Patrick believes in the power of the outdoors, not necessarily climbing mountains, but being out of your home environment… Out of your comfort zone and immersed in nature.
Category: GREAT BRITAIN
slow travel Peak District, slow travel UK, National Trust days out, Chatsworth, Clumber Park, Lyme Park, Hardwick Hall, near Chesterfield and Sheffield
Airy and Amazing Arnside – Beside the Seaside, The Lakes and Morecambe Bay
This one is for my fabulous Aunt Stella: a woman who has adventured through Africa, India, Malaysia and many other places. I can see that you have been reading my blog! Thank you. I decided to write about Arnside, where Stella now lives, as the light there is so clear and bright it makes me…
Curious About Calke – A Day Out at Calke Abbey near Derby
Calke is not a place for the faint-hearted surrounded as it is by death, beady eyes, horns and feathers. There are also a few sad echoes of the last throes of human life in this somewhat dark and cavernous place. Impossibly large to make a home, the most recent inhabitants retreated to small apartments within the whole.
Slow stroll around the Pleasure Gardens at Stowe with The National Trust
The concept of the Pleasure Garden at Stowe is landscape gardening on a grand scale. Team members from Clumber Park, led by Pleasure Grounds Gardener Jack Pitt, headed down to Buckinghamshire on a glorious autumnal day to learn and gather inspiration.
The Glass House and Walled Kitchen Gardens at Clumber Park this Autumn
As temperatures start to drop outside one of the most pleasant spots for visitors to explore at Clumber Park is the glasshouse in the Walled Kitchen Garden. At the moment it is just gourd-geus with superb displays in every shade of orange, white and green imaginable. They differ in shape and size too with…
Circular stroll around the Pleasure Gardens at Clumber Park
We started with a picnic on the Pleasure Grounds outside the Parsonage and headed past the Chapel of St Mary the Virgin, “A Cathedral in Miniature” on the north side of the lake. The path then meanders through the mature trees (we couldn’t help hugging them) before you reach an elevated section at the end…
Glamping in the New Forest National Park
This was my first experience of glamping (albeit on the cheap with our own gear). I managed to pick up a four bed Coleman for £35 at a car boot sale and I could have got it for much less if my companion had managed to curb his enthusiasm! We stayed at Ashurst (site owned…
Beautiful Books at The National Trust, Clumber Park
Every Friday I escape to a cupboard full of weird and wonderful books at Clumber Park near Worksop. The park is especially beautiful at this time of the year with the impressive Lime Tree Avenue turning golden brown. The trees all look like they have been there for hundreds of years but a volunteer told…
Lyme Park – Fresh Air and Freedom
As Lyme Park is located on the edge of both the Peak District and the Cheshire Plain it has commanding 360 degree views
Slow Sunday at Chatsworth
Parking at Edensor (pronounced En-saw for some reason) is something of a tradition for us when visiting the Chatsworth estate (not the Shameless one). A short walk over the hillside delivers the best view of the big house over the bridge. The cleaned and gilded facades probably look better now than they have at any…
Coast and Castles – Newcastle to Edinburgh
Day 1 – Newcastle to Alnwick. We started at the station in Newcastle on a fine May day. Fortunately, it was a Bank Holiday weekend in England (but not in Scotland) and we got incredible weather. The scenery on this ride made it an absolute pleasure. We stopped at the uber-trendy café at Longsands in…
C2C from Whitehaven to Sunderland in Three Days
Day 1 – Whitehaven to Keswick. Whitehaven is as windblown as any other English seaside town. Wild waves smash against the breakwater in the outer harbour but an official starting point can be found on the boat ramp at the end of the white wiggly structure (see photograph). Quickly inland the path takes you winding…
