Redbournestoke Morris

Met our dear friends Kas & Stan in Toddington last night. The Morris side that Stan & Dan first belonged to were doing their annual tour of Toddington to dance outside each pub in the village. This gig was different as it was to be their last hurrah as the side is folding due to lack of new members.

We took Kevin along as well who proved he wasn't a Morris fan but was a cider fan. We took Ida of course & also this weeks guest Charlie. There's a great like micro pub opened up called The Cuckoo, it was very friendly and served good beer, essential on the warm evening that it was. It was nice to see that a number of other sides had turned out to  see Redbournestoke off in style. It was a grand evening.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: All Peaks and no troughs

An idiots guide to an Idiot: All Peaks and no troughs: Found a living history type museum that was very good called the Tramway Museum. Not the most inspiring name I grant you but stay with it! ...

All Peaks and no troughs

Found a living history type museum that was very good called the Tramway Museum. Not the most inspiring name I grant you but stay with it! It's one of these places that has moved local buildings of historic interest brick by brick and re built them bringing them back to their former glory, there's a few places that are similar across the country, but this one had the addition of trams!
There is of course trams to ride on and lots of others to see all restored to working condition. Had a pint & a scotch egg (obligatory) in the Red Lion & as you can see here Ida did her impression of Fred Scuttle (google Benny Hill if you know him!)

  Weather again was brilliant and we had a really nice day. Wednesday I think it was Tara was abit washed out by now and elected to stay in so Ida & I went off to Derwent Water to seek all things Dambusters as this is where the 617 Squadron practised their attack on the German dams of the Ruhr Valley.
There's a small memorial to the squadron & once a small museum that's been closed for a few years and that's it really. Not sure what I was expecting , but abit more than this anyway. You can't get onto any of the dam itself which is a shame, hope my photos here show the two towers that the bomb aimers had to line up with  to drop their bouncing bombs at the right place which records state was 60ft above the water, though the last surviving Dambuster, Johnny Johnson, who was a bomb aimer, said it was more like 30feet!
Incredibly brave men everyone one of them. On the 19 Lancasters who set off only with only 8 returning.53 aircrew were killed.

Another glorious walk on Thursday brought our week to a close. This time a 3 miler which probably ended up 4 miles. We drove to Birchover and walked to the Nine Ladies Stones, an ancient site along with the king stone. Legend says they were dancing on the sabbath & got turned to stone. On route was the Cork Stone. Just one massive stone on its own, quite impressive

though. You'll notice I have no photos of the Nine Ladies themselves. It was summer solstice about a week ago and some pagan types had camped near the stones and as at least one of the girls was wandering around topless I thought it probably best not to take any piccys! Carried on our walk down through woodland and passed some old workings of some kind.  There were some stones that appeared to have been cut into millstones. Unfortunately somewhere on this path we managed to take a wrong turn and were about a mile & a half  away from where we wanted to be so a trudge along a very quiet but very hot road that kept on going up & up again until we got back to Birchover to find the first pub shut & the second, although open for drinks wasn't serving food, but the cool tap room and cooler beer made it a worthwhile stop anyway.

It was a delightful little cottage we stayed in, it was tastefully furnished, nothing like the usual house clearance crap that holiday lets of years gone by were like. Really couldn't fault it & with the added good weather we all had a really really great week.

 

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Peaks and peace.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Peaks and peace.: After a  few months of turmoil and uncertainly, no thanks to my company, we have come out the other side and off on a well earned break to ...

Peaks and peace.

After a  few months of turmoil and uncertainly, no thanks to my company, we have come out the other side and off on a well earned break to the Peak District staying in a village called Winster which is lovely. We're about 6 miles from Bakewell.
Speaking of which, we visited Bakewell the other day, got to say I was disappointed with it, it was just another reasonably nice country town selling crap to tourists, of which there were many, even the Bakewell Puddings were a disappointment. I found them very oily. It may be heresy to say but I think Mr Kipling does a better job with his Bakewell Tarts!

Bakewell Pudding, very oily, I prefer Mr Kipling's!

We went on a really good walk on our first full day here. Five miles from Winster  over to the next village, Birchover.  The weather was glorious and the walk, to start with anyway, was easily signposted. It was a nice mix of hills some open land and some forestry. Ida  loved it, 5 miles vast majority of which was over fields and woodland so she could be off the lead. Eventually got to Birchover (this was no route march, just an amble really) and found The Red Lion open for parched walkers, this as most of the pubs round here are very dog friendly. Another thing that pubs in this part of the world have embraced is veggie & even vegan food so we were able to eat here with filled baguettes & chips washed down with the local ale Birchover Brewery, brewed on site. it slipped down a treat I can tell you! Homeward from here was a little confused though Tara sorted us out and we were on the right track again.

       Bolsover Castle near Chesterfield is an interesting place to visit, there some older ruinous bits that were knocked about in the English Civil War and an inner Little Castle, this was the only place dogs couldn't go so we took it in turns to look in this part.

 We've eaten at both local pubs and been back to The Old Bowling Green  for a quiz night for charity. It's what's called Wakes Week in the village, there's been various events going on but the quiz is the only one we've taken part in. It was all very friendly and light hearted, we finished about mid table from around 20 teams. This wasn't bad as most teams had at least four in and we were just two!
I took Ida on a nice little 3 miler from the village, quite steep up to the top of the hill from the village then we picked up part of the long distance footpath called The Limestone Way, continued on that and closed the circle by returning to the village across fields. Ida lead me straight to The Old Bowling Green for a refreshing pint of Farmers Bitter to end our walk.

Photos of our walk around Winster.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Bloody barbeques!

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Bloody barbeques!: We took a couple of very simple light and cook BBQ's with us to the Peak District, already in a foil container for ease and simplicity ...

Bloody barbeques!

We took a couple of very simple light and cook BBQ's with us to the Peak District, already in a foil container for ease and simplicity of use. No,no,no,no,no!! These easy BBQ's are a pain in the arse! 'Ready in 15 minutes after lighting' the destructions said. In that case why pray tell an hour and a bloody half later were only six coals alight and anything like ready to cook on! I'd got some really good locally produced sausages & a gammon steak for me and some nice vegs  based in butter for Tara which all ended up being cooked in or on the oven.
These things are the devils work and should be avoided. Going home to our trusty gas bbq on Friday......bloody barbeques!

'Easy to use' BBQ my arse! Three sausages being half cooked on the six coals to be ready!

Everything else went in the cooker!

 

 

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Elvis Costello gig.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Elvis Costello gig.: You see Tara does have a choice as well, I don't always just drag the Memsahib to all the old headbangers I like. Tara had found the El...