A Drive Out to Bradfield Village, South Yorkshire

The weather has been rather dull this week, but there's always time to take a break in between the showers.  I put down my book or craftwork, Mr P leaves his nurturing of plants and we go out for a short drive down the road to Low Bradfield village.  As you can see we live close to the border between Yorkshire and Derbyshire and near to the Peak District National Park.

Yesterday morning we went passed  Damflask Reservoir....

and stopped at the village where we ventured up the driveway to the School Rooms café where we sat in the yard and had a cappuccino.  Everything was well managed with a one-way system, orders taken at a stone hut-like extension that must connect with the indoor service area. Waitresses were wearing masks and brought the food and drinks to the table.    

After our refreshments Mr P sat for a little longer and I had a walk by Agden Beck. The enclosed area by the stream is the place to be if you want to sit and relax or feed the ducks that congregate there, but I crossed the water by a wooden bridge and walked along the edge of the playing fields by the cricket pavilion.  

The Church of St Nicholas can be seen through the greenery up in High Bradfield.

Back at the School Rooms café you can see the original carving for the boys' entrance to the Victorian school buildings. (There's also an entrance for the girls with the carving on it). It was good to see a defibrillator attached to the stonework.  Let's hope it's not needed, but very useful and helpful that the village council have installed one. 

Back again passed the reservoir we were soon back home.  Some lunch and an afternoon of watching the tennis or the Tour de France cycling and a couple of evenings of exciting international football has been our routine this week.  There's more tennis and football to come with the televised Euro Football Final (Italy v England) on Sunday.  We might watch the action at our local daughter's home.  I'm not going to say who we would like to win. :)

Thank you for coming by.  Have a good day!

The Park and Walled Garden

 

I take a walk in the park, visit the library and then go into the walled garden during opening hours at least twice a month.  There's always something new to see in the garden and, of course, this month the rose bushes are full of  flowers.  The climbing roses grow against the old brick walls and have produced masses of beautiful blooms.  The tall hollyhock flowers in the same flower beds will soon appear.  

I'm fascinated by the many varieties of flowering shrubs and I enjoy seeing the old-fashioned, cottage garden plants such as Sweet William and Campanula (Canterbury Bells)

The volunteer gardeners were busy on one of the days that I visited and they're certainly needed to keep the different areas of the walled garden tidy and weed-free.

There are plants and hanging baskets for sale and there are creative activities and gardening projects that draw in the local community.  You can read about A Bit of Earth project here if you click on the link. Various local environmental organisations are working with community gardens to encourage the engagement with our surroundings and for us to work on unloved patches of ground that have become neglected etc.

Bigger projects are also taking place in and around the walled garden and progress is being made to refurbish the gardeners' quarters.  Below photos show the old stable block refurbishment.  A café had been planned for this building and I hope that the project will be completed and a much-needed visitors' refreshment area will go ahead and be ready for use, at least by next year.

Despite all the building work activity the walled garden continues to be a haven of beauty and peace for everyone who comes to the park.

These are the two novels I collected from the library.  Miss Garnet's Angel is a book I wanted to reread, but left my own copy in Italy.   Dark Tides is a sequel to Tidelands that I read in 2019 and is set in London, New England and Venice in the latter half of the seventeenth century.

P.S.  You would have to read Tidelands first to make sense of Dark Tides.

  

Once more thank you for your visit.  I wish you a good day and week.