A great time with my sister!

I went down to stay with my sister who lives in Surrey, UK. South of London, for those who don't know our green and pleasant land! We had a great few days together. The first day I was there she took me to the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens at Wisley, which are quite near where she lives. We went to the new Glasshouse. which has tropical and temperate (wet and dry) zones with all the appropriate plants. It is a fantastic building, mainly glass, and with a lake outside. The plants are HUGE, big, big leaves, all looking totally natural, like a forest!



The flowers inside were gorgeous - passion flowers, lilies and things we didn't know the names of! I am sure they were all labelled, but everything had grown so much, some of the labels were hidden.



The grounds are vast, and as I am disabled, we took the little electric car, which is manned by volunteers, and takes you on a circular trip round the various areas. On the way to the Glass house, the driver went rather fast, asnd we were unable to view the beautiful dahlias and Michaelmas daisies as we would have liked. But on the way back he took a wrong turning, and so we saw a great deal more of the various trees than we would have done! The collage also shows the wonderful grasses there, and one of the play areas for children, where little beehive-shaped huts have been woven for them. (The pictures should enlarge if you click on them)

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On Friday my brother-in-law took me to the Light Box in Woking, which is a sort of Art Gallery/Museum, built in a very contemporary, hands-on way. There is a little shop, a great cafe, and that particular week, the most marvellous exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci. Some institution or University (I forget which!) had made scale models of many of da Vinci's machines. They were large scale, made in wood and mind-bogglingly marvellous! Some were hands-on, and it was amazing to see how this one man had invented such things as ball bearings, anemometers and other bits and pieces of engineering, long before the industrial revolution sparked off such inventions. My brother-in-law is an Engineer, and we both spent ages looking at the machines, the guns and da Vinci's flying machines.

The upstairs gallery concentrated on his art. I was getting very tired by that time, but one thing really held my attention. In a heavily-guarded, alarmed and temperature and humidity-controlled case was one of da Vinci's original notes books! I was amazed at how small his writing was, and with a quill pen at that! He wrote from right to left, as he was left-handed, but I was awestruck at seeing his original vellum notebook.

The exhibition is going around the world, I gather. If you get a chance to see it, do go.

I wasn't allowed to take photos in the da Vinci exhibition, but I did take a shot of me in a mirror house, and a general shot of the stairs and gallery.



My sister is a very devoted gardener - she knows all the names of her plants(including the latin ones!) and cares for them tenderly! We were able to sit in her garden and enjoy the sun, and there are three pictures of her garden, including the cotoneaster berries against the house. The other two are a lunch out (tomato and basil soup, since you ask) and racks and racks of lovely coloured paper at the Hobbycraft shop. I love paper, and stood staring at the gorgeous colours.

Now its back at home, wishing the sun would come out, that my washing would dry, and that the dog hadn't gone all over my kitchen floor with his dirty paws!

Still, happy memories help to make the grey days go past!

Memories

Next week I am going down to Surrey to stay with my sister for a few days. Recent phone calls to her have got us both remembering the days when we were small. One thing I remembered would spark her off to something I had forgotten, and so we went on.

I think it is valuable remembering things that happened, and doing it with other members of the family. Often what we always recalled as odd or even had never understood, become perfectly clear when brought into the light of collective memories.

My sister had always thought her little red bicycle was bought specially for her, but I myself had had a little red bicycle, and in the summer that World War II ended it was obvious that "my" bicycle was handed down to her. I got a grown up bike, ready to cycle to my new Grammar (High) School, but it was almost certainly second-hand at that time of austerity.

So today I have posted a collage of photographs taken by my father, all before 1945. The big picture is of me at a "tea party", and the others, from the bottom left-hand corner upwards are:- Me and my sister at the seaside in 1939; me as the littlest bridesmaid at my Uncle and Aunt's wedding; Christmas morning; Our house that was subsequently bombed. You can see the sandbags protecting the front door; feeding chicken (and I hated cleaning them); and me sledging in the winter. We didn't always get that much snow!

It seems like another age now, which I suppose it is. The UK and Europe were never the same after 1945 and the years afterwards, when shortages and rations were the order of the day, moral standards were changing (or slipping according to your outlook!) and thousands of refugees moved across Europe as they sought their homeland.

Sometimes we look at the changed world we live in and wonder how our children will cope. The answer is, of course, that it will all look perfectly normal to them, and they will just get on with living their lives, albeit in a way we perhaps can't imagine, or even understand. I know my own mother would never be able to comprehend the problems that faced me as I brought up my own family, any more than I can fully take in the stresses that my daughter is under. (I do try, Sue, honestly!)

All we can do is the best we can, and pray for God's help, protection and strength for our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Away for a bit

No inspiration, no joy, bad time at the moment.

I'll be back soon, when I feel a bit better. And I'll still be reading your blogs.

Around the Park

I spend quite a lot of time walking around our park



Usually attached to the other end of our dog's lead! He is a little monkey, and runs away from me if I let him off the lead, but is as good as gold with Mr. G!




We have a bandstand, in a rather dilapidated condition, and rather nice flower beds around, with lawns and seats.




The white doves like sitting on top of the bandstand roof, though!



There are more formal bits of the park, and tennis courts, also rather tatty, but due to be renovated this winter in time for next Spring.



There is a little stream, which has been culverted. I have a friend who has lived here all her married life, and she remembers taking her children when small, down to the stream, which had ordinary earth banks, and the children could paddle.




We also have a lovely lake, with lots of ducks and Canada Geese, and sometimes one or two more exotic (for us!) species, like Gooseanders (Loons?) The lake is always interesting to look at, whatever the weather, and in icy weather the ducks look rather forlorn as they slip around on the ice!




The beech trees are lovely in the autumn, and on a fine day the Park is just beautiful.



