A Walk in the Park

On Thursday, Corrinne and Roger invited us over to Woodhouse Eaves for a morning walk with a neighbour’s dog and lunch at their local pub.

It was a nice day, a hint of rain that didn’t really happen and a bit cool, so very good for a walk.

Corrinne was much improved from her cold so we were all set. We picked up the dog, a black cocker spaniel named Sam and set off.

Sam had a short run offlead on the Village Green, and pooped twice. After Roger cleaned up the Green, we set off up Windmill Hill which has a lot of paths between stands of trees and is very pretty.

We saw more of the local granite stone in outcrops and spread around the area.

We made it to the top of the hill and the site of the windmill, which had been used as a grain mill before burning down in 1945.

There were some more great views from the top of the hill, and you can see some of the walking paths that were available to us. We were spoilt for choice

We had a break at the top before setting off down the hill again.

We set off towards the next hill, Broombriggs Hill, and Sam managed another little present along the way.

Sam was having a great walk, getting a lot off his mind, running around smelling everything, marking everything and thoroughly enjoying his outing.

Our walk was all within the Charnwood Forest which is a wonderful area for walking. A lot of the land has been purchased and gifted to the people of Leicestershire, so it’s mostly public land. Some is privately owned with public easements for walking tracks, usually well marked by the owners.

The area around Woodhouse Eaves offers 3 hills to walk up and/or between, Beacon Hill being the highest. We only walked up Windmill Hill and around Broombriggs Farm and that was plenty for us, and Sam. You can walk on through Charnwood , past Stoneywell to Bradgate; that would be a significant walk.

Many of the fields are separated by granite dry-stone walls like these which are common around here.

We walked through paddocks with cattle, with Sam on-lead of course.

Through a large field of Barley.

Then we were ready for lunch. Corrinne dropped Sam off home again and we went to the Curzon Arms for what was described as a light lunch of sandwiches. After we had all had our fill, none of us had actually eaten it all, there was so much provided.

We can highly recommend the Curzon Arms for their food, it was really nice and fresh, and the greater menu choice looked very inviting. Roger said that there are now just 3 pubs in town and they have all changed to become good restaurants rather than pubs to visit for a drink. Spoilt for choice again.

We went back to their house to give them a few pointers for a trip that they are planning in New Zealand next year. Thanks again Corrinne and Roger for a good walk and for lunch, we enjoyed seeing you again and if you do make it down our way, please be sure to look us up so we can show you what it’s like walking through the Aussie bush.

With some help from Roger B, we moved on to Loughborough to take a ride in the Great Central Railway, a local tourist attraction that we had visited at Rothley with Les and Bridget.

First down the steps to the platform.

Then check out the train.

Then onto the train.

These trains are all restored to period condition and are often used with steam locomotives. We had a diesel Electric loco, built in 1961 and ‘as new’.

The train travels for about 30 minutes from Loughborough Station to another station in North Leicester. Then it comes back again. Along the way, you travel through a mixture of suburbs and open country and it was very easy and good fun. Heather certainly enjoyed it.

We traveled through cultivated fields.

Past the reservoir that we had seen by road a few days ago.

We stopped at Quorn Station along the way.

Also Rothley.

An unusual experience but enjoyable, another good day in Leicestershire.

A Quick Trip to London

On Tuesday and Wednesday we went down to London to catch up with some of our extended family.

Roger’s niece Gabi moved over at the end of last year, is living in Chiswick and is working in the city on a large building restoration project.

Heather’s 2^nd cousin Louise has been living in London for a few years now, is married to Phil and living in Wimbledon, and they have just had a baby girl Jemima.

So we arranged to go out for dinner with Gabi on Tuesday night and visit Louise, Phil and Jemima on Wednesday morning.

The trip down from Leicester wasn’t great. The M1 motorway is undergoing further improvement, there was over 30 miles of heavy, and speed restricted traffic along the way.

The traffic on the surface roads in London wasn’t a lot better – ‘tis busy out there.

We had booked a hotel at Brentford at the bottom end of the Grand Union Canal where it goes out onto the River Thames to stay overnight, as it is the next suburb from Chiswick. We settled into our room, taking in the view of the Gauging Lock from our balcony.

We have been through here many times since 2006, and it was a treat for us to be camped nearby.

As it was a really nice day, we had a walk around the basin and down to the Thames. This is Thames Lock, down from the Grand Union Canal to the tidal part of the Thames.

It only operates for boats that are prebooked, and passage is arranged for the incoming tide for boats moving upstream, or the outgoing tide for boats moving downstream.

The tide was pretty low when we were there as you can see.

There are several boats permanently moored here, and they are high and dry twice every day.

Sooner them than us. Further out, the Thames itself wasn’t a lot better.

There may be a channel in there somewhere, but I’d rather have another 10 or 12 feet of water under us.

