We woke up to a very tasty English breakfast prepared by our hostess, much better than our other hotel’s breakfast!
This was our day to visit the town of Thirsk where James Herriot (Alf Wight in real life) lived and worked as a veterinary surgeon. I was looking forward to this since I’ve loved hearing the stories that David’s been reading to me for almost as long as we’ve been together. We had just read the chapter about the candy store proprietor so we were particularly keen to find a similar sort of shop. Apparently many businesses have taken the lead from the world famous books by Wight and named themselves after businesses in the stories tricking unsuspecting tourists into thinking that they’re visiting a place that their beloved characters had once frequented. Incidentally, in the aftermath of writing world famous books, Wight was commended with an award for putting Yorkshire on the map as a destination for visitors. We were recommended to visit a shop but alas, it was post Herriot. That didn’t really take away from the fun though and we left with plenty of treats. With that we headed to the Skeldale House museum to peek into the former home of our favorite author. It was fun.
Andy, the proprietor of the Staveley Arms had given us some maps of walks around the area. We had chosen a walk that went by some water falls, and old castle, and the town where Herriot and his wife had honeymooned many years ago. We started with a wrong turn that took us away from the falls, so we missed that. As far as I can tell the only reason we ever reached the castle was because it was up on a hill and we could keep our eyes on it, but then I might be discounting David’s navigational skills too deeply. I had always loved the idea of the public footpaths through farmers’ pastures and it was quite fun for me to tromp along toward our destination. My experience was especially enhanced because I was reading The Omnivore’s Dilema by Michael Pollan and I was in the pastoral section of the book. Here I was having my own pastoral expedition! We encountered lots of animals just as I had hoped we would. Our first meeting wasn’t actually too much fun though, we came into a field with lambs, sheep, AND rams. As far as I can tell it was the rams that made the difference. Subsequently we walked through lots of other pastures with sheep and lambs, with little consequence, but this first time was different. Our presence was definitely noted and monitored closely by the protective papas. We were on guard and moved along quickly. It made me a little nervous since I haven’t had experience with big protective male animals, but it was also fun and David assured me we’d be fine. Nonetheless he had us walk along the perimeter fence! As we made the final approach to the castle we came upon a house with a little barking dog who was tied up right along our designated footpath. As we came closer we realized she was just barking for us to hurry up and come pet her! We stayed with her a while since she was enjoying our company so much. Eventually two sweet little girls came out to collect her. We continued on past a few chickens and then came to some cows and a donkey munching away on a bale of hay. We stayed with them a while enticing them over to the fence with some fresh grass that we picked. As we climbed the hill to the castle we took note of the sun sinking quickly toward the horizon. It was going to be a fast and furious walk back, but for some reason we weren’t particularly rushed. We were just going to be off when a chicken came clucking toward us from around the corner of the castle. She seemed to be quite intent on checking us out and we were pretty amused. Her interest was short lived though, (no food, we think) and we moved along toward the path David had determined we should take. Now was the time for David’s navigational skills to be put to full use and he was diligent about cross checking the map, signs, and compass regularly. The walk was quite beautiful but did make me a bit nervous since our only source of light and warmth was fast retreating for the night. We were walking so fast though, I guess the warmth didn’t really matter. Mother Nature did bless us with one more memorable moment: we saw a newly born little lamb still connected to the mom by a cord. The little one was all yellow and slimy, the mom couldn’t be bothered by anything other than eating grass and there was one other little lamb nearby who seemed to be calling for help. As far as we could tell no one else was coming along to say hello, so it seemed that the new arrival had a cold night ahead. Only after we reached the car (it was quite dark by then) did David confess just how badly his feet were hurting. Flat feet suck! We raced home crossing over and passing by the route we had just walked and were lucky enough to reach the Staveley Arms right around 9p, still in time for the chef to cook us some food.
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