We also have a largish pitch and put Golf course here, which is well used on summer weekends, but otherwise tends to attract young boys who just bash golf balls around in a wild manner. We have a fine collection of balls



as our garden opens directly onto the Third Tee! In the summer it is advisable to take a quick peek out before sallying forther with an excited dog!

There is a lot more Park, though I don't get to the further reaches now. Mr. G takes the dog round there, and keeps me informed of anything going on! There is a circus once a year, also a fair. And if there is any snow the sledges come out and zip down the hillside. We used to take our grandsons there when they were small, they hadn't brought their sledges, so they borrowed my very large flat meat tins and used those!! They had a whale of a time too!

Its a good place to live. And we are very lucky. I try to remember this when I am feeling down.

Odds and ends in the garden

The sunflowers have come out at last. They are a very late bloomer, and very thuggish. They have taken over the whole border, ansd will have to come out in the autumn. I don't think we will ever get rid of them, as the tiniest bit of root springs up enthusiastically!



Buried in the sunflowers is one brave helenium. We couldn't get it out when the sunflowers began to take over, but it refuses to die. Hopefully I will be able to rescue it. It deserves better!



A couple of late roses are blooming on the patio. They are a very pretty pink, but the winds get at them at this time of the year.



We have a lot of ferns down the end of the garden, as it is, or rather was, very shady. When we raised the canopy of the sycamore tree it let in a lot more sunlight, but they don't seem to mind! I love the way the spores fit on the underside of the ferns.

It is definitely autumn now, it even smells autumnal! I like this time of the year, but the days are getting shorter now, which is not so nice. We have had some lovely sunny days, so I hope they will return. Judging from the weather maps, I think it will be a while before that happens! Depressions are fast approaching across the Atlantic!

Still, the rain makes the country green, and the reservoirs need filling, as they are very low. The Garden Centres are full of bulbs, so I must go and indulge myself and plant some cheerfulness for next spring.

A quick trip

A quick trip round our local Garden Centre - looking for garden furniture being sold off cheap! - made me get my camera out when I saw all these gardening gloves hanging up. I thought they looked like happy hands!



Outside, there were rows and rows of luscious looking plants, but I was told we didn't need any of those! But I found these lovely pots, they'd look fantastic on our patio, but they were excruciatingly expensive, and weren't frost proof, which meant a lot of carting in and out each autumn. Just when it might be rather nice to look out at shiney pots!



The bigger ones were tremendously heavy, we couldn't even lift them. Imagine what they would be like full of compost!

A quick trip, but colourful, even if I couldn't buy any flowers!

The Goyt Valley and Errwood Hall

Saturday morning saw the sun shining, and the promise of a gorgeous day, so we set off towards the Goyt Valley, in Derbyshire, where there are two reservoirs, and walks over hill and dale, as they say! The road to the Goyt from our side of the hills is tortuous, very windy roads, though wonderful views. It is stone wall country up here, with few trees and no hedges. Farms have the sense to huddle in the shelter of a hillside, and keep low rooftops. Unfortunately, it was too hazy to take a photo of the distant moors. But they did look lovely!



From where we parked we walked up into woods; from the entrance there is a view of the reservoir, and a few sailing boats.




The woods were beautifully cool. The path we were on was the old carriage way to the Hall, but there were steps and other paths for the adventurous.




Streams chattered below us, and tributaries added their voice. The dog took a long paddle!




We were aiming for Errwood Hall, now in ruins, but once a great house.






The two old photos show the hall in all its glory in about the 1920's.
Errwood Hall was built in the 1830’s by Samuel Grimshawe, a wealthy Manchester businessman, and was occupied by the Grimshawe family for the next hundred years. The hall was the centre of a thriving estate of over 2,000 acres (8.1 km2), consisting of several farms, a school, a private coal mine and the hamlet of Goyt's Bridge. The family planted many specimen trees including an abundance of azaleas and rhododendrons.
Samuel’s grandchildren were the last members of the family to live in the hall, which was then used as a youth hostel for a few years until it was demolished in connection with the construction of the Fernilee reservoir in 1934. (from Wikipedia)

Before the reservoir was built, there was a thriving village, coal mines, and further down the valley, a gunpowder factory! That probably dated from the 16th century and reputedly provided the ammunition for Sir Francis Drake to fight the Spanish Armada. The factory was active during the first World War, but was closed soon after.



The hall is now in ruins, but the arches of what was probably the drawing room remain.



Plus traces of the grand entrance.



Even the holes remain in the stone pillar where the locks were.



The paved terraces are still there. Its not hard to imagine tea parties being held outside on a fine day!



The wall bordering what was the carriageway still stands. There were a couple of late foxgloves at the foot.




Once back at the car park, we drove along the road up the valley. The reservoir was very low, though not low enough for some of the ruins of the drowned village to appear.



There were also active quarries during the valleys life before the reservoirs came. Now they look beautiful with heather and rowan trees growing out of the crevices in the rocks.




Little streams can be cooling to the feet!



The heather is lovely at this time of the year, coveirng the moors around here.



The packhorse bridge, previously in the village, was relocated, and is now a favourite spot for picnics. Children and dogs enjoy splashing around there.

There are much longer walks from around here, and the Peak District Park provides maps of circular tours. Through the rhododendrons of Errwood Hall and up to Cat's Tor, along the ridge to Pym's Chair and down again is a favourite one, though, alas, beyond me! There are wonderful views from up there, and you feel on top of the world! I might add that you can drive to Pym's Chair car park and feel on top of the world without too much exertion!

But it was a lovely, lovely morning. We had hoped to finish off with lunch at our favourite tea rooms but they were packed solid with cyclists, walkers and hungry people. So we went home!

The photographs of the old hall are copyright 'gerald hancock errwood hall'