Our trip to Derbyshire-Day 1

There are many things in England that most visitors never see or appreciate.  Some things people see every day, but pay absolutely no attention to.  One of the things I have always loved in England are dry stone walls.  They are works of art.  They started long before the Middle Ages and there are miles and miles of them in Britain.  They were originally constructed from stones gathered from the fields and chosen so that they fit together perfectly.  They stayed in place by virtue of the foundation and skill of tight packing.  More recently, people tend to cement the top layer in place, which used to be unnecessary.  It is a dying art, but I hope they never disappear.

Marie, Dad and I went to Derbyshire for a couple of days and we saw miles of these walls.  Marie stopped at one point so I could get a picture of the wall.  I love the ferns growing out of this one

This wall is covered in moss-looks like something out of Lord of the Rings!!!!

 Marie and I had talked about taking Dad away for a couple f days while I was home and I left it up to Marie to choose where we would go.  She decided to book a couple of nights in Derbyshire.  We left on Tuesday morning and drove to Buxton.  We parked by Buxton Town Hall, a lovely old building

 We walked down to Buxton Baths, built in 1852

Marie at the Courthouse

Opera House

Pavilion by the park

 Britain in Bloom has really taken off, there are flowers everywhere you go....

Tom and I walked through the pavilion, it was lovely

Park in the middle of Buxton

 After we left Buxton, we stopped in Tideswell and visited the parish church with they call the "Cathedral of the peak".  It was a really amazing 14th Century church

Just in case you were in any doubt!!!!

The church pews had a lot of carvings that were beautiful.  Amazing they have lasted so long

And stained glass windows, of course!!

Just a random 14th Century bell, whose name is Gabriel

Early hearse!!!

We stopped by the Monsal Trail to get a picture of the viaduct built in 1863 to cross the river Wye (and there was an ice cream van of course!!)

We stayed in Bakewell overnight.  This lovely garden was next to our hotel

We had dinner at this pub, but we didn't choose it purely because of its flower display!!!

More flowers

We found something to buy down here...

Loughborough by the Sea!!!!!!

We went into Loughborough "en masse" today.  We ate lunch in Queen's Park.  Walked past the Taylor bell from the foundry

The bandstand has been renovated.  I can still remember when bands played there, but it doesn't happen any more

The begonias were lovely

The carillon

Jude and Sophie eating ice cream

The Sock Man.....

The water fountain from the 1870's

This was "Loughborough by the Sea"-think this is the "sea"!!!!!

Beach looks as crowded as all English beaches on a sunny summer day!!!!

John, Mar and Sophie!!!

Little Sophie

Bradgate Park

One of my favourite places ever!!!!  Love to visit when I am at home.  The trees are always amazing

Found a swan family

The family-they look a little scary, don't they???!!!!

The deer were very close....

And, we had to have lunch, of course.....

August visit to MBG

Arline said she was just going to take a photo of something she hadn't seen before. I told her that would be pretty hard to do since I was sure we've seen almost everything at MBG.  We did see these massive banana trees (at least that's what I think they are!) in the Linnean House, and I'm not sure we've seen/photographed them before

Of course, I have many, many pictures of the lily ponds with the Chihuly glass in them!!!!

And many of the gatehouse as well

Lovely plant display by the Kemper Center

 The lilies were lovely this visit

The crew enjoying a natter

Massive growth by the Linnean House

More water lilies

It never gets old.......

In an effort to entertain the kiddos prior to going back to school, I took Ben and Maggie to the Science Center to see the Tutankhamen exhibit.  It was all reproduction, but still very good.  They really liked it.  I bought a SLSC membership again-it always seems like it's worth it if you only go a couple of times each year.  We ended up eating lunch and then went to explore the new exhibit outside.  Funny, they never seem to grow out of doing some things....