20 July 2020

Sunday

Friends were coming round at 3pm for a few drinks and conversation out on our decking in the Sunday sunshine. That meant that if I was to get a walk in it would need to be quite local or I'd never get back in time.

Clint transported me to Totley Moor and we parked up close to Strawberry Lee Plantation - given to the City of Sheffield in the 1930's by Alderman J.G.Graves who made bags of money building a successful catalogue company between the wars. I have written about him before

"Don't be long!" shrilled Clint as I walked away.

Up on the moor there's a circular construction in brick. It is an air vent for the Totley railway tunnel and was built towards the end of the Victorian era. Recently, for many weeks, it has been fenced off and there's clearly maintenance work going on there. Very slow work I would say.

I made a diversion over the rough moorland terrain to check out the site. Within the fenced off compound there were four curious boxes on sturdy tripods. They were about five feet tall and coloured blue and yellow with the brand name "Armadillo". As I walked around the fence, I suddenly had the shock of my life.

I had set off one of the blue boxes. Lights flashed and a siren blared in the manner of danger alert on a nuclear submarine. Then there was a recorded message spoken by a man with an Irish accent: "This is security! This is security! Your presence has been seen! The police and the owners of this site are being informed! This is security!"

On the southern side of the tubular steel fencing I set off another box and told it to **** off. There was something quite disturbing about the whole experience in the middle of that bleak and normally quiet moorland - where all you might otherwise hear is the wind in the heather, the cackling of grouse or the hum of distant traffic. I might return with a sledgehammer, but I won't tell anybody about that.
And so I roamed, making a big ambulatory circle that took me over two hours to complete. Halfway round I sat on a bench and talked with a cyclist who was also taking a short rest. We spoke about the bearded vulture that has recently been spotted in the skies above Howden Reservoir. Bird watchers have been going crazy about it.

Back home we had a pleasant catch up with Linda and Ian. They are good company and we have known them now for thirty years. The conversation flows like water in a mountain stream. Easy.

47 comments:

  1. Oh, you've done it now Mr. Pudding! Don't you know those talking tripods are probably sentries sent from another planet for the express purpose of guarding the spot where more of their team will soon be landing. Why I bet those innocent looking horseback riders watching you are actually working for them and will now be keeping an eye on you! You mentioned the the bearded vulture. Are you sure it is in fact a vulture and not possibly another sentry in flying form?

    Sorry, I do have a vivid imagination. Still, I'd keep an eye open! ; )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha-ha! Nice one Bonnie. Perhaps you have watched too many science fiction movies?

      Delete
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  2. Oh my, I would have had a heart attack right there and then! Strange that those armadillo boxes are set up in a mannter that they go off even when someone is legitimately walking outside the fence.
    As always, great pictures. Mildred (I think that's her name) has chosen a perfect spot to rest, muse and enjoy the view.
    Lovely to have friends over for drinks and conversation. A wonderful way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon.

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    Replies
    1. Typo alert! Mannter = manner.

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    2. It's not like you to make a spelling error Meike! Mildred sent a message to you: "Maaaay! Maaaay!" She hasn't learnt to say "Baaa!" yet.

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  3. I can see a time when we have those curious boxes on street corners blasting out instructions that all us sheep will take notice of for fear of the law. Thankfully I will not be here.
    The sheep photo is beautiful, might even be a competition winner.
    Briony
    x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You might be right about those boxes. Using them means you don't have to pay wages to human beings. Just the initial outlay.

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  4. Is that last picture the mounted police looking for you? Did they send the police helicopter up to track your movements?
    Next week, Yorkshire Pudding will be reporting on his experiences in a police cell.

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    Replies
    1. How dare I walk near a construction site? I am such a bad guy that the other prisoners will be *** scared of me!

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  5. I like Thistle the sheep. Smashing pictures.

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    Replies
    1. Thistle is just her nickname. Her real name is Mildred. (See Librarian above). I was very pleased with that top picture.

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  6. She supports Hamilton Academics and sometimes wears a kilt made from Sheffield Tartan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Librarian (Meike) is from Ludwigsburg, Germany and she is an honorary supporter of Hull City.
      P.S. Sorry to see Man U outwitted by Chelsea yesterday. De Gea must be on mind bending drugs or something.

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    2. Three matches in a week, wrong team selection and perhaps even a penalty, at least a free kick. You wouldn't think it was Wembley. It could have been Carrington. It's not football without spectators. Hull look down.
      . .

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    3. Down like the supporters. Where can I get a noose?

