Busy but not walking

Leg seems to have recovered, more or less, from the the cellulitis type bacterial infection after taking on board enough antibiotic to solve the World health problem, but he still continues to rebel against the whacking I gave him with a branch somewhere around 15th September on my SW Coast Path walk, and which received another whacking when my hooped carbon fibre tent pole, under tension, released itself and struck again in the same place. Leg therefore has two wounds close together on the shin about a centimetre diameter which are not healing well and are still painful, and Leg seems to have the capacity to transfer that pain to me in retribution.

There is also the added problem of the blood clot in Lower Leg, not a dvt, and therefore not too serious, but I am still giving myself daily injections, and attending fortnightly at the hospital for scans, and also at my gp's nurse for attention to the wound. Lower Leg I am told is behaving himself according to the scans.

Of course, I am not whinging. Daughter High Horse may not agree.

I need to rest and keep the leg up as much as possible which I do in the evenings, but during the day I am always busy.

Have you heard of hacking? Buying an item as new and then modifying it to your own requirements, having a high hit rate with IKEA products. High Horse is into this and we’ve bought a bunk bed, from IKEA, for Katie’s birthday later this month, and I have been co-opted to hack.

As bought from Ikea (after the half day you have taken to assemble it)

An elaborate "hack" using two units

Work in progress - finished photo may appear later

Thursday walks with Pete are suspended for the moment - Pete has joined the wounded, suffering from arthritis and is taking tons of pills which he is assured, will, after some time, relieve things.

Today our walking substitute was a visit to a picture framers in the wilds  beyond Kendal used by Pete’s wife who is a talented amateur artist. The mission was to have framed a superb photo of Annapurna taken by David Ensor (David Ensor Travel Photography, www.davidensorphotos.co.uk ). David is the proprietor of Chiltern Lodge b and b at Worth Matravers where I stayed on the second night of my recent walk on the SW Coast Path (highly recommended), he has travelled extensively and organised his own treks to the Himalayas pursuing his passion for photography.

Photo by www.davidensorphotos.co.uk

The picture framer was located in a mini industrial estate hidden under the slopes of Scout Scar in the middle of nowhere. You could hardly move inside the place for stacks of wood that looked as though they had accumulated over a hundred years. It was a pleasure to chat with Michael the owner knowing it was he who would do the job, all so much better than handing over to some faceless multiple in the middle of town (watch out Gimmer - it looks as though I’m going conservative -  small c).

After that, despite not having walked, we still went for our usual wind-down at Café Ambio (located in the newly built livestock auction mart). It was a busy auction day, and as usual we followed the trail to the café of mixed sawdust and livestock leavings scattered, incongruously along the recently laid pristine vinyl flooring. All the farmers, in their working worn tweed suits and waistcoats, flat hats, wellies and boots were seated together at one end of the room, troughing, and telling the tale with lively bavardage - this is obviously a cherished social occasion for them (no ladies), and despite the clinical architecture of the building there was a strong atmosphere akin to attending a shepherds' meet in a seventeenth century pub in the Dales, belied by expensive 4 x 4s and nearly new Landrovers evident outside.

Time-out for the farmers at Ambio

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KATIE UPDATE

Perhaps she may get on The Two Blondes team?
twoblondeswalking.com

A bucolic encounter

A 21 mile cycle ride from home today took me on a number of tiny, grass-in-the-middle roads that I have never traversed before despite living here for 12 years, and using many minor bye-ways for walking during the foot and mouth outbreak. A couple of these with only modest elevation gave me inspiring distant views of the Lake District. 

I have a sort of love hate thing with farmers, and I have often noticed their dry and economic communication. I stopped on an old hump back bridge to look down into the pretty, bubbling and tree lined River Bela, then looked up to see I was being observed by a farmer just emerging from his domain across the road,

“A chap drowned in there yesterday” was his opening announcement.

River Bela a bit further upstream from Mr. Farmer incident

He went on to explain about a not so elderly local known to him, who had been fishing and had been found drowned. I suppose there will be more detail of this in the Westmorland Gazette next Friday.

I happened to mention my forthcoming knee operation (now scheduled for 4th May), and he had to tell me about his hip replacement which he cheerfully informed me keeps popping out. More chat raised the subject of otters which he seemed to have something against, but he did not elaborate,

“...they’re alright as long as they stay in the river”.

After this anti wildlife stance he then eulogised about recently seeing a dipper on the river, and enthusiastically told me about the abundance of kingfishers.

I left Mr. Farmer going off for his lunch, and I cycled on feeling a little confused, and welcomed a stop at the Farleton View Tea Shop for a pot of tea and a chocolate brownie.