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| Moorland pool shrinking in the drought |
As it happens, Saturday was a much better day for photography than on the last visit though I did not hear that plaintive cuckoo. The sky was as clear as crystal and Aegean blue. Meadow pipts bobbed about the bone dry heather and bog cotton as two sheep in their woolly jumpers sought green sustenance under the sun's glare. Again I disturbed a couple of red grouse and a mountain hare.
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| Blobs of bog cotton dancing in the breeze |
This time I was not alone. An Asian family snaked up the track to the rocks at Stanage End and a group of lithe rock climbers pitted their wits against Crows Chin - a mighty block of millstone grit that looks out over Moscar Moor towards Hordron Edge and the upper valley of The River Derwent.
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| "...lithe rock climbers pitted their wits against Crows Chin" |
A young woman with a red face, desperately grasping a plastic water bottle, plodded after her errant boyfriend saying, "Are you sure it's this way Shane? Can't we have a sit down?" She was terribly overweight but at least she was out in the sunshine, getting some exercise.
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| Ruin of a grouse shooters' cabin near Stanage End |
For me it was four miles maximum. I saw water reflecting sunshine two hundred yards away and went over to photograph that moorland pool - now shrinking in the drought and I pottered about the remains of long disused stone quarries at Stanage End.
It felt good to be alive - my bootsteps transporting me smoothly over the rough landscape and my heart feeling light and carefree. Maybe one day - if I get to be a really old man - I will look back upon such rambles, smiling with fond remembrance: how it was in those bygone days.
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| Approaching Stanage End |
The obese young woman was like a scene from The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin. Every time someone mentioned his mother in law an hippo would appear. Super pictures.
ReplyDeleteI remember that, though vaguely.
DeleteJust put hippo and Reginald Perrin in You Tube. Thanks for the laugh.
DeleteTut-tut Dave! Mind your language my lad!
DeletePC world.
DeleteWell, well, YP, for all you know the woman, huffing and puffing and with an ample derriere, may have medical issues. And I say this is as someone whose own son (naturally we are both slender though I am not as tall) calls me "fatist".
ReplyDeleteAnd he is right. I am a fatist. I don't get it. Why is it always the most overweight English who not only wear shorts at the earliest opportunity letting it all hang out, but also eating on the hoof (High Street) when they can't be hungry at short notice?
The reason I bring in the "medical" issue because once upon a time I was introduced to a wonderful woman. The best. She was beautiful (facially). Her skin perfect. She was also huge. Which was most unfortunate since her husband was a skirt chaser if ever there was one. One day (I must have been in my mid twenties), at a gathering at their house, I joined her in the kitchen whilst she was putting the finishing touches onto a feast, she looked at me. And sighed whilst smiling at the same time. "You know, Ursula, not that long ago I had a figure like yours." Can't remember the detail now. Some thyroid playing up. Pharmaceuticals doing their thing. Ballooning. And what do you know. Suddenly you not only wear a tent you become a tent. Which, luckily, never detracted from her personality.
So whilst the Angel is right that I am a FATIST I try to bear in mind that not all fat people are in control of their body. And mass. On the other hand . . .
U
I don't necessarily blame fat people for their obesity. A lot of it is to do with the society they are born into - sedentary activities, pizzas and sugar plus of course family role models.
DeleteI wish I was as certain about everything as Ursula is.
ReplyDeleteI am certain that you live in a beautiful place and I'm so glad you get out and ramble in it and take pictures to share with us.
Thank you Mary. It was nice to forget the virus for two or three hours and indeed the riots in several American cities.
DeleteNot much chance of breaking the distancing rules to meet Judy Geeson on the moors for a bit of skinny dipping in that pool.
ReplyDeleteJudy Geeson? I guess she figured in your adolescent fantasies Tasker. I was rather "fond" of Susan George.
DeleteConserve water. Shower with a friend.
ReplyDeleteYou could shower with Lord Peregrine. Isle of Man Water will require photographic proof.
DeleteThank you for a dose of lovely this morning. It was needed.
ReplyDelete"A dose of lovely"...doctors should prescribe that sometimes. Probably better than drugs.
DeleteI'm surprised at you, Neil.
ReplyDelete"An obese young woman with a red face, desperately grasping a plastic water bottle, waddled after her errant boyfriend saying, "Are you sure it's this way Shane? Can't we have a sit down?" Her ample posterior, clad in tight denim, reminded me of hippopotami. But at least she was out in the sunshine, getting some exercise - not lounging on a sofa with pizza in hand watching "At Home With The Kardashians" "
This was unkind, at best. The woman was out getting some exercise. I can tell you, as an obese woman myself, that part of the reason I avoid exercising around other people is the fear that someone will compare me to a hippo (or worse) and think how bad I look in my clothes. That they will assume that I sit around all day eating pizza and junk food and watching trash tv. I can assure you that the woman you've described knows full well that she's fat, and probably lives with the shame of it every day of her life.
