Our time in the UK sped by like the Concorde making a flight from London to New York! The good news for all you loyal readers? Writing about our adventures will be more akin to the QE2 on a transatlantic crossing! So settle yourself with a favorite beverage and let's go for a ride.
A walk along the River Greta, beginning at Scargill, was a delightful start to our holiday. Initially, we traversed farm fields and open moorland. Lapwings circled above our heads, their shrill, wailing cries echoing around us. Did you know a group of lapwings is called a "deceit"? We spotted Curlews as well; the long beaks are a give-away. Spousal Unit found this egg along the path; of course, we would never pick up an egg from a nest - what you can't see is that it was crushed on the other side. How it got there and what happened to it is a mystery. (Throughout our time in the UK, we read plenty of signs that warned walkers this is nesting season and to keep dogs on leads ...)
Eventually, we came to the river, and we skirted to the left, which led to a trail down to the water's edge. The rest of the walk zig-zagged across the river, with numerous footbridges to aid the crossings.
Below is the only Bluebell bloom in the woods, and it was barely open. As you will read in another post, it was an appetizer for what we saw later in our visit.
I pulled these photos from the Web; I am fairly confident these are some of the birds we saw in the woods that day. A question to my UK birders - I saw a bird at a stream, and it was acting like a Dipper. It had yellow coloring on its back. What would it be? (Thanks to David of Travels with Birds - it was a Yellow Wagtail.)
After our walk, we visited Mainsgill Farm Shop. I wrote about this shop in 2019 - here. It has grown since then - even more gorgeous home decor items and mouth-watering delectables. Knowing #1 Son loves plump ceramic birds, I took the picture of this whimsical chicken. And we sampled their scones with clotted cream/strawberry jam. Yum yum!
We rounded out the day with a meal at the Dun Cow Inn. Fish and chips and mushy peas. Can you get more quintessential English than that? And our joyful time in the UK had begun!