Saturday 19 December 2015
Gather at Tracey's house for nibbles and a drink.
Ten of us for a Christmas meal at The King's Lock
Tuesday, 29 December 2015
Saturday, 21 November 2015
Hampton Heath
Saturday 21 November 2015 5.25 miles
Jane and Tracey
A beautiful sunny day but the weather forecast was for cold weather so we wrapped up warmly.
There was white stuff on the road side in Bickerton, it could have been snow but it looked more like hail stones. We set out from the National Trust car park at about 10am.
Walking through the woods we brushed through the recently dropped leaves of the trees especially oak leaves. The clear day provided us with distant views through the trees and it looked as though there was snow on the hills.
The fields were quite wet underfoot in places and particularly muddy where had to cross stiles or negotiate kissing gates!
This is obviously horse racing countryside as we passed oval horse training ground. There were people riding horses in the next field. Then we passed the horse exercise machine with the horses going round and round, some of them were more interested in looking at us.
We then came round to the front drive where we came to the impressive buildings.
Manor House Stables, converted from a cattle barn by Michael and Louise Owen, commenced business as a training yard in March 2007 with 30 horses. By May 2009, improvements to the facilities meant it had grown to accommodate 90 horses with an impressive lounge for owners, a brand new office and superb hostel accommodation for the staff.
We joined the lane and here we passed a couple of lovely horses being ridden on the road.
The wind was icy cold as we walked along the lanes, so we thought it was best not to sit and have lunch there.
Had lunch back at the car at about 12.30
We left the car park and turned right on to Old Coach Road and after driving a short way we passed a large building which looked very interesting. It has Elizabethan style chimneys but the wood and plaster work looked too regular, so maybe that is Victorian.
Broxton Old Hall is a Grade 11 listed building with late C16th beginnings, and C19th extensions. Broxton Old Hall has garden terraces, lawns and a grotto. The landscape of Broxton Old Hall has a recently developed walled formal garden with box yew hedges and herbaceous borders. There is also a lake, follies and a yew avenue.
We went to the Candle Workshop for tea and a piece of tray bake.
we had a wander about, there was lots of lovely candle stuff.
On our journey back home we could see the hills around Mow Cop and there were covered in snow.
Jane and Tracey
A beautiful sunny day but the weather forecast was for cold weather so we wrapped up warmly.
There was white stuff on the road side in Bickerton, it could have been snow but it looked more like hail stones. We set out from the National Trust car park at about 10am.
Walking through the woods we brushed through the recently dropped leaves of the trees especially oak leaves. The clear day provided us with distant views through the trees and it looked as though there was snow on the hills.
The fields were quite wet underfoot in places and particularly muddy where had to cross stiles or negotiate kissing gates!
This is obviously horse racing countryside as we passed oval horse training ground. There were people riding horses in the next field. Then we passed the horse exercise machine with the horses going round and round, some of them were more interested in looking at us.
We then came round to the front drive where we came to the impressive buildings.
Manor House Stables, converted from a cattle barn by Michael and Louise Owen, commenced business as a training yard in March 2007 with 30 horses. By May 2009, improvements to the facilities meant it had grown to accommodate 90 horses with an impressive lounge for owners, a brand new office and superb hostel accommodation for the staff.
We joined the lane and here we passed a couple of lovely horses being ridden on the road.
The wind was icy cold as we walked along the lanes, so we thought it was best not to sit and have lunch there.
Had lunch back at the car at about 12.30
We left the car park and turned right on to Old Coach Road and after driving a short way we passed a large building which looked very interesting. It has Elizabethan style chimneys but the wood and plaster work looked too regular, so maybe that is Victorian.
Broxton Old Hall is a Grade 11 listed building with late C16th beginnings, and C19th extensions. Broxton Old Hall has garden terraces, lawns and a grotto. The landscape of Broxton Old Hall has a recently developed walled formal garden with box yew hedges and herbaceous borders. There is also a lake, follies and a yew avenue.
