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| Hope Cement Works |
Yesterday rain teemed down in the morning but at midday the grey clouds drifted off to reveal what they had been hiding. A quick check of the local forecast and I was off to the hills again. I decided to do a three mile circular walk mostly on quiet metalled lanes, knowing that several of my usual paths would be sodden and slippery with muddy quagmires in certain familiar places. I am still anxious about my left knee - realising that a fall could set me back.
On the walk I saw five people. First, a mature couple in full hiking gear. As they approached I smiled and delivered a hearty "Hello!" but they looked through me and didn't say a word. Perhaps they thought I was an escaped lunatic. I also saw a tall man with a small dog on a lead and he returned my cheery greeting. Then there was an escaped lunatic in a black bobble hat and a green coat plodding on The Long Causeway. I included him in the photograph below as sinking November sunshine expertly illuminated the slopes of Stanage Edge.
I also encountered a barrel-shaped man with a bushy white beard. In fact, I passed him twice as he was on a clockwise route while I was naturally walking anti-clockwise. The second meeting was on the long ascending driveway that leads to North Lees Hall. I was going up and he was coming down. We exchanged pleasantries but I couldn't pluck up the courage to ask him where he'd parked his sleigh.
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| Looking to The Buck Stone and Stanage Edge |
Talking about vehicles, I would say that as I plodded those three miles only half a dozen cars passed me by.
The rain held off as promised and I was home by four thirty in the fading light. There had been a dusting of whiteness on the higher moors - the first real snow of the winter. For our evening meal, I prepared a bolognese sauce from scratch - following instructions given to me by my old university chum Paul Palompo over forty years ago. It was a method he himself had been taught by his Italian mother. Regarding the process and recipe, he made me swear an oath of secrecy which I have ne'er broken to this day.
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| My shadow but my legs aren't really that long |
Love the sheep silhouette! It's strange that couple didn't speak to you -- I'd have said hello, at least. I don't often talk to people in the city but when you're out on a lonely moor it's different!
ReplyDeleteI think I must look threatening or perhaps I am simply invisible to some people. That lack of response is something I have often observed. Sometimes, when they have passed by I will call back "Don't say hello then you ignoramus!"
DeleteI love that picture too.
DeleteWell that's great to have a photo thumbs up from two blokes who have taken many brilliant pictures with their own cameras.
DeleteToo kind, yp.
DeleteNobody says ne'er*.
ReplyDelete*Except my mother, who reminded me on more than one occasion that faint heart ne'er won fair maid. She has been dead for 59 years.
Well you clearly took your mother's advice Bob because you did win fair maid. I was four when your mum died.
DeleteHow anti-social of people not to speak, but we Brits do have a reputation for being somewhat reserved. Normally one would expect to be introduced "properly" before striking up a conversation.
ReplyDeleteStrange to see snow on the hills this early in winter YP - very chilly. It was a balmy 25ºC when I took the dogs out earlier, but the temperature plummets by a good 15-20º's once the sun goes down behind the hills.
You have probably told me before CG but where are you? 25ºC in November? You must be somewhere exotic - like Bermuda, Gibraltar, Singapore or Skegness.
DeleteAlas, nowhere so exotic YP (well Skegness isn't) we're in sunny Spain on the Costalot !
DeleteHaven't you heard the Brexit result CG?
DeleteI can never understand that when you're alone in the countryside that people will not acknowledge your greeting. You meet the most interesting people on walk through the country.
ReplyDeleteYes Red but you also sometimes meet Canadians!
DeleteIs your genuine Italian bolognese recipe the best you ever ate?
ReplyDeleteYes it is Kylie. I have tried spaghetti bolognese in Italian restaurants but they always pale in comparison.
DeleteRun! Run! The giant, not the iceman, cometh!!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat photos, Yorkie...particularly the stone fence and weathered wooden gate.
Some people have no idea how to respond to a friendly smile and hello. I come across similar reactions here. It's a worldwide malady.
Do you add milk to your bolognese sauce ingredients, Yorkie? I know you're not going to reveal your well-kept secret...but it was worth a teasing try! :)
For a time (for about 2 years) back in the mid-late 80s I had a rather intense relationship with an Italian who was from the province of Ravenna, Emilia Romagna. Ravenna is just next door to Bololgna, which is also part of Emilia Romagna. He and I have remained friends...from afar...to this day. He lives in Faenza.
You can pry all you like Lee but I shall keep the secrets of the best ever bolognese sauce which do NOT include milk! The very thought of it! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Deletehttps://culinariaitalia.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/ragu-alla-bolognese-authentic-recipe/
Deletehttps://www.delallo.com/article/bolognese-sauce/
You may laugh at the thought of milk being used in authentic Bolognese sauce, Yorkie...but many authentic Emilia Romagna Italians don't laugh at its inclusion.
Okay Professor George of The Tamborine School of Culinary Excellence, I now accept that some eccentric Italians toss spare milk into their bolognese sauces but Mama Palompo would have seen this as a sacrilegious error. Time is the most important ingredient in my humble opinion.
DeletePerhaps you could shout 'Silence in the court!' at people who do not respond to a civil greeting; that would give them something to think about.
ReplyDeleteAlphie
Clods of soggy earth thrown at their retreating backs would also make them think.
DeleteHow I wish I could walk with you one day YP. The ignorant couple were probably afeared of you (for no reason) and as usual the photos are really really good.
ReplyDeleteI don't usually walk with grandmas Libby but I'll make an exception for you.
DeleteBeautiful scenery and a home-made bolognaise to finish it with. Now that's what I call a perfect day.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to get outside in late autumn/wintertime - making use of whatever daylight there is. Being indoors all the time is not good for the soul.
DeleteYou can easily guess which one of this bunch is my favourite picture, can't you. If I did not already have my custom "Yorkshire 2017" calendar printed and ready to be wrapped up in Christmas paper, I'd definitely ask your permission to use this picture.
ReplyDeleteWhen O.K. and I are out running or walking, we politely greet (sometimes just by a nod and a smile) other runners and walkers. Most of the time, they return the greeting. But yesterday, a very toffee-nosed looking couple of elderly ladies treated us as if we were invisible. When we were past them, I said to O.K. (loud enough so that they probably still heard me) something along the lines of "These two seem to be thinking they are too far above us to greet".