It is a glorious spring here in England. Our house is now surrounded by the brilliant yellow glow of the rapeseed fields. The color is so stunning as to seem unreal. Perhaps we’re actually in the midst of some pointillist or impressionist landscape? In the Heath Wood, where Derby and I walked this morning, a blanket of bluebells has emerged from the spring earth. Spring colors are everywhere; the light yellowish-green of new leaves, the brownish-yellow of the ducklings, the red of the tulips; and bird song rouses the auditory senses as well.
I haven’t posted now for some time. Between spending time with the kids who have been on holiday for the past month, playing with and training our new puppy, and a visit from Molly’s parents, I’ve spent very little time in front of the computer. I’m planning to try to catch up with some of the things we’ve been up to, so expect posts in the next few days about our ski trip to the Dolomites in northern Italy, River’s birthday, Ireland, and Amsterdam.
Yesterday, we brought a new member of the family home.
Derby (pronounced “Darby”) is a Springer Spaniel and is about 11 weeks old. He’s of the field breed rather than the show lineage of springer spaniels. We had a great time meeting Derby and his mum and his brothers and sisters. They were all really beautiful. His dad’s name is Bushie. Derby is really cute and is settling into his new family really well, though we didn’t sleep particularly well last night.
He really likes to play with River. She is so good with him!
Earlier this week, I went for a walk along along Baslow Edge, Birchen Edge and Gardom Edge, following the interface between the gritstone ridges and moorland. It is beautiful country.
I parked just up the hill from Curbar village and soon found myself on Baslow Edge where there was an amazing view of Curbar Edge and Froggatt Edge to the north. I think you just might be able to make out my car on the road below. There were a few folk climbing here on Baslow Edge, but I didn’t bring my climbing gear since I was planning a relatively long walk and didn’t want to spend too much time climbing and not make it back to collect the kids in time.
I soon came to Eagle Rock and I wished that I had brought my climbing shoes since this stone just calls out to be climbed. Legend, according to the author of the route instructions I was following, claims that this rock was a favorite of ancient witches of the area and that local lads used to climb it before becoming betrothed.
There are some interesting monuments to the Duke of Wellington and Admiral Nelson along the cliff edges as well as a decent view of the Chatsworth estate, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. I have a vague plan to go visit there sometime. There is apparently a farmyard and adventure playground that might add appeal to the younger set who have perhaps become a bit jaded about seeing more enormous stately homes.
I also came across a fold of highland cattle. For some reason, a group of highland cattle are not referred to as a “herd” but as a “fold”. Anyway, these beautiful animals are well adapted to harsh conditions and low quality pasture and have been transplanted far and wide from their native Scottish Highlands. I love the color of their shaggy coats.
I came upon more rock faces that I could only look at whistfully since by this point I was running short of time.
I did complete the walk and get back in time to pick up the kids and even had a couple of minutes to kick back in the sun and take these pictures from our garden:
Spring is coming!
We had a party to celebrate Sage’s birthday last weekend. She invited some of friends from school.
The kids painted pots and planted “kinderplants” for the local nursery.
An unusual amount of music was played during the party. An impromptu orchestra formed, rehearsing a spontaneous composition.
There was also some game playing.
And until the rain sent everyone back inside, some outside adventures.
I got some nice birthday cards today!
I also got nice cards from the Perry’s and lots of good wishes from friends at facebook. Thanks, everyone!
We went to River’s school concert tonight. She played a duet she’s been working on with her friend Grace.
She recently joined the strings ensemble. They played this piece:
Finally, River is also in the choir and they sang a few songs as well.
Simple Melody by Irving Berlin
and
To the Moon by Schubert
There were a lot of very talented children performing tonight. I was very impressed and enjoyed all the music immensely.
We’ve had a pretty good run on nice weather recently and it was a beautiful, sunny day again today. We spent a good portion of our time gardening: cleaning out beds from last year and planting some new flowers.
First, we took a trip down the street to the nursery. River’s friend Alex came along for the ride.
It is great to see all the colors bursting forth in the spring. River planted a few more strawberry plants in her garden. She’s specializing this year!
Inspired by Melody’s yellow series, here is some yellow from Swarkestone:
The first blooms of spring have started to appear. The snowdrops have been out for a bit now and the rest of the bulbs have been leaping from the soil to join them.
We have had some nice spring weather recently and I decided to go exploring. I’d read about Froggatt Edge in the Peak District as a good spot for climbing. I found a spot to park on the side of the road and wandered through the forest and up the hillside until I came to the top of the ridge.
I can understand why it is called an edge. The edge is a sharp line of rock dropping off a heather-covered plateau. A footpath follows the contours of the edge and many other people were out enjoying the beautiful weather.
According to a UK climbing website, Froggatt Edge “is a virtually continuous face of exceptionally clean and quick-drying rock of the highest quality up to 17m high… The edge is home to some of the best slab climbing in the country.”
I’m still a novice at climbing on rock, and I felt relatively cautious about the bouldering routes I choose, but I found plenty of interesting and challenging spots.
I’d love to spend more time exploring Froggatt Edge.
River and Sage had a Tae Kwon Do grading yesterday morning. Somehow 9:00am seems too early on a Sunday morning to get anywhere, but we made it only a few minutes late. Unfortunately, our local Starbucks doesn’t have the big boxes of coffee, so we had to make do with individual cups.
Both kids did well on their grading. Sage is now a yellow belt with a green tag and River got her green belt with a blue tag.
The grading examiner, on the left, noted that Sage had particularly improved since her last test. The kids’ regular instructor, Master Towndrow, is on the right.
