Jockey Tribute Cake

I’ve been spending some of today making mincemeat buns – an easy recipe – and I’ve made a chocolate-covered flapjack in tribute to the famous jockey Willie Carson.

Really loyal piepeople may remember the cake I made in tribute to Arsenal FC last year, where, due to a lack of forward planning, I couldn’t get the full word “Arsenal” on it, so the icing was somewhat foreshortened.

This time, the flapjack is ginger-flavoured and has raisins and sultanas and crystallised ginger in it.

I still get hits from people searching for “Arsenal Cake” by the way, although I’ve not had many death threats about it recently.

I’ve been doing this baking as opposed to going out and walking up Birks Fell in the Dales, because its been wild and windy and, above-all, wet. A real number one autumn gale-type storm.

I’ll be going to Wharfedale tomorrow where I will eat a bun or two and some of the flapjack

In the meantime – I give you – The Willie Carson Tribute Cake

What?

Halloween haunted camera

Fairy ring

Yesterday, I was helping out at Durham County Council’s annual halloween event at Hardwick park at Sedgefield.

During the day, we put up marquees and tents and signs and temporary fences and all kinds of things like that, and during the event, my job was to be at the end of the grown-ups’ scary walk, making sure that people didn’t enter the exit, basically, and call for counsellors and emergency cpsychiatric help for those who were emotionally damaged by being screamed at and chased by scary ghosts and young ladies with their mouths sewn up.

All good clean fun. There was also a rock band (monster mash and timewarp inevitably…), a fire juggler, circus skills, spiders web, torture chamber, little horrors scary walk, crafts, dancers, stilt walkers and a very friendly blood-stained “doctor” as well as various monsters, ghoulies and strangely odd people…

1200 people bought tickets…

But my camera became bewitched or something and I couldn’t see anything on the screen at all except something that looked vaguely like a bar code. I took a couple of hopeful snaps and downloaded them successfully and present them here for your edification and delight.

One shows a ranger up a tree about to hang a witch (not a real one, obviously) and the other is a very nice fairy ring of mushrooms, slightly off-centre as I couldn’t see anything on the screen, see?

Rangers up a tree

Unless there are any suggestions about what I can do with this duff camera (nothing physically demanding, please, I’m an old chap…) – it seems I’ll have to buy a new one.

Bugger.

Incidentally, this is a big event for the Council and most, if not all of it’s Countryside team is enlisted to help – and they do work pretty hard at this – there is also a big coterie of volunteer countryside rangers, like wot I am who do it for the free curry and because we just like to be helpful. And its a laugh, quite frankly.

Marine Bill – A little Worriff

When I was a sprog, my family nickname was “Worriff” – due to my constant asking of questions which started with “worriff…” – For example – Worriff the sky fell in? Worriff it rained forever (we lived in a wet area), Worriff father Christmas got stuck in the chimney/drunk on all the whisky that had been left for him/got all the presents mixed up and had to go back and put it all right before everybody woke up? (difficult as me and the bro used to get up at 2:00 am on Christmas morning to wake our parents with the news that “He’s been!!”

Anyway – Worriff the marine Bill gets passed and whichever government is responsible for implementing it finds the money and will to implement it?

I think that what will happen is that because it will only apply to England and Wales, people are going to start walking along the English – Scottish Border from Longtown(ish) to Berwick on Tweed. Because people will want to link up the Irish Sea at the Solway with the North Sea at the Tweed at Berwick – and thats the obvious way to do it.

As it happens, and completely coincidentally, I’m just in the process of planning whatever it is I might do in 2010 - (I do this every year about now…) and an idea occurred to me, following a discussion on www.walkingforum.com that next August, I might do just that – but from Carlisle to Berwick. I haven’t planned the route in detail, but most of it seems fairly obvious – there’s the Kershope Forest followed by the Border ridge which runs to around Wooler – then there’s riverside paths to Berwick. easy-peasy.

As the walk will be along the Marches - henceforth, it shall be know as The Marches March.

Really should be done between February and April

watch this space ---------->

worriff ……………..santa got stuck behind a locked grid

My immediate plans are to be a steward on the scary walk at Durham County Council’s Halloween event at Hardwick Hall at Sedgefield.

I’ll be there all day tommorrow helping to set up. We’re expecting 1000+ kids.

Mwhahahahaaha!!!!!

If the government changed would our access to the countryside change?

I’ve never been specially happy with the state of access to “open access” areas following New Labour’s CROW Act 2000(the one which doesn’t allow wild camping…)

For a start, there are places where I can not now take superdawg, well, legally anyway. I used to go pretty much anywhere I like with the pooch, but not anymore. The grouse moors of the North Pennines are now out of bounds.

A gamekeeper I spoke to on a local estate (a very big one as it happens) wasn’t bothered about me and my dog wandering the ridges – as long as that’s what I did – wander the ridges. But nowadays he really ought to police the place as there’s no dogs allowed and there’s unofficial, but official-looking CLA waymarks next to public rights of way to prove it.

And some places are almost permanently closed – one moor is effectively open for access for just the one month, during which they close it to shoot the grouse.

Then there’s the wild camping which you’re not supposed to do.

