More Knee Exercises on Alston Moor

I had a short visit to see Brian today to exercise the kneecap just a bit more – a little at a time, y’see.

We went to Blagill, and wandered towards by a very pleasant riverside path.  This walk is very popular with locals, apparently, and much picknicking is done in the summer. There’s also one or two waterfalls with some swimmable plunge pools at foot.

We stopped at Gossipgate Bridge for a Barrat’s Sherbert Fountain with a liquorice dip. I was immediately transported fifty years to the very edge of the civilised part of the West Riding , which was probably the last time I scoffed a tube of sherbert dip by a beck, or anywhere for that matter. I feel the need to reassure those feeling any nostaligia for 1950’s sweeties, that these do not appear to have changed much, except that the liquorice dip used to be a liquorice tube which enabled the sherbert to be inhaled. I expect that this may have killed several of my more delicate pals, but you must remember that the 1950’s was long before asthma and allergies and if people coughed a lot they probably had TB or they’d just nicked one of their Dad’s Capstan Full Strength, or, indeed a Senior Service if your Dad had been in the Navy.
But I digress.

Brian knew where there was another, more bigger waterfall and with an entrance to the Nenthead Level – an underground system which linked Nenthead with the railhead at Alston, some seven miles long.
We had a look, but were defeated by thick woodland and an ever-so-slightly perilous path. I had a poke around the river bed, which is carb limestone at this point (it being sandstone a few yards upstream)

Defeated, but not cowed, we returned by the Gossipgate bridleway which rises to Blagill hamlet in about a hundred metres of up and a couple of kilometres across.
We finished by experimenting with Brian’s boomerang. This is a real boomerang and not some kind of euphemism. It wouldn’t come back (we know a song about that…) and Bruno was demonstrating his excitement at the prospect of catching it and ripping it to bits, so we went back to Nenthead for coffee instead.

A short walk with a lot of “stuff” in it.  Only three miles and 350 feet of uphill.
Here’s a picture of the cat who lives next door to Brian, just because she’s a nice cat.

This walk could be extended into Alston at not much extra effort if the walker needs to go shopping, have tea and crumpets or get absolutely rat-arsed in the wide choice of public houses before stumbling back up the lonnin…

At the Barber’s

Today, I had a very little, or at least relatively little trundle around bits of Alston Moor with Brian. Some sitting about was done. Bruno was quite pleased to be along after such a long gap.

In fact, to celebrate, he chased a deer for a while, but losing sight of it, he followed the scent, but in the wrong direction. I was quite pleased when he returned to me on a recall, even over quite a large distance. So no harm done, and the lad got a bit of praise too, which always cheers him up.



We were, in fact, killing time whilst waiting for the arrival of the Alpaca Shearer.
Alpacas have an odd way of communicating, they sound a bit like a charabanc full of old ladies going “Hmmm” in a kind of bemused yet vaguely amused kind of way.

And so the alpacas were herded into a sheep pen and the Shearer gave instructions on which direction he wanted them sent within the fold – sheep pens have a direction, y’know – for the processing of sheep for some kind of treatment. Or alpacas. Today it was clockwise.

So I guarded an exit and Brian herded the animals through the pen and, on appearing at the other side, the shearer and his assistant ambushed them, and bundled one out to be strapped to a table for a haircut, toenail maintenance, inoculations and insecticide rub. Many objected  and some just took it like an alpaca.
One by one the gentlemen (they were all boys, or at least ex-boys) were given a right going over.

The shearer’s three sheepdogs hid under his van and came out now and then to stalk the growing herd of gawky shorn mini camels.
These animals are just a bit strange. They are curious and nervous and the niggle and kick each other.
And occasionally, they spit. They spit a large quantity of green stuff which, in my case, appeared to be semi-digested nettles and some other green stuff. And they spit a long distance. Brian got it in the ear, I got it at the back of the neck and the nearby tree was sprayed a few times.
The process looks cruel, but apart from the indigity, and being scared for ten minutes, no harm was done and, after a minute or so grazing, they seem to have forgotten all about it. They live in and for the moment, it would seem.


What fun. I don’t believe the alpacas enjoyed it much, but it did make a change from slugging through the blasted wastes of Caledonia with a dead camera.  Its working now, almost anyway. It just takes pictures. You can’t do date set up or change the type of photo you want or anything. Point and fire with face recognition and auto-flash.
Whatever next?

Snow? Don’t talk to me about snow!

Alston Moor Snow Blower Blowing Snow Hartside

I just thought I’d share a couple of pictures sent to me by Brian from Nenthead showing the new ice age that’s starting to develop over the hill (from here…) - and also the otherwwise superb weather that I can't seem to get to....

Alston Moor Snow Blower on Hartside Pass

I’m a bit miffed that I can’t actually get anywhere much in the car at the moment – I did give the knipemobile a little run around Tow Law yesterday, to keep it reasonably healthy – and then I got it stuck just outside Pie Towers and had to use spades, bits of carpet, three blokes, some road grit and the wife to get it moving again. Then I got stuck again and a lass who said she used to live in Tow Law pushed me out, then I couldn’t get it in the garage. So, pro-tem, its staying where it is, specially as they seem to have stopped gritting places that aren’t “A” roads.

Anyway – I thought the pictures were rather good. They include a hint from Brian to come and dig a snowhole – and I’ve added a picture from last year’s snowhole digging day just to illustrate a finished item. It looks like the pile of snow outside Brian’s is quite a bit bigger than last year though.

2010 Building Plot

Hole complete with electricity supply, fitted carpet and tenant

I wonder if I could catch the bus up Weardale and walk over the hill?