Spring Projects 2012

It's that glorious time of the year again when the days are getting longer, the sun is shining, birds are singing and things are hatching.

Time for a Crab to start hatching her Spring Projects.

Actually at this stage it is just the one project - to walk more of the Pennine Way. Over the years, I have walked on the Pennine Way a lot - but not in any logical sequence. Sometimes I walk north, sometimes I walk south, and the start of one walk is never where the last one left off.

So this year the plan is to walk it in one direction (north obviously, I'm not going all the way to Scotland then trying to find my way home. I have limits you know.) I don't know how far I'll get but I want to see the Pennine Way as a single entity, unfolding across the country.

I made a start last Sunday: Edale to Hadfield, via Kinder Scout and Bleaklow. Eighteen miles. Here's the profile - you'll need to click on the image to see it in all its glory.


From the very excellent Where's the Path? - possibly my favourite website of all time.

I can tell you, that last long descent was a bit of a knee-cruncher. The views were absolutely stunning though - late afternoon sun over the Longendale Valley.

The next leg of my Pennine Adventure may have to wait until Easter (other things to do before then) but I am really, really looking forward to it!

Happy Australia Day

pic from here

Happy New Year!

2012 has got of to rather a slow start for me - hence the late greeting.

Last week I had a bit more ear removed. I hope they don't have to whittle any more off or I am going to end up looking like this:


I mean the funny little ear - there's no reason to imagine I might turn green.

Anyway, that was a week ago, and today my bandages have started to work their way loose. I feel like this:


It really has not been a glamourous start to the year.

Harking back to last year - here is 2011 in review:

2,143 miles walked.
10 Hare & Hounds visited.

That's 214 miles it has taken me to get to each of those Hare & Hounds - which is something of a failure by anyone's standards.

Never mind. Today is Chinese New Year. Hurrah!
Time to start visiting Dragon-themed pubs.

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

It's been a party morning in the library today - and now I'm done for another year. Wishing you all the very best for Christmas and the New Year. xxx

2001

This isn't an allusion to the Space Odyssey or even to the name of this blog (which is, of course, a line taken from the film).

No. In this case, I am referring to the number of miles I have walked so far this year.

In the tradition of my blog, let's see where I would end up, had I walked those 2,001 miles in a direct line from my own front door.

Here!



Saratov.

(This is an Panoramio image taken from Google Maps, but unfortunately - and yet rather typically - Google Maps froze before I could get the name of the photographer. For which I apologise - but isn't it a nice photo?)

What do I know about Saratov? Almost nothing, except that it is a Russian city situated on the Volga, and that 2,001 miles from my house is this house.

By the time I get home tonight, I will have walked 2010 miles. But that's the sequel. Rather good, it was too, Helen Mirren was in it.

Got fur balls?

Then you can make cat crafts!



It is nearly two years since I opened my library blog, and at the time I imagined it would be full of book reviews and other posts of an erudite nature. Since then, however, I have spent a lot of time wandering about in the hills, visiting pubs and knitting woolly royals. Very little time has been devoted to anything of a bibliographic nature.

So, today I'm going to restore the gentle, bookish nature of my blog with this offering: Crafting with Cat Hair.

You can look inside it at Amazon.

Although at first this book might look, well, a bit bonkers, the advice seems sound. For example, under the heading of Supplies: I have a cat. What else do I need to craft with cat hair? Makes sense - presumably a cat, on its own, is not enough.

And, quite importantly: These crafts are not recommended for people with cat allergies.

There is a claim that "cats do not naturally produce any bad smells", which as someone who once shared a house with the very farty Milligan, I know to be not true - but I can't see that this would necessarily stop you producing any crafty objects with your cat.

At present I am busily knitting the Archangel Gabriel, so I won't be purchasing this book any time soon, but I would still recommend it to anyone who would like an indoors hobby for the winter months. Anyone who owns a cat, that is.

Hare & Hounds (9 & 10)

Not one but two Hare & Houndses yesterday!

Hare & Hounds (9)

This was the first one I've visited in Yorkshire. It is in Hebden Bridge, which involved a short but stiff walk up a hill to here:

(Photo by Humphrey Bolton, through Creative Commons.)

What a lovely friendly pub this is. I will be visiting it again, not least because I noticed they have a Sausage Saturday! Three locally sourced sausages every Saturday. That's got to be good. Outside the pub three handsome pigs were snuffling about happily.

I don't know if they've got anything to do with Sausage Saturday.

From there it was back down the hill, and then a lovely misty autumnal walk along the Rochdale Canal towpath to:

Hare & Hounds (10)

Todmorden.



Another warm and friendly pub. This photo is from its own website.

They were showing the Chelsea - Liverpool game on 3D telly. Two teams I couldn't give a rat's arse about, but seeing the other punters in their 3D specs added a rather nice retro touch to the occasion.

A top day out. In the evening I finished knitting the camel for my nativity scene, which only heightened my delight with the whole day.