Spontaneous Weekend Plans

 Last weekend I'd had plans to go to a beer festival, at which quite a few local bands would be playing. It was a three day affair - Friday to Sunday - but other commitments meant we couldn't go for the first day. Friday was wet though. In the evening folks were tweeting photos of ankle-depth water, and the lead singer of  one of the bands was seen jumping off stage and splashing about in the flood. We thought we'd give Saturday a miss, and let the water subside.














So ... we went to Biddulph Grange Gardens for the afternoon, through the tunnels, following the paths to rocky viewpoints, eating cake.



























The sun shone all day, and we assumed Sunday would be dry.











The first band we wanted to see on Sunday was billed for two o'clock, so after an early lunch we headed to the festival. One look at the muddy car park made us decide to leave and go down the road to visit Chatsworth. I'm too old to have to push the car out of mud!


























 The house itself was a little busy but the grounds are so extensive that it's easy to get away from crowds - and, importantly last weekend, all the paths are graveled and free from mud.

 So, not at all the weekend we'd planned but a good one.

Short Sunset Walk at Breadsall

 I'm managing to keep up my enthusiasm for walking, but there are two difficulties - after a couple of longer walks my legs are less willing, so I'm looking for shorter ambles, and I'm running out of local places to go.

Time to get the maps out.  Looking on the local Ordnance Survey map, I discovered a footpath leading from Breadsall village, obviously once a through-road but now leading past a couple of houses and farms. It's a straight-line, there and back walk, but well tarmacked for most of its length, and, heading slightly uphill, gives pretty views back towards Breadsall village and over the surrounding countryside.





















 It looks idyllic ... but ...  hidden by the lie of the land the A38 Derby ringroad rushes past no far away, and the noise from it travels!  It's a good spot though to catch the sunset, and not at all far from home, so I may be back.

Walking again at Locko Park

 I'm determined to keep up this evening walk idea but wanting to find places nearer to home, so here we are, another sunny evening, out at Locko.















I could actually walk TO this place, but much of the route would be through houses or along roads, and not much fun. Parking just outside the gates I get a traffic-free walk along a private road, passing the lake and grazing geese, through parkland and fields.













This time we continued through to the far side of the park, to where the road (now more of a track) meets an 'A' road, maybe 3 or 4 kilometers in all.






















Considering how near it is to urban development, Locko is a lovely tranquil place which feels like it's in the middle of the countryside.

















As I (hopefully) get fitter I want to experiment with circular walks in the area, but for now this is enough for an evening.

A New Short Circular Walk at Cromford

 After my recent few days away in Norfolk I came home feeling exhausted, so I've decided it's time to get fitter. With this in mind, I've been taking advantage of good weather and light evenings. and getting out and about walking.




We frequently head to Cromford when looking for somewhere to walk - the path beside the canal is flat (always good, especially as Derbyshire tends to be 'hilly'), hard enough to not get muddy after rain, and there are always ducks and swans bobbing about.







This time we started with our normal walk from the start of the canal in Cromford to the old workshops at High Peak Junction.







Usually we'd turn round here, and follow the same route back to the car - this time I decided to be a bit more adventurous and energetic by heading up the High Peak Trail.










A railway once followed this route, bringing goods down to the canal, and the last section - Sheep Pasture Incline - was notoriously steep. It's a bit of a slog to walk up!












It's straight and the gradient doesn't vary, and it seems to keep going for ever. It passes under the busy A6 road, and onward and upward. After a while the view opens up, looking back across the valley, and there's something to take your mind off the monotonous plodding.








































I was sure I'd remembered correctly that a track heading for Cromford crossed the trail, but we continued to climb, entering another cutting, without sight of it. There are another footpaths which lead back to Cromford, but higher up the High Peak Trail, and dropping back down quite steeply.







 I needn't have worried. After the cutting, maybe half/three quarters of a mile from the start of the climb, we spotted joggers on a different track to our left, and soon found the way, circling round and down, to join it. There was even a signpost to make sure we didn't get lost.









Following the new track, Intake Lane, we went back under the High Peak Trail, and downhill towards Cromford and the car.







I thought this might make a good walk in the opposite direction, but as we reached the first houses the gradient steepened (worse than Sheep Pasture Incline, I'm sure) so if I walk this route again it will be in exactly the same way.












 It wasn't much longer in distance than returning along the canal towpath but definitely more exercise and therefore slower. Cromford to High Peak Junction is marked as a mile, the return was maybe half a mile longer - not far, but a pleasant walk to get me back towards longer distances.

Curious Arts Festival - 23rd - 26th August

It's nearly time for Curious Arts Festival, that blend of music, literature and comedy which introduced me to the fun of festivals. For five years it's been held at Pylewell Park in the New Forest; I went along for two of them - in 2016 and 2017-  and loved it! 

Now it's on the move to Pippingford Park, Sussex, where it will join forces with Byline Festival.

While Byline is all about serious hard-headed journalism, looking at contemporary culture and politics, Curious Arts will provide the arty, literary complement to it. I've covered the literary line-up over at OurBookReviewsOnline, but my picks would be Candice Carty-Williams talking about her novel Queenie, described as a politicised Bridget Jones' Diary, about a 25 year old black woman trying to straddle two cultures, and Dan Richards talking about his search for isolation and silence, which led to his book Outpost - A Journey to the Wild Ends of the Earth.

Blow Monkeys

The musical line up, meanwhile, ranges from open mic and DJ sets, to performances from  Blow Monkeys, Suggs (from Madness), The Feeling, The Priscillas, and Pussy Riot. Curious Arts is certainly living up to its eclectic reputation!

The Feeling

A huge part of the Curious Arts experience for me was the food on offer. Again 'eclectic' covers it well, with choices from pizza to Iraqi street food to a three course meal at the Naturally Curious pop-up restaurant, with beer and ciders from Curious Brewing, or Chapel Down English wines to drink. You could even take part in an oyster tasting workshop. Somehow that just sums up the vibe of Curious Arts!



My weekends at Curious Arts have always been very special times and I'm a little disappointed that our plans don't allow me to go this year (I'm heading north, though, to Edinburgh for a different sort of festival fun). Maybe I'll be back another year.