I say good for her for getting some exercise and fresh air. I hope that the opinion of others won't stop her from continuing to take better care of her body. People don't deserve to be mocked for their physical imperfections and struggles. We all have issues we struggle with in this life---weight is just one of the visible ones.
Thank you for the admonishment Jennifer. I shall take it on the chin without argument.
DeleteI'm with Jennifer on this one. body shaming is not OK!!
DeleteI agree with Jennifer. Your comment was very unkind and really, what purpose did it serve? There was no need to even describe this person or fantasize how she became overweight. Being overweight is not a character flaw. You're better than that.
ReplyDeleteIt was something I saw on my walk Elaine. Maybe next time I will think twice before describing such a passer-by.
DeleteExcellent photos again YP, and what beautiful weather you're having over there!
ReplyDeleteSadly that poor "obese woman" will not be alone - I've read that most people have put on some weight over these months of lockdown. Who knows, maybe she lives in a high rise apartment and that was the first time she had been able to get out for any exercise? As Jennifer says - she may have medical issues.
Please, don't judge people so harshly.
Thank you for your take on this CG. I have been naughty haven't I? Smacked by three women in a row - so I feel duly reprimanded.
DeleteWell, as long as you didn't enjoy it...…!
DeleteI am glad others have seen fit to reprimand you for the demeaning description of the woman and then referring to her as a hippo and then ... "It" was something I saw on my walk, Elaine!"
ReplyDeleteGeez ... you started off so poetically beautiful with "The sky was as clear as crystal and Aegean blue." and then ... you kinda went into the swamp!
Sometime it's best to 🤐 !!!
Okay, you too Marcia! I'm sorry and I am just going to edit the post.
DeleteGood and thank you!
DeleteI don't think I've ever seen bog cotton before.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny stuff. Literally like small chunks of cotton wool caught on spiky twigs.
DeletePoor YP, you had it coming, didn't you. Not that you sound, despite your poor efforts, contrite at all.
ReplyDeleteU
He might be a bit of a chub and tuck himself.
DeleteI considered the criticism, realised that in my mischievous humour I had erred and then amended the blogpost. How much contrition do you want Ursula? Sack cloth and ashes? And Sir Tasker... I thought a chub was a coarse fish. What's a tuck? Do you mean like Friar Tuck? I am an atheist.
DeleteUnless you have an urban dictionary you'd better google it.
DeleteInteresting. You amended your copy. As you promised. However, there are two ways of looking at the "correction". Either you meant what you said originally or you are too easily swung by other people's critique. I know what I am talking about since I get it in the neck all the time. But, blast it, whilst I will apologize for a digression, profusely if need be, I will stand by my original copy - if it kills me.
DeleteNever mind, YP. Next chapter: Fat guy. And their difficulty to mount a turnstile.
Meanwhile you, Tasker, are growing on me.
U
It was the only time in fifteen years of blogging that I have made such an amendment Ursula. None of us are perfect and in seeking to draw humour from my allusion to the obese woman I accept that I was wrong. Your Either/Or did not include this option.
DeleteU - is that a good thing?
DeleteDo you remember that when you wrote about your previous walk in this area and hearing the cuckoo, I commented that Imhad not heard one yet this year? The very next time I was out walking after that, I heard a cuckoo (but did not count how many times he called).
ReplyDeleteI wonder if we heard the same cuckoo.
DeleteSynchronicity. You mentioned cuckoo and for two days after the township cuckoo was cuckooing noisily. I didn't hear him today so I assume he has found a mate.
ReplyDeleteOddly when I read the post before I got to the lady of ample proportions I wondered why it was necessary to refer to an Asian family. They are probably as Yorkshire as you are. Just a thought.
It was nice to see an Asian family enjoying The Peak District. Such a sight is rather unusual. They could not possibly be as Yorkshire as me as all of my great grandparents, grandparents and both parents were born and raised in Yorkshire. Just a thought.
DeleteThat's true YP. Their great grandparents probably worked in the Lancashire cotton mills! Just as an aside it's quite interesting that, whilst I was very used to black and Chinese people when I grew up in Liverpool I had probably left school before I saw an Asian person in the city.
DeleteYou will look back. I enjoyed every hike I did and would do them over again if I could. I went up Coloseum mountain at least 15 times and Mt Baldy at least 15 times. You will enjoy these walks the rest of your life.
ReplyDeleteYou must have been as fit as a fiddle when you were younger Red. Such happy memories.
DeleteWell, clearly I came too late to catch some of the fun in this post! LOL
ReplyDeleteBut I enjoyed your travelogue anyway. I like the bog cotton. I'm not sure I've ever heard of that before.
I also enjoyed the walk, especially the pond that is drying up, as for the people you have had a lot of criticism. But I know you have been brought up right because Bosh took a day off yesterday in due respect of that terrible killing in the USA, which means your children are well brought up. I had to ask my son last night if to use the word 'black' was alright, his best friend is black. My grandchildren would skin me alive should I put a foot wrong as far as Asian people.
ReplyDeleteLovely
ReplyDeleteI'm talking about the photos
ReplyDelete