I really enjoy the rain.

An email dropped in the inbox from fellow blogger Martin B with his evening walks schedule for the rest of 2014. He’s so well organised isn’t he.
I hadn’t been out for a walk for 11 days since my knee stiffened up. I don’t usually have knee problems so it was a bit of a strange ‘un as i had done nothing to cause it.
I eventually went to the docs to have him give an opinion. He said the tendon holding the top of the kneecap is swollen and preventing the kneecap from sliding which in turn is causing the knee to stiffen. He drew me a nice picture.
He said take these anti inflammatories and these other tablets to settle your stomach. Why? whats wrong with my stomach i asked. He said that the anti inflammatories  may cause stomach bleeding and so these others will settle it. Mmm i thought.
Anyway’s, i took them, having read all the side effects, OMG, and after 5 days at the first sign of passing a bit of blood i decided to stop taking them. Sore knee or passing blood? Sore knee wins hands down.
But, as it happens my knee has settled down miraculously and although the doc said it could take 3 weeks or even more to improve, i seem to be absolutely fine.

So getting back to Martins email. This list of walks gave me itchy feet. I needed to get out raining or not.

I grabbed my summer weight overtrousers and my Carn boots along with a shell top and a new pair of gloves. Dressed accordingly i set off. I wasn’t going to go far and limited my first outing to a local 2 hours or so just in case i had a relapse.

After 20 minutes i thought, These boots feel a bit weird today. I did have a new pair of Bridgedale socks on but they shouldn’t feel as weird as they did. I checked the lacing and then it dawned on me. I had no footbeds in. What a *****. Anyway i carried on regardless.

The rain was quite heavy and it was blowing a bit too. I actually don’t mind walking in the rain, in fact i find it quite pleasant. The sounds and smells are somewhat different when its raining and also the paths are free of dog walkers. (Not that there is anything wrong with dog walkers).

Underfoot it was glutenous for large sections and on one steep section i landed on my backside. My summer weight overtrousers not being able to cope with a drenching allowed plenty of water through and resulted in me being wet to the skin. Most unpleasant feeling.
Note to self. Don’t use Inov-8 - 190 overtrousers in the winter months.

I came across this fungi. I have never seen these before but they look fantastic. No idea what they are called.

Just as i entered the Rhododendrons, picture above, i noticed quite deep puddles covered with trimmings. I carefully picked my way through watching the floor, when from the left hand side shot out a pair of screeching Jay’s. I almost ended up on the floor again. They were that close i felt the draft from their wings. They startled me. If you have ever heard Jay’s screech then multiply it by 10. It all happened literally within 3 feet from my head.

I managed to get through this soggy section without slipping and without catching my jacket on the barbed wire fence.

 Just before reaching the trig point the rain came down very hard. The surrounding tops of the Pennines, usually clear were only shadows in a grey mist.

 Winter hill is out there.

 And in the grey murk lies Manchester City centre. I tried to take a timed photo but it was just too windy. It kept blowing the camera over and at one point had a chase down hill to recover my camera bag.

 All in all i thoroughly enjoyed my short walk. No problems with the knee, fingers crossed. I was pleased with my new gloves which worked well even though they got socked when i fell over. I will do a separate post on them.
By the time i got back home it was still raining heavily and my trousers looked like i had never worn overtrousers. But it didn’t matter today.
Thanks Martin for sending the email, it spurred me to get out.