Fox House, and then Rowsley, Calton Lees, Edensor, Chatsworth House, and Beeley

The first walk of the summer season with Maureen and Chris from Leeds. It's going to be increasingly difficult this year to find walks in the Peak District that Maureen will be able to do and enjoy; that aren't too hilly, not too near to any deep water, don't have too many stiles, aren't too long, and have good conditions underfoot...and we need to park somewhere near public toilets and ideally be able to visit some more on the route.

I managed to find a suitable walk for today - visiting Chatsworth Park. I'd arranged to meet Maureen and Chris at Fox House at eleven o'clock this morning but got there over an hour early and so went for a wander on the moors.

We drove down to Rowsley, briefly stopping for an emergency toilet call at Baslow first though. Chris spent nearly half an hour getting ready in the car park at Rowsley, spending most of that time attempting to attach a pair of integral leggings onto the shorts that he was already wearing - finally he gave up after things were getting a bit fraught.

We set off and headed north towards Calton Lees, popping into the garden centre to use the toilets.

About a mile further on, walking in Chatsworth Park by now, we observed a white van being driven backwards at quite high speed for several hundred yards along the road. The reason, possibly, for this behaviour became evident as we crested the hill - there'd just been a serious road accident involving a group of cyclists.

We went inside the church at Edensor before continuing on to Chatsworth House.

The next stretch of today's walk was along the River Derwent to Beeley

We finished the walk by taking a footpath that comes out onto the road just north of Rowsley  and then used the path that goes through the woods to the Peak Shopping Village, from where it was  only a short walk back to the car.

I was dropped off at Baslow and only had to wait few minutes  for the bus.

The Magical Gardens Of Bonsall 2016

The Magical Gardens of Bonsall is the name used for marketing purposes to publicise the Bonsall Open Gardens weekend. The name is certainly appropriate; I went with my support worker and we saw grottoes, cascades, a temple, a waterfall, statues of gods and goddesses, scarecrows, romantic ruins...and we briefly explored an old mine adit.

Before reaching Bonsall we called off at the Peak Shopping Village at Rowsley to use the toilets. I noticed there was a sale at one of the shops selling outdoor clothing, I bought a couple of Gelert lined fleeces for a tenner...a saving of 80%. 

We stopped for sandwiches a few minutes later at the car park above Birchover and arrived at Bonsall at just after midday; we were advised to park the car on the road just opposite to the public toilets...a handy spot in the centre of the village.

Our day out at Bonsall was very good value at £4 each, there were over thirty gardens to see, including the show gardens at 'The Cascades.' On certain days throughout the summer these gardens are open to the public and the usual cost of admission is £5...so we certainly got a bargain today.

The gardens at The Cascades were the first gardens we visited and I was really looking forward to this, assuming it would be the highlight of the day. I was quite disappointed though, both myself and Siobhan thought the gardens were rather neglected - there were several private gardens in the village which we much preferred.

The most interesting thing that happened here was the rather drunk owner, swaying as he approached us with a pint of beer in his hand being quite insistent that we go deep into the mine...we only set foot a few yards inside, there's nothing in there to see...it's pitch black. By the way, a couple of hours later, further up the hill, we were greeted by another tipsy resident.

We then went on to explore the rest of the village, stopping of at the church for tea and cake and also sitting in someone's conservatory, drinking tea as we were told about some of the local characters, past and present.

Bonsall is a hilly village; I have never climbed up and down so many steps in my entire life...literally hundreds of them. As we were climbing up some particularly steep steps Siobhan and myself were agreeing that although there were a lot of steps to climb a fortnight ago when we visited Birchover Open Gardens there were a lot more today. I commented that compared to Bonsall, Birchover was a pussycat. Someone else in the garden overheard me and said  that compared to Whatstandwell, Bonsall is a pussycat.

I'm now going to search for images of Whatstandwell online. 

Birchover Open Gardens 2016

An excellent day out with Siobhan, my support worker; over thirty gardens to look at in a beautiful Peak District village...and several opportunities for refreshments.

I've not been to an Open Gardens event before and didn't really know what to expect; I was worried that after only about half an hour we'd have seen everything. Well...I need not have worried, we spent three and half hours in the village and there were still a few gardens we hadn't seen. Some of the gardens are quite steep and we had to climb up and down a lot of steps and Siobhan's ankle was getting a bit sore towards the end.

The gardens didn't officially open to the public until one o'clock and so we stopped at the Peak Shopping village at Rowsley to have a look at the shops and use the toilets; the ducks even have their own place in the car park.

It was the end of season sales and I bought a fleece for only £4.99.

We drove up the hill towards Stanton-in-Peak and then along the country lane towards Birchover. Just before reaching the village we stopped at a car park with extensive views of the countryside and ate our sandwiches sitting on a large boulder.

We arrived at Birchover, parked the car in a field which had been set aside for visitors, bought our tickets, went to the toilets and then walked to a farm at the western edge of the village; this was the first garden we visited. On the way we enjoyed some lovely views.

After talking to the owner and his dog we returned to the village, calling off at the church...which is actually a converted private chapel that was built in the nineteenth century.

Next up was the Reading Rooms where we enjoyed a pot of tea and a slice of cake each; the choice of cake was very extensive.

We visited more gardens and I stopped briefly to photograph a quite old Rolls Royce car.

Even more gardens, then a stop for more refreshments from someone's conservatory; cream teas served with fresh strawberries this time.

When we got back to Doncaster we made plans to visit several more villages when they have their Open Gardens days.