Three grans walk no.3

On Saturday we walked from the World Heritage site of New Lanark mills up alongside the river, through woods rich in wild flowers, to the Falls of Clyde at Corra Linn, and onward to the weir at Bonnington Linn. The river banks are steep in this part of the Clyde's journey to the sea and the ground is often boggy so a boardwalk has been built to saunter along. We did a fair bit of sauntering, along with crouching to get pictures of wild flowers. Rain showers, making getting my camera out of my rucksack and out of its dry bag too much of a trachle, meant I took most of them with my phone camera. I haven't quite sussed how to improve exposure so some of them are overexposed. Still, they were sufficient as record shots for the 8pm Sunday #wildflowerhour on Twitter run by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland.

Given how dry the weather has been of late, we were pleasantly surprised at just how much water was coming over the falls. The Clyde catchment area is quite large so I guess we shouldn't have been surprised.
<< Two of us

the route

I'll post the flower pics in roughly alphabetical order of their common names because that's easiest and I can't fully remember the order we spotted them in. Not that it matters.

Alternate-leaved Golden-saxifrage

Bilberry

Bitter Vetch

Broom

Cowslip

Great Stitchwort

Great Wood-rush

Large Bittercress

Leopard's-bane

Pink Purslane so pale it's white

Out of focus Red Campion
with bluebells and Gt.Stitchwort

Thyme-leaved Speedwell

Wood Speedwell

Violets

Wild strawberry just below a badger sett

As we did the upper part of the walk's loop we came across this dodecadal structure made of hand hewn sticks and some ingenious stick joiners–sort of a grown up version of some kids' construction toys, I suppose. It looked as if it is meant for pow-wows or, perhaps, lessons and singalongs. We wondered if it ever has a cover. Maybe that is still to come.

Then we walked back to the mill shop, where I bought a new wallet part of whose construction is of New Lanark wool (I lost my lovely, old, Florentine leather one in Edinburgh last year), and we refreshed ourselves with tea and, for two of us, caramel pie, and for the other, fruity/oaty flapjack.

This jumper, that I'm still knitting (one and a half sleeves to go!), is also New Lanark wool.

Rattling down and casting on

The largest hat box contained the completed back of a jumper and about a third of the front. The front has been static for several years because I made a mistake. I thought for a while I could just fudge it (my usual approach) but I couldn't bring myself to end up with an asymmetrical pattern even though probably no-one except me (and maybe DerbyshireDaughter) would notice it. I also couldn't bear to rip the knitting out! So it has sat in a box for a long time! The other day I started unravelling (don't worry, the back is still complete!) and ended up with a tight ball. I might skein it and wash out the wrinkles in due course.

Meanwhile the front is cast on again from a loose ball (produced on the nineteenth century spinning mule at New Lanark) and sections marked with electric toothbrush marker rings. As you do. New Lanark has a lovely walk up to the Falls of Clyde and claims to have started the world's first ever nursery school. Check out New Lanark and its reforming mill manager from 1800, Robert Owen.

Also found my long lost needle gauge and some tatting I must have done decades ago.

There is clearly something to be said for having a hat box tidy-up! Good thing to do on a rainy day.