Skipton Tuesday

Last week, I took myself over to Skipton to see my friend Lucy of Attic24.  It ended up being a bit of an impromptu visit – one of those where we compared calendars and the conversation went along the lines of “Flipping heck, I seem to be busy throughout all of November … what are you doing tomorrow?”  So, “tomorrow” it was, and I left a gloomy, grey Winwick for a slightly less gloomy and grey Skipton – although not much.  There was low cloud over the moors as I drove over, and there’s a point at the top of one the hills where you can see down into Skipton and all I could see was the chimney of one of the old mills that is now a block of apartments.  Gloomy and grey indeed – and the best sort of day to be brightened up by spending it with a friend.

After a late breakfast at one of the cafes (something we always do and I look forward to very much), Lucy and I set off for a walk around Skipton and the woods.  We walked up through the town and then turned off the main footpath onto the canal towpath. The canal runs right through Skipton and in some places, it’s as obvious to see and get to as the roadside footpaths, but in other places it always surprises me that we are walking along and then Lucy will point us off the path and there we are, next to the canal and we could be somewhere else.  I should be used to it by now as we’ve walked these paths many times together, but I would still miss it every time.  I’m probably too busy talking!

Here’s a blogger in her natural habitat next to the canal boats.  Lucy’s next CAL (crochet along – something she does every January on her blog) is themed on the canal boats that travel the waterways close to her home, so it felt like the obvious thing to do to take a photo of her whilst we were passing them.  These ones looked shut up for the winter but there are other boats on the canal that are lived in all year round, and as you pass them at this time of year, there’s smoke coming out of their little chimneys and a cosy smell of wood on log burners.

It wasn’t particularly cold on this Tuesday, though, and it was very still so the reflections on the water were fabulous.  It’s like an upside down world in the water!

I love this little curved bridge.  I’ve got a thing for stone that curves and any engineer will tell you that an arch is the strongest form of bridge.  This one is just big enough to walk through without having to crouch too low (fortunately, neither of us are that tall), and I like that this calm path goes right under the busy main road which runs across the top.  This isn’t the main branch of the canal so there aren’t many boats up at this end and water is as smooth as glass.

As we keep walking on this path, it brings us up into the woods behind Skipton Castle.  The last time I went there was when I was expecting big daughter – my husband and I were in Yorkshire for the weekend and found ourselves in Skipton, so we decided to go into the castle.  The lady at the ticket office nearly didn’t want to let me in with a large bump, but we persuaded her that I wouldn’t do anything daft on the narrow stone staircases and we got to look around.  That was such a long time ago now!  I can remember looking out of one of the stone windows down the High Street and thinking what a nice town it looked – I certainly never thought I would spend so much time here in the future!

Despite the grey and the gloom, it hasn’t actually rained that much in recent weeks.  The water rushing down over the stones looked dark and cold – and always like a pint of Guinness in this part of the world! 🙂

The autumn leaves are definitely on full show now, and the trees in the woods did not disappoint.

I like this point where we’ve climbed up and up and you can see the sheep over the wall.

These woods are looked after by the Woodland Trust, the largest woodland conservation charity in the UK, and its aims are to protect ancient woodland, to promote the restoration of damaged ancient woodland, and to plant native trees and woods.  My parents were volunteers at the Woodland Trust woods where I grew up and they would spend weekends helping to maintain the trees and the woodland areas.

Another blogger spotted out in the wild!

Our footsteps took us back into Skipton town and it was time for a cup of tea and GINORMOUS scone.  We’d already decided to share and when the plate arrived laden with scone, jam, cream and butter, I was very glad we had because that scone was nearly bigger than my head! 🙂

I’m not quite sure why, but I do enjoy sharing a piece of cake.  I’m not so keen to hand over the rest of my meals to anyone else, but cake is very sociable when it comes to sharing, I think, and we cut that giant scone in half and thoroughly enjoyed it with allll the cream and jam and our pot of tea.

That’s a giant tea bag hanging out of the teapot, by the way (giant scone, giant teabag … there was a theme!); it was loose leaf tea in a bag which saves washing up (not so small daughter’s least favourite job when she worked in a cafe was washing the tea leaves out of the pots) and also saves using more tea bags in a pot for more than one person.  It’s a good idea!

I do love my Skipton days.  Lucy and I chat non-stop – yes, about yarny things, but also about life in general; the weather, our families, food (Lucy’s quite the foodie, she knows plenty about healthy eating and we always have interesting conversations about it); all sorts of things, in fact.  After our scone, we took ourselves down to a local hotel which has a large bar area where we can sit and knit and crochet with a drink.  It makes a change from a cafe and it’s quieter too, so we can continue our conversations – we never run out of things to talk about!

We watched the gloomy day grow gradually darker through the window, and knew that our day together was nearly over.  Next month when I go up to Skipton, it’ll be dark by the time I drive home – but the month after, the clocks will have changed again and it will be lighter.  It seems to make the time go faster when you think about it like that, doesn’t it, and I always try not to wish my days away – but goodness, it does seem to be dark all of a sudden these days!  It’s completely messing with the dog’s head and he thinks it’s supper time at about 7pm, immediately followed by his bedtime treat biscuits … he sits and stares at me for hours, willing me to get up and go into the kitchen so that he can get what he wants far too early!  Still, only a few more weeks and then hopefully, he’ll be able to take himself off to bed a bit later again!

Thanks for coming to Skipton with me today, I hope you have a lovely weekend – and the sun shines for you, even for just a little bit! xx