Wednesday 4 December 2024 - Whin Fell and the Brennand Valley

Cary joined me and Sue for this enjoyable walk on a foggy day in December. Just as well that it was planned as part of my walks and rides programme, or we'd probably have stayed at home. It's walk number 12 in Mark Sutcliffe's Cicerone guide to 'Walking in Lancashire'.

We set off from the prescribed gravel area on the Trough of Bowland road near Dunsop Bridge. Langden Brook was soon crossed.

It took us a while to find the stile that we thought would be closer to the bridge. It's not the most robust of stiles! But luckily the fence isn't exactly robust either.

A pleasant path to the left of the river led to a coppice, a bridge, a stile and a kissing gate, before returning us to the Trough road, which passes Sykes Farm.

 

At Trough Barn we found a lady minding some nice looking dogs. She wasn't hugely communicative. She was waiting for 'shooters' and probably knew what our feelings would be. I recall a dishonest former colleague who used to pay a large sum to kill game birds in this area, which is also known for murdering raptors.

A Land Rover followed us up the track to Trough House, where there's a tumbledown mine building.

That was the last we saw of the Land Rover, and we heard no gunshots, so the shooters must have been elsewhere.

Mark's route by-passes the summit of Whin Fell (aka Whins Brow), but we decided to toil over the peat hags to reach the trig point. Here the sun was visible through the mist, but we weren't quite high enough to enjoy the atmospheric effects of getting above the cloud.

We followed a fence before turning right to rejoin our designated route, which led comfortably down to  Brennand Farm, where various activities including moving sheep around were taking place.

Our guidebook waxes lyrical about the beauty of the Brennand Valley. The next pictures were taken looking back up to the farm, and looking down the beautiful valley. What they don't capture is the beauty of the barn owl that flew just in front of us as we reached Brennand Farm.

The road rose gently to a point where a tarmac track leads to Whitendale. It looked like a good cycling route, but a large United Utilities sign indicated it was designated as a footpath and cycles are not allowed. There was however a welcome bench, on which we enjoyed our lunch. (And we had no cycles, anyway!)

The quiet road took us all the way to Closes Barn, on a track beyond the confluence of the rivers Brennand and Dunsop.

A Lancashire County Council sign attemps to show the paths in this area. (Click on the image for a better view.)

A very boggy/slurry path by-passes Closes Barn and leads to a finger post (by Cary's head) that released us onto the road a few hundred metres from the car. Luckily there was plenty of fresh water to wash away the slurry!

Here's our route - 13 km with 400 metres ascent, taking (as predicted by Mark Sutcliffe) about 4 hours.

An excellent day out, despite the paucity of visibility.

BC went this way in March 2023. Here's his report. We didn't see any sign of trial bikes on our walk.

Medley

Decisions: move on to the next posting, or do several separate postings, or just put a few pictures up for the record. 

I've chosen the latter, starting with Monday's Christmas party at Eagley Jazz Club, where The Dixie Beats put on a great show to a full house. Good food, good music, great value.

It's not every day that a message is received from someone you haven't seen or communicated with for 62 years. Mike Shakeshaft, sixth from the left on the photo below, is that person. This week he kindly provided the picture of the students and staff of Ward House, Adams Grammar School, in July 1961. I am sitting on his left. He discovered me as a result of my posting in June 2022, recalling my early days at a boarding school.
Hopefully we will meet up in the new Year.

Sue's retirement nearly 12 months ago gives her the opportunity of indulging in flights of fancy such as that shown below. I'm hoping she will progress to something useful. Xmas cards, perhaps!?

We recently popped in to the Little Heath Farm shop with Ernst and Bianca. They were admiring the trees, and now Ernst has managed to find one that is nearly as tall as he is. Well done. It'll be strange for them to be celebrating Chritmas in Altrincham, rather than in Cape Town's summer sunshine.

Next, I've been doing Wordle every day since I bought my latest (S23) phone. A few days ago the software did what it has done to many others - it ended my run without reason or explanation. Perhaps that's a blessing - I'll never manage such a long run and I no longer have to worry about doing it every day, or even getting it right.

Finally, when Sue isn't doing jigsaws, she can be found labouring over a cold stove. Here's a result, and the recipe is here and below.

