Everyday Adventures: Picnicking on the Grimpen Mire

Hi hi.

Get your winter coat on we're going for a drive ...

For James's birthday we planned a 'nice drive' out to the nearby moors taking with us the simple pleasures of a picnic, a blanket to sit on and a book to read. And, apart from the picnic ... the rest didn't quite turn out as planned ...

From the time we woke up it wasn't a particularly promising day, but [a] we're British, and [b] a person only gets one birthday a year and so ... grey rainy weather or not ... we decided to carry on regardless.

But as the car climbed higher and higher on to the moor, where usually we'd have a wonderful panoramic vista, the mist grew thicker and thicker until we couldn't see more than a few metres ahead ...

Eventually we stopped and had our picnic - in the car - naturally. Which was lovely anyway, because it turns out that, a passion fruit, lime and coconut tart tastes just as delicious with or without any accompanying scenery.

And here - having a [very brief] post-picnic stroll - is the birthday boy himself ...

 

 Will you look at how much fun he's having? See just how relaxed he is! If you can see him at all that is.

 



Truly, visibility was just around zero. There could have been anyone or anything lurking anywhere ...

While I daydreamed about finding Sherlock on a rocky outcrop in his Caspar David Friedrich 'Wanderer Above the Sea Fog' pose ... James joked about it being like Conan-Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles; a film which had terrified him as a little boy.

And the spooky viola music on Radio3 didn't help the situation any ...

It began to feel creepy, lonely, and claustrophobic. I even took to instinctively wafting my hand around in front of my face as if trying to sweep away the annoying dusty white cobwebs from of my eyes.

But to no avail.

Then, after downing a travel mug full of hot tea, another natural biological reflex began making itself known ...

Me: "Where does one go for a wee out here?"

Him: "You could go 15 yards down there, behind the car, and no one would see, not from the road. And anyway, there's no-one about."

Can any one say Famous. Last. Words?

Perhaps two, three, four minutes had passed ... I mulled the idea over ... I assessed how easy it would be: eg: how long was my coat? How strong were my thigh muscles feeling? How much would I mind if my jeans took some collateral damage?

And then ...

... out from the mists ...

... out from those exact same '15 yards behind' the car where - apparently - there was no-one around ...

... there came ...

....a GIGANTIC HOUND!! 

Two in fact!!

Well, OK, so 'gigantic' may be exaggerating things slightly ...

... but I'm sure we can agree that there came two averagely sized dogs. On a lead. Held by a jogger.

But they did suddenly emerge from nowhere. And they were barking at our car. And I did almost jump out of my skin and/or wet myself.

And if I had been 15 yards behind the car, on my own, crouching with trembling thighs and my coat between my teeth  ...

... then you can take it from me that whenever I repeated this shaggy dog story, whenever I re-told the tale both now - and forever more - it certainly would have ended with me having met the hounds of the Baskervilles and having lived to tell the tale!

Julie ;-)