The Ha-Ha Walk

 Last week's visit and walk took us to Biddulph Grange Gardens.  It was raining when we arrived so we decided to stop for coffee and a scone first and by the time we came out of the café the rain had petered out and there was a watery sun in the sky.

The Fuchsias in the urns down each side of the steps were looking wonderful.

We wandered down the Lime Avenue and discovered at the bottom that the Ha Ha Walk was open again.  We'd walked it once but then it seemed to close for quite a while .

The walk runs along between the sunken wall of the Ha-Ha and the metal fencing belonging to the country park.

The wall is a great haven for plants and wildlife.

Everywhere was leaf strewn.

About halfway along is a small diversion into a wildlife area.

Bird feeders and insect hotels

Lots of fungus too on fallen trees

The Ha Ha Walk comes out on to the Wellingtonia Walk.

When we first visited Biddulph Grange these were small saplings that had just been planted.

Look at them now after nearly thirty years of growth.

The steps and walk up to the Geological Gallery.

Above is the area where James Bateman's Music House stood.

Below, inside James Bateman's Geological Gallery.

All for now.  Take care.

Into April

We've been busy pottering both in and out of the garden.  We went to the local garden centre yesterday to buy potting compost, grit and bird food.  This was after going into the town centre to Boots to pop empty blister packs from medications into the recycling bin.  I was glad to find out about the recycling project there as I was loath to put the empty packs into the ordinary waste.

On Wednesday we visited Biddulph Grange Gardens for a walk around.  There was lots of work being done to resurface the entrance way and also the cleaning of stone edging in the Dahlia Walk.  

The Woodland Walk is now called the Wellbeing Walk and many grassy areas had been roped off to allow for re-growth and re-seeding.

The Chinese Garden was looking wonderful in the sunshine.

The Stumpery has recently been made larger with funding from the Blue Diamond Garden Centres Group.  

It is supposed to be the oldest Stumpery in the UK and it is now as large as the original one created by James Bateman in the early 1800s.

At home in the garden the Tulips are flowering.  

Well one pot is the other has been foraged by badgers, our fault as we took the protective sticks away too early.

What a mess.  One or two have been saved and I hope they will flower.

The Spirea Bridal Wreath is in flower as is the Amelanchier

In the wilder area at the top of the garden both Wood Anemone and Wild Garlic are doing well.

Right, time to think about lunch.  All for now.

Into July

 It's July already and days are racing by

The garden is needing more water although we did have a very wet Monday, Tuesday was back to warm and sunny weather which was great for butterflies.  I'm pleased to say that when we walked over the fields the air was full of them, joyfully flittering and spiralling in twos and threes over the tall grasses.  We must have seen at least thirty of them as we walked, I lost count so it may have been more. They were mostly small brownish ones,  perhaps Speckled Woods and Gatekeepers plus the occasional small tortoiseshell and a Cinnabar moth or two.  You just can't miss the bright red as they flutter by.  There were also lots of little silvery moths that disappeared when they landed on a blade of grass and jumping grasshoppers. Paul always says 'just listen to the grasshoppers' but of course, I can't hear them,  all I can hear is the hissing in my ears from the Tinnitus. 

 

 

There are no photos as I didn't have a camera (the photo above was taken with my old camera before it packed up on me.) I doub't I'd have got many images anyway as they all moved around so quickly hardly settling at all. It was just such a joy to see them.

 

Since then I've had a new camera.  it's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80.  It was a reduced end of stock one.  I'm learning how to use it. It's quite complicated. I will get there. The photo above was taken with it - and the ones below.

Of course we had to visit somewhere interesting so I could play with the camera.  A sunny morning, a garden walk and coffee and cake.  What could be better? 

 

Five Things for the First Week in February

1. This week has been 'Tinnitus Week  2021' to raise awareness of this sometimes quite debilitating condition. 

 I can't remember when I last heard silence and I can't remember when I suddenly realised that my ears were making noises it just sort of crept up on me.  I'm guessing about six years ago now.  I thought at first it was high blood pressure but it didn't go away.  As I type this post I have what I can only describe as steaming/hissing kettles in my ears, when I go out and about it seems to reduce in scale but the worst aspect is the way loud noises make me anxious and sometimes tearful if they make me jump.  Generally I just 'get on with it' I can ignore it but sometimes it makes me feel fragile and unable to concentrate.  I have my first Covid 19 Vaccination on Monday, I expect the tinnitus will reach high peaks for a couple of days afterwards just as they do after my ordinary flu jabs.  I have to go to a Methodist Church for my jab it was either that or the Scout Hut.  How strange life is!

