Icy Cold Cragg Vale

Tuesday morning of this week William and I needed to drive over the tops to a furniture store in Mytholmroyd and I suggested we take a walk through Cragg Vale on the way.

It was a wee bit chilly to say the least but sporting appropriate clothing what did that matter?  Not one little bit.  Not one little bit to me anyway.  I love a walk on a cold, crisp day.

And this is how crisp it was.  Icy crisp!

We met four friendly little piggies along the way.  They stared at me and talked, well… snorted really, to me like we were old friends.  For quite some time too.  I found it very amusing.  Billy?  Not so much.

For some reason he’s nervous around animals and he feared for my safety when they started to climb the wall to get a closer look at me!   They just wanted some attention.  I think!

We continued on with our walk up through Cragg Vale to Withens Clough Reservoir.  All very bleak on days like this but worth the effort all the same.  Cragg Vale is a lovely place to go walking and from there you can climb even higher onto the the moors.  Not for us this time though.

Retracing our steps back down through the village now…

… via the church of St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness.

We’d had a good walk and a couple of hours fresh air and had worked up an appetite for lunch so it made sense to head for Hebden Bridge (after the furniture store) and satisfy the need for food.

After lunch we wandered around the streets of Hebden and ended up in one of the antiques shops.

Where this display caught my eye.

In particular this jolly little monk.  I love Hummel figures but it was the little monk who came home with me.  His little well is going to be filled with toothpicks so he’ll be useful as well as pretty.

Until next time,

A Sunday Stroll

I love to go a-wandering through our luscious green countryside and lucky for me I don’t have to go far from home to indulge myself.

Yesterday morning William worked outside the house on different jobs he needed to do. You know the weekend kind of things - washing the cars, tidying the garden, pointing some flags, that kind of stuff.  While I, after a very lazy start to the day, which included two cups of tea (brought to me by William) and reading my new Kindle in bed, caught up on some housework.

With all that done we decided to take advantage of the beautiful autumn weather and take a stroll through Cragg Vale.   In this picture we were still on our way uphill but Muffin had had enough and was doing that thing where he stops, turns round and hopes we’ll follow him back the way we’ve just come.  It doesn’t usually work for him and it didn’t yesterday either.  Poor old thing!

Only a ten or fifteen minute drive away from our doorstep, Cragg Vale is a peaceful Pennine valley.  Ideal for a Sunday stroll.

Autumn’s colours are beginning to show themselves.

This field of golden grass really pleased me as did the perfect dry stone wall.

We wandered happily up hill and down dale.

Unusual properties.  I presume in its heyday this was the lodge house to Cragg Hall.

Going back to the car now.  More of the up hill part of the walk passing this row of characterful weaver’s cottages.  I wondered what weaver’s cottages were doing here so I turned to Google.   It would seem that Cragg Vale was home to about a dozen cotton mills during the Industrial Revolution!  That fact amazes me.  I cannot imagine this beautiful, peaceful valley as a hive of industry.

On then to Hebden Bridge for a well earned tea break.

Where this young artist was doing his thing in the middle of the river

And doing it in bare feet!  That water had to be freezing!  Bonkers.  Don’t you agree?  Interesting sculptures though.  I don’t know how he made that little arch at the the bottom of the picture.

Kathleen.