A Walk in the Goyt Valley – Peak District Holiday

05 Thu Nov 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, Days out, domestic animals, plants, Rural Diary, walking, wild birds

Tags

Bakewell, bridge, Butterbur, Canada Goose, Coot, donkey, ducks, eyebright, Fernilee Reservoir Dam, Field Scabious, Goosander, Goyt Vallry, Great Burnet, Greater Bird's-foot-trefoil, gulls, harebell, marble galls, Peak District, River Goyt, River Wye, sheep, St James' church Taxal, Taxal, Water Mint, watercress, Whaley Bridge, White Beak-sedge

The day after our walk on Ramshaw Rocks we met Alice and Elinor in Bakewell so that we could see how they were and have a meal with them. They travelled to Bakewell on the bus after Alice had finished work for the day in Sheffield. We went for a coffee together and told them the sad news of Richard’s mum’s death. They were both upset but were grateful that we had waited so that we could tell them face-to-face. We then went for a walk through the town and ended up by the river – our favourite spot.

The attractive old bridge over the river Wye.

There is always plenty to see on the river. This duck sitting on her nest, for example.

A female Goosander (Mergus merganser)

A Coot (Fulica atra)

Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) and Gulls

A duck – partly Mallard I think!

After a pleasant meal together Richard and I saw the girls onto their bus and then we returned to our caravan.

The following day we went for a walk along the valley of the River Goyt. We left the car in a lay-by just south of Whaley Bridge and followed a track, steep at first, from the lay-by down through woodland towards the River Goyt.

Richard on the track through the wood.

The day was very cloudy and there were frequent showers of rain but they weren’t heavy and didn’t diminish the pleasure of our walk. Richard had walked here very often when he was younger, either with the Scouts or with friends but the area was new to me.

A Field Scabious flower (Knautia arvensis)

A meadow between the track and the river (which is under the trees).

The River Goyt

Cattle

R. Goyt

The meadows next to the river were pleasant to walk across. You can see from this photo how gloomy the day was.

Eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis agg)

Harebells (Campanula rotundifolia)

IMG_5522Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil and other plants

Greater Bird’s-foot-trefoil (Lotus pedunculatus)

A little cascade

The River Goyt with a wooden bridge just visible under the trees.

River Goyt

Richard walking along the track next to Wild Rhubarb/Butterbur (Petasites hybridus). It was about as tall as me (5′ 4″)

We were making our way towards some water-works buildings. I took some photographs of them and some plants I saw but (fortunately for you!) they didn’t come out. The light wasn’t good enough I think.

We walked up the very steep drive belonging to the waterworks and then, at the top, turned towards the road that crosses Fernilee Reservoir Dam.

The reservoir

I liked the look of this old bridge from the road to a maintenance building.

Richard told me that this bridge is probably an original one for the dam and therefore quite old. Bridges aren’t built this way any more.

We then walked back along the other side of the river which is down in the trees below. There were some lovely views from the path.

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A variety of plants and textures

We saw some beautiful Great Burnet flowers (Sanguisorba officinalis) in the field next to the path.

Great Burnet – these plants are becoming increasingly rare as water-meadows are drained.

This could be Water-cress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum)

Water Mint (Mentha aquatica)

White Beak-sedge (Rhynchospora alba)

Marble Galls on Oak.

Sheep

We eventually got to the hamlet of Taxal where we had a look at the church dedicated to St James.

We found a very friendly donkey in the churchyard wearing a rather fetching veil.

This donkey had a job to do – eating its way through all the overgrown grass and plants in the yard. The veil kept the flies out of its eyes.

I like donkeys!

St James’ church

River Goyt

We crossed the river by a wooden bridge, walked up the steep path to the lay-by and found our car again.

Thanks for visiting!