We went to the Candle Workshop for tea and a piece of tray bake.
we had a wander about, there was lots of lovely candle stuff.
On our journey back home we could see the hills around Mow Cop and there were covered in snow.
Sunday, 1 November 2015
Walk from Carol's House
Saturday 31 October 6.5 miles
Carol, Donna, Jane and Hilary
Added the walk from Middlewich to the Aqueduct Marina, so Hilary added 6.5 miles, Jane added over 7 Miles. There was warm weather this week so we thought it wasn't going to rain so we could walk to Carol's house.
The incident of the cow
Carol and Donna met us on the canal near to the Aqueduct Marina then we walked to Church Minshull.
Lunch at The Badger
There is a large field with no obvious path across it so we walked all the way around it. Some people were waking their dogs so I asked them where the path was likely to be, the man pointed back towards the trees. Carol found the little bridge as we walked back, it was a bit hidden from view, walking around the field added a good half a mile of walking!!
walk over the fields and along lanes to Aston-juxta-Mondrum
Cows in the field
A cup of tea at Carol's - very welcome
Carol, Donna, Jane and Hilary
Added the walk from Middlewich to the Aqueduct Marina, so Hilary added 6.5 miles, Jane added over 7 Miles. There was warm weather this week so we thought it wasn't going to rain so we could walk to Carol's house.
The incident of the cow
Carol and Donna met us on the canal near to the Aqueduct Marina then we walked to Church Minshull.
Lunch at The Badger
There is a large field with no obvious path across it so we walked all the way around it. Some people were waking their dogs so I asked them where the path was likely to be, the man pointed back towards the trees. Carol found the little bridge as we walked back, it was a bit hidden from view, walking around the field added a good half a mile of walking!!
walk over the fields and along lanes to Aston-juxta-Mondrum
Cows in the field
A cup of tea at Carol's - very welcome
Monday, 5 October 2015
Sunday, 20 September 2015
Two Country Parks
Saturday 5 September 2015 8.1miles
Tracey, Jane + Hilary
The first thought on waking is "What is the weather going to be like today?". As we woke to rain there was some wondering as to whether we might get wet today, but in the end we had beautiful sunshine. An excellent walk with plenty of variety from woodland to rocks with views as well as the towns.
We parked at Biddulph Country Park, there were plenty of cars as people were walking their dogs. Hilary had managed to find some new Brasher socks whilst on holiday in Scotland, but was still wearing her old holey boots so her feet were bound to be wet by the end of the day! The Visitor Centre was not open, but we were able to use the toilets.
The Visitor Centre was then the start of the walk, walking through the park along a path beside a stream was very picturesque, it was constructed in Victorian times to create just such a walk.
We left the park and started a gentle climb until we reached the Staffordshire Moorlands Walk.The walk was not easy to follow the walk in places even though we were following the Staffordshire Moorlands Walk lapwing emblem on a yellow arrow. We ended up doing a few more stretches of road than we walk suggested we should do.
The Wicken Stones are great slabs of rock sticking out of the landscape. The lovely views are the main feature of this walk and on such a clear bright day we could see for miles.
As we came around the radio mast there was a white horse standing under the rock formation and it looked as though it was holding up the rock.
We could see the water of the reservoir as we followed the path, it looked a bit brown from the distance. We entered Greenway Bank Country Park and followed the path along the edge of the Knypersley Reservoir.
The site was once part of the Knypersley Hall estate. The site was owned in 1778 by Hugh Henshall, brother-in-law of James Brindley, and the engineer in charge of completing the Trent and Mersey canal. He created two lakes at Greenway, the upper in 1781 being fed by the Trent via a leat from Knypersley. The larger lake, Knypersley Pool, was created in 1828 to feed the Caldon Canal via the Trent.