Heather’s thumb came out to catch a bit of sun, it’s improving a lot.

We saw some more boats moored above Thames Lock, I know where I’d rather be.

When Gabi finished work for the day she came to Brentford and we showed her around some of the nicer parts of Brentford.

Gabi is leading the engineering development of the refurbishment of London’s Centre point Tower, a 33 storey building and 9 storey retail plaza which were originally built in the 1960s. They are Grade II listed properties which makes the task more complicated, and it’s a big opportunity and responsibility for Gabi.

We went on to a favourite restaurant of ours and had a good meal, and it was just lovely to catch up.

Gabi’s identical twin sister Daina will be here in about 3 weeks to join her, look out London!

Wednesday morning we checked out of our hotel and drove across to Wimbledon to see Louise and Phil, and to meet Jemima.

Only 3 weeks old, she has it all in front of her. Except for her new kangaroo behind her.

Phil is starting up a new business shortly and is winding down from his old one, so has been lucky to be able to spend some time with his girls.

At the moment it’s all about feeding and growing, but with those big eyes, they’re going to be busy.

It was great to see you again Louise and Phil, and to meet Jemima, and we wish you much happiness for the future.

The drive back was similar to the drive down, but we made it safely back to Anstey and a warm welcome from the felines, Frankie and Ella.

A day at the Fair

We did some more exploring on the Bank Holiday Monday, setting out to visit another nearby village , Melton Mowbray, and on to Rutland Water.

Along the way we saw where Frisbies come from.

We also saw a lot more open countryside, and some small villages.

This one is called Rotherby and is very cute.

We made it to Melton Mowbray, and it too seemed to be almost deserted.

Until we found the fairgrounds.

And what a fair. There were all sorts of attractions, and all the people that we hadn’t been seeing in the nearby villages, it seemed.

There were rides to be had on pretty horses.

Horse races if you preferred.

A very high and very steep jumping slide.

You could ride on cars or teacups.

A train if you preferred.

Or even a flying elephant.

Dodgems that you are expected to crash.

Water rides, well Zorbs anyway.

Even death-defying motorcyclists crashing through barriers of fire.

The owls weren’t impressed by any of it.

We took a walk around the town and found quite a bit of activity up in the central mall area.

Unfortunately the market stalls weren’t operating. We found another 14^th century church.

Melton Mowbray is not a big place but this church seemed quite large to us, almost as large as the cathedral in Leicester.

We moved on to Rutland Water which is a large lake area, not far from Oakham, with the village of Hambleton smack in the middle, built on a peninsula which just about splits the lake in 2. It is described as the water playground of the East Midlands.

Our pictures of the lake weren’t great and don’t do the place justice, but it was impressive. The lake is man-made (1976) is actually a reservoir and it’s huge, covering more than 12 square km. It is also the principal water supply for the Anglia region of England.

There is a lot of holiday accomodation in Hambleton and around Rutland Water.

Some old.

Some new.

A Visit to CK

On Sunday we took a drive around some of the nearby villages in the morning, Rothley, Mountsorrel and Quorn to name some.

They are pretty villages, but were all nearly completely deserted.

It is a Bank Holiday weekend and the weather is fine so we thought that there would be a lot of people out and about, but no.

Not a person in sight.

We drove back out into the rolling countryside.

We are constantly amazed that in a country as small and as populated as England, there are such vast expanses of open land.

We passed the local reservoir, not friendly to any sort of boating, but no fishermen either.

In the afternoon, we paid a visit to Karoline and John, currently aboard CK. They were moored at Westport Lake adjacent to the Trent & Mersey Canal near Stoke on Trent.

There used to be a football club on the site of the lake but the land sunk for some reason and it couldn’t be used any more. The local council turned it into a rubbish tip and so it was for many years. By 1986, it was re-invented into the lake and bird sanctuary that it is today, popular with local residents, visitors and passing narrowboaters, not to mention the geese.

This is a Canada goose but there all types there, and also some swans and ducks. Unfortunately, they are well fed by the visitors and are very tame.

Many have a condition called Angel Wing which is a wing deformity that is caused in wild birds, particularly when young, that stops the birds from being able to fly and do all the things that they should be doing. They have probably been fed bread, potato crisps and cake which only takes away their hunger and stops them from eating the natural things that they should be eating for their normal development.

We caught up with Karoline and John and picked up some things that we had left behind when we packed and left CK. They are both well although John has had problems recently with a slipped disk in his back. They will be leaving CK in the morning when Ally and Lyndon will take over to cruise the Caldon Canal and head back to Napton.

Thanks for the cuppa guys, it was good to see you again.

It is a nice place to visit.

Leicester

On Saturday, after a marathon blogging effort, we went into Leicester city centre for a look around.

The central area is arranged as a set of pedestrian malls, and they work very well. At the centre is the clock tower.

