Martha's Marvellous Munchies

Every morning, a little purple train comes underneath the railway bridge at Findern. The signal beyond the bridge turns green, with a line of white lights pointing to the right. The train shimmies across the main track and turns on to the branch line. Usually, I am watching from the bridge, imagining the train going over the canal, negotiating the level crossing, and continuing on its way west. This morning, I am on the train. Back when I was walking along the River Dove, I crossed the North Staffordshire Railway line almost as many times as I crossed the river. One day, I told myself, I will get that little purple train from Derby to Uttoxeter and see all this again. I had thought of the line as rather sleepy, but in fact the train is quite busy. I find a seat by the window and start to eagerly track the landmarks. The man opposite must wonder why I am taking blurry photos of damp level crossings, but he doesn't comment. The only picture which comes out well is a splash of rainbo...

I looked at the stile and shook my head. Only a few metres beyond it was a busy B-road with a nice wide verge to walk on, but between the stile and the road was an impenetrable mass of brambles and bushes. I wasn't getting through that lot. Reluctantly, I turned left and trekked along yet another field boundary in search of a gate. You may recall that my previous walk had taken me to Thorpe, with Toby. If you're really paying attention you will know that I'm then supposed to be continuing on the Limestone Way as far as Matlock. Well, I've taken a detour.  I realised that I had crossed every bridge over the Dove so far, apart from one small one just south of Rocester. I couldn't miss that out, could I? So today's walk was designed to take in that bridge, but it also happened to start me off on the Churnet Way , which I rather liked the look of. I think I will follow it for a while and come back to the Limestone Way later. JCB factory and lake The walk had start...

Enough theological reflection - let's go for a walk! Toby joined me for the two walks between Mayfield and Thorpe, via Mapleton and Ashbourne. My old phone finally died, so I was enjoying the capabilities of my new one, including a much better camera and the ability to plot routes on the OS Maps app. Walk One It was the first day of Toby's summer holidays, so I'd promised him a milkshake en route . We parked in Mayfield, went past the primary school, and climbed the hill to rejoin the Limestone Way where I'd left it last time . Very soon we came across Lordspiece Farm, which had what looked like a little shed on wheels outside. The sign said "Honesty Tuck Shop". One part of it was a freezer stacked full of ice cream! It was very tempting, but we'd hardly walked any distance, and we had those plans for milkshakes. We reluctantly closed the door and moved on. The farm dog had a bark much bigger than its body - it was a tiny thing! We continued across some f...