To Looe (but not skipping)
When we arrived in Looe last week, it was freezing cold with a steely grey sky. I was pleased I'd resolved to walk in the woods rather than along the coast.
There are Three Trails of Kilminorth Woods, short, medium and long. We chose the medium path, and set off enthusiastically along the river. We kept meeting egrets, but they were all just a bit too far away to photograph. I photographed the hounds haring about instead. Az and Brythen are getting on pretty well now and enjoying being Lurcher Lads together - though one is quite definitely quicker than the other. Not surprising really - Az is at least 13, possibly older, and I'm really doubtful whether Bryth is even 3 years old. I think he may be younger.
Or, we thought we had chosen the Middle Way... As it happened, a sign was missing, so we ended up doing the long walk after all. The long walk was only 3 3/4 miles though, so not too daunting. We only realised we had missed a sign when we got to the watergate :
I seem to have failed to take a photo of the stepping stones at the watergate, which were intriguingly marked. Each one had a human footprint pushed into the cement, apart from one step right in the middle which had a hoofprint. I feel there must be a myth there somewhere.
We scaled the steep bank up from the watergate - and then the sun came out. Suddenly the walk seemed much cheerier. And warmer.
On the way back, we walked along the Giant's Hedge. The name of the giant is lost in history, but we found a confident-seeming sign which told us that the Hedge is 9 miles long, and probably dates to around the sixth century. This seems a strangely precise guess. I wonder what, if anything, it is based on...
I had intended to leave the hounds to snooze off their walk in the car, as Az has for many years been very fearful of towns. But it was so warm and sunny by then that it seemed too hot to leave them in the car, so we thought we'd try walking into town and see how it went.
And it went really well! Az has been slowly getting over most of his fears as the years pass, and it seems that his fear of towns is one more that he's finally got over. Or perhaps all the walking had tired him out enough that being stressed seemed like too much work.
Looe: not the most daunting-looking of towns. Looe doesn't have very much flat, so the flat land near the river is crammed with narrow medieval streets.
We went past the beach, but it is dog-unfriendly. It was completely empty...
After a certain amount of indecision, we went to a creperie - Larssons - which was also completely empty, and clearly felt that customers with hounds were better than no customers at all. Well, it was a midweek afternoon in March, I suppose. It was staffed by a very laid back gentleman who I can only describe as a crepe-artist. This photo doesn't really do justice to the elegant slicing of the apple or the delicacy of the crepe. The icecream was pretty good too.
The fishing boats along the river were flying Cornish flags.
The tide was out. You can see how short Looe is of flatness here. As in much of Cornwall, the flat bits that are not actually underwater at high tide were all taken early, and everyone else had to just build on whatever hilly bit they could flatten out enough to put a building on.
On the way back, an egret FINALLY appeared in a location where my zoom lense could actually see it properly! Hurray! Egrets are such glamorous birds. They don't look very English. So elegant! So sophisticated! You wonder what they are doing in Looe really.
There is a heronry on the East bank of the river. I took several photos of the herons, but herons seem to have an amazing ability - no matter how many photos you take of them, they always end up looking quite weirdly shaped and improbable.. Not like egrets at all.
It was my birthday, and I'd made myself a cake. It was a ginger cake, studded with crystalised ginger and covered in cinnamon icing. I don't know why you don't see cinnamon icing more often. I love it!
Philmophlegm got some candles for my cake to wear. I suspect he was motivated by wanting me to remember how old I am for once - I can never remember my age. After all, you no sooner get used to being one age, when you go and get older. It makes it awfully hard to remember. But anyway, this is how old I am now, recorded officially By Cake.
My mother gave me a blue hat. I already have several hats, but I kind of think that hats are one thing that you can never have too many of. And I didn't have a *blue* hat. Here is me in my blue hat, being cuddled by hounds. Bryth is doing that because he likes it, I'm not really throttling him, honest!
There are Three Trails of Kilminorth Woods, short, medium and long. We chose the medium path, and set off enthusiastically along the river. We kept meeting egrets, but they were all just a bit too far away to photograph. I photographed the hounds haring about instead. Az and Brythen are getting on pretty well now and enjoying being Lurcher Lads together - though one is quite definitely quicker than the other. Not surprising really - Az is at least 13, possibly older, and I'm really doubtful whether Bryth is even 3 years old. I think he may be younger.
Or, we thought we had chosen the Middle Way... As it happened, a sign was missing, so we ended up doing the long walk after all. The long walk was only 3 3/4 miles though, so not too daunting. We only realised we had missed a sign when we got to the watergate :
I seem to have failed to take a photo of the stepping stones at the watergate, which were intriguingly marked. Each one had a human footprint pushed into the cement, apart from one step right in the middle which had a hoofprint. I feel there must be a myth there somewhere.
We scaled the steep bank up from the watergate - and then the sun came out. Suddenly the walk seemed much cheerier. And warmer.
On the way back, we walked along the Giant's Hedge. The name of the giant is lost in history, but we found a confident-seeming sign which told us that the Hedge is 9 miles long, and probably dates to around the sixth century. This seems a strangely precise guess. I wonder what, if anything, it is based on...
I had intended to leave the hounds to snooze off their walk in the car, as Az has for many years been very fearful of towns. But it was so warm and sunny by then that it seemed too hot to leave them in the car, so we thought we'd try walking into town and see how it went.
And it went really well! Az has been slowly getting over most of his fears as the years pass, and it seems that his fear of towns is one more that he's finally got over. Or perhaps all the walking had tired him out enough that being stressed seemed like too much work.
Looe: not the most daunting-looking of towns. Looe doesn't have very much flat, so the flat land near the river is crammed with narrow medieval streets.
We went past the beach, but it is dog-unfriendly. It was completely empty...
After a certain amount of indecision, we went to a creperie - Larssons - which was also completely empty, and clearly felt that customers with hounds were better than no customers at all. Well, it was a midweek afternoon in March, I suppose. It was staffed by a very laid back gentleman who I can only describe as a crepe-artist. This photo doesn't really do justice to the elegant slicing of the apple or the delicacy of the crepe. The icecream was pretty good too.
The fishing boats along the river were flying Cornish flags.
The tide was out. You can see how short Looe is of flatness here. As in much of Cornwall, the flat bits that are not actually underwater at high tide were all taken early, and everyone else had to just build on whatever hilly bit they could flatten out enough to put a building on.
On the way back, an egret FINALLY appeared in a location where my zoom lense could actually see it properly! Hurray! Egrets are such glamorous birds. They don't look very English. So elegant! So sophisticated! You wonder what they are doing in Looe really.
There is a heronry on the East bank of the river. I took several photos of the herons, but herons seem to have an amazing ability - no matter how many photos you take of them, they always end up looking quite weirdly shaped and improbable.. Not like egrets at all.
It was my birthday, and I'd made myself a cake. It was a ginger cake, studded with crystalised ginger and covered in cinnamon icing. I don't know why you don't see cinnamon icing more often. I love it!
Philmophlegm got some candles for my cake to wear. I suspect he was motivated by wanting me to remember how old I am for once - I can never remember my age. After all, you no sooner get used to being one age, when you go and get older. It makes it awfully hard to remember. But anyway, this is how old I am now, recorded officially By Cake.
My mother gave me a blue hat. I already have several hats, but I kind of think that hats are one thing that you can never have too many of. And I didn't have a *blue* hat. Here is me in my blue hat, being cuddled by hounds. Bryth is doing that because he likes it, I'm not really throttling him, honest!