July 17, Reeth, two walks and sightseeing

 Two walks today because neither was long enough to satisfy.  We shall refer to them as Walk One and Walk Two.  Both had a big climb, but Walk One had a bigger climb than Walk Two and a very steep, unpleasant descent involving much scree.  Walk Two, on the other hand, started out very pretty, but, about half way through, had a right-of-way blocked off, which caused difficult rerouting through places a person should not have to venture.  Not fun.

It felt so good to be out of Newcastle!

Is this green, or what!

Not so green, but tasty anyway:

Hay has been made:

A bit hard to see, but a picnic table and benches built around the trunk of a tall tree:

On a hot day, if you happen to be there in the middle of nowhere, it would make a lovely spot for a picnic.

Way up on the ridge, big piles of rocks/stones.  If I really cared, I would try to find out what the story is.  It looks like it belongs in Newcastle.

The low moors (which are not so low, but lower than the high moors) before they are in flower:

But is this thistle not the most vibrant color?

Walk Number One, the end.

Walk Number Two started out very sweetly:

Such a wee gate!

Such a lovely garden:

No wonder no one was in the playground:

The River Swale

as seen from a suspension bridge:

The Swale has flooded many times causing very much damage, but today, as you can see, it was super low:

Un rabaño de ovejas (a flock of sheep):

You just have to click on that shot to enlarge it.  It will make all the difference!

With their shepherd following:

After Walk Two, a decision had to be made:  The ice cream parlour or the tea shop.  Mocha ice cream won out and I was not sorry for the choice!  Delicious!  Thus fortified, I went to see the local museum—by the way, in Reeth, everything is less than a city block from everything else. 

In a nutshell, the museum informed that this area used to be an important source for mining lead until it wasn't.

The most interesting object in the museum—which I could not identify among all the tchatchkes— was a "skirt lifter" patented in Canada in the 1890's for raising the hem of a skirt to avoid its being splashed with mud.  I wonder how much money that guy made on the patent.

Here is a partial list of mystery objects:

Who would have thought that a tool for fixing rubbers on a milking machine (#2) or a burnisher for cleaning and polishing metal (#7), inter alia, would be thus memorialized.

Then there was the Graculus Museum, which is a shop/workroom, where a man with a beard that had two long braided segments makes bizarre stuff out of metal.

On the door to the shop is this sign: 

I thought it was a joke and referred to pieces such as this:

But, no.  Joe, the crow, who is/was actually a rescue bird, lives and screeches in the shop.

Aside from metal and debris all over the place, enough for Alderman dow to be interested, you can imagine the bird poop that was also all over the place.

Back to the hotel, which is quite a nice hotel with unusual decor!