June 20 Grassington circular

 Before launching into the doings of the day, I would like to "share" two observations:

One:  It is a fact that after 12 noon, your backpack gets heavier.  This happens even though you have drunk (what an unpleasant sounding past participle) water and eaten snacks.  There is a direct correlation, as well, between the heat of the day and the extra weight of the pack.  

Two:  People (not all, but some) in this part of the country  have jettisoned a number of consonants of the English alphabet and replaced them with glottal stops or just have not replaced them at all.

The first few miles of today's excursion followed tomorrow's start of the Dale's Way and then turned sharply to the left to territory not to be visited again.  

Heading out of town at about 6:00 a.m., I passed by this Polishing Shop; of course it was closed.  Later in the afternoon I simply had to return to ask what a polishing shop was!  They polish and repair furniture is what they do!  It smelled great!!

The scenery was gorgeous:

Mr Dignified:

These walls are a reminder of a VERY BAD thing I did today.  It was behind such a wall (see photo just below) that I decided to pee.  Wouldn't you know that a tractor went by while I was in the midst and even though I thought I was well hidden, the big, bright-pink-shirted lady driver knew what I was up to.  She soundly rebuked me because I had, unwittingly, to be sure, selected a spot that was reserved for making hay.  "Make your wee by the side of the road," she instructed.  I apologized and she roared off, no doubt looking for other offenders of the country code!

I have been thinking a lot about dry wall construction.  First, where do all the stones come from...the ones in the photo below were well embedded in the ground and it would have been a huge job to dig them out.  And these walls require SO MANY stones, and how do they get them to fit. Chatgpt suggests that these queries be referred to Dry Stone Walling Association, and Yorkshire Dry Stone Walling Guild for starters.  You can also search videos of Dry Stone Walls on YouTube if you really get into it!

By and by I came to the spot requiring the left turn. The marking on the app was pointing to a crevice that screeched, "suicide leap."  Turns out there was a track fairly parallel to the leap into nowhere, so I started down that way.  Then I thought, "Maybe I missed something," so I turned back to see if there was not a nice grassy way to go that I had missed.  There was not, so off on the stony track I went.

The views were still spectacular:

These guys did not run away:

Later on, when the app said "Take the road," I saw a sign that said "Foot Path," which seemed to be pointing in the right direction, so I took that instead and was richly rewarded by fields of buttercups:

Along the river, people were enjoying the perfectly beautiful day:

One perfectly perfect rose:

Back in town, I purchased a slice of fruitcake, two apples, a slab of Wensleydale cheese—Alex, this is so not the grocery store variety AT ALL!  It is way more smooth and delicious—a lemon, and some walnuts and one chocolate bar (not too big) and now I am so worried about the weight of my bag.  I started out with about 37-38 pounds (it is all that granola!  I really better stop saving it) and the limit is 44 lbs.  (20 kilos).  I think I can get away with the extras, but you know, those ounces add up!