From Freezing to Boiling!

This is ridiculous! In my last blog I was complaining of how suddenly cold it was, and today - only a week later - it is suddenly hot. I am sure some mad scientist is experimenting with the weather. By 9.30am Mini-Bug and I had reached the starting point for today's ramble, already it was 22ºC and I was setting off in a tee-shirt.

No sooner had we started out than Mini-Bug, ever watchful for friendly Yorkshire bugs, met up with a local Millipede. When she had finished chatting we were amazed to find the track was absolutely covered with them. Mini-bug, with her thin legs, had no trouble walking between them, but she was very concerned about my giants feet as every time I took a step it was impossible not to crush one or two.

When she stopped looking out for Millipedes on the track, Mini-bug looked up and nearly had a heart attack when she saw the length of the bridlepath we were going to hike. There was even more of it that couldn't yet be seen too. Today we were in search of the remains of an ancient cross which would eventually be beside this track.

Glad that she was inside her air-conditioned red carrying case, Mini-Bug refused to come out until we had reached our first destination. All that remains of this ancient cross, is the base and a stump. There are many reasons why crosses were erected but the majority, particularly here on the moor, were built to act as guides or waymarkers for old roads. This bridlepath had once upon a time, been a highway between the local market towns and other villages. These days, people motoring over the moors read County Council road signs to find where to go. For hundreds of years before the motor car people had been crossing the moors on business and using the crosses to tell them when to turn off onto another track, or where to avoid crags and bogs. I love to imagine all the people in the past who must have used this same highway that I was now walking on, to get to the market - perhaps they travelled on a pony and trap - everyone stopping to chat to those on foot and pass the time of day.

As usual Mini-Bug climbed out of her case to have her photograph taken. On the Atlas Quest UK board we had recently been discussing trig. points and bench marks. Here is a photo of Mini-Bug sat above such a bench mark which has been carved on the base of the cross. You can see how, for a while, I thought it might be some pagan sign etched onto the ancient cross, instead of which it is all to do with land surveyors and establishing the vertical height above sea level. Very complicated, but obviously they had no regard for causing damage to an ancient artefact. You can see bench marks carved into all sorts of boundary stones, walls and other buildings. If something ancient was close at hand they chiselled into it!

Anyway, finally we got down to the business of hunting for two of the letterboxes we were hoping to find. Plodding on we found our first one which was, of course, about Moorland Crosses. Opening it up we were delighted to find it completely dry. It had been planted in 1992 and had obviously remained dry all that time because the visitor book was in perfect condition. It was thrilling to see all the signature stamps of the people who had visited it over the years. Mini-Bug added her signature stamp to the others in the book. It was amazing to think that when the box was planted Boxing Buddies were unheard of, indeed it was unthought of that letterboxing might travel to other parts of the world. Mini-Bug was very proud to stand beside the first entries in the book for her photograph.

Next we were on the hunt for a Mushroom, Mini-Bug was already familiar with this series, as she had found one on her first letterboxing expedition on the Moors. The one we wanted today was a Yellow Staining Mushroom. Again we found it, exactly where it had been hidden all those years ago. Sadly however this one was waterlogged and the book unreadable. Nevertheless we dried it out, gave it a new visitor book, and stamped in. When this box was made erasers were the only things available to carve on. This was quite restricting sizewise, but larger stamps were made by mounting several erasers on a piece of wood using double sided carpet tape to hold them in position. Despite all the years of being wet, the stamp had survived and was still capable of providing a good image in Mini-Bug's logbook. Many Americans seem to have got hold of the idea that we only have bought stamps in our letterboxes in England. This photograph should
hopefully right that impression, showing that even in the 1980's and 1990's we were carving stamps ourselves :-)