1st November 2009.
Dear All,
Kate and I had a strenuous weekend walking in Staffordshire based at Leek. We drove up on Saturday when the weather did not look too promising but it cheered up in the afternoon for a circular tour of Leek led by Aubrey Bould, an ex NIAB colleague who was born there. Like most leaders he is economical with the truth re distances so 5 miles turned out to be 8. We stayed in the Peak Weavers hotel where the wife was an excellent chef, trained by Gary Rhodes.
The main walk was on Sunday starting from Alstonfield via Wetton, crossing the Manifold Valley then Grindon, Butterton, Warslow, Ecton Hill (v. steep), Dovedale and Gratton Hill (also v. steep). Again 13 miles turned into 15.5 miles and being wet underfoot it was a good workout for us old flatlanders!
Dear All,
Kate and I had a strenuous weekend walking in Staffordshire based at Leek. We drove up on Saturday when the weather did not look too promising but it cheered up in the afternoon for a circular tour of Leek led by Aubrey Bould, an ex NIAB colleague who was born there. Like most leaders he is economical with the truth re distances so 5 miles turned out to be 8. We stayed in the Peak Weavers hotel where the wife was an excellent chef, trained by Gary Rhodes.
The main walk was on Sunday starting from Alstonfield via Wetton, crossing the Manifold Valley then Grindon, Butterton, Warslow, Ecton Hill (v. steep), Dovedale and Gratton Hill (also v. steep). Again 13 miles turned into 15.5 miles and being wet underfoot it was a good workout for us old flatlanders!
Butterton
Ecton Hill
Dovedale
Climb out of Dovedale
That evening we ate at Sutton Hall, Macclesfield which is a large house formerly owned by the Lucan family and mercifully was not as expensive as it looked!
On Monday we drove to Oakmoor near Alton Towers and walked the Churnet Valley. This was very different and spectacular in the autumn colours. The distance was about 9 miles and we finished at lunchtime and called in at Bolehill to see Phil, Mandy and Natasha.
Churnet Valley
An interesting feature of our walks was watching our normal Cambridge U3A leader Philip trying , and failing to be lead by others – there is an art to leading and an art to being lead – and he only has one of them!
Tuesday I had to go to the Suffolk coast to harvest carrots that had been experimentally treated with zeolite, this involved three sites at Snape, Sutton and Ramsholt so was quite a long day.
I was entrusted with leading the short walk this Thursday (for those who have dropped out of the long walks due to operations or infirmities) It was round the Fen Drayton and Swavesey Pits so reasonably familiar but as it was not our normal route I did a reccie on Wednesday, the sun was out, the lakes stacked with birds and it was fantastic for late October. Thursday was dry but not so sunny but nevertheless it went OK.
We had another CEEM Moldova planning meeting at St Neots on Saturday, Kate came with me and it was quite encouraging. The lorry paperwork has been passed at last so it has been ordered, meanwhile the load has grown and we are likely to get half a 38 tonner. CEEM are planning a youth camp in Burlacu next year as well as visits by the agricultural, medicine, education and faith teams.
During the previous week our college garden visit was to Corpus Christi, Leckhampton Hall. This is a graduate residence with 8 acres of grass and woodland plus an interesting “prairie garden” another hidden gem.
Corpus Christi PrairieGardenLove
Mike & Kate
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