I hadn't had a proper picnic in years. Yesterday, Frances, Stew and I drove over to Redmires Reservoirs for a picnic lunch. Unfortunately, Shirley was at work - no doubt sticking needles in babies.
The three of us donned our boots and set off along the mile long track that would take us to Oaking Clough Reservoir - a tiny facility below Oaking Clough Plantation. I have been there many times but Frances and Stew had never ventured there before. There was nobody else around.
The ruinous building beside the little reservoir has two separate rooms with two separate entrances. In one of them we found a ewe with her lamb, sheltering from the thirty two degree summer heat. It must be hard having to wear a woolly coat all the time. Other sheep in the area were seeking shade by old stone walls and down in gullies that run from the moors.
We spread a blanket on the soft grass and picnicked in the sunshine. I had brought tuna mayonnaise and cucumber sandwiches made on fresh low GI cob bread, cheddar cheese crackers, ripe peaches and cold Sheffield water in flasks. Sheffield water is excellent for drinking straight from the tap and ours actually arrives from Redmires Reservoirs.
We talked over baby names even though it's early days yet and such thoughts are probably premature. Frances is very keen on Phoebe for a girl which is a name that we toyed with giving her before she was born. Stewart does not want a "biblical" name if the baby is a boy. I guess that's quite understandable as he is the son of a vicar. I suggested Steve, Dave, Bob, Graham, John, Roger or Tasker - all names which they rejected out of hand, calling them "old-fashioned" and "silly"! And when I said the name Adrian - well they laughed like dervishes, claiming it was a girl's name anyway.
Frances and Stew had sensibly applied suncream before our lunch outing but silly me hadn't. As protection I did wear my sunbleached sunhat from Malta but still I ended up red-faced like a ripe tomato. You would think I might have learnt by now. After all, yesterday's temperature felt like The Australian outback, somewhere near Alice Springs.
Last picture looks like a hedgehog having a drink.
ReplyDeleteIt was a porcupine.
DeleteShe's right one that Alice Springs. Does smoke tabs and drink pints of Tetley's?
ReplyDeleteI prefer her sister - Sheila Springs.
DeleteWhen I was around 10 years old my grandparents, my mother's parents, would come for extended stays at our house. We owned a very small TV that was housed in a very large brown piece of furniture. My grandfather who was suffering from advanced emphysema from so many years sucking on a cigarette, would watch that small screen endlessly. He loved travelogues. One day he told his young grandson, “I can travel all over the world with that thing and never leave this living room.”
ReplyDeleteNow I'm the old man and reading your blog gives me the same advantage as my late grandfather. You have taken me on tours all over England when all I have ever experienced before is Terminal 2, at Heathrow.
Thanks, I love your descriptions and excellent photographs.
Tom
So kind of you to come out from the shadows to leave such a nice comment. Thank you Tom.
DeleteMy son-in-law Vergil didn't want a Biblical name for his sons either. I love the names they did give to their boys. And Phoebe is a beautiful name for a girl.
ReplyDeleteI told Frances and Stew that you approved of "Phoebe". Thanks Ms Moon.
DeleteAs a vicar's son Stewart will not want a Hebrew name for his boy. Phoebe is lovely for a girl as Ms. Moon said. I wonder if there are any Elijahs today? He raised two people from the dead and evaded death by going to heaven in a chariot of fire; hard for a lad in 2020 to live up to a name like Elijah. Ezra is plainer.
ReplyDeleteYou go to places out of a story book, YP! The River Wye at Litton Mill; Stanage Edge; the Isle of Axholme on the Lincolnshire plain; Skyers Farm; and now Redmires Reservoirs for a picnic; there's no blue like an English summer sky. I am reminded of Alan Garner's book of essays, The Voice That Thunders (1997) with its evocation of Alderley Edge where the writer's past lives on.
John Haggerty
Thank you for you literary reflections John. By the way, are you Jonathan Haggerty (born 18 February 1997) - a British Muay Thai fighter fighting out of the Knowlesy Academy under Christian Knowles?
DeleteJonathan is a force! No relation, alas. I have just watched his YouTube video. The last fight book I read was *Journeyman - The Other Side of the Boxing Business* by Mark Turley (2016) a memorable trip through the amateur side of the sport with fighters like Johnny Greaves from East London and Kristain Laight. Mr. Turley has an eye and an ear for good writing.
DeleteThe photo of the ewe with her lamb was very moving, YP. Watch the sunburn!
Best, John
I love picnics but my family have always teased me about the elaborate feasts I used to prepare. A blanket and cushions to sit on, sandwiches, quiche, cold meats, fruit, wine, cold drinks, etc. and proper crockery, napkins and glasses. Well if it's not worth doing properly why bother.
ReplyDeleteDid you have a nice wicker picnic hamper too Sue?
DeleteI'm embarrassed to say that, yes, I did!
DeleteSue, I think that all sounds lovely. Your family is lucky! I'd sure love to be invited to a picnic like you describe!!
DeleteHaven't had a picnic for years. I remember when it was all about squashed cheese sandwiches, smelly hard boiled eggs, squashed tomatoes and a flask of tea that had somehow gone cold. What larks.
ReplyDeleteI prefer a "Bounty" to a "Picnic".
DeleteKnow where you are coming from (and Tasker didn't pick up on your choice). I think your suggestions lamentable. What's next? Tom, Dick and Harry?
ReplyDeleteWhich, apropos of nothing, reminds me of someone from my ante (and post) natal class. She called her daughter Fern. As the years went by it was tragic. Not just because the mother died fairly early on. But the daughter was nothing like a fern.
Don't forget that first names need to go with surname.
