Hadrian’s Wall Beckons

On Friday I start the conquest of Hadrian’s Wall, no this is not a re-enactment where unruly Picts descend on the wall to defeat the Roman invader. Instead with a group of friends I am tackling the long distance path that runs parallel to the wall. It runs from the Solway Firth in the west to Newcastle in the East for about eighty miles. We will be walking it in seven stages of about eleven miles each. That makes it suitable for the entire group of plus sixties that are walking.

We have rented a large house, at Lambley Cottages, roughly halfway along the walk near the village of Haltwhistle. That will be our base for the week; travelling out and back to the various start and finish points. We will alternate between eating in the house and frequenting local pubs meaning that nobody has too much catering to worry about. Also of course we can sample the local ales!

I am looking forward to the walk as it covers part of the country that I do not know at all. It is of course of historic significance, but it also traverses some very beautiful countryside. I will attempt to blog each day with our progress every day. Those who read yesterday’s blog will recognise some of the walkers, particularly Ben the spaniel, who will of course walk three times further than anybody else and get much dirtier.

I suppose the only thing that could dampen our spirits is the weather as for the most part the walk is very exposed. The forecast for the first few days is good so hopefully it will remain so.

Well late on Thursday the provisions have been bought and the walking kit packed ready for a prompt departure tomorrow. Unfortunately our numbers have been reduced to nine, but our spirit is good. Look forward to my daily reports from Cumbria and Northumberland, starting tomorrow.

The Walking Group

Every month five of us take a day walk in the local area; we are fortunate in that we have the North Yorkshire Moors Park on our doorstep. There are a huge number of possible walks, which can take us through forests, over exposed moors, visiting remote villages, and walking around a beautiful coastline. Almost as critical there are many local pubs that serve great lunches with a good pint of real ale.

Ian Showing the Way

Our leader is Ian who arranges each of walk and is brilliantly prepared with map, walk description, and compass. He has always researched the pubs, and indeed has often reconnoitred the walk with his wife Sylvia.

Today’s walk started in the village of Goathland, better known as Aidensfield in the long running television series Heartbeat. At first we followed the track of a historic railways, one of the first to be built in Britain and first operated by horses. This was the inclined plane where carriages were attached to a rope and hauled up and down by a stationary engine.

We climbed up to the heather covered moorland where Ben had a great time disturbing the nesting grouse. He also had a fantastic time rolling in all the standing water and mud. Ben as you may realise is a springer spaniel. I ask why he always shakes himself over me.

Ben with Author (on the right)

The moors were very wet after the downpours that we have had recently, so it was good to descend into the valley of the river Esk and an adventure – we had to cross two streams by stepping-stones. Fortunately they were not too slippy. Interestingly we observed two dead salmon in the river. They were substantial fish. Ian thought that it was male fish that after fertilising the female’s eggs in the river just give up.

Brian usually drives on these trips, as he has to accommodate the wet and dirty Ben on the return. His innovation today was to include a box to place our kit in as previously Ben has slobbered all over our belongings.

Lunch beckoned as we walked into the village of Grosmont and the Station Inn. As it was warm enough to sit outside we could observe the movements of the steam trains on the nearby preserved railway. It was also a chance for the others to rib me about my nerdish knowledge in this subject!!! After we had finished our substantial stotties (a large flat bottomed bread roll), we climbed up the hill out of Grosmont, through some attractive woodland back onto the high moors.

The final part of the walk took us across a footbridge over the river; in turn a larger bridge carrying the railway between Grosmont and Goathland covered us. You can see the fifth member of our band Simon pointing out this feature. Simon is our newest member having only recently enjoyed the fruits of retirement. He is the voice of arbitration when Ian is unsure of the way.

Simon pointing with Brian in the background

So a great day's walking, the weather kept fine, we had a lovely lunch and much stimulating conversation, what more could you want?

Boules Party

It was the bank holiday weekend, and what a surprise it has been glorious weather. Topping out on Monday at 20 plus degrees in Scarborough. I took a walk by the beach on Monday afternoon and it was absolutely heaving. There were industrial quantities of sand being shifted in order to make impregnable sandcastles. People were even swimming!!!

The weather was fortunate for us because on Sunday we held our second annual boules party. Although the winner may say otherwise really this is just an excuse to socialise with our friends while there is a game of boules being played in the background. Well those of you who know your French games will realise that boules is played on a dusty gravel pitch known as a bouleodrome by sun tanned older men smoking evil smelling cigarettes and drinking bizarre smelling concoctions. Our version was somewhat different, for a start it was mixed; the fairer sex was invited and given no quarter. Indeed Eilis had the temerity to reach the final. Sacre-bleu, it was played on the back lawn to produce a sort of cross between bowls and boules. There was of course one downside to this, due to the heavy rain in mid-week the boules did tend to stop where they landed. So now we know why gravel is necessary. The change to the rules did not prevent fierce competition, although I suspect the hazards of garden steps is not present in most French venues!

As far as I know nobody crept off for a crafty smoke, however French traditions were upheld as plenty of champagne was quaffed, while Marion had prepared a superb lunch. There was much revelry and plenty of good conversation and friendship.

These are the contestants in suitably relaxed mode at the presentation to Iain (seated) of the traditional silver boules in lieu of a trophy. All in all a great day, made even better by the superb sunshine.

A Sheppard’s Ramblings is back

It came as a surprise to me that it is almost two years since I last blogged. So much has happened since then. This new post is not about the past and is certainly not going to be a nostalgic reminiscence about what has happened over the last two years. I am determined that it is going to be forward looking.

