I woke up early again - bout 6.30. I got up at 8ish, I think having been back to sleep for a while. Jill cooked us a really nice breakfast of eggs, bacon, potato cakes and toast. We left at about 10am for Biddulph, meeting up with Sue and Philip and Rosie. We had a cuppa and then were informed that we were going for a walk. We all got decked out in wet weather gear, gumboots, and 'cagules' and drove ten minutes up the hill from Biddulph to the start of the walk up the Cloud. Biddulph has two roads - 'under the hill' and 'over the hill'.
We walked for about an hour and half through the most diverse terrain I've seen within such a small area. We started off on very steep rocky stairs with trees around, to a slightly flatter heath area - the heather had beautiful pink flowers. We got to the top of the Cloud and there was an obelisk thingo there, and with the rocks and the mist/cloud, it reminded me a lot of Mt Kosciuszko. We could barely see anything through the rain and cloud. We climbed back down on the other side and ended up going through thick forest with wide, leaf-covered paths. We took a short cut after this and climbed back up through more rocks and heath to the obelisk and then back to the car.
Sue had Rosie on her back, and Sally was running around like a mad thing between all of us. Philip led the whole expedition. It was great, not just because I got to experience such different aspects of England at once, and that these aspects were things I'd wanted to see, but the whole thing was such an English thing to do - tramping around in the rain in pursuit of fun. I'm beginning to think that just about all the kinds of things I want to see are very close to Brook House. I want to go to the Peak District now too, as a friend of Sue's mentioned it today.
When we got back to the house, Philip had to leave for a work function, and so Sue, Jill, Rosie and I went to the local pub, the Talbot, for lunch, which was extremely pleasant. Above our table there was a long herald trumpet, and I wished that Tony had been there to look at it if not to pick it up and play it.
From the pub, we headed straight to Little Moreton Hall via some lovely villages in Staffordshire. The Hall is an amazing historical and architectural wonder which was built over a period of 150 years started in 1440. It's currently in black and white Tudor style, but apparently wasn't always. It's very skewiff due to the fact it's built on marshy soil and the roof tiles are so goddamn heavy that a structural engineer commented that there was no valid reason why it was still standing. It's since been fortified. Even the floors inside are nowhere near flat/square - it's quite off-putting to lose your equilibrium walking from one end of a room to the other.
After the very informative tour, we went outside to the knot garden, which consists of the most perfectly manicured hedges in a maze style. I've got a couple of photos of that.
From Little Moreton Hall, we went back to Biddulph, and had a cup of tea with Sue's friend Denise, and heard that the petrol situation had eased, before heading back to Brook House, getting stuck in a fairly serious petrol-queue traffic jam at Congleton.
At Brook House, we partook of drinks and a very nice beef stroganoff dinner. Afterwards, I made myself do 50-mins-odd flute practice, working on Paganini. This was the first night that I haven't been really tired, and I went to bed at about 11pm, after calling Mum.
We walked for about an hour and half through the most diverse terrain I've seen within such a small area. We started off on very steep rocky stairs with trees around, to a slightly flatter heath area - the heather had beautiful pink flowers. We got to the top of the Cloud and there was an obelisk thingo there, and with the rocks and the mist/cloud, it reminded me a lot of Mt Kosciuszko. We could barely see anything through the rain and cloud. We climbed back down on the other side and ended up going through thick forest with wide, leaf-covered paths. We took a short cut after this and climbed back up through more rocks and heath to the obelisk and then back to the car.
Sue had Rosie on her back, and Sally was running around like a mad thing between all of us. Philip led the whole expedition. It was great, not just because I got to experience such different aspects of England at once, and that these aspects were things I'd wanted to see, but the whole thing was such an English thing to do - tramping around in the rain in pursuit of fun. I'm beginning to think that just about all the kinds of things I want to see are very close to Brook House. I want to go to the Peak District now too, as a friend of Sue's mentioned it today.
When we got back to the house, Philip had to leave for a work function, and so Sue, Jill, Rosie and I went to the local pub, the Talbot, for lunch, which was extremely pleasant. Above our table there was a long herald trumpet, and I wished that Tony had been there to look at it if not to pick it up and play it.
From the pub, we headed straight to Little Moreton Hall via some lovely villages in Staffordshire. The Hall is an amazing historical and architectural wonder which was built over a period of 150 years started in 1440. It's currently in black and white Tudor style, but apparently wasn't always. It's very skewiff due to the fact it's built on marshy soil and the roof tiles are so goddamn heavy that a structural engineer commented that there was no valid reason why it was still standing. It's since been fortified. Even the floors inside are nowhere near flat/square - it's quite off-putting to lose your equilibrium walking from one end of a room to the other.
After the very informative tour, we went outside to the knot garden, which consists of the most perfectly manicured hedges in a maze style. I've got a couple of photos of that.
From Little Moreton Hall, we went back to Biddulph, and had a cup of tea with Sue's friend Denise, and heard that the petrol situation had eased, before heading back to Brook House, getting stuck in a fairly serious petrol-queue traffic jam at Congleton.
At Brook House, we partook of drinks and a very nice beef stroganoff dinner. Afterwards, I made myself do 50-mins-odd flute practice, working on Paganini. This was the first night that I haven't been really tired, and I went to bed at about 11pm, after calling Mum.
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