Ramps, Ridgeways, Railways and Rain

This Sunday walk re-used ways intended for other uses.

It didn't rain.

All the following provenance is mine and may well be wrong

The climb from Dennis Knoll used a 19c(?) millstone quarry ramp

At the top we followed Stannage Edge West on a medieval packhorse causeway towards Strines.

As the Inn claims to be 13C the route must have passed it - well you wouldn't avoid the only pub in the region would you?

Well yes we did! (S is teetotal and I'm in charge of the motor car).

Slightly before the inn we picked up a footpath "preserved" by very wonderful Peaks and Northern Footpaths Soc.

Their ref S086 - these signposts are a delight.

From Cutthroat Bridge to Ladybower Inn there must have been some sort of way for the murder to have been done and discovered.

I'm assuming that as the whole valley was flooded for the reservoirs, all the roads are new, but the placename "Yorkshire Bridge" does make you think.

A lovely lunch and a bit of a doze in the sun was then enjoyed at the top of the Labybower Dam.

Wonderful civil engineering site-seeing thanks to the Derwent Valley Water Board.

You've got to be thinking be-whiskered men in tall hats smoking cigars.

Bloody Hell - It's Van Morrison again

Off across the dam to pick up and railway, now called the Thornhill Trail. It was built for moving stuff from the main Hope Valley line up to the dams during construction.

(it's not really in Canada)

Past the rotting yellow syncro in bamford (spit spit I want it! They obviously don't)

Up the hill on Saltergate Lane.

Now what do you think that might be about?

Salt!

Some jigger-pokery (should that be jaggery-pokery or coggery-pokery) gets us across Hurst Clough and into a green lane.

Green Lane/Drovers road call 'em what you want but mostly dicks seem to want to race 4x4s up 'em.

They are public roads but seems a shame to destroy 1000 year old ways in 20 years.

Guess where that got us - back to the 2 tonne 4.2 litre battle cruiser.

Yes I'm a hypocrite.

But I'm also a nihilist so everything is okay.

If you walk this way - enjoy it.

Click Here For The Walk

Future installments will do The Peak as industrial wasteland (which it is!)

Pasty Number 5

Well this post went adrift somewhere last night.

I'd swear that I saw it up here after I'd written it whilst tucked up in the camper.

But I was pissed, tired and hurting after a long day in the sun.

We went to Fowey (pronounced Phooey) , walked via Gribben Point to Polkerris, then back to Foy (pronounced Filbertegibbert).

Last time I was here (for Roy Walker's Wedding 25ish yrs ago) Fowey was cute but still a functioning town. Now it's cuter than a kitten in a basket surrounded by daisies and probably awful to live in. Then it had a bakery selling pasties now it has Kittow Bros. (elsewhere advertised as a "craft butchers and grazier" WTF?)

The filling

Far too much meat, they advertise "3 times the legal minimum". By that reasoning a lump of steak wrapped in pastry would be a pasty. It aint, it's Beef Wellington.

And not enough pepper.

And cubes (but I think I need to get over this)

3/5

The Pastry

The better of the components but not perfect. I want pastry made of crumbs and any flakiness will be punished.

2/3

The Presentation etc.

S says 0/2, I want to give them 0.5 so they don't cry.

No I can't think of any good stuff

0/2

Total 5/10

(that surprised me)

Pasty Number 4

We went to Liskeard today and I did some research so picked this recommended baker.

I wasn't disappointed.
Filling
Fine to very good. Minus for Veg in cubes and all though seasoning was good not quite strong enough

4/5
Casing
Splendid. Slight lamination but not flaky.

2.5/3
Presentation
Not bad baked on premises.
Only £2 for big pasty
Excellent gingham paper bag
1.5/2
Total 8/10
Rest of day spent deep in antiquity and geology.

The Trevathy Quoit vs Cheesewring

humans vs nature.
Nature wins
Unfeasibly large slabs of granite balanced in a threatening manner.

I was scared.

Pasty Number 3

Newflash
Pie-faced Power Porks out on Pasty from Posh Purveyor in Public Park.
The Orangery Resturant Mount Edgcumbe
They don't make them there but when I asked they didn't seem to know
where they are made.
Filing
Cubes of potato (slices are better) not enough swede and seasoning
negligible 2/5
Casing
Adequete but not perfect 2.5/3
Presentation etc
Lovely building but staff surly 1/2
Total 5.5/10
Much more interesting was the fountain outside the Orangery. Mermaids
with two tails!
This offends all accepted symbology of half women half fish creatures.
The tradational memaid allures you in with her upper womanly charms
but the single fish tail prevents consumation. These 2 tailed
varieties are even more monsterous. Fuckable fish women.

I'm In My Bag

As you were all asking.