The lunch stop is always much anticipated! We had mentioned food before we entered the country park, but it just as well we had waited as we sat and had lunch under the trees where there was a bench with a view over the water. The little bit of a breeze made the water glisten in the sunshine
Other people came along
We joined the Biddulph Valley way which was originally a branch of the North Staffordshire Railway. It was lovely to walk so close to Biddulph In some places we were under the canopy of the trees, in other at the backs of houses.
Congleton Garden centre for tea and lovely cake and good value too at £2.95.
Tracey, Jane + Hilary
The first thought on waking is "What is the weather going to be like today?". As we woke to rain there was some wondering as to whether we might get wet today, but in the end we had beautiful sunshine. An excellent walk with plenty of variety from woodland to rocks with views as well as the towns.
We parked at Biddulph Country Park, there were plenty of cars as people were walking their dogs. Hilary had managed to find some new Brasher socks whilst on holiday in Scotland, but was still wearing her old holey boots so her feet were bound to be wet by the end of the day! The Visitor Centre was not open, but we were able to use the toilets.
The Visitor Centre was then the start of the walk, walking through the park along a path beside a stream was very picturesque, it was constructed in Victorian times to create just such a walk.
We left the park and started a gentle climb until we reached the Staffordshire Moorlands Walk.The walk was not easy to follow the walk in places even though we were following the Staffordshire Moorlands Walk lapwing emblem on a yellow arrow. We ended up doing a few more stretches of road than we walk suggested we should do.
The Wicken Stones are great slabs of rock sticking out of the landscape. The lovely views are the main feature of this walk and on such a clear bright day we could see for miles.
As we came around the radio mast there was a white horse standing under the rock formation and it looked as though it was holding up the rock.
We could see the water of the reservoir as we followed the path, it looked a bit brown from the distance. We entered Greenway Bank Country Park and followed the path along the edge of the Knypersley Reservoir.
The site was once part of the Knypersley Hall estate. The site was owned in 1778 by Hugh Henshall, brother-in-law of James Brindley, and the engineer in charge of completing the Trent and Mersey canal. He created two lakes at Greenway, the upper in 1781 being fed by the Trent via a leat from Knypersley. The larger lake, Knypersley Pool, was created in 1828 to feed the Caldon Canal via the Trent.
The lunch stop is always much anticipated! We had mentioned food before we entered the country park, but it just as well we had waited as we sat and had lunch under the trees where there was a bench with a view over the water. The little bit of a breeze made the water glisten in the sunshine
Other people came along
We joined the Biddulph Valley way which was originally a branch of the North Staffordshire Railway. It was lovely to walk so close to Biddulph In some places we were under the canopy of the trees, in other at the backs of houses.
Congleton Garden centre for tea and lovely cake and good value too at £2.95.
Saturday, 8 August 2015
Tushingham
Saturday 8 August
Jane + Hilary
A beautiful day was forecast, and the sun shone brightly. There was a slight breeze in the morning keeping it cooler.
Lovely landscape when walking to Old St Chad's Church.
The path was surrounded by plenty of nettles - to catch Hilary's legs!
Fields of sweet corn
As we walked along the canal there were Red Admirals flying about in the lovely sunshine.
After we passed under the bridge we noticed a studio open sign. So we visited Buffy Robinson in her batik studio, upstairs in a C17th barn at the Wharf, Grindley Brook. She does beautiful batik work, her drawings are lovely. The elephant lampshade were really good. The studio is in Shropshire, but only just. We went over the bridge to look at the art in a shed, there were plenty of books and some art work.
We returned to the batik studio and sat on the bench and had lunch, it was in full sun so we got pretty hot.
Went back into Cheshire shortly after passing the pub.
The blindfolded horse.
Lots of thistles in the fields, many of them going to seed
Hilary had been talking about the lack of animals in the fields so we at last came to few fields with cows in them and one with a lot of sheep.
Small aeroplanes flying overhead
It was very warm in the afternoon, which made the last stretch a bit harder.
