During last month’s hot weather came a plea for a walk amongst woods. Doubtless we were more animated at the start going through fields towards Monksdale House than we would have been plodding up Kinder as initially planned.
Down the lane there was a second request for a memory stop to locate the spot where a lifelong village resident had played house as a young girl. At the entrance to Monks Dale it was suggested that we walked in silence. The change was immediate, our senses being focused only on what we were seeing in this otherworldly place. The thick moss on tree branches was highlighted by the sun’s rays.
Our enthusiast of the dale told of badgers and foxes that she’d seen at different times of the day in previous visits. We saw concealed steps by the river bed, pointed out previously by a park ranger, which could have been used by an ancient settlement. Memory is vague about the return route probably because we’d begun talking again.
I enjoyed a Peak Dairy ice cream later. There was a great photo in last month’s Derbyshire Life of one of their vans in the grounds of Tissington Hall with society wedding guests sampling its wares.
Helen Royle. 872507