So, whilst I wasn’t specially happy, at least there were times and places where I couldn’t now be challenged for being off-path,

Then Nick Herbert, Tory MP for Arundel and South Downs is reported to say that the ban on fox hunting with dogs is a duff law and should be repealed.

Article in The Sunday Telegraph 18 October 2009

'There is a compelling case to get the hunting ban off the statute book' by Nick Herbert, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (quote from Nick Herbert’s website.)

Then, in Grough – this.

http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2009/10/27/landowners-urge-mps-to-throw-out-coastal-access-bill

The Countryside Land and Business Association don’t like the thought of people having access to the coast.

And rolling back the fox-hunting ban leads me to wonder if the Tories have any plans to roll-back any other New Labour legislation – and there’s always a chance, I suppose of a bit of class-war revenge…

So I send Nick an email and ask him the question. Do the Conservatives intend to alter the current access legislation. I should point out here that Mr Herbert is the Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Foot and Rural Affairs. He bangs on a lot about preserving and valuing the countryside.

Did he reply?

Not on your nelly, nor on mine if I had a nelly at all… prolly thinks I’m an activist or something…or maybe he just couldn’t be arsed talking to a townie….

But then , in a speech to the Kent branch of the CPRE he says this:

“Health and wellbeing is improved by access to the countryside. It’s important for our children, whose development is enhanced by outdoor play, and it’s important for adults who can reduce the risks of stress-related conditions through the kind of tranquillity that nature provides. Natural England even refer to the ‘Natural Health Service’. I’d like to see stronger links between farms and schools – and we simply mustn’t allow the current health scare to prevent that.”

Seems fine. I’m probably just being a bit paranoid. Politicians have that effect on me, for some reason.

Incidentally, on his website, Nick says that he was instrumental in setting up the Countryside Movement. This, of course, is now called the Countryside Alliance.

The countryside alliance’s stance on access is detailed here: http://www.countryside-alliance.org.uk/our-campaigns/our-policy-jigsaw/more-on-access-to-the-countryside/

This may be a significant sentence “The contribution that land mangers and farmers make to conservation and biodiversity targets must continue to be valued, and public access to land should not take priority over protection and conservation of habitats or species.”

That looks like a possible watering-down of an already pretty watery soup. I don’t feel too happy just now. Something for the Ramblers to do…

Wild Boar Fell Swarth Fell and Baugh Fell

This is the first of the Yorkshire Dales Hills walks. A walk very similar to this one appeared in October’s TGO magazine written by Ian Battersby. But I didn’t copy it, I made this up myself….

Cautley Crag from Ravenstonedale Common

Anyway, we parked up at Rawthey Bridge and wandered on to Ravenstonedale Common. After the shock of suddenly discovering that I knew where I was, I decided, as there wasn’t much else to amuse myself with, apart from plodding uphill over the soaking mosses, to have a bit of navigation practise. So off I went on short legs and then one really long one designed to bring walker and his trusting dog to Sand Tarn. The surprise was that it worked, despite my assumption that I’d missed it.

Sand Tarn is pretty much hidden from below and lies on a little shelf just below the trig point. Its a grand spot – it would make a good wild camping spot.

Bruno had a paddle, I stuck me feet in and they turned a funny blue colour and started hurting, so I pulled them out again smartish.

Sand tarn on its shelf

And so we reached the summit and had a little wander around the edges before stopping by a collection of cairns for an early lunch. The views from Wild Boar Fell today stretched from somewhere North of Gretna to the middle bits of Airedale – and Morecambe bay and much of the Lake District hills.

wild boar fell’s cairn collection

After an egg butty and various other delights, we squelched off to Swarth Fell and Swarth Fell Pike – an easy but sloppy traverse. Even sloppier than this, were the moors to the South which lead down to Rawthey Gill Foot – an ideal place to have another lunch…..

The River Rawthey is a noisy little stream just here and it could have been due to this that it struck me just how quiet the hills were today. There were times of utter silence – just the tinnitus….. and then the RAF hurtled over and over at Warcop ranges, somebody blew something up…. and a sheep bleated and a slug farted and my left boot squeaked….. But apart from that, it was fairly quiet….

We handrailed Swere Gill and Brocken Gill which brought us up onto the big top of Baugh Fell – quite close to its summit – Tarn Rigg Hill. I expect they call it Tarn Rigg Hill due to the fact that its a ridge with a lot of tarns on it… dhuhhh….. Baugh Fell, of course is Very Old English for Dirty, Squishy Flat place. And it is very sloppy in parts – it even scared the dog at one point and he’s in his own little world most of the time (he thinks he’s out hunting wildebeest..)

Knoutberry Haw with a view of the Howgills

But there are good views, and we splattered across tot he West top – Knoutberry Haw and then, as time was pressing and it was starting to get a little dark – over the big, empty shoulder to drop down to the Rawthey again just a little to the Right of Uldale House.

We followed a bridleway back as the daylight petered out. I snapped one pic of the autumn trees before the lights turned off. We abandoned the bridleway and followed an ancient track signifed by a little cut on the hillside and a strip of soft rush

This walk was 15 miles and just over 3000 feet of ascent, and a lot of ruches and sphagnum. Its a good start, though, I think.