We stopped for ice cream on the way home, everybody else had the same idea. When I saw the queue I would happily have turned around and gone home especially as I hate queues! But Hilary was determined to have that ice cream so we joined the queue.
Cup of tea at Hilary's house
Jane + Hilary
A beautiful day was forecast, and the sun shone brightly. There was a slight breeze in the morning keeping it cooler.
Lovely landscape when walking to Old St Chad's Church.
The path was surrounded by plenty of nettles - to catch Hilary's legs!
Fields of sweet corn
As we walked along the canal there were Red Admirals flying about in the lovely sunshine.
After we passed under the bridge we noticed a studio open sign. So we visited Buffy Robinson in her batik studio, upstairs in a C17th barn at the Wharf, Grindley Brook. She does beautiful batik work, her drawings are lovely. The elephant lampshade were really good. The studio is in Shropshire, but only just. We went over the bridge to look at the art in a shed, there were plenty of books and some art work.
We returned to the batik studio and sat on the bench and had lunch, it was in full sun so we got pretty hot.
Went back into Cheshire shortly after passing the pub.
The blindfolded horse.
Lots of thistles in the fields, many of them going to seed
Hilary had been talking about the lack of animals in the fields so we at last came to few fields with cows in them and one with a lot of sheep.
Small aeroplanes flying overhead
It was very warm in the afternoon, which made the last stretch a bit harder.
We stopped for ice cream on the way home, everybody else had the same idea. When I saw the queue I would happily have turned around and gone home especially as I hate queues! But Hilary was determined to have that ice cream so we joined the queue.
Cup of tea at Hilary's house
Monday, 20 July 2015
Anglesey Weekend
Friday 17 - Sunday 19 July
Jane, Donna and Hilary.
Friday 17 July
We managed to set off at a responsible time, about 6.30pm, but met lots of traffic as the A54 met the A51, fortunately we got to the junction easily so we turned onto the A51 which was full of stationary traffic for as far as we could see. The weekend traffic had started, everyone was trying to get away.
We went on the back lanes to join the A41 to Christleton and on to the A55. We moved quite quickly until we crossed the boundary into Wales. There had been an accident on the A55 so the traffic was backed up. We crawled along, eventually we came off onto the A5151 to move a little quicker towards Anglesey. We rejoined the A55 and made good progress.
We arrived at about 9.10pm, as I had told the site owners we would be there for 9pm we did arrive in good enough time, although I had hoped to be there for about 8.30pm. We had our wheelbarrows ready to go when we went to tell the owners we had arrived.
The tipi didn't look too inviting in the semi dark. There were fairy lights around the inside of the tipi so we turned them on, they made the tipi look pretty.
We went to have a look at the composting toilets. Washing your hands was interesting as there was a wooden box and you had to press a piece of wood at the bottom to pump the water, and there was a soap on a rope so that you could wash your hands, it was most ingenious.
Donna had a go at lighting the fire in the wood burning stove, we had no paper so Donna went and found a newspaper in the recycling bin that she could use, how clever!.
But as it was late we let it go out.
The sky was very clear so the night was cold. Donna was too cold overnight so she had a problem sleeping.
Saturday 18 July Llaneilian Walk should have been 7.75miles we did 8.5 miles
I made the ham sandwiches and then the cooked breakfast of egg, bacon, sausages, cherry tomatoes and potato cakes. We were able to sit outside and eat at the picnic table.
A beautiful sunny day
We drove to Porth Eilian and parked in the free parking place and then walked down to the sea. The rocky bay looked inviting on this bright sunny day.
We added about 0.25 miles to our walk when we went to Point Lynas to look at the Lighthouse and cottages, they were for sale at £1,375,000!!!!
Hilary and Donna saw a dolphin playing in the water at Point Lynas.
We returned to the path we needed to take to follow the coastal path. We walked along the coast watching the large ships out at sea carrying their cargoes waiting to land them.
