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BB1929
: Fairies Will Grant Your Every Wish
Thursday,
29th August 2019
A
beautiful morning. A lovely drive
round the south west of the Lake District.
Wast Water looking magnificent with
the still lake reflecting the mountains.
The exciting Mickledore ascent to
the top of England. Lots of people
enjoying the sunshine on the top of Scafell
Pike. An exhilarating dash down the
tourist route to the car in Wasdale. The
return home in glorious evening sunshine.
What a day.
However…
that was Tuesday, with the grandchildren.
Today’s BOOTboys
outing was a rather different affair. High
winds and cloudy weather caused us to abort
the planned ascent of Glaramara and seek
a gentler alternative. The late start
led to further delay as we met and supped
coffee at the 1818 auction mart whilst we
decided what to do. The decision was
to walk from The Wolf House gallery at Silverdale
to Beetham. A linear walk which, because
of the necessary car shuffling, meant a
further delay before we started in earnest.
A
problem with these low level, village related
walks is that there is so much to see and
explore that progress is inevitably slow.
The Silverdale Wells fed by drops
emerging from the limestone cliff.
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St
John's Church with its remarkable modern
screen framing the old stained glass window
- if you stand inside the bell tower and
look through the new window into the body
of the church, it looks as if the external
window is floating over the pews. Quite
remarkable.
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Then
there was The Pepperpot where the usual
debate erupted. Where exactly was
Blackpool Tower?
The
pointer on the cairn showed it slightly
to the right of the Heysham Power Stations.
However the pointer on the cairn wasn't
pointing at the Power Stations. It
was pointing to the left of them.
On
the other hand, the OS map says it is directly
behind the westernmmost power station.
Various
views were expressed. Uncle Google
has provided the true answer.
Slightly
to the right of the Power Stations.
We
hadn’t walked very far and it was already
past noon which had had the inevitable effect
on Tony. An empty yurt was discovered,
locked but with a patio on which we could
have our lunch, somewhat protected from
the wind.
Arnside
Tower (a ruined Pele tower) was the next
distraction.....
..... before reaching the trig point
on the top of the Knott. .jpg)
A misunderstanding
between Stan and me caused an eccentric
route off the Knott that cunningly omitted
the viewing point so that was one distraction
avoided. However the promenade provided
several.
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The
old railway track led us to Carr Bank where
we headed north for Fairy Steps.
There
were several children around. One
young girl came down the steps. I
asked if she knew that if you could pass
through the steps without touching the sides,
the fairies would grant your every wish.
She shot off up the steps and I then
realised how foolish I had been. The
steps (a cleft in the cliff) are limestone
and potentially slippery. Without
using her arms she could easily slip and……
. I made a wish. It was granted.
She went up and down without incident.
She said she hadn’t touched the sides.
I believed her.
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We
all then went up. Some trying to have
their wishes granted. I succeeded.
I had my hands clasped together all
the way up. I confess that my elbows
had brushed the sides but they don’t count.
Do they?
Tony’s
wish was to get to the pub as soon as possible.
This would have been granted but he spotted
a renovation project that had to be examined.
Then
he noticed that the Beetham graveyard had a Commonwealth
War Grave so that too had to be examined.
Meanwhile
where were John and Robin (plus Holly, his Labrador)?
Had they vanished? No, of course they hadn’t; they
had just made sure that their wishes were
granted before ours. Just down the lane
in the Wheatsheaf.
Don,
Thursday 29th August 2019
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