Here's what's in the top section of my bag. This is the flap that closes the top of the bag, it has a small zipped pocket that I suppose is for valuable and must have in a moderate hurry things.
Starting top left and going down

Sunnies
The best ones I've found to replace my ray-bans that got stolen in Aberdeen. Genuine bargain; £1 from Primark.I bought 5 pairs and leave them all over the place.

Compass

Gift from some outdoor leader bod I met years ago. He had boxes of them - Thanks Dennis. A must have on everyone's outdoor essentials list. This one got us un-lost on Kinder Scout. It doesn't require any electicity and will work after months immersed in water.

Bag Pet
Every bag should have one; S has Brian the Dinosaur. I have a Little White Bull who I should call Tommy but I don't. It's a totem. I posess this bull and so control all others. They cannot attack me. Basic shamanistic magic. Niels Bohr had a horseshoe in his study; for good luck which he didn't believe in.

Keys
There's no story here. You use them to lock and unlock doors. These ones fit the camper. The attached piece of fancy knot work is a jib-shackle.

Top right downwards

A container for tea bags - cute eh?

The tea bag it contains. Earl Grey with caffeine. Some times when I'm feeling pious I drink decaf' but it's always Earl Grey. More about walking, tea making and drinking in a later instalment.

Container for Leatherman
Not very interesting. I do worry sometimes about the number of containers I own. Some compulsion to contain things so as to control them?

The Leatherman tool it contains.
T'reffic- I had one for years that S bought me. Some twat stole it. I was working on the camper, left it on the drivers seat while I dipped underneath. Blink. I popped back up and it had gone BASTARDS. I got myself another one eventually .

Today we also went for a walk (see comment below)

Pasty Number 2

Todays entertainment was a jaunt down the SW Coastal Path from Looe to Polperro and then an inland return.

I'll attach a GPS (Guinea Pig Search) path when I get home.

If you have OS Explorer 107, who hasn't, the route is obvious.
Bleedin' Hot and I'm very tired.
Half way was pasty sampling time.
Avoiding chain of Proper Pasty and too big at Wrights Genuine Tin Miners; I stumped for the cocktail special (a sub-small species) from the above emporium.
Rubbish 2/10
Which gives me a chance to discuss my marking scheme.
5 points for filling
3 points for casing
2 points for presentation, service, and anything else I can think of.
Martins Dairy lost a point for missing an apostrophe from Martins.
Call me a pedant but It makes no sense without it.
So I give Polperro Bakery.
0.5 for filling because there was some but it was congealed soup. I couldn't discern any different ingredients and where was the pepper?
0.5 for casing because it contained the filling. Some limp flaky pastry effort, imagine layers of damp insulation from under laminate flooring.
Now take away all flavour.
They get a point for the smell of baking and the red cheeks of the woman serving.

Pasty Number 1

It's holiday time again and officially declared a piefari. Yummy for
my tummy

Yet Another Holiday For This Lucky Pair

Lovely Looe

• I love holidays.
• I love camping.
• I love Cornwall.
• I love me Sandy.

This week has a lot going for it.

Here's how we got there

Democracy Day

It's the 20th anniversery of that thing that kicked off in china -
tinamamin something or other.
I'm doing my bit to support freedom
I work as a poll clerk
It's now 0930 and I've been at it 3 hours; 85 people have had a go.
Sorry make that 84.
One person realised that it potentially isn't a secret ballot and ran
off with their ballot paper. More on secrecy later. 

If I get time- LOL 12 hours to go and we've now hit the slow patch.
I know that from experience, this is my 3rd election as a poll clerk.
Potentially it could be my 2nd as a voter.

 

I've never really been inspired to vote for the usual cryptoanarchostalinomarxist libertarian
reasons.

• Voting encourages apathy
  
• Most people shouldn't be trusted with a vote
  
• Governments always get elected
  
• It encourages politicians
  
• Insert your own glib statements here
  

So why am I here?
The money is slighty above minimum wage but usually I get released
from work so you get paid twice.
This time however my boss wouldn't give me the time and I've had to
take time off. 

BASTARD 

I will make them suffer for that somehow
So the money is rubbish but it's my money to spend on something frivolous. 

Having collective money and expenses means daft spending is difficult. I sure anyone in a partnership understands.

The polling station I work at is my polling station so I get to nose
on my neighbourhood.
You can have hours (15 in total) of fun perusing the electoral roll.

• Does she live with her? 
  
• Why haven't they registered? 
  
• If they all live together why does nobody have the same family name?
  

Plus you meet the same people once a year when they say "I didn't know you did this"
And put names and addresses to faces I see in the off-licence, at the bus stop, etc. 

Which I then instantly forget so that I can have the same fun next year.

Pip pip

Sent from my Polling Station