smile today

 What is 

making you smile

today

dear friends

from R's rue https://ift.tt/3mDhmC8

Moral Support

 I met up with a friend in the back and beyond of Snowdonia before the galleries shut again in Wales and bought this......isn’t he delightful? 

We met a third colleague and friend ( social distancing of course) who has had a dreadful time of late to offer some moral support.

The Welsh Countryside has never looked so alive

from Going Gently https://ift.tt/33CLQwj

Babworth

A lock keeper's house

As the sixteenth century turned into the seventeenth, religious tensions in the heartlands of Britain simmered. Many wanted to cling to Catholic traditions while others yearned for a more stripped down religion devoid of past rituals and the influence of The Pope.

In north Nottinghamshire, word got round that there was a preacher in the village of Babworth whose sermons were  inspirational  to would-be puritans. He was called Richard Clifton. Though he never visited America nor rode upon "The Mayflower" in the autumn of 1620, he inspired two of the principal "Pilgrim Fathers". Both William Bradford and William Brewster came to All Saints Church in Babworth in order to hear "the word of God" as interpreted by Richard Clifton. He was key to the crystallisation of their religious thinking.

Babworth Church

I was at that peaceful half-forgotten woodland church yesterday but could not enter it. I left Clint in its shadow before setting off into the December sunshine on a planned circular walk that would take three and a half hours to complete.

For a third of the walk, I was beside The Chesterfield Canal. Constructed towards the end of the eighteenth century, it linked Chesterfield with The River Trent at West Stockwith. In a time when roads were often rutted and muddy, the canal became a vital artery for the transport of Derbyshire lead, coal, gravel and manufactured metal goods.

Forest Top Lock - Chesterfield Canal

The canal towpath led me into the town of Retford and soon I was tramping through back streets that led me out of the town and beside the main road back to Babworth.

"Oh, you're back then!" said Clint.

"Why? What's the problem?"

"I'm desperate for a drink of petrol," he said.

"Okay.  Fancy unleaded again?"

"Yeah. That'll do."

I glugged water from my flask and devoured a Panamanian banana before heading back west via Worksop and Anston. Of course, I take many photographs when I am out walking but  I was especially pleased with the picture I captured and placed at the top of this blogpost. Yes. That's a good one - though I say so myself.

The Chesterfield Canal at Retford

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