A Nice Lazy Day

I decided that we should break a long held habit by staying in the same place for another night, David was twitchy at first but got over it and we awoke to a lovely sunny day and went biking.

It wasn't that long a run, the very worst of it was to get to the road.  We went forward a short-ish distance to Tixall Lock on the bone shaking towpath, expecting to get onto the lane there that serves the cottage.  But sorry to say that there is no public access so on again to the next bridge.

We cycled the short distance to Tixall village and had a good snoop.  I like looking at the names of the cottages for clues 
i.e.  Old School House, Rectory, Blacksmiths etc  One was called Rose Cottage but it had a bare lawn and not a rose in sight, not any bloom in sight.  We carried on....

So this is the much photographed Gatehouse of Tixall Hall.  The actually Hall is long gone leaving only the Gatehouse.  

It's Elizabethan and dates from 1580, this is what it looks like close up.

You can stay here now for holidays.

Lets look in here he said serving off the lane, it was to Ingestre Golf Club for a small snoop at the driving range, Reader he even has his golf clubs in the car!!!!!

He was looking most longingly

So up the road and you come  to here, now we heard whinnying and stamping coming from here, so I deduced stabling, but there were no written signs....  

Quite grand wouldn't you say?  For a bunch of old nags I mean....?

In fact over the lane were some very boring looking stables called The New Stables.

Now around the corner and past a sign which evidently said Private Do Not Enter....  we came to this.  Ingestre Hall, this version I think is largely 1880's rebuilt after a fire.  Not my idea of cosy, bet its parky in the winter with all those windows.  

Reader you are lucky to see this photo, as the caretaker arrived and threw us out!  Verbally that was, he said no photos either as we have got children staying here, indeed they do as today its an Arts Residential  Centre, but I didn't see any.

After the indignity of suffering the caretakers tone, we peddled on to revive my spirits at the Farm Shop Café, again. There as we sat in the sun, a dear sweet gentleman came over and chatted, he must have been 70 plus, and told of a lady in his Road Cycling Club who at the age of 84 thought she would have to give up as she couldn't keep up, BUT, she got herself an electric bike and now overtakes them all on the hills.  How terrific is that.  I shall be telling my mother all this.

And there he goes with a wave cycling to Stone that day.

We departed separately, me back to WaL and David off over Cannock Chase to see stuff.  I looked at my book and the insides of my eyelids, but before that I saw this...

Jeremy Fisher.