A Walk in the Goyt Valley – Peak District Holiday

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

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)

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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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

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

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!

A Wet Weekend

Tags

azure damselfly, chaffinch, flour, guinea fowl, Pakenham Water Mill, scarlet pimpernel, Suffolk, sunset, topiary, watercress, Waveney District Council Parks and Open Spaces, white campion

This weekend marked the start of my break from driving every day to Norwich.  Hooray!!  Elinor finished her exams on Friday and we are so pleased with her and, I suspect, she is very pleased with herself.

I thought this might be a good opportunity to show you a beautiful traffic island on a roundabout on the outskirts of Halesworth. The Parks Department have been creating wonderful floral displays all over the district. This island looks like a cottage garden.

The previous weekend was very pleasant as Alice came to visit for a few days.  We went to see Elinor’s college artwork on display at a gallery in Norwich on Friday 5th June and then had a very enjoyable Italian meal before returning home.  The day had started with thunderstorms and heavy rain but the sun came out in the afternoon and we then had some gorgeous warm weather for the rest of the day.  We haven’t had much warm weather and it didn’t last.

A beautiful sunset I saw a few days ago.

We went out for another meal that Sunday for lunch to celebrate Alice gaining her PhD.  My mother came with us too – I had taken her to church that morning and we all met at the Fox and Goose restaurant in Fressingfield.  We returned home and were relaxing with some tea and coffee when my brother arrived.  He had gone over to Mum’s house expecting her to be there as he wanted to try out his new lawn-mower on her grass.  He did a little mowing and then came over to our house hoping she was with us.  She wished she had been there while he mowed, as he cut down her cowslips and bluebells that she had been carefully mowing around while they set seed and died down.  She can’t say anything to him about it as he had been so kind but she has spoken a lot on the subject to me.  If bluebell leaves are cut before they die down the bulb isn’t fed and the plant may not survive.  She quoted a part of ‘A Shropshire Lad’ to me and said she also may not have many more bluebell springs and it would be sad if hers had gone for ever.  (I will have to replace her plants if they don’t grow next year!).  My brother has recently moved into his new home in Saxmundham, not far from us.  He seems to be settling in very well.  He got a job transfer from Surrey where he used to live to Suffolk and is getting on splendidly here.  He teaches in open prisons and has already been able to put some of the men in for exams which they have passed.  It has been very nice for me to see Andrew more regularly.  There is only a year and 9 days difference in our ages and we were very close when we were young.  He left home at 17 to become a police cadet and then married at 21.  We then didn’t seem to have much in common any more and only saw each other about once a year.

A male Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) I saw in my garden yesterday.

The past week was very busy with Elinor’s exams, two shopping trips for Mum and a visit to the eye clinic at Norfolk and Norwich hospital with her for a check-up and of course, my usual chores.

A Scarlet Pimpernel flower (Anagallis arvensis ssp. arvensis) in my garden yesterday.

Richard has been taking Fridays off recently, cutting his working week down to four days in preparation for his retirement at the end of August.  He came with Elinor and me when I took her in for her final exam on Friday morning and while she was in college we did a little shopping.  It was a lovely bright day and not too cold for a change.  When Elinor met us we took her to buy some converse trainers she wanted and then went to a coffee shop for a drink and a sandwich.  The afternoon was dry so I managed to get some gardening done at home.

Pakenham Water Mill with Richard walking up the lane.

Saturday was mainly rainy and cool.  Richard and I decided to go out and buy some more good flour from Pakenham Water Mill.  We have had two tours of the mill already and it was much too wet to walk in the gardens, so we settled for a cup of tea/coffee and some cake in the tea room.  The lady who runs the tea shop wasn’t expecting many people to turn up because of the foul weather, so hadn’t made any of her wonderful scones.   There were plenty of other cakes to chose from and the tea and coffee is good there.  We bought two 5kg bags of flour from the shop and took them to the car.  Before returning home we had a look at the outside of the mill and at the river on the opposite side of the lane.

A wider view of the mill showing the millers house where the tea shop is situated.

This is the river on the opposite side of the lane to the mill. You see the water that has just been through the mill powering the wheel, flowing into the river.

I think this may be Watercress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum). I haven’t been this close to Watercress that’s still growing before so I may be mistaken. I used to see it quite often when we lived in Somerset but I couldn’t get this close to it. This is wild Watercress and not cultivated.

This is a close-up of the flowers.

We saw this monstrous beauty in the field on the other side of the river.

Topiary crocodiles. We discovered that a business specialising in topiary had created all sorts of creatures and put them along the river bank.

More topiary.

And more. This is the Pied Piper of Hamelin .

A wet Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) singing from the top of an electricity pole.

A pair of Guinea Fowl walking quickly through the field.

A wet White Campion (Silene latifolia) next to the gate.

These were the things we saw before we went back home.

Sunday morning was a very gloomy and chilly one.  We went to Morning Prayer at St James’ church.  We had rain at midday but the afternoon gradually became dryer until at last, the sun came out at tea time.

This is an un-tarmacked lane that goes past St James church.

Thank-you for visiting!