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| Overstones Farm and the hills of North Derbyshire |
The horrible virus is definitely on its way out now. Yesterday afternoon I felt well enough to drive up to Stanage Edge in order to pay homage to the millstones. It was good that I was well wrapped up because the winter wind was bitingly cold. The Belted Galloways were huddled together for warmth.
I chuckled as a rambler entered their field. She was yelling at them "Keep back!" as she loitered nervously on top of the stile.
Not far to walk. Just half a mile there and half a mile back. Good to be breathing fresh air and not recycling stuffy oxygen in our bedroom or front room. So much television has washed over me these past few days because I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for reading. The virus turned your faithful correspondent into a couch potato.
A fellow geograph contributor once referred to me as "The King of Stanage Edge" because of the number of photographs I have taken there. I know that long time visitors to this blog will recall previous images of Overstones Farm and of the abandoned millstones at the southern end of the edge.
They speak of lost industry and hard working men of the past and of the incredible ingenuity of human beings - hand carving heavy disks from a tough base rock and then arranging their transport through the length and breadth of this land. They were used in metal industries as well as flour mills.
Remembering the very first time I visited Stanage Edge in 1978 or 79 - I had no prior knowledge of the millstones. Chancing upon them was a big surprise. Forty years later they remain in the selfsame position - unchanged and somewhat enigmatic.
It was good to get out and to breathe again.
The first photo is incredibly beautiful; it looks like a painting!
ReplyDeleteI find your "travel" posts - well, all your posts - very interesting. You live in lovely area with many places of interest.
Greetings Maria x
The lighting was great for that first picture wasn't it Maria? It's funny how we can visit the same places over and over again and yet each time they look slightly different. Thanks for calling by again.
DeleteI hope you don't mind me calling by too often Mr YP. Don't you fear that my English can bring down the class's average? ;)
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I am very happy that you stumbled across this blog Maria and I appreciate your support. Your written English is better than that of many native English people!
DeleteI thank you Neil, very grateful to you, and other blogs I like to read, for your time spent writing your posts, and for the wonderful opportunity I get to learn new things, of places and cultural habits while, hopefully, improving my English.
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Lovely photos, I can almost smell that fresh air! I'm stuck at home at the moment and just desperate to get outside again.
ReplyDeleteIs it your sore hip that is keeping you indoors or the impending sale of the coach house?
DeleteSore hip, I can hardly walk at all at the moment.
DeleteI wonder what people in a few hundred years time will think these stones are? Just as we try to fathom out what stones were meant for that we come across now. They might think they were picnic tables with a hole for a large bottle of wine in the centre. lol
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Briony
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They might think that they were discuses!
DeleteWe all need "revitalizing" from time to time.
ReplyDeleteYet again, Mr pudding, wonderful photos. Thank you.
January is a cruel month here in the northern hemisphere. We all need revitalising. Thaks for dropping in again Christina. Put your feet up and we will enjoy a good natter over a cuppa.
DeleteAs long as its coffee! :)
DeleteIt's good that you are able to be out and about again, even in limited form.
ReplyDeleteThe light in the last picture is wonderful; I have a feeling it was even more so in person. The millstones are always a delight to see in your photos.
You are right to suggest that the camera often struggles to record what the human eye can see.
DeleteIncredible photographs. Your pictures do justice to the landscape.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear of your bout with that bug that's going around this Winter. I hope your recovery makes you feel ten years younger.
Coming through it now Vivian. It feels good to breathe again and I have just come back from the pub quiz where I guzzled four foaming pints of Yorkshire beer. Mmmm! Lovely!
DeleteI'm a couch sweet potato! I was an active couch sweet spud throughout the month of January watching the tennis. Next week the Winter Olympics, being held in Pyeonchang, South Korea, begin Friday 9th Feb. They will cool me down if I'm still roasting in our summer heat.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, finally - I've got a lot of catching up to do - I've started watching "Outlander" - streaming on Netflix. I can feel some major bingeing coming on....while the bagpipes play in the background...(I love bagpipes, and have since I was a child. It was a regular weekly treat to follow the pipe band as they played and marched along Gympie's main street every Saturday night).
Already, after only three episodes of the first season of "Outlander", I know it's going to grab a hold of my attention and not let go. I think I might meet up with some of my Scottish Highlander ancestors. My great-grandfather on my maternal side was a Highlander.
I hope those old millstones remain there forever; that some "do-gooder-new-wave-ideas-man" never comes along with an inane brainwave believing they should be moved!!
I don't know what "Outlander" is. Sounds like a 4x4 all-terrain vehicle. And I also hope that the millstones endure. They have probably been there a hundred years already - maybe 150. I would like to think they'll be there 200 years from now.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlander_(TV_series)
DeleteThe above site should give you the information you need (or may not need), Yorkie. I'm surprised you've not heard of the series. It's received excellent reviews
I came back in to change my spelling of "PyeongChang"....from "Pyeongchang".
Relics like this always make me think about the people who actually walked that area and did the work. Keep looking after yourself.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you're out and about again, and breathing fresh air! It makes such a difference, doesn't it. I have been home with a big fat cold for two days now and am determined to go back to the office today. Like you, I have watched way too much TV yesterday, and consider it an almost completely wasted day in spite of a good history program I managed to catch and a nice film in the evening.
ReplyDeleteThe sooner I get back to normal life, the better!
I'm glad you're getting out and about. I found an abandoned millstone in a park in West London not too long ago, and thanks to your blog I knew what it was! I wonder if it originated in your area?
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