Ingredients:

For the biscuit base:
125g softened butter
50g caster sugar
5tbsp cocoa powder
1 egg, beaten
200g digestive biscuits, blitzed to crumbs
100g dessicated coconut
50g chopped almonds

For the custard icing:
100g softened butter
4tbsp double cream
3tbsp custard powder
250g icing sugar

For the chocolate topping:
150g dark chocolate
50g butter

Method:

1. For the biscuit base, melt the butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until smooth. Whisk in the egg for 2-3 mins until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and add the biscuit, coconut and almonds. Mix, then press into the base of a lined 20cm square tin. Chill for 10 mins.

2. For the custard icing, whisk together the butter, cream and custard powder until light and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar until it's fully incorporated. Spread over the bottom layer and chill until the custard layer is no longer soft.

3. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a microwave, then spread over the chilled bars and return to the fridge. Leave until the chocolate has fully set - at least 2 hours. Take out of the tin and cut into squares to serve.

Saturday 30 November 2024 - Bridgnorth

It was a pleasure to meet up again with my old university pal Peter and his wife Cassie. We last saw them on a sunny day in April last year. They are over here again from Calgary - on a fairly short visit mainly to visit family and friends.

We arrived in time for lunch (thanks Cassie and Peter), at the same cottage that they hired last year, then we enjoyed a 4km wander into and around Bridgnorth on a busy Saturday afternoon, with lots of Brummie accents amongst the visitors.

The small park in the upper town (the Castle Gardens) was decked with Rememberance Day poppies, and some box hedges had been neatly trimmed to represent an aircraft, a ship, and a tank.

The C12 castle's remains still tower awkwardly; their angle of lean is four times as much as the leaning tower of Pisa.

Sue and I posed next to a Saxon warrior that guards the signage for the Mercian Way, a long distance cycle route.

From the Upper Town, there are good views to the River Severn, which is fairly full at present thanks to some recent storms.

We took the Cliff Railway to the Lower Town. It's the only inland railway of this nature in the UK.

Back in the Upper Town, we did a little window shopping and passed the Town Hall, built on stilts to provide a covered market place for the town.

Back at the cottage, we enjoyed an ample tea before setting off home while Peter and Cassie headed for a nearby concert.

It was great to catch up, and thanks P&C for the lunch, tea and goodies. You are very generous.

Saturday 30 November 2024 - Wythenshawe parkrun #596, and a Community Run

Saturday morning would have been sunny, had the sun risen sufficiently to be appreciated. Oliver Cromwell was the first to spot it on the horizon.

This week just 213 participants turned up. They were expecting a muddy course, but all that was on offer was a bit of wet grass and a very shallow bog.

Here a shot taken during Andy's expert (ie quick) briefing.

We all got round happily, and the full results are here. Jan dashed off to watch some football, and we were due in Bridgnorth by lunchtime, so it was a quick coffee with Jan and Andy, the Barbers being in Bletchley, then we dashed off.

Sunday morning. Raining steadily. Just 60 or so turned up for the 2km and 5km Community Runs. Here's a view from the back of the field.

My time was 35:30. I never did catch up with any of the 5km runners, apart from Tom Lavin, whose dog proved to be somewhat of a handicap. Anyway, I enjoyed a good chat with 'Tail Runner' Alison before she resumed her 'admin' duties and I collected the cones that separate runners from cars entering the car park.

Friday = Isabella Day (80)

Some dinosaurs had arrived in the post, together with some paints. So Isabella got kitted up for a bit of fun. She started with the Brontosaurus and moved on to the Dimetrodon.

Rodney Rabbit joined in for a while, and Sue had a go at the Stegosaurus.

Then there was a lot of misbehaviour amongst the farm animals to sort out.

Isabella has taken to awarding herself medals from our 'trophy cabinet'. This one is for sorting out all the naughty farm animals.

This is what she thinks of grandad's intrusive camera work.

"I want to go out!"

So Sue took her on her balance bike to our local soft play 'Antz in your Pantz' area. The hill was quite interesting as she hasn't worked out how to use the brake.

There was lots of fun to be had here.

Grandma took these pictures, or was it Rodney, who had his own channel on the slide. Meanwhile grandad stayed at home, cooked lunch, and didn't intrude any further with his camera during the showing of Octonauts and the painting of a rather grey T rex, before the campervan family were put to bed and Isabella was returned to Didsbury for her tea.

What a lovely day.