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BB2307
: Get Me To The ..... On Time
Thursday
2nd March 2023
Dum
dedi dumdi dumdi dumdah
Dum dum didumdi
dumdi dah
What
was Tony humming? And why?
We were
sat in the cafe in the Lakeland Motor Museum.
Twelve hours earlier, we would not have
expected to be there. No, we would
be climbing Stoney Cove Pike.
However
the prospect of low cloud, 40 mph gusts
of wind and a "feels like" temperature
forecast to be -7°
gave rise to an uncommon phenomenon- an
outbreak of common sense. A radically
revised agenda was quickly concocted and confirmed
over coffee in the cafe. How about
that for alliteration?
The
aim was simple. Walk along to Finsthwaite,
climb to High Dam, find a way through to
Boretree Tarn then return to the cars in
the Museum car park.
All
seemed to be going to plan. We crossed
the River Leven by a footbridge I don't
remember having previously seen then turned
north through the hamlet, alongside the
Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway. Were
any trains running today? We didn't
see any.
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Just
before the Newby Bridge Halt we turned left
and up through the woods. On the other
side of Wintering Park we emerged into a
long clearing. Framed between the
trees in the far distance was our erstwhile
destination and in the near distance our
intended lunch stop, Finsthwaite Church.
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Tony
started humming again. "What
is that tune?" we asked, risking
the possibility that he might actually start
singing. He did. Two lines of
"dum-di-dum...." and then "Girls come and
kiss me". We looked at him strangely.
Another "dum-di-dum..." and then the clincher.
"Get me to the Church on time".
We understood.
Despite
not long since having had refreshment, he
still made his customary demand to stop
at noon for lunch, or refuelling as he terms
it. "Don't worry, Tony,"
I told him. I have it all worked out.
We will get you to the church
on time. And we did. It was
bang on midday as Tony stood outside St
Peter's Church
yard and here is the proof:
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It
is a very distinctive and interesting church.
Some of its features were covered
in BB1833.
Hopefully
the Rector is now better informed, assuming
he is still there.
One
person presumably still there is Clementina Johannes Sobiesky Douglas,
allegedly Bonnie Prince Charlie's illegitimate
daughter. Hers is an interesting story.
See The
Three Clementines.
As
per last time, the porch presented the ideal
eating place.
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Next
stop, High Dam. At its car park was
something I don't recall seeing before.
It's a 3D representaion of the area mounted
on a bobbin and circled by poetic explanation.
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This is the water,
that turns
the wheel,
that spins the lathe, that shapes the wood,
to make the bobbin,
to
wind the thread,
that wove the wealth
of Lancashire.
These are the trees, that cut by men,
will
sprout again, to feed Stott Mill,
to make the bobbins, to earn the pay,
that
fed the folk
of Finsthwaite.
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A familiar track took
us up alongside the stream and past the
small Low Dam Tarn.....
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.....
to reach its big brother.
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Had we realised we might have time
pressures, we could have just turned left
but we chose instead to walk all the way
round before heading southeast across Finsthwaite
Heights. There are paths running in
all sorts of directions but we managed to
keep a straight line, more or less, to emerge
eventually where we wanted, Boretree Tarn,
where we were greeted by several cormorants
sunning themselves on a floating platform.
They didn't seem to like visitors
and immediately flew off.
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Finding
a way round the tarn was a bit more of a
challenge but eventually we picked up a
well used trail with white marker posts.
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These we followed for what seemed
an awfully long descent. I don't know
why it seemed so long as we were only 700
feet above sea level but it did.
When
we reached the road a thought struck us.
Time had slipped away badly. We
were still about two miles from the Museum,
which closed at four following which the
car park gates would be shut Time
was tight.
Tony started singing again.
"For Pete's sake, get me to the
car on time". We agreed. None
of us wanted to be faced with the dilemma
of how to get back home. Actually,
we didn't quite agree, we turned the words
round to "Get the car to Tony on time".
Robin, Mike B and I shot off as fast
as our legs could carry us and reached the
car park just about bang on four o'clock.
Robin and Mike headed off to the Derby
Arms. I jumped into Tony's car to
go and pick him up. Then nearly
crashed it. I discovered I couldn't
work his brakes with my boots on so I had
to stop then drive on in my stocking feet.
Tony
told me later that he has the same problem
even with his normal shoes.
As
it turned out, he and TV Mike had made much
better progress than I had expected and
were nearly back at the footbridge. Had
I lingered to put on my shoes, the likelihood
is that they would have crossed the bridge
at the same time as I was crossing the road
bridge further down the road. They
would have reached the car park and it wouldn't
have mattered if it was open or closed.
His car wouldn't have been there-
it would have been on its way back to Boretree
Tarn.
Anyway,
that didn't happen. We met up and
set off to meet the others at the Derby
Arms. Tony started singing again.
Same tune. Line changed to "Get
me to the pub on time". I am
not sure if he meant closing time or in
time to catch Robin buying the beers. Anyway,
the former was not at risk and the latter
was achieved.
We did get him to the
beers on time.
Don,
Thursday 1st March 2023
Thanks to Tony,
Mike & Mike for photos
PS
Can anyone identify the flag shown flying
in the second picture in the right hand
column?
Comitibus:.jpg)
Mike
B, Tony, TV Mike, Robin, Don
BB2306
: Where You Lead..... RESULTS
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Thanks
to all who responded to last week's Carole
King songs competition. It proved
quite a challenge but two entires
were particulaly impressive
Kirstie
from Inverness identified many of the
song titles within the report. However
she was beaten by Helen from Kendal who
spotted 23.
That's not quite the full total but
not far off. If you want to see the
report again, this time with the songs highlighted,
click on Results.
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