March winds

[shewhomust]

Last night the March winds blew desperance here, for the first time in - oh, too long. There was much catching up to be done, and we took our time and did it until late into the night (early into the morning) over food and drink and a box of the most extraordinary chocolates, our present from Berkeley, from Chocolatier Blue: they were shiny and multicoloured and (well, just look) almost, but not quite, entirely unlike chocolates. Some of the fillings were more successful than others: I enjoyed the key lime pie (the dark green one in the front row), but desperance was brave and tried the 'ants on a log' (is this a well known California delicacy?) which consisted of peanut butter, currants and celery, and reported that he could indeed taste all of those things, but still didn't see why you would want to.

This morning the three of us ganged up on the prize crossword; we haven't beaten it yet, but we're well on the way.

And this afternoon, after desperance had returned home to feed his starving cats, durham_rambler and I went out for a walk. After last night's exertions, I didn't feel like anything too demanding, so we settled for a walk there and back along a section of the C2C, the sea to sea cycle route.

We parked at Greencroft. At this point the cycleway does not follow the old railway, but runs through a patch of woodland down the middle of an industrial estate. This is pleasanter than it sounds, but in any case it isn't far to the main road, and from here the route runs along the edge of the valley, with wide open views - and wide open, on a day like today, to the wind which was rushing about madly in all directions, one minute throwing a handful of cold rain at us, the next ripping away the clouds to reveal bright, warm sunshine.

There's plenty to see, too, along this stretch of the route (More information about the sculptures), and we made a detour down to get a better view of the old lime kilns, and paused to take pictures of David Kemp's Old Transformers. We walked straight past the Andy Goldsworthy earthworks, and went to the Drovers for a break.

It was durham_rambler's inspiration that we should ask for a pot of tea - but it was pure luck that the giant television screen was taking a break from sport to show an old episode of The Simpsons - watching this over a cup of tea was curiously domestic.

Then back the way we had come, this time following the path into the centre of the maze before heading straight for the car and home.

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

The sculptures are wonderful! Easter Island on your doorstep.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Aren't they! Yes, that's it, exactly -