Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Full Steam Ahead
by admin - 21:49 on 21 July 2010
(Diesel, to be honest, but steam sounds better.)
At last – for the first time since we left The Rural Retreat we've enjoyed a day without rain. And by the afternoon there were decent amounts of blue sky too. Let's hope it lasts.
Agent Cooper travelled no further than Settle railway station where Matchgirl and I joined the holidaying hordes – a notably grey-haired bunch – for a ride on the Settle-Carlisle line through rugged Pennine scenery scored by dry stone walls and dotted with dour grey farm buildings. The Cotswolds it's not.
Our destination was Appleby, former county town of Westmorland, now part of Cumbria. It's a quiet place (apart from when the Horse Fair takes it over every June) and brighter than towns we've seen in recent days because its stone is leavened by brick and painted frontages.
We fancied a look at the castle but the gates were chained shut; a weathered notice left on them six years ago by its private owners blamed English Heritage which had overruled their renovation plans. They'd obviously sulked ever since.
So we walked around the boundary of the grounds before lunching at The Bay Tree – an arty café where we were able to sit outside, above the River Eden, and watch the ducks cavort. Very restful. After that we'd time for a stroll along the riverside before returning to the station. A pleasant day...
...And not even spoiled by the signal failure that kept us waiting outside Horton station for twenty minutes. The spirit of British Rail lives on.
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