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    4. Wigan's manager would be a good choice of new manager.

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    5. Dennis the Menace would have done better than Grant McCann.

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  7. I rather like the riders picture. Just a bit different.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The sun was more or less behind them. It was tricky to get a better picture.

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  8. “This is security!”
    Seems more like a grand demonstration of insecurity to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "This is insecurity! This is insecurity! Does anybody like me? Where is my life lading! The social services have been informed!"

      Delete
  9. Good post. I like those standing stones. *Blows the wind on the moors today,* as R.L. Stevenson wrote in his poem to Crockett.

    Tim Birch of the Wildlife Trust said of the bearded vulture:
    *It gives us a glimpse of what a wildlife future could be like across the whole of the UK. It's so uplifting particularly in these times of Covid-19.*

    *A wildlife future* is something writers like Richard Mabey and Jim Crumley have been advocating for years. We're only guests upon the earth. When will we wake up and see the grandeur of what surrounds us?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would like to see a Corvid 19 future. Crows everywhere.

      Delete
    2. Blimey, I'm going to have to coax you out of this mood, Sir.
      My Eric Sykes boxset works for me.

      Delete
    3. Eric Sykes Buys A Dress. YouTube.
      Absence of crows due to a strike by technical staff.

      Delete
    4. Sorry Sir York, I just read your comment again.
      I thought you'd written *a Covid-19 future.* Thought you wanted to see us all gone from the planet!

      As for crows, I love watching them. I recall a monstrous shovel-footed rook which landed outside a flat-roofed concrete building. He had everyone in stitches.
      No wonder Sir Alec Guinness visited the zoo while getting into the role of a new character. He always started with the walk.

      Delete
    5. Should have gone to Specsavers John!

      Delete
    6. D.H. Lawrence was misanthropic. He imagined a world with humans gone. He saw a hillside with *just a hare sitting up*.

      Delete
  10. Security like that would give you the creeps. Yes, my immediate reaction would be to go on the offensive as it would signal risk to me. What happens next?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What happens next? You become Alberta's undercover agent as we plot to halt the march of the Armadillo security robots.

      Delete
  11. I would have jumped out of my boots if I'd set one of those robots off. They should come with a warning. I like the horse and riders photo, very atmospheric.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I was outside the air vent security compound.

      Delete
  12. Excellent photos as always YP. Well, apart from the Tardis' little brother - but it's good that you've warned us all to be alert of such things! Though must confess to laughing when I read your description - especially the bit about the Irish accent!
    However Mildred looks very unconcerned, but perhaps she knew those riders would come to check you out!

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    Replies
    1. Somehow the Irish accent made it all extra surreal. The construction company is called Murphy!

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  13. How weird about the security boxes. I wonder what on earth they're doing there to require that kind of monitoring? I mean, if the air vent is normally untended, why couldn't it be left untended during the maintenance work?

    Love the top photo of the sheep and thistle!

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    Replies
    1. Regarding your first point there was a certain Irish logic to the situation. I half expected a helicopter to descend filled with Irish comedians.

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  14. Lovely photos, but except for the blue-and-yellow Armadillo thingy, they seem to hve nothing to do with your narrative.

    Have you been hitting the sauce early during the pandemic?

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    Replies
    1. Strange as it may seem Bob, the other three photos were also snapped during Sunday's walk on Totley Moor.

      Delete
  15. They won't film many hedgehogs making a commotion like that: https://www.ess-safeforce.com/specialist-support-services/pid-armadillo-videoguard/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I object to having my image captured when I wasn't even intruding. Bloody annoying.

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    2. I'm not familiar with the procedure but wonder whether it could be possible to get your own back by putting in a freedom of information request for copies of all images, videos and other information they have of you.

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    3. I don't think I have got the energy for that Tasker. I will just let it go.

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  16. Amazing the the lengths used to deter interlopers. In the very olden days, during and between the wars, my father worked for Goodyear Aircraft, later Goodyear Aerospace. We often heard of work and travels at the dinner table, and once of my favorite stories was the isolated installation in the west Texas plains, desert is more like it. The wooden building was surrounded by gated barbed wire and signs on the access road and all around the building said: Danger! Radio waves! My dad had been sent to look into the start up project of a young company, and that was their method of deterring nosy people and potential thieves, though there were far fewer of those in the early fifties.

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    Replies
    1. Good story Joanne. Property was safer back then. Same over here in England. I guess we are all crazy because of radio waves. That's why we are clearly happy to watch the extinction of polar bears.

      Delete
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    ReplyDelete

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