Down to the river.

[bunn]

It's been about six months since I have walked down to the Tamar, as poor Az had made it rather clear that the path was really too steep and rocky for his poor wobbly old back legs. 

But today the weather was so lovely, and Az was bouncing about like a dog five years younger, so I decided we could risk going down to the river.  Everything is covered in celandines or wood anemones, or just pretty golden moss.   And Az made it all the way back up the hill afterwards AND he tried to go rushing over to bark at his nemesis, Molly the Collie when he got to the top.  I am now crossing fingers that he will not be suffering for it tomorrow.

Unusually, I did not take any photos of dogs.  I don't know what came over me.  Have a few photos of the valley instead.




As we returned along the steep and very narrow lane, which is flanked by stone walls for at least a mile before you get to the point where I took this photo, and is rarely more than about 8 feet across, I spied a sign, warning that the lane was... steep and narrow.   Out of sheer nosiness, I wish I had been walking along here when whatever Incident it was that led to the erection of this sign occurred.   I am hoping it might have been a jam that would trump even the Great Mattress Lorry Kerfuffle of a couple of years back.

Comments

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

At least you made it back. I made the mistake of Following the Apple Sign, and got hideously led astray in the wild wooded wilderness of the Tamar Valley, where the river and the vegetation cackled at me and tried to draw me to my doom, and there was no possible way out. I kept hoping for a shiny golden apple sign to lead me to my salvation, but, no, it was not meant to be. Sadder and (not)wiser I emerged many hours later... and proceeded to debate the toilet facilities on some alien spaceship, IIRC, so maybe I should just have stayed lost :-D

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Oh well, you don't want to go following *signs*. Signs is for grokels, and may be twirled or capriciously removed at any moment...

Incidentally, I've noticed a wrinkle on this traditional Westcountry attitude recently, which is to refer in directions to places using names that don't appear on any map, just in case vurriners might take advantage. . 'Go up past Big John's to the Lady Wood' - leaves you thinking, who on earth is Big John, and why does even the OS map have no information on the mysterious Lady Wood...? :-oo

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

We have that here, too, even in the official laminated notice that describes footpath detours caused by landslips. My last walk didn't involve Big John, but did include baffling references to "Little Jane's." Presumably they breed people smaller here. :-)

This sort of behaviour always reminds me of some long-ago Arthurian pilgrimage in Wales, where we were struggling to find some ancient site or other, and stopped to ask an elderly local. In a strong Welsh accent, he told us to "go up the Donkey Hill," and departed, leaving us non the wiser.