New Year, New Beginnings?

A New Year and perhaps a New Start for my neglected little blog! Why have I neglected it for so long? Well .... since about August, John and I have been putting a lot of effort into his candlemaking business. You can see some of what we've been up to on the Facebook page I've set up; selling candles as The Candle Cellar.

Also ..... if I'm honest, I was beginning to think I was talking to myself pretty much and why bother! However, I've been reconsidering this in the 'quiet' period you get between Christmas and New Year and realised that I actually don't care! I merely want to record the handicrafts I do and the walking John and I do and that is an end in itself!

Also ....... this New Year starts on a slightly bad foot as on the 5th December 2012, my very dear brother was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer and it has changed my outlook in many ways.

Anyhow ..... not only has the blog been neglected but our walking has as well! In December, I even ended with something I've never had before ..... A Bad Back! And I realised that not walking regularly was a possible contributing factor. So, today we had a little walk round 'Our Patch' over in the Lea valley Park. It was a beautiful day for walking, although everywhere is very muddy because of all the rain we've been having. We walked for about 1.5 hours and covered about 4.5 miles. It certainly cleared some cobwebs!

There is so much wildlife over in the park that it really lifts your spirits. And my spirits do need lifting. I am sorely worried about my brother at the moment. Whilst walking, my thoughts constantly stray to saying the words in my head 'Please God, let him get better'.

He is actually in hospital at the moment. At the end of November, he had some lumps removed from his neck and on the 5th December, he was told he has lymphoma cancer but that it is treatable. However, he then proceeded to develop a very bad infection in the wound that was initially just a solid mass of infection that pressed on his jugular vein and has caused a clot. He did come out on Christmas Eve but just last Saturday, he went back into hospital with suspected septicaemia. He has been having alternate bouts of severe shivering followed by drenching sweats. On Sunday, they determined that it wasn't septicaemia but today they are wondering whether the shivering and sweating is a function of the lymphoma cancer. The swelling on his neck actually got bigger on Saturday as well, which they were very concerned about. He was due to have a scan today to check that out but I haven't heard any more on that.

All in all, I am worried sick about my 'little brother'. It certainly makes you sit up and re-think exactly what is important.

This Rain Can't Last Forever, Can It?

.... or perhaps it can!

Yesterday morning, the skies were blue and I suggested that we go out for a walk. Especially since the BBC website said rain wasn't forecast until the early afternoon and I really felt the need to get out! My hip has been aching over the last week or so and this is a sure-fire indicator that I haven't been walking enough.

We set off at about 10.30am, although even in such a short time period, the blue skies had become grey and there was rain in the air! Still ..... we're British ..... we don't let rain put us off, do we!

It really does seem like a while since we last walked through the Lea Valley Park and everything has certainly grown! 'Lush' comes to mind! Must be all the rain, obviously! I guess it's thanks to the rain that Britain can claim to be a 'Green and pleasant land' rather than 'dry and arid' but we do seem to have had a bit too much of the wet stuff recently. Some sun would be nice, for a change.

However, 'sun' wasn't on the agenda! By 11.30, it really started to rain and, even with water-proofs, we got soaked. I know Mad Dogs and Englishmen Go Out In The Noon Day Sun ..... but they also go out in the rain as well. We took shelter under trees a couple of times when the downpour got a bit too heavy and eventually got home by about 12 noon having only walked about 4.5 miles ...... the last little bit of which was with sun and blue skies! Amazing! You really couldn't make it up but, without this weather, what would us Brits talk about :)

It's Stopped Raining!

..... for the moment at any rate! In the UK, this must be the wettest draught on record!

The gloriously blue sky and sunshine were a welcome change this morning. Having seen that the weather forecast is for more rain and blustery winds, we thought we'd make the most of it and go out for a walk. We didn't go far ...... only through the Lea Valley Park down to Waltham Abbey ..... a round trip of 5.37 miles. We chose this route because we knew everywhere would be very wet and the Lea Valley Park has lots of good paths.

One thing that has changed in this part of the Park is the appearance of some slightly odd looking wooden 'sculptures'. Someone told us they are there as 'interest' for anyone walking through here when the Olympics is on; the White Water centre is just down the road from us in the Park, near to Waltham Abbey.

 Whether this is true or not, I have no idea!!

Still .... the walk in the sun was a nice change and it included a brief visit to Waltham Abbey Church itself. I didn't take any photos inside the Church ..... my little camera can't quite cope with that sort of interior .... but it is a very peaceful Church with lots of interesting features.