Also, and I can't emphasize this enough, forget middle names. They are a burden. I know a man whose initials spelled MAD. He changed his name by deed. His parents were mortified (at the oversight).
I was lucky. Being born out of wedlock my grandmother registered my birth. And went against her daughter's (my mother's) wishes as to my name. Named me Ursula instead. Which is why the sister born five plus years later now carries the name I was supposed to have. Well, a rock she ain't.
Picnics? I am your hamper.
U
There can only be one Tasker, but as he says, it was eliminated anyway as being old-fashioned.
DeleteUrsula, had I only been given one name then I would not have been Graham and I would have changed my name. In Scotland you can be legally known by whatever name you wish.
DeleteGraham I will be henceforth known as Adrienne. I'll join his book wielding son as one of those. In fact in France and Spain they pronounce my name with a hard 'A' I got used to it as like this blog compiler and his family knowledge of English is limited in foreign places.
DeleteI like middle names, but to Ursula's point...you should tell Frances and Stew to be careful of what the initials spell. I knew of two little girls whose initials spelled "ASS" in one case, and "SAD" in the other. What were those people thinking, I wonder?!
DeleteAdrian, please do see my comment re your name, left just now, further down. I am sure it serves as little comfort thought best to pick up baton as left at my doorstep.
DeleteU
Oh brother!
DeleteI enjoyed the blogger-fest above. If the baby is a girl I hope they call her Phoebe Ursula Beckley - spelling out PUB!
DeleteBy the way, "ADRIAN" can indeed be used as a female name. I am sure we are all familiar with that feisty young lady/character called Adrian Lee in "The Secret Life of the American Teenager". The condom broke and Adrian became pregnant. So much drama emanated from that discovery.
YP, I think those (water/building) are two of the calmest and most endearing photos I can recall and you've taken some crackers in your time. The sheep should have been shorn by now. They can die of heat exhaustion as well as the physical exhaustion of carrying round such a weight in the heat.
ReplyDeleteThank you Graham. None of the sheep on that moor have been shorn.
DeletePhoebe is a pretty name, and I'm also partial to Wren for a girl if they're looking for a "bird" name. I once heard of a man named Lark and I thought that was a nice name for a little boy...also in keeping with the bird theme. :)
ReplyDeleteHow about Vulture...or maybe Turkey?
DeleteA picnic sounds so nice! How nice that Frances and Stew can visit for a bit giving time for the family to be together. I love the name Phoebe and I'm sure they will come up with some wonderful boy names too.
ReplyDeleteI think that Neil is a great name for a boy - like the first man on the moon.
DeleteRe Adrian. And I only point this out because it has been pointed out to me that I hadn't pointed it out to you. Me the big pointer.
ReplyDeleteAdrian is male. Adrienne/Adriana being the female version.
Having said that, all the kids of one of my sisters were given Italian names. The registrar wouldn't have the name of my second nephew. The name (which I can't disclose in the name of confidentiality) deemed as female when the child was male. Don't ask. It was too ludicrous for words. His parents gave him the middle name of Ike. No shit. Just to make sure he'd not be mistaken as female.
Anyway, laughing at the memory, that's Rainer Maria Rilke for you,
U
Hang on Ursula. "Adrian" can indeed be used as a female forename - "A variation of the Latin name Adrienne, Adrian has more commonly been used as a boy's name, but is still used as a girl's name now and again. It was historically used as a surname, given to people who lived near the Adriatic Sea." (source: Disney Family)
DeleteOf course it can. But, see my nephew's example, in some countries (like the motherland) there can, officially, be no ambiguity as to gender. In England you may call your child Trixibelle or Peaches or Moonlight or whatever. Regardless. And, charmingly, partly accounts for the country's reputation for eccentricity. Whether your child will thank you for it is another question.
DeleteMay I make one recommendation to your parents-to-be: Choose an unusual name. Not what's in the top twenty. And, preferably, one that can't be shortened.
Here is a little anecdote to warm hearts that need thawing: When my sister (the one with the "Italians") was about twelve she babysat our local vicar's firstborn. She had a total crush on both the vicar and the baby. The baby's name was David. My sister swore, there and then, that she'd name her first son David. And she did.
U
That's a sweet story Ursula. I hope that her David turned out to be as pleasant as the vicar's son appeared in those distant times.
DeleteNo one names their kids Steve anymore. I think Frances and Stew might be on the cusp of a new trend if they re-invigorate the name Steve for a new generation. But that's just me.
ReplyDeleteIt IS hot out there!
Steve rhymes with "believe"...but also "grieve"!
DeleteI've never seen that sweet little building ..it's lovely the roof is amazing
ReplyDeleteI first saw it twenty five years ago. It has deteriorated since then.
DeleteHave you been to Alice Springs?
ReplyDeleteI was of the impression all sheep would be sheared by now. Is the one in the shelter an escapee?
No. I haven't been there but I once read "A Town Called Alice" by Nevil Shute.
DeleteI like the idea of Alice Springs as a temperature!
ReplyDeleteHow about Eagleton as a temperature too Pauline?
DeleteA picnic on the grass should be brought back again. Nothing like sitting on the ground to eat rather than at a table.
ReplyDeleteIt made a most pleasant change.
DeleteIt is just as interesting reading the comments then saying something. I love the last photo, ruined forlorn buildings are always so much more interesting.
ReplyDeleteLike blogging friend Meike from Ludwigsburg, Germany, I am also drawn to ruinous buildings like that. Perhaps I am an old ruin myself.
DeleteMy only comment on children's names is that no matter how you try, some of them just will not like their own names, nor which one you have chosen to use every day (if they have more than one), nor the spelling of it, nor the set of initials their name creates, nor the nicknames other children (rotten little beggars) will form from it! Be prepared for that :)
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