No Flies On Us

Grassington, the location for the fictional village of Darrowby, where Farnon and Herriot plied their trade in All Creatures Great and Small is actually a tad under 40 miles from where we are currently on holiday. Yet as the landscape opened up on our approach to the rented cottage a short distance from Kirkby Stephen, I couldn’t resist humming the theme tune to the original ACGAS series aired on the BBC in the late 70s. We are making a little detour on our homeward journey and stopping off in Grassington to pay a kind of homage I suppose. In the meantime, Kirkby Stephen and all it has to offer will do nicely. Especially Mic Mac’s, where we were relieved to find flypaper to hang in the cottage. The place was buzzing when we arrived, and I don’t mean that it was a hub of stimulating activity. The woman who served us the flypaper said there had been a run on it since there appeared to be a widespread infestation at the moment.

Anyway, when we haven’t been swatting flies, we’ve been out and about. A walk to the impressive Smardale Gill Viaduct (below) and a drive to Barnard Castle, a car journey favoured by Dominic Cummings as a means of testing his eyesight.

Barnard Castle (below). It looked pretty sharp to me. Coincidence?

I’m writing this post while Heather, Felix and eldest granddaughter are off on a hike to Nine Standards Rigg (forgot my walking boots, duh!) So I am back at base camp (pictured below) with a cup of tea at hand, some tunes playing in the background, the twins drifting in and out, the way 16 year olds do, and now a window cleaner who appeared from nowhere, up here, in the middle of nowhere.

Hoping to get to Tan Hill Inn later on. Another walk planned for tomorrow, then homeward on Saturday. The hols are never long enough are they?