It's Seasonal Closing Time !

Much as I love the Derbyshire Dales things aren't perfect. For instance we have Seasonal Closing Time ! 

This is the time of year when our local council, Derbyshire Dales District Council, closes some of their toilets. Here's their notice at Over Haddon ... 

They don't even open them at the weekend.

I was walking in this area recently and I was quite looking forward to visiting the toilets. You don't need me to mention my situation to realise that when I want to go ... I want to go ...

When I got to the toilets ... I couldn't go. Not because I had a mental block but because the doors were locked. I was livid. I was under some pressure. Then I saw that someone had expressed their thoughts on the door of the ladies toilet ...

 

Very mild graffiti but amusing and it makes a point.

I love the fact that the Council boasts of 'Keeping the Derbyshire Dales clean, safe, healthy and beautiful' ...

For me though [and you must pardon me for sinking below my usual standards] it was literally a case of piss ... off.

Ticking away ... Day 767 ~ we're talking 'quality of life' now ...

I was thinking that yesterday's check-up, the first in three months, might not be quite so encouraging as previous ones had been.

In the event it was probably slightly worse than I had anticipated.

The groin strain that I had started to notice about ten days ago is likely to be cancer cells in my pelvic bone according to my new consultant ... but this can be treated by radiotherapy with a view to maintaining the "quality of life".

My PSA reading according to my last bloodtest is now just over 30.

The small lump in my neck may be malignant ... but there are drugs that should be able to knock it back for three or four months.

So, it was more of a triple whammy than a double.

Still, all is not lost and the next move is to have a CT scan to see how far those cheeky little cancer cells have got and then I [or more likely the doctor] can decide whether I have some radiotherapy and/or some more drugs or adopt a 'wait and see' policy ... and then have some radiotherapy and/or some more drugs.

So although I'm hobbling a bit at present I am still making the most of life and I was still able to pose for a photo after yesterday's 'bringing you back to earth with a bang' session ...  

There was some good news though. When we went into the Cavendish Suite a good number of the nurses and staff remembered us and showed us the attention, courtesy and care they have showed us thus far ...

... and the bacon rolls and coffee Jamie and I had afterwards were very enjoyable [though I did think Jamie having two bacon rolls was rather excessive]. 

A Farm Journal ~ from the 1st to the 16th September 1867

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby.

The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]

In this photo John is fourth from the left. My great great grandparents, Ebenezer and Hannah Bowman, are the third and fourth adults from the right. John and Ebenezer were brothers and their parents are the elderly couple in the middle, Henry and Mary Bowman.

"A Farm Journal"continues :~

 

 9 Mo[nth] 2 Fine began to cut corn in N[ethe]r Watricle - Bo[ugh]t 4 pigs 40/- 2 of J Briddon 30/- 

 

3 - 3 showery day sold 35 wethers to J Kirkham 33/- 2 dead

 

4 - 4 Fine

 

5 - 5 ditto cutting corn Nurse came - 

 

6 & 7 corn cutting cut the Rye

 

2 - 9 Fine day all my men gone to W[illia]ms to cut corn - sold 4 Irish Bullocks to Elliot Chest[er]f[iel]d

 

3 - 10 Fine with showers Haven Fair slow sheep fair

 

4 - 11 Fine

 

5 Ditto - Almond to look at Cheese no sale won't give 60/-

 

5 - 13 to 2 -16 Fine B[akewe]ll Market bo[ugh]t 14 pigs for self & W[illia]m 32/- 

The Goyt Valley and Errwood Hall ...

35 years or so ago [don't worry, I'm not going to blog about a walk that far back], before I had a car ... before I learned to drive ... the Goyt Valley was the place where I would walk on my own, mainly because I could get to it on public transport. There were other places I could reach this way but the Goyt Valley was the one that appealed most. 

It was nice to go back more recently. I parked at Derbyshire Bridge about a mile from the Cat and Fiddle ... 

It's called Derbyshire Bridge because the bridge once straddled the boundary between Derbyshire and Cheshire.

I walked north along the lane which is closed on "Sundays and Bank Holidays from May until the end of September" according to the Peak Park's 'Access for All' page. 


  

The photo above is the view back towards Derbyshire Bridge though I'm not sure whether this is actually Derbyshire Bridge itself. I think it could be !

A little further down in the valley, where the sun had been shining a little longer, the colours of the bracken were showing through ...

 

 

Before long though I was again out of the sun and it was cold again ...



