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.

The Secret Life of Cows

by admin - 23:30 on 24 July 2010

All good things come to an end. Today was our last full day in the Yorkshire Dales (and the third dry one) so I put my new walking trousers and special high-impact socks to good use and joined Matchgirl on a healthy yomp through the scenery.

Our seven-mile circular route started in Settle and took in Langcliffe, Catrigg Force and caves around Attermire Scar – some proper hill-walking, and we only got lost twice. That's why a trembling Matchgirl (the navigator) had to walk through the same field of cows three times.

Cows can't be trusted, she says. Turn your back and they'll sneak up and trample you, just for fun. They tiptoe, too. Or maybe tiphoof. They're always plotting something, the beasts.

We emerged from the bovine throng unharmed, although the effort was wasted. Catrigg Force (a waterfall) was in an attractive spot but despite the recent downpours seemed a spent force, being more of a trickle. The shrieking six-year-old being dragged along by his mum was clearly disappointed. This hill-walking lark wasn't all he'd been promised.

I enjoyed my walk, although Matchgirl looked longingly at some of the higher ground I chose not to traverse. I'll have to work up to that – there'll be plenty of opportunity back in the Highlands.

Less distance was travelled yesterday. We stayed in Giggleswick to entertain my mother (good to see you) with lunch and a wander around the sun-bathed village. It's dominated by Giggleswick School: a venerable boarding school, spread over a huge campus, that looks like Cambridge in miniature. Add a couple of towers and a quidditch pitch and it could be Hogwarts.

From one of the classrooms could be heard a drone that Mum, who suffered in her youth, reckoned was Latin being learned. To me it sounded more like a cult chant. Giggleswick could hide a terrible secret...

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