 

2. The new National Trust handbook arrived in the post early this week.

  I wonder if, when things get back to some kind of normal, we will be able to use it?  I hope so.  I've missed visiting our local National Trust places like Biddulph Grange, Little Moreton Hall and Shugborough.  As well as walks at non National Trust places like Trentham Gardens and Westport Lake.  Paul said to me the other day that he just wanted to visit somewhere interesting and sit drinking a coffee looking at a view, I agreed but also said I wanted to be able to visit a museum or historic house, I do miss being able to do that.

3. A New Be-Ro Book

We've had both of the two older books for years.  The larger one is dropping to pieces.  The blue one I bought from a Be-Ro stand in a supermarket over twenty years ago to replace the larger one,  but both still get used.  Many of the pages of both have been stuck together over the years and when separated parts of recipes have disapeared. It's a good job I know the most popular ones by heart.  I sent for the new one from the Be-Ro website.  It has the old favourites and some new recipes in it too.  The coffee and walnut cake recipe I use each November  to make a cake for a friend's birthday is still inside.  Recipes for Lavender Highlanders and Heart Shaped Lemon Puffs are new.  I'm looking forward to using it.

4. Reading

 I've enjoyed reading  'Down in the Valley' by Laurie Lee.  I loved his descriptions of the countryside of his childhood in the Slad Valley in Gloucestershire. 

 

" Just down here by the stream there used to be a gathering place for us kids from the village to come and play on Summer evenings.  This was where the sheep wash was, a stone bath, cut from stone and a stone bridge"

 

This reminded me of the Derbyshire village I grew up in and the sheep wash down the lane, past the vicarage, over a field and  just into the edge of the daffodil woods.  In the summer, during the long school holidays, we would sit on the stones chatting and laughing and dangling our bare feet in the water which ran in from the brook. 

 

Last week there was a piece on 'Winter Watch' about bird song being local to specific areas as the generations of birds mimicked each other.  We noticed when we first came here there was a particular set of notes that the same blackbirds sang year after year.  Laurie Lee wrote about this in the book.   He returned to the Slad Valley after twenty years away and when he woke on the first morning home he thought he heard a Gloucestershire blackbird, then realised he was in Gloucestershire.

 

"and then, when I was fully awake, I realised it was a Slad blackbird, it was a Gloucestershire blackbird. I had not heard it for twenty years but it was instantly recognisable because they mimic their fathers and mothers."

5. Snowdrops

 

February is the month for Snowdrops.  Last year just before lock down I bought a couple of snowdrop plants and a bright yellow winter aconite from the covered market in Leek.  We planted them togther in a large pot as we've never been able to get them to grow in our heavy clay soil.  The snowdrops have grown again this year and seem to have spread but there is no sign of the aconite which is a shame.  Both flowers remind me of the fact that last February we should have met with my cousin and his wife at Hopton Hall in Derbyshire.  It was heavy snow and the meeting was cancelled.  A month later lock down happened and my cousin had been diagnosed with cancer and undergoing surgery and chemotherapy as well as coping with the pandemic.  Unfortunately he has to undergo more treatment and things don't sound so good.  Snowdrops are I think for most of us a sign of hope so I've added some more photos from a previous visit below.

 

Hopton Hall, Derbyshire,  February 2018
 

 Take care everyone.

An Early Morning Walk

Last week we made a long overdue visit to relatives and we decided that now we don't have to dash there and back in a few hours in order to look after Max we would treat ourselves to an overnight stay and visit some of our old childhood haunts as well.  We grew up in the same area and our parents took us to the same places even though we didn't know each other at the time.

Which is the reason we found ourselves early one morning walking in Clumber Park  a Grade1 listed park now owned by the National Trust.

The Chapel was built in the time of the 7th Duke of Newcastle whose family lived on the estate.  Construction started in 1886 and it was opened three years later.  It was designed by G F Bodley. 

The Serpentine Lake

My favourite geese - Greylags

You can see the outline of the old house next to the chapel in front of the stable block.  It was almost destroyed by fire in 1879 and rebuilt.  The house was finally demolished in 1938.

It was very quiet down by the water's edge, there were very few people out and about so early.

We walked towards and over the bridge.

Unfortunately it was vandalised last year and is still being repaired.

It is a beautiful bridge.

 After our walk it was time for tea and toast in the cafe which had just opened at 10a.m.  We sat in comfy chairs beside this fireplace which was decorated ready for the Easter weekend.

After breakfast it was time to move on so there was no time to see the walled garden, the Discovery Centre and inside the chapel.  Maybe we'll go back again.

In my next posts we'll visit Creswell Crags and Sherwood Forest.