Tag Archives: walking

Enjoying the local landscape

Sunday 31st December 2023, 12 noon (day 4,511)

NYE walk, 31/12/23

This picture was taken — at least, according to the time stamp allocated by my camera — at two seconds past noon, so here we are with exactly 12 hours, or 1/730th, of the year to go. As it was Sunday and we had a dinner date at a pub above Todmorden, there was no excuse not to get out, have some exercise and enjoy the scenery. (The sheep do this every day, of course.) This kind of thing is a significant contributor to the fact I’m still living here in Calderdale after 21.5 years.

And so ends 2023, not a bad year at a personal level I suppose but no particular changes were noted, for better or worse — what enthuses me and what vexes me today are all more or less the same as they were a year ago, or indeed two. The rest of the world, well, that seems able to screw itself up without my active intervention. This blog will continue — generative AI-free — as long as I still have something to document. My favourite picture of the year? Probably the gloriously camp duck captured on 20th September. Getting that salmon leaping the falls in Scotland on 11th July was quite a coup, and Clare, taken the following day (12th July) insists she get the award for ‘best human’. Happy New Year to you all.

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On Garth Hill

Sunday 19th November 2023, 11.45am (day 4,469)

Garth Hill chair

I did get better pictures today but none which epitomised the day quite so well. Garth Hill became County Top #2 of the weekend, but the weather on its summit was, to coin a phrase, utter shite. What this chair was doing up there I have no idea but perhaps it had just been blown there from someone’s garden half a mile away. For the full tale of woe see my other blog.

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The old mine, above Blaenavon

Friday 17th November 2023, 2.50pm (day 4,467)

Old mine, 17/11/23

Sometimes you just stumble across places. This old, ruined mine sits above Blaenavon in the south Wales valleys; I found it while bagging my latest County Top. I would argue it was not only the most interesting but also the most attractive thing about the day. There have been points of time in the past where something like a quarter of the iron and steel production of the entire world was based around south Wales. Believable as that stat is, this is what’s left.

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Crummock Water

Sunday 15th October 2023, 10.25am (day 4,434)

Crummock Water, 15/10/23

No further comment to make. There are many worse places to be on a sunny (if cold) Sunday morning.

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Scafell and Slight Side

Friday 8th September 2023, 9.00am (day 4,397)

Scafell and Slight Side, 9/9/23

Scafell, on the left, is the second-highest mountain in England at 3,162 feet (964m) and even Slight Side, the pimple below the sun, is 2,499 feet, so no dwarf. I decided that ascending both was a good idea on a day which reached the high 20s Celsius, and on which breezes were just a dream, happening elsewhere. This was, perhaps, the slowest walk I have done since I was a toddler. But they were bagged. (See the Wainwrights blog for the gory details if you like.)

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Approaching Seatallan summit

Thursday 7th September, 3.45pm (day 4,396)

Approaching Seatallan, 7/9/23

My last block of time before work really kicks in for the next academic year, and early September has been used before as an excuse to bugger off to the Lake District for a couple of days. In 2016, for instance, the 7th and 8th September were spent hiking out to the bothy at Mosedale Cottage. This year it was Wasdale, for four of the twelve Wainwrights I still had to do. Seatallan is one of the less exciting ones on the list, a seemingly endless grassy slope which these two walkers have nearly finished climbing, to their relief, I am sure. In the background, Black Combe.

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North from Helvellyn

Thursday 17th August 2023, 2.00pm (day 4,375)

North from Helvellyn, 17/8/23

I established today that over the last two years I have made frequent promises, on both my walking blogs, that I would soon be going back up Helvellyn, which at 3,117 feet above sea level is the third-highest mountain in England, and which first featured on here in December 2011. Today, finally, I made it and it was well worth it. This was the first walk to count as both a Wainwright and County Top walk; so including this picture, three blogs for the price of one. Am I overdoing it? No, I don’t think so.

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Formal sheep portrait, with Muncaster Fell

Thursday 8th June 2023, 4.15pm (day 4,305)

Sheep portrait and Muncaster Fell, 8/6/23

I am fond of the genre that is the Formal Sheep Portrait. They do pose — I mean, I’m not saying they know they’re having their picture taken, but they’re quite happy to stand still and check you out while you formulate the shot. This one is taken on the slopes of Irton Pike, in the west of the Lake District: it’s Muncaster Fell that is in the background, sporting a heavy growth of rhododendrons, hence the dusting of pink.

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Buxton

Monday 29th May 2023, 10.15am (day 4,295)

Buxton, 30/5/23

Buxton is the highest town (as opposed to village) in Britain, parts of it being over 1,000 feet up. Which, I know, is not high by (say) Alpine standards, but the latitude is a factor — in June 1975, snowfall was recorded here. Not today though, fortunately. The famous, and now-restored, Crescent has appeared on here before: the dome is that of the Opera House.

Taken from the early stages of a walk that was finished fifteen or so miles to the west, in Macclesfield — more to come later on another blog

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The Scafells, from Red Screes

Saturday 15th April 2023, 11.15am (day 4,251)

Scafells from Red Screes, 15/4/23

The summit known as Red Screes, with its substantial tarn, sits at 2,541 feet above sea level but is still considerably lower than the Scafells: left to right from the edge of the picture, Scafell, Scafell Pike and Great End. Great Gable pops up to the right. A fine day to be out walking even if the transport arrangements once again…. but what the hell, I expect too much perhaps. Read more on the other blog, if you like.

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