Pastures revisited. 29th January 2012.

And so the time for departure came!  Whilst the weather was acceptable for travelling it was quite cold and appeared to changing!  I'd arranged to meet with past colleagues in Bowland and so I followed what had been a very familiar route in days past up through Huddersfield, Halifax, Todmorden and Clitheroe into the Forest of Bowland.   Part way through the journey I actually found a sandwich caravan and awarded a creditable 7 + for a palatable Spam and sliced mushroom roll!
|The route became increasingly nostalgic as I gained the outskirts of Bowland and noticed they'd changed the AONB sign in recent times.

              

If only the Authorities had awarded as much attention to the protection of the iconic species they feel so free to depict the situation might have been much better than the abysmal level it rests at currently!! However, more on that later and here's suggesting they shouldn't feel too comfortable on the issue either!

Met up with Bill Hesketh and Bill Murphy for the first time for several years despite being in contact. Things resumed as if no time lapse had intervened and we set off to do a mini tour of the area and its raptors which had first brought us together in the early 1980's. Little appears to have changed other than some bizarre management technique United Utilities appears to have adopted which has resulted in an overzealous mowing of wide strips of heather moor. I'm sure it rests on some good logic and practice but seems to have been a bit overdone. A good roast ruined you might say!

We didn't see many birds ( Peregrine, Raven, Grey lag Geese ) but it was good to be in amongst it again and  the strong emotional ties with the place were certainly resurrected. As might be imagined a never ending succession of current circumstances provided an  unrelenting flow of conversation until darkness descended upon us all.

                                                   Bill Murphy, myself and Bill Hesketh

I was staying with Bill Hesketh and his wife , Pat, who stoically and patiently survived a long evening of yet more Bowland discussions. Over the years I suspect Pat knows as much as the rest of us about Bowland given the number of discussions she's been exposed to!!  Such brought to an end a very enjoyable day.