Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
My home town has many rows of Victorian terraces and to get to any of my countryside, wood or park walks, I go through some of them.
While not exactly lying higgledy-piggledy, each batch of terraces forms its own grid dictated by the hillside rather than a uniform plan. Walkers are offered an alternative way at nearly every corner: all being even, my choices are dictated by plants. I visited these three along my walk yesterday.
Continue reading “The Gravity Pull Of Plants”
Inspired by Becky’s WalkingSquares, I’m inviting you to take in the view along Witton Weaver’s Way, a 32 mile circular walk that crosses Darwen moor.
Witton Weaver’s Way has four sections: Beamer’s, Reeler’s, Tackler’s and Warper’s Trails, all named for jobs in the cotton industry. My first two pictures are taken from Tackler’s Trail, not far from Lord’s Hall.
Continue reading “Tackler’s Trail, Part of Witton Weaver’s Way, Darwen”
Regular readers may remember that I’ve mentioned a fairy path that tracks a leat draining the meadow above the southern edge of Sunnyhurst Wood in Darwen. Oak, chestnut, birch, beech, sycamore, ash, holly and elder are scattered among tall evergreens. Somewhere between a park and a wood, it is laced with main paths that run down to Sunnyhurst stream at the bottom of the valley. This isn’t one of them. Continue reading “On The Fairy Path”
I promised to share more pictures of some of the colourful, child-friendly tyre planters designs I found, so here goes! Continue reading “Sweet Tyre Planters Make a Back Alley Look Cared For”
For The Fallen, a poem by Laurence Binyon, written for an English audience towards the start of the 1914-18 war, has since been adopted as a tribute to all casualties of war. This scene in Darwen’s old cemetery yesterday embodies the idea
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
My sister and I grew up in a family were books were valued. A fair amount of what came our way as spending money was converted to paperback books and we topped up what we could afford with regular trips to the local library.
Over the years I fell out of the habit of using Darwen Library, but one good thing to come out of the last eighteen months is that I have been making good use of the service, which is far better than I remembered. Online reservations make the catalogue of our local group of libraries easy to access and members can read a broad range of magazines online and listen to audiobooks.
I’ve really appreciated the kindness and thoughtfulness of the staff and volunteers at Darwen Library throughout the pandemic and feel sure they have been a lifeline for many. Continue reading “Darwen’s Carnegie Library at Dusk and a Cloud”
Susan Rushton 