Inspiring gardens

Some of the flowers in our garden are drooping in the wind and heavy showers, but they still look

beautiful as the colours fade and the petals drop.

We chose two new plants (gifts from our daughters to mark our wedding anniversary) which we bought during our day out last week.  The clematis is called 'Parisienne' and the rose is 'Arthur Bell'.

My husband chose the rose for its strong fragrance and I love the way the petals change from a golden colour to cream as I do prefer pale coloured roses.

I'm always inspired by other gardens and the ones in Ashford-in-the-Water were very pretty especially at this time of the year. This one with the cat motif on the gate and winding path was intriguing. The house was next to the river, the old parish pump and the packhorse bridge and I expect it attracts many photographers!

A good day out

Thank you for your best wishes for our wedding anniversary. We had a good day out driving to an area that we haven't been to for a while.  In fact, we sometimes used to come up to Derbyshire for a weekend's break to celebrate our anniversary and then went on to south Yorkshire to see our daughter and family.  Now we are living here in retirement and the beauty of the countryside of these two counties is on our doorstep. We were blessed with good weather and we were able to spend time in the Hope and Wye valleys enjoying the scenery, history and traditions of the area.  We headed for Ashford-in-the-Water where we had planned to have lunch and take a walk. Along the way we stopped to see some of the preparations for the well dressing and summer festival events that will take place in this area at the weekend.

Today I will show you the countryside we passed though - the top photo is a view of Hope Valley and Win Hill taken in a leafy country lane on the way to Ashford-in-the-Water.

This is the area around a place called Litton.  We were diverted onto a one-car lane because the main route was closed. However, we were able to view the contour of the land and the geology from above. As always, walking in this area must be a pleasure.  We went on through Cressbrook and Monsal Dale.

Monsal Viaduct over the River Wye now part of the Monsal Trail following the C19th disused railway tracks and tunnels

I'm sure you know that we love walking beside a flowing stream or river.  This is the River Wye and the packhorse bridge at nearby Ashford-in-the Water.

Driving through the more familiar landscape on our way back home we saw fields of white flowers growing amongst the tufts of green and dry grasses and it looked like a sprinkling of snow.  I could only stop briefly to take a photo because at this point the road was quite straight and busy with fast traffic so I don't know what the flowers were - not cow parsley as in the foreground, but probably some sort of daisy or bog cotton plant.  I like the wildness of this landscape.

The well dressing at the original village pump in Ashford-in-the-Water took place at the beginning of June. However, our walk around the village and visit to the church was very enjoyable and I will post more about the trip and the well dressing preparations in Hope and Cressbrook that we did see very soon.

Meanwhile, here's a detail of one of the pictures set up in the village of Cressbrook. Petals, seeds, sheep's wool etc. have been used to create the picture.