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BB2024
: Farewell to Skippy
Wednesday
15th July 2020
Today
was a sad day for me. Very sad. It
was to be the last outing with my faithful
companion of 15 years. Much as Skippy
would have preferred to be romping up rough
tracks to the highest hills, today the weather
confined us to a more gentle expedition
though not one not without some hitherto
unexplored features.
We
(BOOTboys,
not Skippy) were intending to explore Trowbarrow
Quarry, now turned into a nature reserve
and rock-climbing venue. However first
we had to negotiate road closures. A
tractor had caught fire. Would you
believe that it took five fire crews several
hours to put it out? Well, that’s
what the Westmorland Gazette says so it
must be true.
The
quarry area is huge although muchly revegetated.
The eastern side presents a long,
long quarry wall.
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However
it was on the lower, western side that we
saw a climber in action. Rather him
than me.
Emerging
from the quarry, we passed a field full
of Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs before reaching
Haweswater (Lancashire one, not Westmorland).
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Here
we turned east, across pleasant fields and
along woodland tracks to emerge at Yealand
Storrs. We wondered about lunch but
we were by the side of the road. "How
about having it at Round Top?" I suggested,
advising that it would only be about 15
minutes. Well, it might have been
fifteen minutes had it been normal terrain
but we had to fight our way through bramble
and other obstacles only to find that Round
Top was pretty much a jungled non-entity
with nothing to commend it other than a
path downwards.
Next
on the agenda was a sort of inverted Round
Top- Deepdale Pond. Down and down
we went, albeit on a decent trail this time,
only to find that the Pond was totally over-grown
and we now had to climb back out.
We
did then find an open field where, provided
you didn’t mind the smell of excessive sheep
shpoo we would sit in the open to eat. This
was to the side of Yealand Manor where Stan
and I had spent happy times when it was
Provincial Insurance’s training centre.
Sat
here, my thoughts kept returning to Skippy.
The more mistreatment I had hurled
at Skippy, the more the loyal response.
Yes, Skippy would be sadly missed.
An
option now was to continue on to Warton
Crag but we decided that it would add little
of value to the walk compared with heading
due west towards Leighton Hall.
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At
the top of the rise is what is shown on
the map as a Cairn but I am sure that it
and the circle of large stone surrounding
it at distance, is of some significance
but what currently escapes me*.
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Beyond
the line of trees lies the descent to Leighton
Hall which, to my surprise in these Corvidian
days, is open to visitors. But not
today. Tomorrow?
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The
way back took us alongside Leighton Moss.
The hides were closed but there were
some viewing points.
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However
as we didn’t know what we were looking at,
we pressed on back to our start point and
back to Skippy.
Unfortunately,
as comes to all of us, age and in this case
abuse by its master, had taken its toll
and it is time to part. On Sunday,
I will be taking Skippy to the final resting
place to say goodbye.
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You
didn’t think I was talking about
a dog did you? Or a kangaroo?
No Skippy is my Subaru
Forester, the flying skip that
in fifteen years has never let
me down despite my inflicting
great wounds onto its outside
and piling all sort of filthy
loads into its inside. But
the time has come to part.
Farewell
Skippy, thank you for everything;
life will be very different
without you.
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Don,
Wednesday 15th July 2020
*
Afternote: In BB1044
I recorded that we
had learned that a pagoda or summer
house once stood
there and that the open space had
contained the village cricket pitch. I had forgotten!
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