March

04 Tue Mar 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, plants, Rural Diary, Uncategorized, walking, wild birds

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

bacon onion potato sauté, blackthorn, cattle, chickens, Coffee morning, common reeds, cooking, ditching, Dog's Mercury, electric fence, farmyard, good food, greylags, Italian alders, ivy, lesser celandine, Lords and Ladies, marble galls, narcissi, nature, phone box library, photography, primroses, quiz night, rookery, Rumburgh Church, sheep, snowdrops, St James South Elmham, St Margaret South Elmham, St Michaels South Elmham, stinging nettle, the Beck, trees

A wet start to the month. R and I went off in the rain to the benefice coffee morning at the Rector’s house. We could find nothing to bring with us this time and, as usual, I had not done any baking, so we just took ourselves and a little money. We bought raffle tickets, a classical music c.d., a jar of the Rector’s home-made lenten three-fruit marmalade (i.e. without whisky) and a jar of plum jam. After indulging in a bit of chit-chat and getting the local gossip (no raffle prizes this time!) we left to go shopping in Halesworth. Boring groceries shop in the Co-Op and then, while R read the paper in the car, I walked in to town to see if I could find some flowers for the church. I eventually found what I was looking for in the third place I visited – some really pretty multi-headed narcissi, some in yellow and some in a creamy-white. The individual flowers very tiny and delicate; I bought two bunches of each colour.

The rain was easing off a little by the time we got to Rumburgh church but the path to the church was very puddly and muddy. The snowdrops were still looking good and the primroses were just starting to come out. The churchyard will be a mass of wild flowers very soon. We found a suitable vase in the cupboard and just put the poor flowers in water. I cannot attempt anything more than this and even this made the flowers look as if ashamed to be where they were. They all huddled in the middle of the vase and faced inwards and no matter what I did they twisted back and hid their faces. I eventually gave up, put the vase on a ledge and checked that the other flowers in the church were all o.k.

I went out to feed the birds later that afternoon after the rain had stopped and the sun had come out. Something, probably a squirrel, had pulled the top off one of my fat block feeders and had removed and taken away a block that I had only put in the day before. I mended the feeder, replaced the block with a new one and wired up the top to prevent it being pulled apart so easily again. We shall see! I took a couple of photos of the geese and some of next door’s ****** chickens in the garden again.

I discussed with E what she would like for her evening meal and we decided on one of her current favourites – fried bacon, potatoes and onions. I added some diced eating apple as I thought that might go well with it. E was of a different opinion!

R and I set off for the quiz at St James at 7.00pm. We had become quite reluctant to leave our nice warm home and get into my very cold, damp car. It was just 1 degree celsius outside and it took the whole journey to de-mist the windscreen. I drove most of the way bending forward and peering through the only clear bit at the bottom. Fortunately, we met no-one on the journey but the real danger is in the deep ditches at the sides of the road.

The quiz was great fun and the six of us on our team all know each other and get on well. We eventually came second which was very pleasing. R and I also won two prizes in the raffle. The food provided by the village hall committee (I suppose) and cooked by two ladies from the village was really good. A pork casserole or a vegetable bake with a baked potato and a little pot of butter for the first course and then a choice of four or five (I can’t remember how many) desserts with cream or custard for the second course. This was followed by tea or coffee with a chocolate mint – all for £8.00 per person. There was thick frost on the cars when we left just after 11.00pm.

A lovely bright morning and hardly any wind the next day. We went to church at St Michael’s. This is a very small church in the middle of fields and has only recently had electricity put in – only a couple of sockets though. There is no electric light, I think, and no heating except for an enormous very old gas heater at the back of the church. If they have evening services they have oil lamps which makes it look so lovely. The lane is very narrow and there aren’t many places to park. R squashed up as close as he could to the electric fence and had great difficulty in getting out of the car. The fence might not have been switched on as there weren’t any animals in the field – we weren’t going to take any chances though!

By the time we had had lunch and washed up the sun had disappeared and the wind had got up again. R and I went out for a walk in the lanes near our house.

There is still a lot of standing water about. This water is as the base of a hedge on St Margaret’s common.