There were plenty of people out and about, enjoying the day which was cool but fine.

These young musicians were very good at entertaining, and had quite a bit of cash in their bucket to show for it.

The instruments were ‘innovative’ but they played them very well and we enjoyed listening to them.

Apparently 1997 was a good year for sport in Leicester. In that year, the local Cricket, Soccer and Rugby clubs all won their competitions.

Good to see them all playing together nicely.

We went to the market which had a very good range of fresh produce at very reasonable prices. There were a lot of stalls and it seemed to be very competitive.

We were close to Leicester Cathedral by now.

We thought we should check out the grave of King Richard III inside the cathedral. King Richard II was the last of the Plantagenet kings of England, ascending to the throne in questionable circumstances in 1483. He died in 1485 in battle, the final conflict of the War of the Roses, which saw the emergence of the Tudors to the royalty.

His remains were discovered in a car park 2012 and they were proven to be Richard’s by DNA matching with living descendants of his sister. He was re-interred in March 2015 inside the cathedral.

Here he is in happier times.

Back out on the streets we did some shopping and checked out the sights.

There is some interesting graffiti in Leicester.

At the end of the day, the cats were very happy to see us ‘home’.

Around Anstey

Friday was another day of chores mainly, but we found some time to have a walk around some of the streets and parks of Anstey.

There is a good selection of shops, restaurants and pubs in the village but the parks are good with plenty of space for outdoor activities.

This is the park directly across the road from Bridget & Les’s house, and apart from being several acres in area, it is well equipped with a range of playground equipment for small children, right up to teenagers.

Apart from the normal swings, slides, climbing frames etc., there is a very good flying fox and a skateboard ramp.

Several properties back directly onto the park with their own gates in their rear fences which would be great if you lived there. They are mainly screened by well established trees.

We have noticed that the park and equipment is well used by the local kids which is very good to see.

We went down through the town to a park on the other side. It has some lovely willows around Rothley Brook that flows through the park.

We noticed that the brook has a bridge which looks quite old.

Its design and construction remind us very much of the bridge at Bidford upon Avon which was built around 1525. It turns out that it has been dated to the 16^th century is called Packhorse Bridge, and there are bridges of this basic style which is called packhorse bridge, all over Britain.

The indentations are so that pedestrians could get out of the way of packhorses as they crossed the bridges. Good idea.

By now, Heather was in some pain from her thumb so we called it a day. Heather is handling her injury pretty well, but occasionally it reminds her that it’s still there and if she does too much, it will remind her. If she rests up, it does recover without further damage.

Bradgate

On Thursday, we went to Newtown Linford, only a couple of miles away from Anstey to see the Bradgate Country Park. About 340 hectares in size, it is an interesting place, quite hilly in the middle with some very unusual features.

Bradgate and Stoneywell are both situated in the Charnwood Forest which covers miles of the local area, with several towns and villages contained within it.

We started out by visiting the Old John Folly which is visible for miles around.

The folly was built in 1784 as a mock ruin and serves no purpose at all, other than being visible. There is plenty of granite about so its construction would have been straight-forward.

The views from the tower are terrific in every direction.

This shows part of Bradgate Park in the foreground and looking away to Anstey and across Leicestershire. Shame that it was a bit hazy, but you get the idea.

There are a few houses in the middle distance.

We went through some woods.

To a WW1 memorial, that can also be seen for miles.

With some more great views.

The lands of the park were a very old estate dating back to the 11^th century, with 15^th century links to the royal family, Henry VIII, Mary Tudor etc., but more on that later. These lands were acquired in 1928 by Charles Bennion who placed them in trust for the ‘quiet enjoyment’ of the people of Leicestershire.

We quietly enjoyed them very much thank you Mr Bennion.

Lower down in Bradgate Park is a Deer sanctuary, which is totally open to the public.

It was all very peaceful, no deer were being chased, no dogs were shot.

We saw a lot of very old trees, many struggling to survive. Heather was very taken by this one, just enough bark to maintain new growth.

This one was also struggling, but still surviving.

In the 15^th century, Bradgate came to the Grey family, who built this manor house from 1499.

The Greys were related to Henry VIII, and after his demise, his son Edward who became King named Lady Jane Grey, his cousin, who had been born here, to be the rightful heir to his throne. Problem was, he had two sisters, Mary Tudor of Framlingham and Elizabeth, who both wanted to become Queen, and did.

When Edward duly died, Lady Jane became Queen in London. Mary was also proclaimed Queen at Framlingham, and Lady Jane and her husband were charged with treason, were tried and beheaded at the Tower of London. Lady Jane had been Queen for 9 days. She was 17 years old when she died.

Bradgate was unusual when it was built as it was not fortified at all and was built of brick, not stone.

The building survived for several hundred years but is now in ruins.

