ALL WALK AND NO PLAY MAKES...............

"Milk Churn Joan"
a lonely stone/afloat
in the stone heavings of emptiness ( ted hughes)

these flagged stone footpaths have been part of this landscape for many years as have the sheep.

in the pic on the right the Pennine way crosses

the water via an old clapper bridge,a fact me and Rosie discovered 26 years ago while skinny dipping in what we thought was a quite spot,much to the amusement of a passing boy scout troop

Great Rock

these paths were once a main trade route and packhorse trail accross the Pennines from Burnley to Leeds

we had lunch on a bench courtesy of George and Kathleen Woodhead and like them also loved the valley vista

Since my last blog I have decided my time for the camino to Santiago is now

So June 9th 2009 is my start date the day after our 25th wedding university,Rosie has decided to sit this one out and wait a bit longer for hers.

Being ten years older I felt I didn't have the time to wait, a fact brought home to me on our visit and walk in my home county of Yorkshire and where our married life started out 25 years ago and also were our three children were born.

this walk was a bit more rugged than we are used to with lots of hills and steep descents,The younger me had strode this area with our dog "Prince" before he succumbed to old age and had to be put down,if he was still with us I feel after this weeks showing he would be leading me to the vets for that long sleep.

even the place names round here sound hard and full of poetic foreboding...Stoodley Pike...Blue Pig..Mankinholes-Lumbutts..Withens Clough...Great Rock..Hebble Hole.. Jumble Hole..Midgehole..Saltonstall..Heptonstall..Mount Zion...Hunter Hill and Slaughter Gap,Parliamentary forces were defeated here in 1644.

no wonder the poet Ted Hughes who was born brought up and later in life lived here and found so much inspiration for his work.

do you ski ???

the visit coincided with an all day music festival at our old local pub.

old Friends were met and new ones made