Inconsiderate Parking ...

I've been so annoyed by the inconsiderate parking in my street these last few days that I thought I'd share my diary with you ..

If you recognise any of the cars feel free to block their access or if you fancy any guitars, amps, etc the blue Mondeo leaves them strewn all over the back seat of the car .... help yourself !

This was the idiot that blocked my drive when I wanted to go to work on Tuesday  morning. I managed to find out he was at my neighbours but he was reluctant to move his car. There was plenty of parking elsewhere in the street.  Unfortunately I'd not got a photo of that incident nor a photo of his reg plate, but I'm working on that. When I got home that evening he was back again.

Tuesday 17th May

This morning I opened the curtains to be greeted with the following. At 8.30 on a Sunday morning I didn't particularly want to go round knocking up my neighbours to find out who the car belonged to. I found out at 9.30 who the car belonged to (7 doors down the street) and went and knocked on. They didn't even have the courtesy to open the door to me - I had to shout through the window. I saw the woman disappear upstairs and check through the bedroom window. I then had to stand there and wait. The bloke eventually appeared from around the back of the house. Wandered up to the car and said "you can get out of there". I've lived here 10 years ... I know exactly what I can and cannot get out of !

Sunday 22nd May at 8.30.

Later that morning I was upstairs getting ready to go out and looked out of the bedroom window to find this car had appeared ! Again no idea who it belongs to. Thankfully it was only there 10 minutes .... but still annoying if I needed to go out.

Sunday 22nd May at 10.40.

People are just lazy, ignorant and rude. If I'd blocked any ones access the first thing I'd do is apologise not make out that there isn't a problem.

I'm hoping I'll not have to blog again about inconsiderate parking but I have a feeling I might.

SKAR Walk No 7 - The Stile Challenge

SKAR Walk No 7 was Saturday 21st May.  A circular walk from Deep Hayes Country Park. All of SKAR were out for the walk. Weather was dry but a bit cloudy.

The walk started from Deep Hayes country park were the ducks kept me on my toes while we were getting ready to depart. The walk took us along the canal to Cheddleton, then up through the village and over to Stanley pool.

Cheddleton Flint Mill

Stanley Pool

We had a pub break at the Travellers Rest in Stanely - mainly because I hadn't been in for years and wanted to see what it was like. From there it was off through the fields heading back to Denford

Being a relatively shorty I do struggle with the stiles but as we headed back from Stanley we came across several different styles of stiles in a short distance and so we did the stile challenge.

Stile Challenge No 1 - the Squeeze Through

 This sort of stile I always seem to get me and my bag stuck !


Stile Challenge No 2 - the Step Ladder

Rob seems to have lost a leg going over the Step Ladder stile - still my favourite type of stile !

Stile Challenge No 3 -  The See-Saw with the rock that is supposed to help but isn't in the right place

The worst sort of stile ... they always are too high for my little legs and once you get on them they rock like a see-saw !

Stile Challenge No 4 - the Parallel Bars with two things to negotiate. A hurdle and a squeeze through.

This stile seemed a bit over the top. We first had to negotiate the first hurdle, and then it was the parallel bars. Finally a squeeze through bit. I managed to put my hand in bird muck on the parellel bars whilst negotiating this stile !

Stile Challenge No 5. The Deceptive. It looked easy but it wasn't.

 I gave this one a  miss and opened the gate instead !

Stile Challenge No 6 - The Tricky Dismount.

There wasn't enough room to dismount this stile and the "steps" were rubbish on the dismount side.

The walk finished off with a walk back along the canal. Stopped off at the Holybush at Denford for hot chicken and stuffing sandwiches and chips! It was then a short walk back to Deep Hayes Country Park.

In total the walk, according to Runkeeper was just over 8.3 miles.

SKAR Walk No 6

I'm a bit late blogging about Walk No 6 ... I just don't seem to have the time at the moment. Well walk SKAR Walk 6 was on Bank Holiday Monday 2nd May. A circular walk starting and finishing in Bakewell. All of SKAR plus another R turned out for the walk. Took awhile to get to Bakewell especially trying to get on the car park because as it was a Bank Holiday everyone was out and about.  It took us that long get on the car park that we sat and ate our picnic at the car ... we were all that hungry !

Weather was good but it was very windy !

The walk started along the side of the river but after that it was a right upper and downer !

Holding the tree up !

Great views those of the peak district.

