Canada

Especially for Canadian visitors to this blog - including Red, Pixie and Jenny - I took this photo of a farm sign earlier today. It was out in Derbyshire, south of the main road that links Matlock and Alfreton. There was once a bit of a fashion in England to name farms after faraway places and I have seen several of them but I think this is the first time I have seen one that bears Canada's name.

I was out south of Chesterfield, bagging a few photo squares that had eluded me and getting some walking exercise too. Not far from Canada Farm, I spotted this lone sheep crouched upon his forelegs with Moorwood House beyond him - at least I think the animal was a ram. He appeared more stocky than ewes of that breed.

By the lane to the left of Moorwood House you can just make out a barn  and it is the same barn pictured below on Dethick Common:-

Earlier on I had parked at Stretton Cemetery - a small rural burial ground. This grave caught my eye. There are no dates and only William Nutt is specifically remembered. His relatives are just "The Nutt Family". I like the simple legend "In Fond Memory". Ridgewell Farm is just a mile away across the fields but the owners are no longer "Nutts". They rent out attractive farm cottages. What ever happened to the "Nutts"? It's such a great surname.

My last photo-gathering halt was at Toadhall Furnace, north of "The Amber Hotel" in an area known as The Amber Valley. The old hotel sits on the course of an ancient Roman roadway called Icknield Street or Ryknild Street that began at Bourton in Glocestershire and advance in a fairly straight line through The Midlands and up into Yorkshire. Little remains of it apart from the say-so of historians and archaeologists  who know about such things. 

It is worth reminding ourselves that The Romans were here in Britain for over four hundred years and no doubt thousands of legionnaires marched by here in those four centuries. We live in 2024 but none  of us can remember 1624. The Roman occupation spanned that amount of time.

Finally, this is just one of my new "Geograph" images showing the main Midland railway passing over Back Lane at Stretton. Fast trains speed by here, connecting Sheffield with London.

I was back home for 4pm when I immediately set about preparing a beef stew for the evening meal with swede, carrots, potatoes, lentils and dumplings. It turned out really nicely and  Mrs Pudding gave it a five star review. There's even some left over for her to have for her lunch tomorrow. I am going to see a football match.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/kdcs5Vp