A good blow out

Hello. The things I do to take some photo's for my fab readers. Yes folks, this is me all wrapped up, stepping outside of my comfort zone, aka my living room, and forging my way through the countryside in a force nine gale. It looked a nice day when I looked out of the window this morning, it was a lovely warm car journey to Epworth, the start of the walk, but, chuffin heck, was it BLUSTERY when I set off, and it didn't let up all day. Definitely brass monkey weather. Like the scarf? Yep, I found it, been chucked.

On the outskirts of Epworth now, you can't see my trousers flapping like crazy, if I had one of those wing suits on I would take off. 

I've seen these Alpacas at Epworth Show, here they are on their home ground. There are six of them but the others were huddled inside their shed. They have such cute faces.

Here is John Wesley's house. Not open today.  Blue skys all day, but don't be fooled, it was bloomin cold.

What do you think of this black and yellow shed, oooops, sorry, it's a house. It doesn't look right on the main road, the owners of the bungalow next to it must have been a bit miffed when it went up, goodness knows how they got planning permission.

It's connected by a covered passage to the brick building next to it, which looks like a converted barn. Oh my, what a sight for sore eyes.

Across the road are the council offices. This sign made me smile, it's on the front of a planter against the wall next to the entrance.

 The Council Offices are also the entrance to the cemetery.

Off I went following footpaths along the field edges. This is an old bridge that the railway used to go over, which is long closed, no tracks left.

I climbed up on the bridge to have a look down.

Lots of horses around here, shredded wheat for lunch. I often wonder if horses get bored standing around all day. Doesn't look a very exciting life, waiting for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to be served up. 

The path was long and straight and came out on a tarmac road at Epworth Turbary. I wondered what a Turbary is. Here is a bit from Wiki.
Turbary is the ancient right to cut turf, or peat, for fuel on a particular area of bog.^[1] The word may also be used to describe the associated piece of bog or peatland and, by extension, the material extracted from the turbary. 

I was ready for a bite to eat but nowhere to stop and sit down, then I saw a farm and sat on a lump of concrete with a bit of shelter from the side of a barn. The wind was blowing all the plastic crates across the road, there didn't seem like there was anyone about to pick them up. Then I had a long walk down Greenholme Bank. It's a wide track used by farm machinery and was very muddy. The fields all around had recently been ploughed. Black clouds were up ahead and it started spotting with rain. I decided to take a short cut through Haxey Turbary to give me some shelter from the biting cold wind. This was a bit more pleasant, and low and behold the rain passed over and the sun came out again.

Past some farm buildings at Haxey Carr, then I came across a graveyard for Massey Fergusson farm machinery at Haslams Farm. There must have been a hundred or more, all crammed together in a big yard, and spilling out onto the track outside. I have tried googling but I can't find anything connected with MF. Some of these are really old, maybe they are butchered for spare parts, or exported whole, who knows. 

The track takes me across the fields towards Haxey. This is looking back at Haslams Farm.

Aaah, small ponies, aren't they cute, I want one, ha ha. 

The church gate at Haxey is a bit unusual, it pivots on a centre pole though doesn't go all the way round in a circle.

The church is massive for such a small village, there are several good views of it, but this one doesn't show the clock which is on right hand side of the tower. 

And I will finish off with some colour. Some people don't like artificial flowers on a grave, but I don't mind. It's too expensive to keep putting fresh flowers out. More colour I say. 

From Haxey I got onto the disused railway track again. It runs parallel to the A161 for a while, then there is a path further up which joins the road back to Epworth. It was 4.30pm when I got back to the car, just right, it was getting even colder once the sun had gone down. Ten miles walked, some of it hard going against the wind, but it was good to get out, I needed the exercise. Talk about a good blow out, constant runny nose, and watery eyes, the sinuses are now clear.
Toodle pip.