... much colder ...



  

I followed the riverside walk as I hadn't been in this part of the valley for a few years ...

 

With the River Goyt heading downstream beside me, I made my way ...

... sometimes looking behind me as the sun started to push through the branches of the surrounding trees ...





Further down the valley, but standing higher on the hillside, I could see Errwood Reservoir ...

 

Near Errwood Hall the view opened out even more ...



  I say Errwood Hall, well, don't let me get ahead of myself. Let's follow the path first ...

 

Here's the hall or the remains of it ...



It had once been a fairly substantial building in a delightful setting ...

 

The hall was built by the Grimshawe family who lived here for a century until nearby Fernilee reservoir was built in the 1930s.

As I walked out of the grounds via the impressive gateposts I tried to imagine what it must have been like in all its grandeur ...



I swung around in a large loop moving away from the hall ...

 

... before getting a final glimpse from the other side of a side-valley ...

 

There are a few black and white photographs of the hall, as it was, just here.
 
The walk had brought me back to a spot above Errwood Reservoir ...

 

Then I was heading back along the lane ... back to the car ...

 

This walk was followed on the 21st January 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 2.55 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 23.42 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 21st January 2011 ~ 552.47 miles
 
6 of 2011

 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

Minus Multiply

By the time you read this [or shortly thereafter] any blogs you have [or had] on Multiply will probably be floating in an anti-clockwise fashion down the plughole ...

My first blog on Multiply was dated the 26th October 2007. That's over five years ago and whilst it never reached the heights of Yahoo! 360 there's no doubt that it had a lot going for it.

I don't think things will ever be the same again.

Originally I wasn't going to save any of my blogs from Multiply but then I realised that all my 'Ticking Away ...' postings are on there and if nothing else they provide a factual account of my decline [I use the word with my tongue in my cheek] ... and who knows in years to come someone might want to read them and see how things went. Heck, I'm dying to know.

I've also saved a few family tree blogs but only one or two walking blogs. 

When I'd gone through 33 pages of postings and saw there were still another 30 pages left I thought enough's enough ... and, of course, my photos are on Flickr and my hard drive or my external hard drive. You can't keep everything.

Another chapter comes to a close.

In the meantime Blogger, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram keep me busy enough.

A Farm Journal ~ August 1867

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby.

The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]

In this photo John is fourth from the left. My great great grandparents, Ebenezer and Hannah Bowman, are the third and fourth adults from the right. John and Ebenezer were brothers and their parents are the elderly couple in the middle, Henry and Mary Bowman.

"A Farm Journal"continues :~

 

8 Mo[nth] Mostly fine hot weather for the harvest - our corn looks well -  

 

6 - 16 some just turning a little - lead[in]g manure  on to N[ether ?] Flatt S.H.

 

7 - 17 Fine day

 

1 - 18 Ditto

 

2 - 19 Beautiful day har[rowe]d manure etc

 

3 - 20 Deal of thunder & sheet light[nin]g early this morn[in]g - drizzly rain fine grow[in]g weather

 

4 - 21 Ditto Beautiful harvest weather

 

2 - 26 B[akewe]ll Fair Fine full cheese Fair 60/- sheep about same stores low fat 6d to 7d - pigs low - took Star mare & Mountney - sold

 

 

It seems as though John was too busy with the harvest to write in his journal at the beginning of August 1867. 

The Green Man ...

Those who know me will know that I have an interest in the Green Man. Whenever I visit older churches and assuming I can get inside [legally] I always look out for the Green Men on the walls and arches in the church. 

Sometimes they're carved in wood as at Tideswell ...

 

or as at Ault Hucknall, where he's sticking his tongue out ...



Usually though they're carved in stone. Here's one from the cloisters of Norwich cathedral ...

 

You have to look up to see him as he is in the celing looking down on those who pass below.

More locally I spotted this one, a corbel in the church at Alstonefield ...

 

There are many, many more though I haven't photographed as many as I would like.

I've recently been reading Clive Hicks's book on the Green Man and on the front of the book there's a photograph he took of a Green Man in Bamberg Cathedral. This is a Green Man you ought to see if you haven't already. If you click on this link ~ http://www.clivehicks.co.uk/seeforyourself/greenman.html ~ you'll see the photograph to which I am referring.

I don't think I have ever seen such an unnerving Green Man before. It must have something to do with his eyes which appear to be staring straight at you. Or perhaps it's those lips ...