A Frozed Up Angle Tarn |
So yesterday evening I says to Hyperdog Moss “Where do you
fancy going for walkies tomorrow?” and he just looks at me and wags his tail a
bit, so I says “Come on help me out here, we have the whole of the Lake
District or the North Pennines to choose from", but he just wags his tail a bit
more and walks off and brings back Bill. Bill is one of his toys. It’s a sort
of knobbly green rubber thing. Actually, there is no ‘sort of’ about it, it is a
knobbly green rubber thing. I then had to throw Bill for him to catch for the next three hours and that was the end of that conversation.
So I had to choose. The day being claggy and generally yucky
we decided not to drive too far and to stay relatively low, so we walked from Patterdale
to Angle Tarn via Boredale Hause, as you do, it being the obvious way to go.
There was a lot more snow than this but that was until Hyperdog ate most of it |
The sun looked like it was coming out as we headed through
Side Farm, but that was a trick it was playing on us, because the clag soon
came back, along with intermittent snow showers. Most of the snow had gone below the Hause, but
there was some left above that, and a few icy stretches on the path, but nothing difficult
that couldn’t be avoided so the spikes stayed in the pack. This lack of snow didn’t
stop Hyperdog suddenly and inexplicably flying sideways off a grassy bank into
a big drift, and not yet being an expert with snow he decided the best way to
get out of the drift was to eat the snow which wasn’t very effective but he
seemed to enjoy it. When we got to the
Tarn he also decided to test out the ice but I shrieked at him and he came back
sheepish like and sheep dog like ie slinking like he was about to round me up. I explained the dangers to him but he just
looked bored. Teenagers never take it in when you tell them of the dangers of
whatever it is that you are telling them is dangerous but they usually learn eventually.
And then we went back down again. As it was brightening up a bit, and we hadn’t
gone too far when we were almost back in the valley, we took the higher path
above Side Cottage and Side Farm that runs parallel to Ullswater and went over and
down to Silver Bay and watched a group of youngsters having fun in a large
rowing boat from the Outward Bound School on the other shore. And that was it really, apart from my cunning
trick of enticing Hyperdog in to the lake down in Glenridding by throwing a
stick in for him to chase. He thinks
this is a game but it is really to get the mud off him and what he doesn’t know
can’t hurt him as I always say.
Outward Bound - but not to Henley Royal Regatta any time soon |
Ullswater, Glenridding, Sheffield Pike, Birkhouse Moor etc |
What is it with dogs and snow? Mine hates cold, detests wet and goes into delirious raptures at the sight of the white stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your walk :}
They are all the same. Never seen a dog ot go wild in the white stuff. Whereas these days I just think "a few more weeks and it will be spring, thank goodness".
DeletePerhaps Moss, being descended from an ancient farming breed, just can't get used to hearing the Queens English. If you developed a pronounced Lakeland twang it may do the trick. You need to sound more like Joss Naylor.
ReplyDeleteLakeland twang? I will try that on Moss but he seems to prefer a whistle.
ReplyDeleteThere's an interesting clamber up the gill which comes up directly below Angle Tarn - I suppose it will be Angle Tarn Gill.
ReplyDeleteI think it's Angle Tarn Beck, Carol - but I've not done that. I am happy to go up the easy way!
DeleteJust catching up with your blog sir.
ReplyDeleteLove Angle Tarn.
Interesting it was rather frozen when I was there in Feb too.
Indeed, you can never have too many pictures of the Tarn.
Actually, you can never have too many pictures of the Lake District.
"You can't have too many pictures of the Lake District"? Tell that to my hard drive, please !
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