Monday, August 25, 2014

Blue plastic memories of the fells

Letter contains memories of blue plastic spoon


Following the Herdwick Droppings story last week of the two dog walkers who discovered a mystery blue plastic bag in Grasmere, a reader has written in with a witty and suprising tale, not of a blue plastic bag, but a blue plastic spoon instead!

Barry and Betty Wilson wrote to us, saying that the blue plastic bag find reminded them of a walk up Scafell.

"We had a lovely walk up to Scafell quite a few years ago, wrote Barry. The weather was a bit damp, but we were tough old Lake District walkers, indeed some of our friends commented that we spent so much time on the fells we might turn into sheep if we weren't careful!

During their walk up to the highest point, the rambling couple stopped by Sty Head tarn to have a quick rest stop.

"As I rested, My eyes were wandering all over the place, when, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted in the mid-distance a touch of blue," Barry continues.

At first Barry was puzzled, as the small blue shape was lying between two rocks on the boulder strewn fellside. "I wondered if it was a bit of sky that had fallen off, noting a rich deep blue, and set off to examine the object". He then walked over "at an easy pace, trying to conceal my excitement in order not to alarm the object, which I did think was a blue plastic spoon, but was keeping in mind that it might be something else entirely. Possibly even poisonous," said Barry of his exploit.

When Barry reached the object he felt elated, "I was right! It was a blue plastic spoon," he tells. not liking litter and having what he describes as "a practical turn of mind" Barry put the spoon in his pocket.

On their way down, some hours later, Barry and Betty stopped for a nice cup of tea. "We like to have a rest stop on the way down, near the end of a good walk," Barry explained. however, this was no ordinary rest break.

"The sugar had settled in the flask," Barry noticed. "This can give some unevenly sweet tea at the end of a flask and it had been a very nice of tea indeed," said Barry. "I'll say one thing about Betty, it's that she makes a mean flask of tea and this one incident should not be allowed to outshine her normally excellent flasks," cautions Barry.

"The answer was to give the tea a bit of a stir before pouring out the two last cups," says Barry, "but then I had the quandary of precisely how the tea rotation was to be carried out."

While trying to resolve this tricky issue, Barry suddenly remembered the blue plastic spoon! could the previously discarded spoon solve their refreshment difficulty?

Barry said, "I was a little uncertain as it had been thrown away and we had no idea who by. This makes you ask serious questions of a spoon." Just then, Barry espied the beck running past their break spot and dashed over. "I gave the spoon a bit of a wash and dried it off with a hand tissue.

"Then I used it to stir the flask and I am delighted to report that two hardy fell walkers had a pleasantly sweet, but neither too sweet or not sweet enough, mug of tea to end a long ramble.

"I said to Betty, that was a long ramble." She said, "yes it was, wasn't it."

All thanks to a blue plastic spoon.

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