The hot summer days have seen me lazing in my hammock by the canal but when the winds get up and the towpaths become busy with the myriad visitors to the town I escape to the hills on either side of the beautiful Calder Valley where hardly a soul can be seen.

Yesterday (Sunday) was such a day and my heightened state wasn't due to psychedelics of any kind but the release of endorphins resulting from the exercise, being out in nature, soaking up the vitamin D and a view of which I never tire. My only company on the two and a half hour walk was a flock of sheep. Yes I was high above Hebden with views stretching across the valley to Heptonstall, up the valley to Stoodley Pike and down towards Mytholmroyd and Cragg Vale.

There's always a new trail to discover and yesterday I got up to the peculiarly named Butts Bottom - a short stretch of lane which, going down hill is preceded by Haven Lane and followed by Dole Lane and Spencer Lane - before venturing on to a track on which the sheep encounter took place and provided access to the very summit of the hill.

Meanwhile, back on the towpath, the visitors were enjoying the scenery from below and observing the perch coming up for air on the surface of the canal whilst the Canadian geese and resident ducks with their fledglings provided plenty of photo opportunities.