We followed the more obvious path so we went the wrong way. When I stopped to read the directions again on the next page it said to be careful NOT to do that!! Too late.
Once we were back on the correct route, we sat for a short while at Porth Helygen with other people watching the seals below in the water.
We were about to walk along a section of road so we decided to stop for lunch where we could sit in a field and enjoy the view.
The cows in the next field were running about - didn't want to go in the field! So walked around on the roads
A warm day and as Hilary had forgotten her water bottle so Donna shared one of her two bottles of water with her. So it was useful to get water from the farm house we passed on our detour.
Evening - It is a good job that we didn't walk to the pub along the road because the pub was busy and short staffed and we would have had to have waited an hour and a half for food. We went to Meolfre, there are queues outside the fish and chip shop and the pub by the harbour was busy. We were looking for Ty Dderw, as the owners of the tipi site had said it had views of the sea but we couldn't find it (we did eventually noticed it when we were leaving Moelfre later that evening, we had been expecting it to be directly overlooking the sea, so we were looking in the wrong place!).
We did manage to get a table at Ann's Pantry, and have lovely meals of lemon sole and pork loin.
Donna had set the fire before we left so all she had to do was light it when we got back from our meal. We got a bit too hot!
It rained heavily in the night, I half woke a couple of times knowing I would need to go to the toilet but as the rain was drumming on the tipi I thought I would wait. Eventually at about 4am I decided I couldn't wait any longer so I put on my trousers and rain jacket and faced the wind and the rain. Actually it wasn't as bad as it sounded, I made it to the composting toilet and back without getting very wet at all.
Sunday 19 July Moelfre walk 4 miles
Breakfast was the bits and pieces that we had!
As it turned out to be another beautiful day we decided to do a walk from Traeth Lligwy along the coast to Meolfre. The beach car park at Lligwy is £2.50, the beach is covered in golden sand.
We found out about the Royal Charter, a clipper that was wrecked on the rocks by Porth Helaeth in October 1859, it had travelled all the way from Melbourne only to be wrecked close to shore and not far from Liverpool its destination. Over 400 people died.
We visited the RNLI visitor centre in Moelfre, and watched some old footage of This Is Your Life showing Richard Evans, the former lifeboat coxswain, receiving the red book.
On deciding where to have lunch Ann's Pantry seemed to be the best choice, and we had soup and corn bread.
The new £10m RNLI station at Meolfre was open on our way back so we went inside to see the new boat - RNLB Kiwi. Moelfre's £2.7m new lifeboat has been named RNLB Kiwi after Reginald James Clark, a New Zealander, who died in June 2004 and left £2.2m to the RNLI in his will.
Decided to walk back along the coast rather than along the roads, so we retraced our steps.
We had ice cream from the shop on the beach at Lligwy.
Jane, Donna and Hilary.
Friday 17 July
We managed to set off at a responsible time, about 6.30pm, but met lots of traffic as the A54 met the A51, fortunately we got to the junction easily so we turned onto the A51 which was full of stationary traffic for as far as we could see. The weekend traffic had started, everyone was trying to get away.
We went on the back lanes to join the A41 to Christleton and on to the A55. We moved quite quickly until we crossed the boundary into Wales. There had been an accident on the A55 so the traffic was backed up. We crawled along, eventually we came off onto the A5151 to move a little quicker towards Anglesey. We rejoined the A55 and made good progress.
We arrived at about 9.10pm, as I had told the site owners we would be there for 9pm we did arrive in good enough time, although I had hoped to be there for about 8.30pm. We had our wheelbarrows ready to go when we went to tell the owners we had arrived.
The tipi didn't look too inviting in the semi dark. There were fairy lights around the inside of the tipi so we turned them on, they made the tipi look pretty.
We went to have a look at the composting toilets. Washing your hands was interesting as there was a wooden box and you had to press a piece of wood at the bottom to pump the water, and there was a soap on a rope so that you could wash your hands, it was most ingenious.
