Tag: walk

Lovely weekend in Lancaster

Lancaster is technically still a Port even though the river silted up over a century ago, the lovely 18th century Quay side with its bonded warehouses and handsome Georgian Customs House has not seen a ship since the days of sail.

(16.02.2013) Saturday arrived bathed in sunshine, after a cold wet winter it was a God given day of clear blue sky and crystal clear air that gave a hope of spring. After an early appointment at the hairdresser’s to get my grey as a Badger roots covered, my Dearest and I drove to Morecambe, a nearby seaside Town so that we could walk on the promenade in the sunshine. Typical then that as we arrived hazy cloud appeared and the sun struggled a little but continued to do it’s best to warm the day.

Dingy old Dinghy

We came across this sad old dinghy filled with rainwater and beach pebbles to prevent it blowing away in the winter storms, and wondered how long it had sat there disused and forgotten, filled with water rather than bobbing about on it. The LR on the side of the boat indicates that the boat or more likely the larger boat, for which this was the tender, is registered by the Port of Lancaster authorities.
The Georgian Customs hHouse Lancaster

Lancaster is technically still a Port even though the river silted up over a century ago, the lovely 18th century Quay side with its bonded warehouses and handsome Georgian Customs House has not seen a ship since the days of sail.

The Port of Lancaster is now situated further down the river estuary at a tiny village called Glasson, Glasson Dock used to have a dry dock for ship repairs, which was filled in and built over in the late 60’s, I can just about remember it.

tide gates closed
tide gates closed

The dock itself is tidal, and has great tidal gates which are opened only when the tide is high to let vessels in or out, and then closed to hold the water in the dock as the tide drops. At the landward side of the dock is another lock gate which allows smaller vessels into the marina and from there by another lock gate onto a spur of the Lancaster canal.

tide gates open
tide gates open

Sunday dawned another beautiful sunny day, cold but bright, we went with the 16 year old to Glasson Dock in hope of the opportunity to take some photographs, but there was little that captured our eyes or imagination, and the warm fireside beckoned.
Today was another day like Saturday, mild, sunny not a breath of wind, three days sunshine in a row, in February, how lucky is that? So this time we walked the river path on an old railway track long since decommissioned from Conder Green to Stodday and back, the route shared with cyclists, dog walkers and Mums with young children on foot, bike and scooter, just enjoying unseasonable sunshine.
The Lune estuary, with Glasson in the distance

From the river path we could see Glasson Dock on the horizon. My lovely day was marred by nagging worries about things I needed to achieve at work, which were not being progressed in my absence, how silly!
Note to self, stop worrying about all the things which are not getting done, and enjoy the thing you are doing.

Indian Summer

I found old and broken heating grills in the derelict greenhouse which would make interesting quilting designs, and an old rusting metal chair with an anthemion design, simplified but nevertheless a potential quilting design.

Just as the Summer was turning into Autumn, and in search of some Autumn colour we went one Sunday for a country drive to an out of the way little teashop we know. The Apple Store is set in a lovely spot on the edge of the Trough of Bowland, an area of outstanding natural beauty, on a country estate. It’s a great place for walkers, and I love it for its trees and the fact that I can sit in the garden of a grand house to enjoy my tea under a huge Ginko tree which must be over a hundred years old. The business is new and a work in progress, the owners are doing up the facilities incrementally as resources allow.

 

Whilst waiting for my tea to be delivered I was free to wander about with my camera, as further evidence that you can find inspiration for quilting everywhere, I found old and broken heating grills in the derelict greenhouse which would make interesting quilting designs, and an old rusting metal chair with an anthemion design, simplified but nevertheless a potential quilting design.

 

 

After tea and cake we walked up the hill towards open moorland and along a road that was wick with young game birds, marvelling at the damage to the roads that flooding had done this summer, and wondering if we will ever see again summers like the long hot summer of 1976.