Rambling on about things.

We’ve had two rambles over the last couple of days. On Wednesday, my daughter proposed a walk up the hill, down to the Donkey Line and home, a shortish ramble for us. In the event, half way up the hill, at the house called “The Old Toll House”, we took a left turn up a lane that leads to Lark Hill  and just continued to Lark Hill and beyond. There’s a building my daughter has spotted from Diggle on our Chippy Hikes and, intrigued by it, she wanted to see if we could get a close look from the Dobcross and Delph side. 

We walked for what seemed like miles, had some lovely views of hills and reservoirs seen from a different angle, but never saw the house. It must have been hidden by trees or a bit of hill, or something.

Eventually, when we thought we might end up almost  in Marsden, we took another left turn, down a very bumpy track which took us down to rejoin the A62 by the Saddleworth Hotel. Yet another left turn at the bottom of the track almost completed our rectangular walk but someone suggested going to look at the duckpond ... as we were so close. 

 

And we found a frog along the way! 

 

Yesterday we took some old friends for a guided tour of the Delph-Dobcross area ... up the hill to Dobcross again and back along the Donkey Line, and incorporating a stroll round our village. 

We finished off with lunch at the Old Bell Inn, aka the pub next door to our house. Our first walk in over a year with someone not related to us and our first foray into eating out in a similar length of time. The garden restaurant, formerly known as the pub carpark, seemed well organised, all very civilised. Will it be as calm and civilised over the coming weekend, specially if the sunshine, albeit chilly sunshine, continues? We shall see. 

So what is going on in the wider world, apart from arrangements for a state funeral and continued reports of Covid chaos in places like India and Brazil?

Well, I am tempted to ask if the country is falling apart. Seriously:-

‘A huge section of a cliff on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset has collapsed on to a beach below and into the sea in the biggest UK rockfall in 60 years.

The rockfall happened just west of the south coast seaside town of Weymouth and Dorset council said more cliff was expected to be lost, with people being urged to stay away from the area. Parts of the coastal path were cordoned off.

A spokesperson for the council said: “Further movement is expected with fresh cracks affecting the fence line but not the coast path. We will monitor over the next few weeks to ensure that any further movement does not affect access.

“Now the ground is drying out, there is the possibility of more slips and falls and they can happen very quickly. For your safety, keep clear of tops and bases of cliffs when out and about.”’

I don’t think we need to worry about it here. 

Then there are the Cake Wars. In remember hearing about ice cream “wars” in Manchester many years ago but this could well be nationwide. Marks and Spencer, it seems, market a cake known as Colin the Caterpillar, the sort of thing you might buy for a child’s birthday cake. Now Aldi are selling one called Cuthbert, £2 cheaper than the M&S, and remarkably similar. M&S are not best pleased. Accusations of cake-plagiarism abound. But a friend of mine, who has sampled both for her birthdays, as you do in your late 60s, says that Cuthbert is the superior cake!! 

Other more important things are occurring out there but that will do for the time being. Meanwhile, we wait to be “invited” for our second dose of the vaccine. We received the first dose 12 weeks ago today so this morning I phoned our GP’s surgery to make enquiries. They are currently sending “invitations” to people who had their first dose a couple of days before we did. So we should expect to hear from them shortly. We wait with bated breath!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!