The red line describes my route
Clint is all filled up with a dismantled cot bed that I collected from a rich family's house at Dore. You can see that well-heeled suburban village on the map above.
Consequently, when I got up yesterday morning I was reluctant to drive my moody vehicle out of the city for the purpose of taking a walk. Instead, I caught the 10.05 number 272 bus to Hathersage and alighted outside The George Hotel.
I had the idea of simply walking back to our house in Sheffield - a distance of almost ten miles. The terrain was varied and the route took me by North Lees Hall, over Stanage Edge to Stanage Pole and across boggy moorland. Then I descended the valley of The River Porter to Forge Dam where I climbed out of the valley along Ivy Cottage Lane. Onward to Bents Green and then past High Storrs School where both my son and daughter were pupils. Almost five hours after setting off I was back home feeling delightfully weary.
I made myself a mug of tea and a bacon and egg sandwich before settling down on the sofa to review the few photographs I had taken in geographical squares that are all very familiar to me. Later today I will be heading down to London in a hire van. Frances and Stewart are coming back to Sheffield where their baby will arrive in the same city where they were both born. This is in effect a side benefit of COVID: Frances can work here as effectively as she used to do in her fancy London office.
Three sheep on Stanage Edge
Historic North Lees Hall - visited by Charlotte Bronte
Hood Brook Valley - looking towards Hathersage
The photo of the three sheep on Stanage Edge is wonderful, Neil. I still have the wedding photo of Stanage Edge from Frances' wedding last year on my refrigerator. Maybe next year there will be a picture of you and your grandchild taken there.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed that he or she will arrive safely and in good health.
DeleteBeautiful pictures! It will be so good to have Frances and Stewart living nearby, especially with a baby coming. I'm happy for you and Shirley!
ReplyDeleteIt will enrich our lives and it would have been so difficult for Frances and Stewart to be new parents all alone in North London.
DeleteThat's a very good walk for a young guy like you!
ReplyDelete"Young guy" - I like the sound of that son!
DeleteI envy you that walk, and love all three pictures - sheep on the edge, I hope they do not take a wrong step!
ReplyDeleteIt is so good to know that your daughter, son-in-law and grandchild will be living nearby.
PS: I just realised I have repeated almost word for word what Bonnie wrote, but I am going to press "publish" anyway.
Thank you for your kind thoughts. I do not believe I have ever before seen sheep in such a precarious position on Stanage Edge. I hope they made it away from the ledge.
DeleteI love the sheep photograph, that could be a winner.
ReplyDeleteBriony
x
I took five pictures of the sheep but I think this one was the best. Thank you Briony.
DeleteGreat idea for a walk. You could also have caught the bus to Dore and walked back carrying the cot bed.
ReplyDeleteNow why didn't I think of that? Ingenious.
DeleteYour home is very close to some beautiful countryside Mr Pudding. Are you ever tempted to live somewhere more rural?
ReplyDeleteShirley and I were both born and raised in villages but we are very used to city life now. It would be hard to leave friends and familiar places.
DeleteBeautiful countryside, particularly that first photo. I've forgotten when the baby is due. You will be such a proud grandfather. I can tell.
ReplyDeleteEarly January. I have already bought a beige cardigan, flat cap and pipe. Must get a bag of Werther's too.
DeleteLovely moody photographs. Joining others in praise of the Stanage Edge sheep photo as a favorite.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it Mary. Never before have I see sheep so close to the edge. I hope they got back to safety.
DeleteEvery picture like a post card. So beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIt makes my heart happy to know that your daughter and son-in-law will be right nearby. Do they have a house arranged?
Yes. They are renting their London apartment to friends and renting a three bedroom house here - about a mile from us.
DeleteI love the mountaineering sheep. They deserve some Kendl mintcake. Smashing photos YP.
ReplyDeleteKendal mintcake even!
ReplyDeleteI have some Kendal mintcake here. It is at least twenty five years old. I found it in a box. I am reluctant to throw it away. It is so old it doesn't even have a "Best Before" date on it.
DeleteI know I make myself hugely popular with clever clogs comments like this. Still, better safe than sorry. I hope that you will buy a new mattress for the cot. Reasons for on request.
ReplyDeleteThis minute I could do with the wonderful vista of Hood Brook Valley. Not that my presence would improve your photo.
U
The mattress looks and smells in good condition so what are the reasons ma'am?
Delete"Second-hand mattresses could increase the risk of cot death, experts have warned. The risk is increased if the mattress was previously used by a child from another home, according to Scottish researchers."
Delete"It can be common to use a second-hand mattress either from friends and family, or from your previous children. There is some research that found an increased chance of SIDS [cot death] when using a second-hand mattress brought in from outside of the family home, although the link is not yet proven."
Above entries you'll find on the internet when you search "second hand cot mattress". Of course, the risk may be insignificant, a bit like one's chances to be caught out by Covid.
My own wisdom (pre-Internet) comes from now nearly twenty nine years ago when the Angel was about to make an entrance. And no, the advice wasn't from someone peddling new cot mattresses, but a word of caution from a well known paediatrician. Not that (by my star sign alone) I had ever been tempted to buy a second hand one.
Science's wisdom - even that of old wives' tales - marches on. So, once upon a time, you laid your baby on its tummy when putting it down (!). I never did. Maybe on their side, yet back is best. A point my sister who started procreating well before me argued. Well, all her kids survived. Anecdotal evidence doesn't disprove the theory.
Wait till the Apple of your Eye climbs mountains and goes wild camping.
U
It's cool that even in areas where you've walked so frequently you're able to see with a fresh eye! Having a camera along for a walk makes all the difference, doesn't it? I'm sure you're excited to have Frances and Stewart back home in Sheffield, and to welcome their baby there!
ReplyDeleteYes. They are back in Sheffield now.
DeleteI am enamored of your public walking paths, as you know. I recently added a tidbit from Not tonight Josephine to my repertoire: we hike, you walk. But, that's not entirely true, as you can walk Britain on public paths. Anyway, I'm too old and infirm to walk, so give it up, Joanne, and just say how impressed you are with the first and third pictures, grey skies included. And I love getting off the train and walking home.
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming along Joanne. It was nice to have an Onioan along.
DeleteI have just taken that walk with you. Why is it called Stanage Pole. I think I have seen your pictures of it before. And, I saw the River Porter Park but could not make out a river. And what a huge school the High Storrs is. Is that a soccer pitch behind it? It was a lovely walk for me to dream about.
ReplyDeleteSo happy that you will have your daughter and son-in-law close for an extended time before, during and hopefully after the wee one comes to visit. I know that, we, your extended family, cannot wait for the arrival!
Ta, ta!
Thanks for coming along again PT. You are always a great walking companion. Stanage Pole is literally a pole. It marks the old border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria - that preceded the country we now call England. There were also the kingdoms of Wessex and East Anglia.
DeleteThe Porter is more of a stream than a river. It runs through Endcliffe Park.