On the idle hill of summer

A 300 year celebration tea party for Capability Brown, in the hills of Housman. I was the band roady and green room.

We were at Rectory Field Church Stretton where Lancelot visited, the landscape designer not the knight.
These are some of the band members enjoying afternoon tea, they play anyplace for a good feed, their music had my suspension rocking, good old 1800s dance tunes.
We returned via Wenlock Edge a much loved haunt of human Wilfrid, I will see if there are any old pictures of the area in Wilfrids photos.

Post title: from The Shropshire Lad

Summer arrives

My human's spent the day at the fantastic Trentham Gardens. This was a familiar place often visited by human Wilfrid.

Seems like summer arrived because on their return I could smell sirloin steak cooking which my filters tell me was marinated in Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, Worcester sauce, Dijon mustard and garlic. Whoops, that's my human's secret recipe.
Then the sound of the blues played on guitar and banjo told me too much wine and beer had been consumed as the tunes got faster and louder and singing more and more raucous, oh my, what would human Wilfrid have thought he only had a glass of wine at Christmas and his wife Peggy a glass of Babycham.
It was also warm enough for it to continue late into the night, after which my human sat out looking for shooting stars. Human Wilfrid would have been keen to take part looking for these he often woke his family to see such events.

Hornpipes, Quadrills and Glees

I shall soon have piercings and tattoos, band roady again! Not the usual Townes Van Zandt songs or even Steve Earle but 1800's dance music, fast and furious I could get to like it, however Ludwig you have nothing to worry about you can shake my panels any day. Apparently my human's are taking me to Church Stretton where they are going to performe at a Capability Brown's 300 year celebration Tea Party. I know Human Wilfrid used to visit Church Stretton with his family and that he could have used the services of a Capability Brown for ideas to landscape his own garden.

Making a start

My first day of Vehical Support training for Dave's epic 2017 ride. My human's kept it short but hilly with narrow lanes for my first training session. I negotiated the narrow stone walled, green summer drenched lanes of the White Peaks, carrying my human's bikes, fridge stocked for lunch and gas at the ready for hot drinks, perfect. This is me arriving at a disused railway station where my human's left me to complete a 20 mile ride.

They rode beneath Thor's Cave but with their bikes they decided not to climb up to it. You can see it high up in the cliff behind my female human.
Tranquil lanes and cycle routes meander through dried up river valleys with the heady scent of wild flowers, dripping fern covered rock faces and tall white flowered hog weed.

Dark cavernous tunnels from an age of steam and a slower pace of life.
Finaly they reach the quiet hamlet of Hulme End in time for lunch.
Then all they had to do was retrace their steps back to me the support vehicle. Wow I'm good at this!

Some facts: the route follows the old 1902 to 1934 light railway Hulme to Waterhouses.
The Manifold river dries up just past Wetton Mill in the summer months, it runs beneath the ground.
Thor's cave is worth a visit.

Autumnal Training

I am now in training as epic bike ride support vehicle. My human's friend Dave is training towards a crazy scheme for when he is 50 next year, so my human is having to up his game when mountain biking with Dave, pushing the limits (and probably his bike) on hills and distance. Today he offered his support and me as support vehicle, just a thought, who's going to be driving me?

The title of this post was reference to the age of the riders but looking at the bejewelled spider webs and misty horizon it could have been the season. you would not have thought it was early August.