I have realised that the quality of experiences is much enhanced by writing them down. Not only are you able to appreciate the experience more and perhaps enjoy it in greater subtlety, but also it forms a history that can be referred back to. How often do you realise that you cannot remember one day from another. So by reviving the blog I hope to remedy this.

So my objective is to be more descriptive and probably less pontificating than previously (hooray, I hear you say). We have much planned over the coming year, and no in answer to my children, it is not all holidays but a real cornucopia of things. Of course there will also be the unexpected and those events that just hit you from left field. There will also be of course those things that I just want to write about.

So that you are updated below is the latest picture of Marion and myself taken at a wedding in July. As you can see it was a glorious day.

So please make any comments that you would like, suggest topics, or indeed make your own contribution. Sheppard’s Ramblings is back!!!

Tem is Over

Yes, 13:00 today was an important deadline, all of my course work had to be uploaded to the university web site. Term was over!!! Time to relax. My absence from the blogosphere over the last few weeks has perhaps been down to not relaxing. I found the process of essay writing difficult to say the least. The information age is the student’s friend, but he should be wary, the sheer scale of the information available is mind blowing. For instance I was able to read unpublished university theses by subscribing to a British Museum site. Distilling this down into a coherently argued 3,000-word essay was challenging to say the least.

I have learnt much over the last ten weeks. The first is that my note taking must be better and more consistent. I need to plan my time better and probably get down to the assignments earlier. This will be especially important next year as I must make the most of Marion’ absence in the States to get a good start on the work. It is also very easy to disappear down rat holes, I would see an interesting article and read it, even if it was not directly relevant to the subject at hand. It has also been a humbling experience, I thought that I was knowledgeable about Victorian Railways, it turns out that I had a high level of ignorance. I am aware that I have also become very boring on the subject. Apologies to my family and friends.

What is worrying is that the bug has taken me over. So today even as term finished I am looking forward to next term’s reading list and topics being placed on-line, later this week. I can then get down to exploring the more dusty corners of Amazon’s offerings.

Wild, Wet, Windy, and Cold for Good Measure

It is clearly now winter, the weather has turned cold, it is windy, and very wet. I have noticed that my walking has declined, there are now simply less daylight hours to get outside, and even if I was so inclined the driving rain will probably put me off. On the bright side I am spending more time in the gym. I am working quite hard on my end of term essay, more of that later, but going to the gym and exercising hard during the middle of the day is really good. It cleanses the mind, gives me ideas, and makes the afternoon’s work much easier.

To get out of the house we went on spec to the cinema on Friday night, we watched Bridge of Spies newly released that day. Firstly let me thoroughly recommend this film, it is really good entertainment, the two hours in the cinema went really quickly. The story although well known is played with verve, the cinematography is superb as you might expect with the directors and writers. The acting is interesting in that a stage actor and a film actor, take the two main roles, watching the contrasting techniques is fascinating. It really evokes the Cold War era.

This weekend was our grand daughter’s birthday and in addition she was performing in a show. So it was with the rose tinted spectacles of all grandparents that we watched her dressed as a reindeer and Frosty the snowman and sense the gathering excitement as the birthday approached.

So back to that essay, this is the real thing and what I will be marked on at the end of the first term. I have done a huge amount of reading and have many ideas; it is now just a question of getting it down on paper in some sort of structured way. It is a different sort of pressure than work, there is much more personal pride at stake so the pressure is I think more intense. Still onward and upward, it has to be submitted in exactly one week’s time.

To end with an interesting and little known fact. When the first trains travelled between England and Scotland they had to be stopped at the border for the travellers to be searched. This was because the duty on spirits between England and Scotland was different and there were fears that people would be smuggling cheap whisky into Scotland!!!!

A Holiday in South East Scotland

We have been enjoying a family holiday on the South East Coast of Scotland. We usually have time in Northumberland at this time of year, however on the suggestion of our daughter we hosted a family get together at the weekend and have stayed on for the rest of the week. We are staying in an ultra-modern beach house in Coldingham Bay, so modern that it was described in the Mail Online as a carbuncle. I though rather like the nickname that the locals have given it, Tesco-by-the-Sea.

We had a great weekend with three generations of the family. We provided the house, the children made sure that there was plenty of food and booze. The grandchildren just turned up and were their usual entertaining selves. As the house is almost on beach great fun was had building sandcastles, playing beach cricket, and in Thomas’s case building a bonfire. It is a delightful unspoilt spot, except for the carbuncle of course. It was also a great house as there was plenty of room for everybody. On Saturday evening there was the added bonus of a firework display on the beach hosted by the local school for which we had ring side seats.

Since the activity of the weekend Marion and I have been relaxing and exploring an area that we do not know well. There are some great cliff top walks, quite demanding as they go up and down into and out of unspoilt little coves. The views from the tops of the cliffs are quite stunning, north to the Fife Coast and down the coast as far as Bamburgh.

The coastline is dotted with small workaday fishing villages like St. Abbs and Eyemouth, where there are still large working fishing fleets. In land we have driven to Coldstream and our find of today Kelso. This is a place straight out of the pages of Country Life. I spotted at least three shops where you could buy hunting, shooting, and fishing gear. We saw a man going about his business in plus fours, while the wearing of tweeds was obligatory. Never mind we found a great local pub; it served fantastic beer from the local Tempest Brewery (the barman was very free with his samples). The lunch was really good made from first class local produce particularly the local fish.

We are now battening down the hatches as a storm is forecast for tomorrow. No problem, I shall walk in the morning and we will have some lunch out.