Back from four-day excursion to Toton, where the weather was reasonably warm (occasionally very warm), ideal for walking. We travelled up on Monday, curious to see if any progress had been made on the A14. In fact there was a slight improvement at the Cambridge end, but a big hold-up where it crossed the A1, caused partly by a convoluted temporary road and partly by the fact that a lorry had come off it, blocking one lane.
We made an unprecedented stop at the service station in the middle of it, which had an extremely complicated layout causing us to travel against a one-way sign to find the bit we wanted, which in this case happened to be a Starbucks where Dot found she liked my mint tea blend, and we had a sandwich and a muffin.
More confusion as we neared Toton, when Dot thought she’d put in satnav directions to Katherine Drive. Not sure what actually happened, but it took us off the motorway a junction early (we thought there might be a hold-up ahead) and then by a tortuous route into Nottingham and a mysterious unknown “destination”. At this point we gave up and I followed signs to the A52, which obviously worked.
On arrival we walked up to the garden centre by the usual circuitous route and had a cup of tea, then returned for an evening meal.
The next tea we drove to Derby for a cup of tea with Alan and Rosemary, then accompanied them to the Cock Inn at Mugginton for a very nice meal of fish and chips. Beautiful situation with a lovely view. Afterwards A & R went home and the remaining four of us went to Kedleston Hall (NT), where we enjoyed a lovely walk in the grounds and ended up inevitably at the cafe, outside.
On Wednesday our goal was a little further away – Clumber Park (NT). There we walked round the walled garden and greenhouses and discovered that they grew 130 varieties of rhubarb and 150 types of apple. The prospects for crumble were almost limitless. Afterwards we had a snack in the Tea Garden cafe, which was very nice but took an awful long time to arrive. Undeterred, we proceeded on a walk along the side of the lake, intending to circumnavigate it, but it proved too big. We took some picture at a beautiful spot at one end , then returned to the pleasure gardens , where there were a large number of geese with goslings, both Canada and Greylag. Also some fairly bold squirrels.
After more tea in the main cafe we visited a small museum and then the shop before heading home. In the evening we took a taxi to Vivo, an Italian restaurant in a run-down part of Stapleford, where we had a stunning meal, both Dot and I pronouncing the sauce the best we had ever tasted. And it was different sauce! Mine was on fillet steak wrapped in parma ham and hers was on fish.
We returned home on Thursday, but not before going to Attenborough, where we viewed sand martins at close quarters and then had a drink outside, where it proved too hot for both Dot and myself: we moved inside. Then we took a short walk down to the river and back (a scenario Julia rarely entertains) before having lunch at Katherine Drive and then heading home.
We called in to see Andrew, who seemed remarkably well, and then proceeded home by way of our new favourite services, Brampton Hut Starbucks. This time we were not confused, and the traffic was not a problem. Amazing how things change. We were home by about 7.30 after filling up with petrol and then voting.
We slept late yesterday, and I contacted a plumber, who came round just as we wanted to leave to visit Maryta on our Paul-in-Israel schedule. But it worked out all right: the journey through the city was surprisingly easy, and we got there before her carer David arrived back with her from Allison’s. Dot took her for a very short walk in Tyrrels Wood (her feet are hurting) while I did some walking in the sun in her garden, and then wrote a poem. We ate fish and chips with her and stayed till just after 7.30pm.