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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Autumn Colours, again

Starting just as rush hour finished, the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen headed across the county to meet up with Betty and Barney Rubble at Sheffield Park Garden.

This National Trust treasure is tucked away, just north of Chaily, and exploded into a riot of colour in the autumn. We had agreed to meet up for a coffee and then take a stroll.IMG_0676

Whilst we had been before, it was the first visit for our elderly friends. It was immediately clear that they were impressed. No untoward comments were made regarding Barney leaving his camera at home (after all, after the mishaps of last year’s trip to Florence, GF could hardly cast the first stone).

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We followed a broadly clockwise route around the lake, making a few detours here and there. The advantage that we had for this visit was that, being mid week, the gardens were very quiet.

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Whilst the sky was overcast, there were occasional breaks in the cloud, and it was quite warm. As we progressed, however, there was a brief ten minutes of drizzle but we were pretty well sheltered by the trees, so it was no hardship.

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At lunch we returned to the tea rooms, but seeing the queue, retreated to the car and drove to The Bull at Newick where we had a splendid lunch. Returning to the Gardens, we set out to explore some of the paths we had missed in the morning. By now the sky was clearing and it was really quite cheery.

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Finishing off the tour, we returned to the tea rooms before picking up the road home.

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