Burning Cakes

What a nice day - not had many of these lately!

Whatever next? This is the Willow Cathedral at Longrun Meadow in Taunton. We'd just done a parkrun on a route that led straight past this tangle of willow trees artfully woven to form an outdoor function area. The willow was harvested from the Somerset Levels, an extensive area of marshland nearby, in the middle of the marshes is a bit of an island called Athelney - this is where King Alfred took refuge from the invading Vikings in the ninth century and burnt his cakes; however he returned rekindled in spirit to defeat his enemy and bring peace to the country. Needless to say I'd not spotted the Willow Cathedral as I ran past but we took Skip for a stroll round and here we found it. It must look quite different in its summer plumage - which of course gives us an excuse to come back, it's a nice flat run although the trail is a bit lumpy - there's a good cafe as well!

White Nancy, a famous Cheshire landmark,  sticks out on the top of Kerridge Ridge near Macclesfield and is visible for many miles across the Cheshire plain. It was built to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1812 and every year the Moscow Symphony Orchestra assemble here to play the 1812 Overture using real cannons aimed at Liverpool. No I made up that last bit sorry; the date of Waterloo was 1815 and White Nancy was built in 1817 to celebrate the end of the Napoleonic Wars. We'd been in Macclesfield for a particularly sad funeral and I'd revisited old haunts with a run up the hill to raise my spirits. The photo was taken by a couple of runners who'd had the same idea and they were able to save me having to take a selfie. As an aside White Nancy is not always all white and in 2014 there was a red poppy painted on its face!