Donna had a go at lighting the fire in the wood burning stove, we had no paper so Donna went and found a newspaper in the recycling bin that she could use, how clever!.
But as it was late we let it go out.
The sky was very clear so the night was cold. Donna was too cold overnight so she had a problem sleeping.
Saturday 18 July Llaneilian Walk should have been 7.75miles we did 8.5 miles
I made the ham sandwiches and then the cooked breakfast of egg, bacon, sausages, cherry tomatoes and potato cakes. We were able to sit outside and eat at the picnic table.
A beautiful sunny day
We drove to Porth Eilian and parked in the free parking place and then walked down to the sea. The rocky bay looked inviting on this bright sunny day.
We added about 0.25 miles to our walk when we went to Point Lynas to look at the Lighthouse and cottages, they were for sale at £1,375,000!!!!
Hilary and Donna saw a dolphin playing in the water at Point Lynas.
We returned to the path we needed to take to follow the coastal path. We walked along the coast watching the large ships out at sea carrying their cargoes waiting to land them.
We followed the more obvious path so we went the wrong way. When I stopped to read the directions again on the next page it said to be careful NOT to do that!! Too late.
Once we were back on the correct route, we sat for a short while at Porth Helygen with other people watching the seals below in the water.
We were about to walk along a section of road so we decided to stop for lunch where we could sit in a field and enjoy the view.
The cows in the next field were running about - didn't want to go in the field! So walked around on the roads
A warm day and as Hilary had forgotten her water bottle so Donna shared one of her two bottles of water with her. So it was useful to get water from the farm house we passed on our detour.
Evening - It is a good job that we didn't walk to the pub along the road because the pub was busy and short staffed and we would have had to have waited an hour and a half for food. We went to Meolfre, there are queues outside the fish and chip shop and the pub by the harbour was busy. We were looking for Ty Dderw, as the owners of the tipi site had said it had views of the sea but we couldn't find it (we did eventually noticed it when we were leaving Moelfre later that evening, we had been expecting it to be directly overlooking the sea, so we were looking in the wrong place!).
We did manage to get a table at Ann's Pantry, and have lovely meals of lemon sole and pork loin.
Donna had set the fire before we left so all she had to do was light it when we got back from our meal. We got a bit too hot!
It rained heavily in the night, I half woke a couple of times knowing I would need to go to the toilet but as the rain was drumming on the tipi I thought I would wait. Eventually at about 4am I decided I couldn't wait any longer so I put on my trousers and rain jacket and faced the wind and the rain. Actually it wasn't as bad as it sounded, I made it to the composting toilet and back without getting very wet at all.
Sunday 19 July Moelfre walk 4 miles
Breakfast was the bits and pieces that we had!
As it turned out to be another beautiful day we decided to do a walk from Traeth Lligwy along the coast to Meolfre. The beach car park at Lligwy is £2.50, the beach is covered in golden sand.
We found out about the Royal Charter, a clipper that was wrecked on the rocks by Porth Helaeth in October 1859, it had travelled all the way from Melbourne only to be wrecked close to shore and not far from Liverpool its destination. Over 400 people died.
We visited the RNLI visitor centre in Moelfre, and watched some old footage of This Is Your Life showing Richard Evans, the former lifeboat coxswain, receiving the red book.
On deciding where to have lunch Ann's Pantry seemed to be the best choice, and we had soup and corn bread.
The new £10m RNLI station at Meolfre was open on our way back so we went inside to see the new boat - RNLB Kiwi. Moelfre's £2.7m new lifeboat has been named RNLB Kiwi after Reginald James Clark, a New Zealander, who died in June 2004 and left £2.2m to the RNLI in his will.
Decided to walk back along the coast rather than along the roads, so we retraced our steps.
We had ice cream from the shop on the beach at Lligwy.
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