The half term is over it is back to normal. I wondered whether I would be able to relate to the time spent off – I was pleasantly surprised.
As a family we spent some time with friends up north. An area where we as southerners are maligned and portrayed as southern softies! The phrase was not heard as much this time round as in previous times. Maybe we were recognised as being more hardened now – dare I ‘coin’ it as southern shellies (referring to our hard shells, although saying that we may hide away in our shells as a way of escape!).
That aside we spent some worthwhile time outside even if the weather at times was inclement and at one point just before our second walk threatened to stall the walk altogether – or was the youngest wrangling against wearing gloves, definitely going for the hardcore award, stalling it? Both in fact as it turned out. Ice, snow, sleet and rain came at us almost horizontally forcing us to take shelter momentarily in a spacious bus stop like shelter.
But lets back track more. Our first walk was to investigate Brockholes which is a nature reserve which is right next to Junction 31 of the M6 an unlikely place you may think but no, as it turned out there are a number of lakes and woodland areas which make up some of this site.
It was raining when we arrived by vehicle. The drive into the site was a little odd as we had to go back on ourselves making me think we had gone the wrong way. The website had stated that on entrance your car registration is scanned – an unnerving thought perhaps but this was to ensure that you paid your dues when you came to leave by entering your registration (hopefully you could remember it!) into the machine available. There was no sign of this mysterious scanner but we were clearly picked up as the machine obligingly informed us when coming to leave. All the money from the car park went back into the nature reserve.
The walk was a blustery wet one which did eventually ease off to allow for the kids to have a muck about in the play area – one literally did muck about and as yours truly had forgotten to pick his coat up on leaving the house so he borrowed his brothers who wasn’t happy about this the next day as that muck I referred too was more than a smattering it was a lathering from top to toe! This muck went right through to his skin. He had taken to climbing a mound – a muddy mound with the help of a stick and kept sliding back down said mound. Initially I think the idea had been to ascend it and stay at the top but when he realised that he could slide down it as well this increased the amount of ascents with with consequent descents! This action lasted around 15 minutes which was only a slither of the time it took to get the stuff off!
The grown-ups with me enjoyed the play area too taking turns on the facilities, joining in with the kids. I’m afraid I was aloof and was intrigued by what lay around me. I desperately wanted to go off and explore more but held back as I didn’t want to be rude. There was a whole area untouched by us, the lakes, the hides the river and other paths that went off into the distance. I would love to see this place again.
I did get to see a number of birds the best of which was a male Goosander which passed by flying in a north-westerly direction eventually settling just above the weir on the Ribble to dive presumably for food. There were keening cries from Oystercatcher and Redshank too, to name some of the other birds.
The second walk I referred to early was one I had keenly looked forward too and our hostess did a wonderful job of guiding us along it especially when the route had to be changed due to one of the paths being a concessionary footpath – she didn’t want to chance it.
We had some awesome views which my camera would not have brought out. The area was Pendle near Blackburn. The hill of the same name we skirted both in the car and on foot and had a dark rainy cloud hanging over it right down to the summit which is about 530m. Our route skirted another lesser hill but with spectacular views over Burnley and onwards towards the Pennines. The weather actually turned out well for us in the end.
Near the beginning of the walk we passed by one of the many small reservoirs which the area has and witnessed a large flock of starlings and crows take off with a few lapwings mixed in. A Snipe flushed out from under our feet as we climbed the hill tramping through the long tussocks. Later a buzzard soared below us up from a neighbouring valley. It was good to be out on such a day. The light wasn’t too bright but enough to draw out the features of the landscape. The child in question from earlier had soon forgotten about his gloves and the tantrum over them (he’d surreptitiously taken them off with his hands in his pockets whilst walking along, but later put them back on again!)