We also walked through the Estate of Chatsworth House and the hamlet of Edensor which is on the estate (and was moved to allow the Duke of Devon who had the house built, uninterrupted views of his estate park lands!).

Chatsworth House

On some occasions in open spaces I thought I was going to get blown over ...

I felt like Julie Andrews after walking down this field !

We managed to see a curlew, buzzard, pheasant and the usual tits, robins and blackbirds. I think we should start taking a bird book out with us as we are useless identifying them !

In total just over 7 3/4 miles ... but relatively few flat bits !  Eventually found a pub on the way home Jarvis Arms at Onecote ... where I managed to purchase two books as well as lager !

SKAR Walk No 5 - Mow Cop

Well for this walk we had a full compliment of SKAR members albeit with a substitute "R".  However the substitute "R" has now been out as many times as the original "R", ie once ! Good walking weather, not quite as warm as the last walk but for April not bad.

The original walk started and finished at Mow Cop, but we decided to start off in Rookery (in fact at "R" house).  The route took us past the small tin Church in Rookery where we stopped for the "group photo".

 It was then across the fields, where we caught a glimpse of the buzzard flying overhead, and then UP to Mow Cop ! Quite a nice view looking over towards Mow Cop but all I was thinking "oh my poor little legs have got to get me up there". 

Firstly we came to a rocky area, where we stopped for a few minutes, and then it was off again up to Mow Cop castle.

We stopped at the Castle to have our photos taken and then headed off around the Old Man of Mow.

Great views over Cheshire.

We even caught sight of Jodrell Bank. I love the way the wind had battered this tree.

What goes up must come down so we made our descent through the woods and under the railway line. We then spotted a red phone box - in need of a touch of paint ! 

It was then a leisurely walk along the canal, stopping off at the Rising Sun for a well earned cheese baguette and chips. We then continued along the canal taking a small detour to look at the Hall Green Lock which has only a 6" drop.


 

It was then on through the fields and a small wooden area and back into the Rookery.

Some dispute on miles covered. Runkeeper recorded mine as 6.65 miles and Andy's GPS recorded 8.2 miles. However far it was I survived walking up to Mow Cop and back.

Walk No. 4 Halmerend to Keele

SKAR walkers were minus the R again so it was just SKA for walk no.4. After a bit of ferrying around and leaving one car at the end and one at the start in Halmerend we were off. Glorious day. Blue skies and not a cloud in the sky.

Lovely walk through Bateswood Nature Reserve. We saw skylarks and lapwings.

We then headed down towards Lycett passing the smouldering hill. You could feel the heat as we walked past. Spotted a buzzard flying overhead.

We then headed off along Pepper Street and Quarry Bank to Keele. We stopped off in the Sneyd for fish finger butties and chips.  After lunch we headed down Three Mile Lane and turned off into Lymes Road. We then headed back into Keele University ... tracing the steps we'd done on our walk on Friday. Still no heron on the bottom lake. More bluebells were out in the wood.

Great walk and 7.2 miles in total. Glad we'd done it that way round as the it would have been a bit of a climb up to Halmerend !

Stratford and Romeo & Juilet

Had a great day out in Stratford yesterday. When we arrived we found a nice tea-shop and I had an Afternoon tea ... proper China cups and warm scones. Very nice. We then wandered around Stratford doing a bit of window shopping. Found the Christmas shop ... yes there really is a shop selling Christmas stuff in March !

The Christmas shop !

Had a look at Shakespeare's house but we didn't go inside.

Shakespeare's house

Had a walk along the river and caught the ferry back across. Bargain at 50p ! 

Ferry across the Avon

We then had a ttip up the Tower at the theatre ... the lift had broken so we had to walk up the five flights! Views weren't particularly good as it was very cloudy.

We then wandered down to the Church and saw Shakespeare's final resting place. Evening meal at the Dirty Duck. We then headed off for the evening performance of Romeo and Juilet. The RSC theatre has been completely refurbished and it is now very similar in set-up to the Globe Theatre in London. Romeo and Juliet was just WOW ... such a powerful performance. Definitely be making another visit to the theatre.

Newly refurbished theatre

Squirrel and a samosa

We spotted this squirrel while walking this lunchtime at Keele University.  Looks like he's just found his lunch ...

He'd just taken this out of the bin

Proving a bit difficult to carry

but once he'd got hold of it he was off ...

then he fancied a nibble ...

and now he's found a quiet spot for lunch