robertmitchell,SPAMnewsletter,APR,1 of 25, ferry to Bergen, Norway next Tuesday, nokkon wood
Sa12Apr08-10.00bst,Gateshead lby,cmpr22,Dell,Dell,Dell
attached photos
1 North bar at Beverley, rebuilt in brick in 1420
2 Humber Bridge
3 St Peter's anglo-saxon church at Barton on Humber
4 Paragon Square, Hull, Easter Sunday as the snow is beginning to melt. War Memorial to the Boer War in the foreground, and to The Great War (WWI) in the background.
5 The Tees river is in flood after some rain, as seen from the bridge near Croft, A68(?)
6 Snow in Upper Weardale
Hello kind reader,
Sorry for the slow answers to emails, the lack of comments on flickr, and the lack photos on flickr, blogger, and SPAMletters. I have had only minutes on the computer. I mean to do all these things sooner or later - later is more likely.
Th27Mar08-11.20gmt,York,internetcaff,ConeySt
Sleaford is a quiet small town in North Lincs. They have a handy Spar for shopping. The National Centre for Arts and Crafts and Navigation House. In the good old days of canals it had quite lot of trade on the river Slea. I left my book "The Cloudspotter's Guide" in the WC but not by mistake! I had registered it at Bookcrossing.com and I got an answer from someone who picked it up!
I walked into Scunthorpe steel town, on Good Friday. I walked by Corus, the steel works by mistake thinking I was at another roundabout. It's quite big and still working, A kind gent gave me a fiver and said make sure you get some food inside you! So I popped into Sarah's Diner for a 5-item Breakfast Special, pot of tea for one, and two toast - £3.99 and very nice.
I have become a murderer of slugs. They like to rest on my bags at night, but get trapped when I get up in the dark. Their emergency response is to put out some water, which unsticks them and lets them fall off wherever they are. That is OK most of the time but folded in my bags, it doesn't work. I find them drained when I unpack them for bed. I did the same for a small lizard near the Med some years ago, and it took about a week for me to find out where that funny smell was coming from!
M31Mar08-10.30bst,NorthAllerton lby,comp8,hp,NEC,hp
I have had bad luck with finding lby computers. I walked through Scunthorpe on Good Friday, Hull on Easter Sunday, and Beverley on Easter Monday. I found an internet caff in York, but yesterday I walked through Thirsk. But I have had good luck with roundabouts for kipping. North I found a big roundabout with a lot of planted trees. North of Beverley I found a roundabout with a small mixed wood - great! We need more trees! Every roundabout should be like that. But few are. Why is this?
Yesterday I walked through Thirsk. A busy small town with a big market square, it has two world famous sons, who had homes a few yards from each other in Kirkgate - Thomas Lord, born here in 1755, who set up Lord's cricket ground and James Alfred Wight, a vet from Sunderland aka James Herriott from Glasgow. I believe he was Honorary Life President of Sunderland FC. Thirsk is on the Cod Beck - Cold Brook - and after a rainy night it is in full spate and has flooded some of the fields nearby.
W2Apr08-09.40bst,Darlington library,computer 5,Dell,Dell,Dell
I walked into Darlington from the roundabout on the road from Northallerton. Darlington has a big market square, which feels open. There is a big parish church, St Cuthbert's, which looks like Victorian gothic to my untutored eye, but which Wikipedia says is Early English - 1250? I believe the monks who carried St Cuthbert's coffin when they were running from the Danes, stopped at Darlington, along with many other towns around here.
A few days ago I saw a tawny(?) owl in daylight, which is a first for me. It flew around hunting along the ditches on both sides of the road and we were together for a few minutes. I have never had more than a night-time glimpse of a dark shadow of an owl before so I wa quite pleased, though I have many times heard the hooting in woodlands.
Th3Apr08-11.30bst,Bishop Auckland,lby cmpr5,Dell,Dell,Dell
I kipped outside Darlington last night, on the roundabout at the A1(M). Today Bishop Auckland was the goal after a steady North West walk along A68. Shildon, just before Bishop Auckland was a shock. This is where Timothy Hackworth built the "Locomotion" the railway engine that pulled the first railway line built, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, 1825. It is called the "Cradle of the railway" but I only walked through here because it looked like a short cut to Bishop Auckland!
I have seen a lot of rookeries and I think I can tell the difference between the calls of the rook from the crow. I see nearly all crows in London, while the rooks are much more social with many big nests in the tops of trees and all making warnings about the odd thing that is walking below them. The nests are easy to see at this time of the year before the leaves are out (spring is a bit later up North!) and when they are busy working on their nests.
M7Apr08-10.40bst
The weather has been a bit cold over the last few days, while I have been walking up Weardale from Bishop Auckland along the A689. There was a snow shower on Saturday which lasted an hour, and some more in the night. I found a good spot to kip among some Scots pines in a gulley, that had not been cleared for sheep pasture. Getting up was rather a struggle with icy snow to be scraped off at 3 in the morning. There followed a lovely walk to Wearhead at the top. Then down back to the Scots pines last night and more snow!
I saw a dead stoat in the road, still in its white winter fur - ermine on the ermine road! Moles and mole hills are giving me grief. I keep scooping up a toeful of earth in my sandals. The spring is a little later up here. There are many daffs out but I would say about a quarter of the buds are unopened. The trees are bare but the blackthorn is showing the first colours of blossom as the buds begin to open. There are little tufts of leaves on the elder, larch and hawthorn buds.
F11Apr08-10.00bst,Gateshead lby,cmpr14,Dell,Dell,Dell
I reached Tyne and Wear on Wednesday. The weather is a bit warmer. On Wednesday evening I felt a bit tired, so I lay in my bags listening to a blackbird, each song newly made with a small screech at the end. Are blackbirds the best singers? The robin perhaps? Another? The thorny gorse has many bright yellow pea flowers, but they say kissing stops when the gorse is not in flower (old Hungarian proverb).
I went to Thomas Cook yesterday and booked a ferry to Bergen on Tuesday. All being well, I shall send April's SPAMnewsletter before I leave, and start afresh in Norway.
This morning I walked round Gateshead and took a few photos, of The Sage by the river which has fine architecture, of the Sydney Harbour bridge which has moved to Newcastle, and a nice glass etching work of art found in the bus station.
Sa12Apr08-10.00bst,Gateshead lby,cmpr22,Dell,Dell,Dell
More rain in the night! The good thing about rain is that there is no frost, and that there is lots of rainwater to drink. But, the good thing about frost is that there is no rain. All being well, God willing, nokkon wood, the next SPAMnewsletter for May should be from Norway, about five weeks from now.
Best wishes to all, Robert
flickr photos http://flickr.com/photos/the-reindeer
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posted by madelk at 4/12/2008 10:01:00 AM
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