The walk to Beningbrough Hall and Gardens turned into a nine mile excursion

On many occasions, especially on Sundays the family unit will walk west along bike route 65 till it turns south at a paved road. That’s about a four mike hike out. When george walks us it seems much further. This particular summer Sunday, Bet and I planned to walk to Beningbrough Hall and Gardens. With our sights set we took off walking on a well traveled bike/people path through pasture lands and flood control plains. All this lies within four minutes of our Westgate apartment. As we walked, I would sneeze four or five times every 50 yards or so. I forgot to take the ‘what you ma call it drugs!’ to prevent such things. The walk was very pleasing after these sneezing fits subsided. We encountered a couple of dozen bike riders every mile or so. All of the cyclists were headed towards York. There must have been some sort of rally going on. Our foot path ended about five miles out where it dead ended into what we’ll call ‘The Overton/Shipton Road’.

The world, as I know it, where people "stuck on stupid" steal the directional signs. We first started left, then we talked to some parked motorists who sent us in the opposite direction. We walked down a one lane country road to Shipton and the A19 highway. Wrong, so we made our retreat. “ It’s useless to ask a motorist directions to walk somewhere. Chances are they only know how to get to places by car. " Go figure.

The farm road eventually led us to the very small village of Overton. It comprised a one lane road with a spread of English cottages, no more than a couple of dozen of them dotting each side of the road. They appeared to be well kept and manicured. Some had past links to the Church of England, with related names of Vicarage or Parsonage. Many had 8 o 10 foot high hedges that bordered their properties with beautiful gates and or gatehouses. This was a place that got your imagination running. As we continued to walk the lane, we came upon a sign directing us off the lane towards the river. After all we were suppose to be on a river path. The sign proclaimed "Public Path" this way ====>. Obediently following directions we found ourselves in a sea of some farmer's crop. Now we know we're in a death spiral. Help us!Hey, there in the distance, we seek reassurance from three people standing in the middle of some fields. We all seem happy to see each other. At least they knew where they were. They had lost there puppy dog (name?). So we exchange cell numbers and headed off in somewhat the wrong direction. But as luck would have it, Bet found this scruffy little Australian Sheep dog of maybe 12 years. Cute as he could be lying top side down behind a big metal farm gate which blocked his escape. Yep there he was tired and panting away. As modern technology would have it, we're soon all reunited and happy to see each other.

They offer to drive us to Beningbrough Gardens but no we must complete our quest. Boy was that dumb. Basically, we walked the next four miles through head high weeds across farmland that parallels the river Ouse. At one point we find ourselves walking with about a couple of dozen. The only person we encountered was a fisherman who advised to keep walking towards a stand of hardwood trees further down the river.

We may be the only people this century who has walked from York to Beningbrough Hall and Gardens and saw this sign.

The manor house and the heritage gardens were great. Our fatigue took a little of the shine away from the visit to the gardens. We hiked about 50minutes to the "local pub" in Newton-on-the-Ouse where we called our favorite taxi for the after our "pint" trip back to Westgate . . . .
see ya,

j'bu

York center of our world, Here is where you can find out about our goings on!

We’ve been recording our activities on the internet since July of 2004. Mostly, just for me to keep up with what we did during the renovation of a property in Marietta, GA. The Blog services were provided by ipadder.com till July of 2006. ipadder.com went south and with it some our earlier posting entries. We now use bloggoing.com for the blog services and have so far reentered about half our posts. We’ll keep working on it. I enjoy it, sometimes I get caught up in the mechanics of it but just for fun. That’s my personality.
We’ve evolved to our current recording of our goin’ons here in York, UK. One of the major benefits of living here is the ability to travel, meet and greet people from all over the world. We’ll write about those events in our life here in York.

Hope you enjoy your visits here at redclay. Whether you do or not leave us a comment on one of our posts, cause it’s fun to hear from peeps across the pond where home is!

This Saturday, September 9,2006, we’re headed to the north side of Spain. So between now and then we got lots to do. Visiting what I call basque country, we can’t wait. Some eating, drinking and warm climate involved. continued ....

see ya,

j'bu

Westgate to Fulford Moor House Walk

York is one beautiful place. Lately the typical day here has been 30-40 degrees, wet and sometimes windy. When I say wet, I’m not talking about southern type rain where the bottom falls out of the sky for hours along with booming light shows. I’m talking, intermittent drizzle all day long with lots of grey colors broken up with a small amount of sun. Since last night the river Ouse has risen more than a foot. This morning the water is ambling along meeting the top of the banks in places and reaching the grass at bank top. As I walked in this morning, I was planning an alternate route for my half hour walk to work. There are paved walking paths on each side of the river Ouse, my plan is to walk the opposite side of the river. It appears that the banks on that side is a good 2-3 foot higher than my normal walking path. The alternate path passes by the great Rowntree Park and I can get to work by crossing the river at the Millennium bridge which is one good looking bridge. The consistent weather is trying at times. I’m enjoying the daily walks even though it is a little cold and grey. see ya,

j'bu