A Journey to Morville - Part One

Paul is on holiday this week and we've been pottering in the garden quite a bit but on Wednesday we decided to have a day out to visit a garden I'd been wanting to see for ages at Morville in Shropshire - much more of this magical place in a later post. We set out in the morning heading down the A34 towards Eccleshall and taking the Newport road through Woodseaves (I always think of Kester Woodseaves hero of Mary Webb's 'Precious Bane' when we pass through this village which is quite apt as we are heading into Shropshire later) and out towards Albrighton, after the A34 these are mostly peaceful country roads and it is a familiar drive for us because every year we visit the RAF Museum at Cosford. We stopped here first for a coffee and a look around to see what was changed and what was new - I'll let Paul tell you all about it on his blog. After a good walk around we drove back into the village of Albrighton and made our way to our next port of call - David Austin Roses.

There were some gorgeous roses both in the sales area and in the gardens which are free to wander around. The rose below was growing by the entrance - it is called 'Gertrude Jekyll'.

Below are a few more photos taken around the gardens.

Thanks to Paul and his camera for the close ups of the roses.

This fine fellow was certainly making his presence felt - well heard - all around the garden.

I'd never seen blue roses before - they were stunning and called 'Rhapsody in Blue'.

After wandering around to the call of the peacock, the buzzing of the bees and the wonderful scents from the roses it was time to move on. We drove along country lanes through yellowing fields rippling with red poppies towards the town of Bridgnorth. I'll tell you all about this in part two of the journey.

If it's Tuesday it must be....

The last few days have been quite hectic and I'm not sure what they have added to our carbon footprints as we have driven at least twice through seven different counties. I don't worry too much about it though, as we are quite thoughtful in other areas like recycling, saving water and energy, using environmentally friendly products and walking quite a lot. Also we have one small car and never use air transport. Anyway, I digress - back to the last few days.

We set out on Tuesday to drive over to Spalding, where we used to live, to collect a friend and bring her over to Stoke to stay with us for a few days. Our normal route is along the A50 from Stoke to Kegworth and through Zouch, Rempstone and Wymeswold. We normally stop for a break in Melton but on this journey we made a detour up to Long Clawson and Hose to do some 'family historying' and I've written about this on Family Matters.


Parish Church, Hose

After we'd had a look around and taken some photos we rejoined our normal route through Melton towards Colsterworth, Bourne and Spalding. We collected our friend from her home and then joined by another friend we had a superb lunch in the White Hart at Spalding before setting off back to Stoke.


The River Welland, Spalding

The next day we set out on the second leg of our journey travelling through Leek, across the Roaches to Buxton, Chapel-en-le-Frith and Glossop and then up towards Holmfirth. From here we were on unknown territory as we set off across Saddleworth Moor towards our destination, the village of Shaw, near Oldham. We left our friend at her friend's house, knowing that she would be brought back to us the following day, and drove back over the moor now bathed in the most glorious sunshine; the light effects on the hills were stunning. We were intrigued by a place called Uppermill so we stopped and had a look around, parking in the square in front of the Museum near the Saddleworth canal.


The Museum, Uppermill

On Saturday we made the return journey to Spalding this time stopping for lunch at the cafe at Wymondham Windmill.


The windmill at Wymondham

We made good time back to Spalding where, after dropping our friend at her home, we delivered some of my books to the Tourist Information Centre at Fenscape, before popping to Ayscoughfee Hall to see my friend who was on duty in the Museum. I worked at this Museum for over ten years and love to go back to see what has been changed.


Ayscoughfee Hall, Spalding

We finally got home about 7 o'clock on Saturday evening exhausted but happy. I think we may have a restful few days next week.

A Busy Week Ahead

I just love the delicate colour of these roses in our garden; they have a lovely fragrance too. I thought I would just take an hour out of today to have a look around the garden to see what is happening. The plum tree is laden with fruit but unfortunately the apricot tree that we planted at the top of the garden has turned brown and looks very unhealthy. I think it has been affected by the heavy rains of the last few weeks and I fear its roots may have got too wet. It is a shame because the tree has moved twice with us and was grown from the stone of an apricot that came from a tree in the garden next door to us when we lived in Spalding. We took it with us in a pot when we moved to near Market Drayton where it lived on a balcony until we moved here. The tree the original fruit came from was planted by our then neighbour on her little boy's first birthday; when we left there over ten years ago he was twenty one. I was pleased to see that the Japanese Anemones and the Agapanthus are flowering and hadn't been affected by the weather.
This week is going to be very busy as we are driving over to Spalding to collect a friend to stay with us for a few days and then we are taking her to Oldham to stay overnight with a friend who lives there. So whilst I am busy cleaning, washing and planning meals Paul is busy cleaning the car, tidying the garden and plotting routes. I may not get back here for a few days - hence the hour of peace in which to smell the roses.