Sunday's Plod

Foremark Reservoir & Bretby Woods

The first of 26 styles

26 walkers gathered at Bretby Nursery for a 10.5 mile walk, the weather was good, in fact perhaps too good for walking, as the skin started to leak after 15min's or so.

We had company part way, I think they fancied a change of scenery.

Bretby Church

Former School House at Bretby

There were many fields like this on the route, with various crops in the early stages of growth. Some of these fields are very steep hills with the footpath buried under the growth, & very hard on the feet, despite the heavy rains of the past week.

A woodland walk by Repton

By the time we had arrived here We had climbed few hills & the weather was not getting any cooler, so the shade provided by the wood was a welcome respite.

Now this looks to be a good idea for a Sunday's leisure pastime. Relaxing, cool & not a great deal of traffic noise









So this must be Foremark Reservoir then. A popular place for locals to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon. There are walks to follow, picnic area toilets, shop for refreshments & errm, £1.50 to take the car in. Have the right money, as the bollards do not let you in.

It's not every ones idea of a Sunday's drive, but why not if you've got it?

A wooded walk to "Carvers Rocks". A nature trail at Foremark
Nice & cool in the shade

But you have to watch where you put your feet


The last pic' I took

Just 3 more miles to go & a very steep hill to climb Then we're back where we started. The route was 10.5 miles in total, with the hill climbing, it felt more like 15

Something different

We went to the theatre last night, something we have not done for years. The play was the stage version of Terry Pratchett's "Lords & Ladies", his 14th book. A parody of Shakespeare's "Midsummer's Night,s Dream". I'm sorry to say that the acting did not do the story line justice, in fact, if it was on the TV, I would have switch off or over. The cast did try, but were amateurs to say the least, but all credit to them, there could not have been more the 12 in the cast, & they all played several parts. The scenery was very basic & was constantly moved or turned to suite the act. Fortunately, my own imagination did the rest...It had to.
Oh, the theatre, it is at Buxton, the Opera House. Not very big but decorated in the traditional way, lots of gold & White/Cream paint with Cherubs, pictures & musical instruments painted on the walls & ceiling.
Would I go again? Perhaps. Having said that, we are going to see "Dinner Ladies" (Victoria Wood's TV comedy) 6th June. More on that later.

Coton-in-the-Elms walk

To continue the theme of walking in South Derbyshire here's a few bits from the walk yesterday, it turned out to be 8miles as near as... the day started fine, but soon turned to rain. We saw ourselves plodding through eight different woodlands & couple of meadows.
The walk lasted pretty much 5hrs. Although I live locally, there were a lot of thing I had never seen before. Living in Derbyshire people think "Peak District" Yes true, but it's not that near to me I probably have a 60 to100mile round trip to do the Peaks, depends on my destination. Here it is quieter. less traffic so easier parking. The views are excellent in places you can see Warwickshire in one direction Cannock Chase in another The Peaks in yet another. The woodlands are sustainable commercial for various "industries". The average age of the woodlands here is around 15yrs, & the trees are growing very fast, obliterating many local landmarks. Below is one such wood, it has many pathways in all directions, you could easily get lost.
We do rest from time to time, well, you have to eat it is a question of , do you sit on the grass even if it has been "chucking it down", or do you stand. I stood, as you can see some didn't
There are a few interesting things to see on the way around apart from the woodlands. Below is one you will not see every day. We thought it might have been dead, but the weather had cooled a lot owing to the rain, shedding the old skin is a slow process I believe, I like to think it was just waiting to warm up before moving off.
That's all for now I think, I'm off to Rosliston today for a couple of hours, I might take the camera

S'Derbyshire Festival of Walks.

The festival started Saturday 16th of May. We met at the YHA building at Moira. After a little talk from a couple of guests we set off. There were three different walk taking place at the same time. Pictured left is a group who took the "short walk" about one hour in duration. We met as our paths nearly, but did not cross. I joined the group on the "5 mile" walk as I needed to see new walks. Below are a couple of pictures of some of the terrain we had to go through. Note the "Duck boards" there are several broken

I was disappointed to see that some locals had light fires (there was one smouldering as we passed by) in the woods also a lot of litter was left, some of it broken glass. I can only think that is must be the younger element of society doing this. It is a great shame that these people have not been taught how to respect the countryside, & the dangers of fires in the woods!
As you can see, there is plenty for fire to get a hold of
In all the walk took around 2 hours to complete including rest/comfort break. This was taken at Moira Furnace









We were fortunate with the weather as the showers did not come to much. The sky was grey as you can see but the temperature for walking was perfect.
I got second placing for this photo. Here's the results of the competition

Back garden Back breaker

I've had a few days of working in the back garden Stripping the decking of the old stain & getting back to the original wood, Thanks to my Good Lady, we have just about completed the project after a second pass with the sander. Net I will be "painting" on the decking oil. Meanwhile, 14-15 fence panels have been re-coated in preservative, along with the shed. Several shrubs have had a serious pruning, if only to get to the fence panels. My water feature had sprung a leak, so it will be filled with soil for plants & a bucket for a small water feature. I'm aiming at redesigning the whole back garden whilst I'm still able, I ain't getting any younger. So as a reminder, I'm putting a couple of pictures from my garden to remind me that it will be worth the trouble.