Stanage

Yesterday afternoon, I drove over to Stanage Edge. Leaving Butch parked up by a road called The Dale at the southern end of the escarpment, I then walked three miles north to  the triangulation pillar at High Neb. As per normal, a lot of the walk was squiggly and up and down as I negotiated puddles and ancient stone slabs.

It was bitterly cold with the prevailing winter wind buffeting from the south west. I was wearing my orange "Mammot" coat with a hood and I was also glad that I had remembered my woolly fingerless gloves. For me, fingerless gloves are best because they allow me to operate my camera properly.

I watched a kestrel expertly hovering on the wind above the rocks. Intermittently, the bird plunged down with its wings tucked in. It was clearly on the look out for prey but I do not know exactly what it was after. Perhaps a weasel or a resting songbird.  Nearby eleven sheep were half-hidden in the heather as they sought nourishment
At this latitude in mid-winter, the veil of night descends before five o'clock. After a well-deserved rest at High Neb, I realised that I would have to quick march it back to The Dale as the golden orb was already sinking behind the Pennine hills and sure enough by the time I pressed the button on my car key there were only a couple of minutes of murky daylight left.

It was completely dark when I walked into "The Norfolk Arms" at Ringinglow where I ordered a latte and a glass of tap water. Stupidly, I left my car keys on the bar and by the time I had confirmed this one of the barmaids had already phoned Shirley about the discovery. You see, on my keyring I have my name and phone number - something that I would highly recommend to all car owners - just in case.

Some of you may recall that I am currently brewing a poem called "Stanage Edge" and on yesterday's walk some related words came  into my head  - "buttress", "ramparts", "wild" and "defiant" for example. I will mull them over in case, in a poetic sense, they have some purchase.
The triangulation pillar at High Neb


from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/QRFN9YG

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