Thursday, October 25, 2018

Douthwaite Dale amble

I decided to go for a walk yesterday, so heading off for Hutton-le-Hole, I went down a favourite spot, an old timber trackway.  One thing I noticed on the area round the village, was the number of people along the road.  Walkers, cyclists and motorbikes splayed out in the narrow lane stopped me from parking and taking photos.  
Back to the walk.  Kept to the track with Lucy whose front feet bleed on rough ground unfortunately.
The photos show the picture I was trying to paint yesterday.  Firstly you see the Forestry Commision plantings often edged with our native trees to hide the industrial nature of the planting.  The edge was lined with the customary number of pheasants and overhead a buzzard sailed on the wind.







It is a long steep walk to the bottom, and we turned back before then but I notice on the map that by driving through Hutton-Le-Hole you can pick up another footpath to Barmoor and an 18th century house that is mentioned in the historic record which must be somewhere below.

I have been up since 5 this morning because of Lucy and so sat down and watched Simon Reeves in the Mediterranean and Sam? Willis on the Silk Road, both on Iplayer.  What struck me as Reeves waltzed through, Sicily, Lebanon, Libya and Palestine, was the stoical braveness of the people.  There was this woman in Palestine running a small factory making bricks to build houses from just coal dust and wood ash.  The Israelis only allow 4 hours of electricity a day to the Palestinians, but Reeves says he feels sorry for both sides of the divide.  When you look at the destruction on this side of the world it is perhaps better to not get petty about what goes on in this country, and to applaud the dignity of people whose lives are completely destroyed by war.

Some other info on the Dale


6 comments:

  1. Lovely sountryside Thelma.
    I am hooked on the Mediterranean programme too - the 6 mile limit for Palestinians fishing in an empty sea and being fired on by Israelis if they overstep the boundary is appalling. As Simon Reeve says - two countries who have suffered so much and yet they drift further apart not nearer together.

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    1. It has been going on for ever this conflict and yet there is no answer, except the incursion by the Israelis on Palestinian land. Religion has a lot to answer for it seems to me.

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  2. I keep meaning to watch the Simon Reeve series. Will do so now. He's an excellent presenter.
    Arilx

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    1. He is very sympathetic to all he interviews, it is a fascinating programme given that history practically started from the Mediterranean shores.

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  3. For much of my life I walked--neighborhood back roads, farm tracks, meandering paths through woods, never thinking I could be in any kind of danger.
    There seem to be few safe places left for a solitary stroll, at least for women of any age. Here, in this new spot, at least the walk up to the mailbox and back gives me about a half mile of exercise.

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  4. Hi Sharon, Well my bodyguard walking these days, is a deaf old spaniel, not my sprightly Moss who would defend me. The walk above is very quiet, but there is a cottage I go by which looks empty though I think someone lives in a trailer close by. Whoever it was was burning wood anyway. I have never been scared walking on my own, though woods when something rustles through them can put you on the alert.

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