoying herself I was still surprisingly pleased when she said "Can we go back to the top again?" Well that made my day and off we went for our second visit.
As I picked my way back down over the pathless terrain to the road Katie was way ahead imagining I guess that she was crossing a giant's garden or whatever.
Back on the road we found one of those helium balloons on a wall. Katie recognised this as litter and told me we should take it away with us, but first it needed deflating - she took it to the road and with great delight jumped on it making a satisfying loud pop.
As we descended we were anticipating seeing the car below and I was teasing Katie with the possibility that it wouldn't be there. The suspense mounted and the car only revealed itself from the folds of the landscape in the last fifty yards.
Café Ambio (the one at Ings, not the auction mart one where I go with Pete) provided more cake and drinks to round off a jolly adventure.
PLEASE CLICK FIRST PHOTO TO ENLARGE AS SLIDESHOW
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| Practising heel hooks |
Katie has shown from the start an interest in drawing, painting and artwork in general. I have shown her the basics of Photoshop Elements on several occasions. Back at my house she asked to play on Photoshop. I opened a blank page for her and left her to it and she produced the picture below with no input whatsoever from me.
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| PLEASE CLICK TO ENLARGE - looks like she may have potential as a film critic as well |
All good photos; my caption for the first one is a paraphrasing of Neil Armstrong's comment on stepping onto the moon: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant stretch for seven-year-old Katie!"
ReplyDeleteWell done, Katie!
What a wonderful day filled with lovely memories! I love the energy they have at that age, it's as if anything is possible. We've booked to see our grandkids next weekend (been a couple of months since we last saw them due to schedule conflicts!). They are two and five, boy and girl, and the five year old can get very camera shy, unless you pretend you are trying to take a photo of something without her in it, whereupon she proceeds to photobomb every time the camera comes out!
ReplyDeleteI thought an awkward mantle shelf move Conrad. Katie looks like a natural climber to me.
ReplyDeleteCrow- it’s good to see you indicating that what Neil Armstrong intended to say, was ‘a man’, not just ‘man’.
ReplyDeleteI can only say "where did you get that hat?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVvcfJZjrSk
ReplyDeleteThat sounds and looks to have been a lovely outing. I fear that it's not something we could replicate with our grandchildren, who whinged their way through a mere half-mile walk last time we saw them.
ReplyDeleteThe Crow - Good to hear from you. I thought you may rise to this one.
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Kendal grufties - Are yours far away? Katie and mum live within ten minutes walk of my house. I hope you have fun on your next meeting. There is a skill in getting good candid photos, especially of grandchildren - they always look away at the last second or turn their back on you. Those two shots of Katie on the summit were not as I intended but you just have to go with what you get in the end.
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afoot - In my day we started on v. diffs and worked our way up over a long time to Very Severe. These days they start straight in at E1. I wonder if all those classic v. diffs and severes get climbed much these days? My daughter went to John Moore's to do English and PE snd fell in with students doing Outdoor Ed instead. They had her off leading VS far too soon and she fell on Old Man's Putery at Tremadoc - all her gear came out snd she broke her arm - never climbed again!
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BC - I watched the You Tube clip - not my favourite genre - we've come a long way since then, even up to Ken Dodd and later to Beyond the Fringe and all that. To answer your question, it was an impulse buy on the Rohan clearance website, since replaced with my Tilly which is even more prone to being snatched by the wind.
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afoot - good to see you upholding proper English
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Gayle - I put my son off for life by overdoing it at an early age, anyway who can compete with a fascination for motor bikes?.