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280 Sunday 17th August 2025 Calf Hey Reservoir and Clough Head

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We  came back from holiday in something of a rush to make Rochdale's game at home to Altrincham which was kicking off early at 12.30pm. That made a trip on the Saturday imprractical and Simon had made arrangements with a friend on the Sunday. However Julie was willing to go somewhere with me and  suggested a walk around  Calf Hey Reservoir followed by something to eat at the Clough Head Visitor Centre.    We parked at the Calf Hey car park and decided to walk in an anti-clockwise direction. The low level of the reservoir reflected the heat of the day. The un-matching plaques on this bench amused us. We  passed the preserved ruins of Hartley House and read the informative signboard/ Ditto Lower Ormerods There was a good view ahead to Musbury Heights I wondered if we could spot anything interesting in the dried up bed of the reservoir but  nothing jumped out. We  were soon  walking across the dam. Ogden  Reservoir looked rather more full. ...
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279 Sunday 10th August 2025 Ambleside

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 We were on holiday in Keswick at this  point. We rang up our friends in Selside to ask if they wanted to come over. They were flying to Crete on the Monday but suggested we meet up in Ambleside and visit Stock Ghyll Force. We went down to Ambleside by bus to the meeting point at The Salutation Hotel. Our  friends  then said they were stuck in traffic. We went to the Apple Pie Eating House for lunch. By  the  time we finished they had  arrived in Ambleside. We  did the walk up to the waterfall. Julie found it quite hard with her sore foot. We were amused to spot a woman from the cafe who'd been in a wheelchair, on  her  feet having a paddle in the pool at the bottom. We had  a  little  picnic at  a  nearby table. We then decided to visit Galava Roman Fort. Simon flew the drone there. The footage will  appear in  due  course. We took a footpath back to Ambleside We then  had a drink at a park k...
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278 Saturday 2nd August 2025 Walk : Greenfield to Stalybridge

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 This was my choice, a continuation of our station to station walk from Greenfield. Our next target was Broadbottom but I didn't expect to make it there. We took the train to Stalybridge then got a rail replacement bus on to Greenfield. On the walk down from the station there was a fine  view  up the Chew Valley As we  gained height, there was a fine view over to Wharmton.  This  was  the  view back up the Tame valley. This  was  the  view back to Greenfield The track nicely levelled out as we looked ahead to Mossley. We  were impressed by  the  crags of Noonsun Hill As  we rounded a corner, there was a fineview of Slatepit Moor We chatted to a fellow walker beneath Buckton Castle. The path dropped into the village of Carrbrook where we noted this fungus. We  had  our snack stop at the bowling green. We  then climbed out  of  the  village. This was the view looking back to Buckton Ca...
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277 Saturday 26th July 2025 Castle Hill, Huddersfield

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 Simon  chose to return to Castle Hill on a  day when the Jubilee Tower was actually open. We  drove to Todmorden to take advantage of the cheaper rail fares. The  train to Brighouse was  full  of  people  travelling to York Races. From Brighouse there was a  rail replacement bus service to Huddersfield. We  posed by the  statue  of  Harold Wilson  outside the station. Simon spotted the record shop Vinyl Tap on the other side of the square. I'd done some business by  mail order with them but never been in the shop before. We  went  in  there and Simon purchased an LP. We  then found our way to the Wimpy Bar for lunch. We  then caught a bus to Almondbury. I hadn't realised how far the centre of the village  was from the Tower  so we ended up catching another bus to get us nearer. We climbed up to the tower by a  fire-damaged path that had been closed off  on our...
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276 Sunday 20th July 2025 Calder and Hebble Canal Sowerby Bridge to Salterhebble

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 With  the next  section of  the Bridgewater Canal off  limits for a while,  I  chose to begin  a  walk  along the  Calder and  Hebble  canal towpath despite an unpromising weather forecast. we drove to Todmorden and went to Mass there. We then caught  the  train to Sowerby Bridge. It  started  raining as soon as we left the station  but fortunately had slackened off a bit  by the time we reached the canl basin where the Calder and Hebble starts. This  is the actual starting point  of the canal. Once out of Sowerby Bridge, the  whole stretch was pleasantly  wooded. Once past Copley, the rain steadily increased and we had a lot of waiting under bridges. I wanted to get to Elland at least but promised Simon we could have lunch at the pub at Salterhebble then abort the walk if it was still wet. True  to my  word, we  went  to  the  Water Mill pub ...
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275 Saturday 12th July 2025 Moston

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 Simon opted to use  his trip  to watch Rochdale's  first  pre-season  friendly away  to  FC  United  who  now play at a new grund in Moston. It  was  a  sweltering  hot  day. We met a work colleague and  his  partner at the station who were  going to see Oasis at  Heaton Park. Our  train  went  straight through to Moston, It  wasn't  a  particularly long  walk to the  ground  but  long  enough in that heat. when we got there , we stayed in the air-conditioned bar until just before kick off when we took seats in the main stand. Happily. it was the side of the ground in the shade. Rochdale fielded most of their new signings and some  trialists and changed the team round at half time. The guy sat  in  front  of  us looked  familiar and  it was later confirmed that it was indeed former England internati...
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274 Friday 4th - Sunday 6th July 2025 Bassenthwaite weekend

 This was Julie taking over our schedule and  kidnapping us to The Castle Inn at Bassenthwaite for  the weekend. We  drove up there on Friday evening.and. we settled ourselves in the room. On the Saturday we drove to Cockermouth to make a video about  the Castle. I  thought we might be able to get closer than is normally possible because there was a band concert in the courtyard that afternoon. When we  got  there  there were  members of the public coming in and out  and  a  food  van was already  operating so  after  filming an  intro on the entrance path we went in and tried to film as unobtrusively as posible although I did ask one of the event stewards if we could film on the lawn. He  said yes but as we were leaving, Simon was approached by a man who I rightly guessed to be Lord Egremont , the owner of the castle. He politely asked to see what we'd filmed and  eventually agreed there...
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