Growing happily within, Belladonna.

AKA Deadly Nightshade, every part of this plant is deadly poisonous.

The entrance to the manor house is framed nicely by Chestnut trees, in flower at the moment.

A big day for us, a lot of walking, the deer took a break for us.

Stoneywell

We arranged to catch up with Corrinne and Roger Berkley, previously owners in the original CK syndicate on Wednesday. They live nearby and we have known them for quite a few years, so it was good to be able to see them again.

Unfortunately Corrinne was not well so we only saw her briefly, before we headed off to the Stoneywell House and Gardens for a tour.

Stoneywell House was built around 1898 as the holiday house of the Gimson family, based in Leicestershire with successful interests in engineering and arts and crafts. It is an impressive property, recently acquired by the National Trust, and now open to the public by appointment.

The house is interesting in its design and construction.

The extensive gardens are just beautiful.

We took a guided tour around the gardens first, and were impressed by the use of space and the mix of shrubs and trees, of many different types.

And colours.

There were even some gum trees to make us feel at home.

These plants are not so pretty.

They are called Gunnera and while these are small, we have seen some in Cornwall that were so big that Heather could stand under the leaves.

The house is mainly built from the local granite, with a lot of slate on the roof.

The roof was originally thatch but after electricity was installed in the 1930s, there was a fire so it was replaced by the slate in use today.

The plumbing pipes are made of lead and are quite ornate.

A large, very solid house, sympathetic to the site and beautifully landscaped.

At our allotted time, we went inside for another guided tour.

This room was originally the kitchen but is now the dining room. The walls are very thick, the floor is directly on the ground. It would have been a very cold house in winter.

No wonder the family used it mainly as a holiday house in the summer.

In one of the bedrooms, Roger noticed a bedspread that had been knitted with cotton in the 1950s.

It had a similar pattern to some tablecloths and serviettes that his grandmother had knitted with cotton, when they lived in Papua in the 1950s. The Coates Pattons pattern must have been popular, it took months to make the tablecloths, the bedspread would have been similar.

Back outside the house, we did some more exploring.

We found a vegetable garden.

Heather found a dry-wall fort that the family children must have used for play, but she kept her head down.

We headed off for a late lunch in the stable block.

After lunch we took a longer walk through the woods on the property which was very pretty and natural. We found more Bluebells.

We had an interesting day, thank you Roger B for taking us and we’re sorry Corrinne that you couldn’t make it. Hope you are on the improve soon.

A Jig Saw Puzzle

Sally Hutcheson, Marion’s sister, gave Heather a very unusual Jigsaw Puzzle for her birthday.

A lot of us know that Heather really likes a challenging jigsaw puzzle, but this was different from anything that she had seen before.

Here is the picture that came with the puzzle.

It came with a clue –

Find out what it is that the people in the picture are seeing. Use your imagination as well as your curiosity to find out what’s happening in the puzzle.

Yes, well. There is certainly a lot of consternation here. The camper, his family, the skunk, the duck, squirrel, the fishermen and the pilot across the river, even the moose doesn’t look happy.

What can be happening in the ‘LOO’?

So, in our quieter times at Anstey, Heather has been steadily working on the puzzle.

Result –

The puzzle is a reverse view and the bears are queueing up to use the LOO.

Thanks Sally, a most unusual puzzle.

Busy, Busy in Anstey

We’ve been busy doing things but nothing exciting, really just things that needed to be done.

Sunday, clothes washing, shopping, looking about a bit.

We had a look at the local shopping centre and stocked up for a few days at Tesco. Then we found a Costco nearby so went to get some treats. Near Costco, we found a canal-side pub so stopped for a welcome drink.

Monday we drove into the QE Hospital in Birmingham to pick up Heather’s medical file and xrays so that we will have them when we get back to Australia.

It was a foul day, and the driving wasn’t much fun.

There are a lot of cars on the Motorways and most people just don’t slow down. We took it easy and were safe, but we saw 2 multi-car accidents that possibly could have been avoided.

When we returned to Anstey we examined the file and the xrays and found that the original xrays were not included, we only had the post-op ones taken on May 6. We rang the hospital and were told that they could not provide the original xrays as they were taken at the Royal Worcester Hospital, even though they did have them at QE for the operation.

We emailed Rob, the paramedic who had helped us at the time of the accident to see if he or his wife Holly could advise us how we could get those xrays from RWH, and the next thing you know, we have an email saying that they are ready for pick-up. What a star, thanks again Rob.

Today we drove to Worcester and picked up those xrays, and they are fine, so now we have the full record to take home.

Paul sent us a link for a newspiece about the installation of the Sir Antony Gormley sculpture on the Canal that we had seen when we were bringing CK home –

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-32631681

As Heather had not seen that statue and it was on our way to Worcester, we stopped off to have a look.