It was great to get outside before the rain comes back again!!

St George's Day and Our 29th Anniversary

St Mary & All Saints Church, Chesterfield

Today is not only St George's Day but our 29th Wedding Anniversary. We went away over the weekend to the Peak District, staying at a Best Western hotel in Mosborough, courtesy of using Tesco Clubcard vouchers ...... so it didn't actually cost us anything! And Free is Good :)

We went up on Friday and visited the nearby town of Chesterfield, famous for its Church's twisted spire. It really is amazingly twisted!

We had to wait quite a while before we could go into the Church as a funeral was taking place. A very formal affair with a horse-drawn glass hearse ..... such lovely horses. I was sorely tempted to take a photo .... but didn't seem quite right somehow!!

We took my Mum away with us as well, as a very old friend of hers lives near Matlock that she hasn't seen for 18 years! On the Saturday, we dropped her off to visit her friend and we went off to Matlock to do a bit of walking.

We got a surprise when we parked the car in the railway car park at Matlock ...... a steam train came through!

John had worked out a route that took us up into the hills around Matlock so we could view Matlock and the Heights of Abraham.

Looking down on Matlock

The scenery in the Peak District is stunning! We were also very lucky in that, although the forecast was for a lot of rain, we pretty much missed it! However, where I have had a horrible sinus problem and haven't been feeling all that well for some time, our lack of recent walking was definitely apparent! We both felt a bit unfit and weren't able to do as much walking as we'd like! We only managed about 3 miles but this did include some very steep ascents; we climbed about 650 feet!! Nevertheless, thankfully, at long last I think I'm getting the better of this sinus infection (that has hung on since Christmas!!) so hopefully we'll be able to sort that out soon and get out and do more walking.

View from the Heights of Abraham Cable car

We then drove round to the cable car that goes up to the Heights of Abraham. The views from the cable car are fantastic!

And here is my Mum and her friend, Rene. Amazingly, Rene is actually shorter than my Mum :)

My Mum (on the right) with her friend Rene

On the Sunday, we visited a lovely garden called Renishaw Hall and garden.

Most of the garden is a formal layout with lots of box and yew hedges and formal planting.

There is also a more informal woodland area with a sculpture trail.

A really peaceful place with lots to see. Any garden lover would love it!


A perfect weekend to celebrate our Anniversary :)

More Oxford Canal Walking .... Back in June!!

I've just realised that I started this post back in June but never got round to completing it and posting it!! Oops!! Better do so now (4th October!!!).

So ..... way back in June, we had a lovely weekend over the 25th - 26th June at our friends' house in Bicester in Oxford. Possibly inspired(?) by our crazy training walks, they too have been increasing the amount of walking they've been doing, so on Saturday we set off from the Trout Pub in Lower Wolvercote in Oxfordshire to walk along the Oxford Canal. We didn't acutally go in this pub although we have before and they serve very good food if anyone is ever down that way. Before reaching the canal, we found this lovely pair of swans with their cygnets.

I just about managed to capture one of the adults preening.

Saturday's weather was just right for walking, neither too hot nor too cold. It seemed strange to think that we were walking along the same canal we'd walked along when staying in Coventry the previous week. Still, this end of the Oxford Canal is equally picuresque, indeed the canal is very well maintained and it is very popular with canal boats.

We walked into the centre of Oxford and, after lunch in a Wetherspoon's pub, walked through to the river Thames to walk back to where we started. At one point on the river, there was a huge gaggle of geese .... I'm pretty sure these are Brent Geese but I'm not entirely sure. We couldn't work out what was attracting such a huge group of these geese but they did look an impressive sight.



On the way back, we stopped at a lovely pub called the Perch for a drink. Do we detect a 'fishy' trend here in pub names? They wer serving lovely BBQ food in the garden, so that also looks like a pub worth visiting again!

In total, we walked 10.2 miles which was the furthest our friends have ever done. We were walking for 3hrs 45 mins at an yaverage sped of 2.7mph. A very nice day's walking.

On the Sunday, the weather was scorching hot! Although we wanted to go out for a little walk, we decided that it would be best not to go too far. So, we started at a very pretty little village called Tackley which is just north of Kidlington and walked from there to the Oxford Canal (again!).

I have no idea what this delicate, pinky coloured flower is called but it was growing very profusely along the canal edge.

Finally, here's John and I enjoying the sunshine :)

June seems so long ago ....... but we had a great weekend.

