I decided to go on a day trip to Ilkley, now Ilkley is a spa town, it takes about 1/2 hour on the train from Bradford. Ilkley is where all the affluent people live.
If you look into the local estate agents’ windows, you will see that the house prices in Ilkley read like telephone numbers (it’s an extremely desirable area, I think it’s all the fresh air blowing off the moors, and the river down in the town. Ilkley is very picturesque. There are also quite a few nursing homes in Ilkley, as it’s a blissful little place!
It’s an uphill hike to get to the moor but once there, there is a fabulous view down on the town (it’s like looking down from an aeroplane).
Half way up their is “The White House” here you can get a cuppa & a snack, and inside there is bathing pool fed by water from the moor, and it’s supposed to have healing and therapeutic qualities, easing lumbago/athritis to name but a few of the ailments we all suffer, perhaps this is the reason for all the nursing/care homes?
I haven’t personally heard of an actual CURE!
But in the 1800s there were several bathing pools like the “White House” upon the moor, and people bathed to cure their ailments, (it’s the moor minerals mixing with the icy cool water that did the trick I believe).
On this particular day I faced the direction of the Moor and I put my old bones into 1st gear and started plodding uphill. After a while I noticed that the car noises were getting less, and the bird singing was getting louder, I knew I was getting near!
Just before I reached the Moor I noticed that someone had thrown out the remnants of a plant on the grass verge, it was just a couple of leaves and 2 small roots dangling from it. I stooped down to rescue it, “I wonder if I plant this in my garden it will take” I thought? I opened my bag and put it carefully into my sandwich wrapper (the sarni I had already scoffed on the train coming). I thought nothing more about it and ENJOYED my day in Ilkley.
When I got home I put it in a plant pot and gave it a drink of water. Well it thrived, new shoots started coming up and in summer I was rewarded with a beautiful red flower. I felt dead CHUFT as I don’t have green fingers. I pruned it, watered it and enjoyed this little flower all summer! In October the dark nights drew in and it became VERY cold “the winter will kill it” I thought, so one weekend I dug it up, put it in a plant pot, and placed it on my bathroom windowsill. It didn’t know it was Jan/Feb as it was flowering away in deepest winter!
Guess what the plant I found was, it was a GERANIUM.
Isn’t it marvelous what a bit of TLC can do!