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BB2210
: In Search Of The Fruit and Nut Case
Thursday
24th March 2022
I
was too late to join the others. Ellie’s
ballet exam had overrun. In the car
going home I asked her what music she had
danced to. She couldn’t name it. " Was
it the Nutcracker Suite?" I asked-
possibly as it’s the only ballet tune I
know (those last three words remind me of
my father’s favourite joke but I’ll save
that for another time). "No,"
she said. Nevertheless I couldn’t
get the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy music
out of my mind.
My
strategy to meet the others, Mike, Stan,
Simon (Mike’s former business partner) and
his lovely dog Fred, on Whitbarrow was to
approach the target from the south whilst
they advanced from the east.
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This
involved me parking at the foot of White
Scar then climbing its great slab then the
footpath up through the trees beyond.
As
the going got steeper the Sugar Plum Fairy
was helping me along, beating out the required
rhythm of my footsteps in the way that the
Great Redeemer used to guide me. The
annoying thing was that I felt sure there
were words to the tune and I couldn’t remember
them.
On
reaching the open fell, I wasn’t quite travelling
at ramming speed- I’m a bit too old for
that now. But I was certainly approaching
severe bumping speed.
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At
the pile of stones on the top of Farrer’s
Allotment, I phoned Mike to see where his
group were. It seemed that they weren’t
far away and we should meet up soon. I
pressed on to the Lord’s Seat Memorial and
again phoned Mike.
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The
trouble was that I referred to it as the
cairn. We agreed that we would meet
up at the wall through which the path passes.
Unfortunately Mike & co waited
for me at the wall beyond the pile of stones
type cairn from which I had first phoned
him whereas I waited for them at the Horse
Pasture Wood wall some distance north of
the Memorial Cairn.
Fortunately
the devices that had led to this confusion,
i.e. mobile phones, allowed us to rectify
the situation. We all headed for and
met at the Memorial Cairn, following which
we stopped for lunch below a cliffette.
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The
Howe was their target so I accompanied them
down into the Township plantation where
we parted company. I then took the
long path through the woods south, eventually
reaching the foot of White Scar and the
car.
When
I told Margaret about the mix up do you
know what she said to me? “Well, you
are a right fruit and nut case”. “Thank
you”, I cried. “Those are the very
words that have escaped me all day long”.
It’s what the Sugar Plum Fairies used
to sing in the Cadbury’s advert. “Everyone’s
a fruit and nut case”. Well, I certainly
was!
Don,
Thursday 24th March 2022
Comitibus:
Stan,
Simon, Mike, Don with Fred
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Bonus
Picture For Margaret
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