Birthday Weekend

Sunday 19th June was my 52th Birthday (Oh My God .... am I really that old? Oops .... look in mirror ..... yes, I am!!). We always try to go away for a long weekend for our Birthdays, so we had Friday 17th June off and had a long weekend at Ansty Hall Hotel near Coventry. This is a great way to use up Tesco Clubcard Rewards tokens and effectively means a great long weekend away for very little cash! This hotel is part of the MacDonald chains of hotels ..... and no, not the burger people ..... they are McDonalds ... no connection at all!!

We've been to quite a few of their hotels now and this is one of the nicest. It is quite an old building with lots of interesting features inside. Our room was very spacious and actually in the top left-hand corner of this photo. The staff are also very good and we got very good service at breakfast over the weekend.

We arrived just after mid-day on the Friday and decided to go out for a walk along the Oxford canal that is located not that far from the hotel.

You might think that, by now, we'd be sick of walking alongside canals but we love it! The paths, by definition, are pretty flat so the walking is not too strenuous. Added to this, there is always lots to see. We passed a farm with what looked like several rare breed animals; I think the sheep above are soy sheep? Not sure!

Not forgetting that the water attracts so much wildlife. Aren't cygnets cute?

We actually walked quite a way on the Friday, covering 15.4 miles over 4 hours 52 mins. This did involve stopping at a lovely pub called The Greyhound at Hawkesbury Junction for our evening meal. I didn't take a photo as it was too dark but the link goes to a photo. The pub was very good with fantastic food. Can thoroughly recommend it!

On Saturday, we again aimed to walk along the Oxford canal but in the other direction. However, we started by looking round Ansty Church which is actually right next door to the hotel. This is a very pretty little Church and luckily it was open enabling us to have a good look round. I love looking round old Churches. The craftsmanship that has gone into the stained glass windows, the wooden carvings on the pews and other fittings and the stonework on memorials is a delight to really examine. And even if you have no religious feelings, who can deny that the atmosphere in many old Churches is magical?

Of course, what I have failed to mention about Friday was that we did get caught by the rain a little bit! This also happened on Saturday as well. However, the weather was really odd ...... blue skies one moment and then very heavy rain that lasted for a little while but would then stop!

Have I managed to capture the heavy downpour in the photo below? Not sure! Still ..... it wasn't cold and the rain didn't dampen our enjoyment of the walk.



Part of our walk on Saturday involved walking through Newbold Tunnel. This is an amazing 1/4 mile tunnel that is illuminated by red, blue and green floodlights. Because of the reflection in the water, it creates the illusion of circles of colour and it is very eerie to walk through there.

More swans and cygnets, this time on the path. The parents are obviously more used to people than many swans as they didn't hiss at John for getting this close to their babies! Earlier in the day, we'd had to cautiously skirt our way round some swans and their cygnets that were sitting on the towpath! Their hissing definitely meant, Keep Away!!



We walked a total of 17.3 miles on Saturday and were plodding just a little during the last couple of miles. Still, we liked The Greyhound pub so much that we had booked a table for dinner in the evening and after another lovely meal there, we felt better!

On the Sunday, my actual Birthday, we went into Coventry. Here is John alongside a statue of James Brindley, 'the Father' of the British Canal system, in the Coventry Canal Basin. The Canal Basin looks like it is designed to have an artsy-craftsy feel to it but, unfortunately, none of the shops were open and some were unoccupied ..... perhaps feeling the current economic pinch? A shame because it is a very attractive place, much nicer than the main Coventry shopping area. 

However, the main reason we went into Coventry was to see the Cathedral. Our first view of it was this rather austere concrete view of the back!

And, of course, everyone is familiar with this image of the statues on the front. Both the angel and the devil look rather frightening, don't you think?



I loved the modern etching on the glass wall near to the Cathedral entrance. The inside of the Cathedral I'm afraid I'm not too keen on. The masses of concrete walls and the darkness don't appeal! I'm of the view that Cathedrals should be about light and airiness and leave you feeling uplifted. The very dark stained glass and very low light levels are just too depressing.



Right next to the Cathedral are the remains of the Cathedral destroyed during the bombing in WWII. Although it is a sad place in that the results of the terrible destruction during WWII are only too obviously visible, it is nevertheless a place that inspires hope. There are many sculptures that express how people are working towards reconciliation and peace and it leaves a very positive impression of how things could be.



All in all, a great Birthday weekend :)