Solstice Morning

Me, Brian and Charlie got up outrageously early this morning and turned up on the Durham/Northumberland border just as the moon was going into it’s final stages of a total eclipse.


(Very poor picture of the lunar eclipse. Well, it was dark, see..?)
As we totterred off over the hard neve of Middlehope Moor, it finally blanked out, turned red and disappeared into some Cheviot haze.
We pressed on up the hill, reaching the summit cairn not too much later (its not very far)

Here, we lit some hexamine and produced a fairly frazzled breakfast of sausages, bacon, black pudding, tomato and rolls.
And then the sun rose in a pink and red light. We all agreed haw great it was to be here and not tucked up in a warm and cosy bed.

The snow began to steam gently and, despite the severely negative celsius readings, Charlie pointed out a heat haze.
Everything was now bathed in sunshine.

The snow conditions in the North Pennines, I have to report, are absolutely superb at the moment. There is hard neve to walk on. The bogs are frozen up. There is blue sky and sunshine. And the roads are open. This can’t be missed. I must have a walk tomorrow.

And, of course, the year has now turned. From now on, each day will have just that extra few minutes of daylight. There is hope. Spring is lurking somewhere far away but has it’s bags packed, the taxi is waiting, the cat is at the Aunty’s and the neighbours have a key, just in case.
Solstice sunrise and a lunar eclipse. That can’t happen very often. It would have been a shame to miss that one.

Oh, Holy Night

OK, so this is war…..   Stick this up yer chimneys and see if Santa finds it….

This’ll make you reach for the tissues..

Crook Around The Compass – West

Well, this just about wraps it up for Crook around the compass. This walk was much like the others in the series – a very nice little trundle around snowy fields (I expect its not always this way) – but with a clumsy description. I got off route just the once and there was some minor trouble with some gorse, a missing footpath sign or two and a bit of route which could do with some of those little yellow waymarker signs you stick on fences…

But, as me and superdawg prepared for this walk (by having a late morning nap, followed by lunch and quite a lot of coffee) – we couldn’t help but notice, partly by the BBC News and partly by the view out of the window, that it was in fact, deep mid winter outside and a frosty wind was making moan. And we noticed, through our powers of observation, that the ground was as hard as iron and any water that was around was like a stone. This was lucky cos otherwise we’d have got really muddy on this walk.

We didn’t particularly notice and Cherubim or Seraphim by the way, but some very large East Coast snow shower clouds did build up towards sunset.

Anyway, its a good walk – ideal for a summer’s evening.

The walk is four miles, but I did five and Bruno did about thirty as he was bouncing around in the snow quite a bit.

I’ve suggested to the County that these four short walks around Crook could be put into the summer guided walks programme as evening walks for people who are just starting to go for walks….  this way, I get to lead walks at a nice Knipey, beta blocky sort of pace and we can celebrate afterwards in the Farrer’s Arms.

Howden le Wear walks are next for inspection.

Moffat to Peebles Yet Another Walk

I’ve just sent out an email invite to several people, mainly TGO-er types to test interest in walking from Moffat to Peebles next April.

Avid readers and those who are just a bit psychic, not to say psychotic, will remember that we had a badly failed attempt at walking from Peebles to Moffat last April, and a successful walk from Peebles to Moffat in September, during which bits of Mr Sloman were removed and left dangling on a fence just above Moffat.

Now its time to think about completing the circle and walking back to Peebles from Moffat by a different route.

If you have not received an email and you got one for the last walk, its probably because the email meant for you has bounced. There are two of these at the moment. Let me know if you think you should have received an email, but haven’t.

I’ve also invited Fight Club Hiker members through their internet forum and there’s a couple of interested people there.

I’ve got the thinking cap on for further invitees, given that we had quite a lot of late wastage last time and we can manage a reasonable-sized group I think.

The dates for Moffat to Peebles will be 15 to 18 April 2011. Walking will commence from Moffat on Saturday 16 April 2011. It seems traditional to visit the Bridge Inn for good luck festivities before hand. This could be done on the Friday.

The route will include bits of the Southern Upland Way, a long and mainly grassy ridge including a bunch of 2000 foot tops, Tibbie Shiels Inn , more SUW and Glen Sax.

Coventry Carol

Over the next week or so, I may well post various and several videos appropriate to the season.There will be no apologies for this. This stuff is taking me back to New road School in Earby.
Annie Lennox, though... bless 'er cotton sox....  There's a pagan undertone to this, which is exactly how it should be.