Great Rail Journey

I have just experienced my holiday of a lifetime with 'Great Rail Journeys' travelling by train all the way to Austria as a 1st class passenger.

My journey began with Eurostar to Brussels and on into Germany staying at Konnigswinter near Cologne for the first night. Next day the route followed the mighty Rhine via Mannheim , Stuttgart and Munich and onto our resort for 6 nights at Jenbach in the Innsbrook valley (Tyrol).

My case which had been sent on by a company called 'First Luggage' was waiting for me in my room at The Jenbacherhof Hotel and well worth every penny spent!

The holiday was a dream come true with an excellent tour manager, 20 congenial companions (including an ardent botanist) and sunny weather.

My best day was a ride on the steam train 'the Zillertalbahn' up a valley to the resort of Mayerhofen.

Bluebell woods

I love to walk in the bluebell woods around Church Lawton at this time of year. The best time of day is early morning or late afternoon when the light is low filtering through the trees. This year I discovered a 2 to 3 mile circular walk taking in the church, Trent and Mersey canal, and 2 hidden valleys.

Rainy Photo Shoot

The mission of our annual Congleton U3A Photo Group outing this year was to take photos for the front cover of the summer newsletter. Having lunch at a local hostelry one member remarked that we should be out there whilst the sun was shining. How true a statement as it started raining at the start of the walk around Redesmere and Capsthorne estate. We did manage some shots before a downpour forced us to retire.

Every cloud has a silver - lining and the red umberella provided a focal point for this shot.
Pity the newsletter is in black and white!

A Secret Garden

What a way to start the glorious month of May with a visit to this lovely garden, even if we did have umberellas to the ready. 'The Rowans' near Malpas Cheshire is open to the public in July under the National Garden Scheme www.ngs.org I was fortunate to be invited as a guest with a friend as part of her garden design group and we had a personally conducted tour by the owners.

tulipmania

This time of year I am consumed by tulipmania. This one was bought 2 years ago as 'Orange Emperor' and put in a pot in the front garden. I was a bit disappointed that it came out as yellow, so decided to try it by the shed to follow on after the daffs. Last year no flowers but this year - yellow streaked with red - interesting?

Tatton Park

With the wonderful weather continuing on Sunday I decided to hitch a lift on the bus with the Sunday Garden Group to Tatton Park near Knutsford. My aim was to walk in the extensive parkland created in the 18th century by Repton. On my approach to the Old Hall notices warned of 'loud bangs'! There I discovered a re-enactment of the American Civil War in progress. It all looked very familiar as we had toured sites in the Southern States on a holiday in 2001. See link on my website at http://www.39blythe.freeserve.co.uk/

Men playing with 'toys'!

Women chatting up soldier!

Derbyshire Church Crawl

On Friday a friend and I did a church crawl in Derbyshire. A few weeks ago we had picked up a leaflet from Leek Tourist Office entitled 'From Cradle to Grave', which listed various historic churches. http://www.peak-experience.org.uk/





We started in Ashbourne but could only admire the exterior of St Oswald's church as there was a lengthy funeral in progress.

In the nearby tiny village of Fenny Bentley the Norman church of St Edmund had an interesting alabaster tomb with shrouded effigies of Thomas Beresford and his wife surrounded on all sides by their 21 shrouded children. It also had an area of painted aluminium ceiling - the first of it's kind in England. Work from the local school children was very much in evidence, showing it was well patronised.

St Mary's at Tissington was a further Norman church with a good view from the teashop opposite. The lady doing the weekly cleaning was assisted by a small child and dog!

Finally St Peter's church at Alstonefield was bathed in late afternoon sunshine and looked over towards Dovedale. In the well-tended churchyard we found the oldest gravestone in the country dated 1518. Looking over the wall I spotted many wild cowslips which like the limestone in this area.