Two Pre Breakfast Morning Walks and a Visit to Arnside

Me and my new best friend Bruce. He follows me everywhere.

Outside this farm there is a little shelter made out of a tree trunk.

A lovely Gelder Rose in the hedgerow

Looking over the fields to the estuary. We have got into the nice habit of walking before breakfast and with the weather being so hot its the best time of the day to walk.

I love the lovely English country lanes

Part of the walk was through fields and we also had to climb over walls made as stone stiles

Lake District hills in the distance

Our final field on Sunday morning.

Gaye in Cartmel on Monday afternoon. It was much quieter than at the weekend.

The lovely stream going through Cartmel

We visited Arnside early Monday afternoon. We used to take Jean Weatherstone there to see Vic and Lillian Grey about 15 years ago. The train was heading for Lancaster.

We had hoped the tide would have been in but it was not to be. It is quite spectacular when it comes in like a tidal bore. We waited almost an hour and no trains crossed and then one suddenly appeared.

The village of Arnside

It's much more spectacular when the tide is in.

This was our walk on Monday morning

The same stream that passes through Cartmel

The farmers have a good crop of silage

More Silage and fields to cross at the edges

Lovely country lanes

I planned our morning walks on my OS App and it means we never get lost as long as you get a signal you are ok. In England it is all on rights of way and they are usually well signposted but these ones were not marked with arrows, but well used so easy to follow. If you stray of the proper route then laws of trespass come into force and the farmers hate people crossing their land. In Scotland we can go anywhere as long as we walk responsibly.

A Morning in Cartmel and Grange over Sands

On our morning walk you can see Cartmel Priory in the distance

Norman with his Parsons Jack Russell Terrier called Bruce

Our Chalet for the coming week. It is very well furnished and very comfortable.

After breakfast we headed in to Cartmel  to explore. Norman and I went for a walk while Gaye and Doreen went to a Craft Fair.

Cartmel Priory

A lovely stream running through the centre of Cartmel

A nice bridge going over the stream

The main square in Cartmel and the Kings Arms where we will be dining tonight

Cartmel Racecourse right in the centre of the village.

After Cartmel Gaye and I headed to Grange over Sands and a walk along the lovely Promenade followed by a light lunch in a small cafe.

 

A Toast to Tom's New Seat

This morning Tom, David, Niall, and myself headed to The Tarras valley Nature Reserve ponds to make our way to see Tom's seat which is on the pathway at the furthermost part of the walk where all the trees were felled 2 years ago. It's quite a climb at the start of the walk but we took our time and managed it without much difficulty. Considering the average age of the 4 of us was over 80 we did very well. It's such a lovely place for a walk.

It's only 2 years since the trees were felled but there is considerable growth returning

These white flowers were everywhere.

Most of them growing next to an old tree stump

More of them

Some Fungus growing soon the side of one of the remaining trees

Heading up the hill

Moving back up after our first rest at the seat provided by Rotary

Our first rest on the Rotary Club seat

Loads of Foxgloves everywhere

A lone tree 

Tom was glad to have a rest on his very own seat and to prove that he is still very much alive. Somebody saw this seat outside Langholm Initiative offices before it was placed here and they contacted me to ask when Tom had died. He is pleased to report its not a memorial seat and its the only one placed locally that has arm rests

Niall produced a half bottle of whisky and some small shortbread biscuits so we happily toasted Tom and his new seat.

Before this area was planted as a forest it was ordinary fields bounded by these drystane dykes

Heading back down the path to the ponds

Back at the pond area we saw thousands of tiny frogs that have just left the ponds. They were everywhere and so tiny you could hardly see them. This is a much magnified photo provided by Niall

If you are walking in this area please take care for the next few weeks as there are still many thousands of Tadpoles in the ponds still to come out as frogs

One of the remaining tadpoles

 

Visit From An Old School Friend

Gaye and I were delighted to meet up with an old school friend of mine Robert Irving today. He lived in Rowanburn at the same time as me in the 1950s and then was in my class at Langholm Academy for 2 years before going on to Dumfries Academy. Many years later he was a tutor to our son Fraser in the Computing Science department at Glasgow University.

This is the photograph after being enhanced by my son Fraser using AI. 

A photograph from his excellent album

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Canonbie School Primary 5,6 and 7, 1957. I am in the back row 3rd left and Rob is 4th left.

Canonbie School Primary 3 and 4, 1955. I am 1st left back row and Rob is 3rd left back row.