June 16, 1982 a baby girl was born!!! A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our lovely Adria!!! We hope your day is filled with joy and your year filled with wonderful possibilities!  We love you!!!

 We woke up to another lovely day… What promised to be overcast and rainy turned out to be mostly sunny and warm… Around 22 C which is lovely for hiking…
Today we decided to do the Bolton Abbey, Barden Tower and Strid walk covering historic drama, walking across moors, country life and beautiful forest and stream walks.  Something for everyone!!

We drove the 10 miles to our starting point and began to walk… Our first stop was Bolten Abbey.  A remarkable ruin that was built beginning in the 12th century and was signed over to Henry VIII During the reformation.

During this time a number of Abbeys were ransacked by the English gentry under orders from the King.  Catholisism was banished, and they either were burned out and tortured, or signed over their allegiance to the new church.  In this case the nave was allowed to stay and given over to the new Church of England.

After we left the Abbey site we started our hike through fields and dales.  In the first field we saw a baby cow just minutes old!!!

There were other cows who looked like we’re ready to pop as well… Must have been the “birthing room” field!

We trekked on today through forest…

And moor… Including a couple of superheroes who submitted the top!!!

The vistas were amazing as was the wildlife!  We all felt truly blessed!

In the distance you can see Barden Tower, a hunting retreat for a “gentleman”.

From Barden, we travelled along a path that followed the Strid River… Simply lovely!

The woodland was lovely, and filled with amazing wild flowers including wild garlic!!!

We also saw some interesting sites like this money tree!!!

We soon found ourselves back at the Abbey, where we hopped into the car and got Ian back for his conference call, and Dan and I back to  speak to Adria, our birthday girl…

After a toast to Adria we headed off to dinner!

Today we logged almost 20 km!  Time for bed!!!  Until tomorrow!