Derbyshire 54 - Chesterfield /three reservoirs/ Linacre Woods/a walk on the wild side/planning a new year escape

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. Dear Blog - this is catching. This writing to a blog. 2018 has just started to slip into my memory . I wonder what 2019 will bring in terms of that wonderful thing travel. New years resolutions are just there lurking - eat less , eat better food , be more diligent in the approach to fitness, swim more, walk more, be nice to my neighbours and my friends , Work hard and play hard. Of course by tomorrow I will be still stuffing my face, eating all the wrong things and will have forgotten what I planned to do. Such are resolutions. Easy to write about . Much harder to keep to. I guess we all start with good intentions and fail miserably after a few weeks ............ a few days ...........a few hours.

This time last year we had the first snow of our winter. Deep enough to stop the buses running . Deep enough to ensure I had to walk home from work. This year December has been unseasonal. A mixture of heavy and light rain, wind and mists but no snow yet. The shortest day has passed us by and we can now look forward to what new year brings. Well blog - I wonder what that will be. A new home - possibly . Next week a few new houses should appear on the sales sites . The old ones still there look rather sad and forlorn . We need fresh houses . A few new countries to visit . Perhaps if we can get insurance we will make it to Bosnia , to Montegnegro , to Albania and Turkey . We should still visit old friends - Italy and in particular a new destination Sicily.

You know me by now I love a proverb. I love a saying. It does not matter whether it is religious or not . Nor does it matter where it comes from . As long as it resounds with me then I just love it and take it to heart . How about this one for the last day of 2018? "One is never afraid of the unknown. One is afraid of the known coming to an end." Jidou -Krishnamurti Sums our life at the moment .

Today with the wind blowing a bit keen we decided to walk. Linacre Woods Reservoirs . Not heard of them - Well neither had I. I know the much larger Carsington but these are hidden away just on the edge of Chesterfield . A short car drive away and we reached the tiny village of Cutthorpe. Hard to believe just how close it is to Chesterfield . It feels isolated . Stone houses , a pub and a tiny school. Plus three rather large reservoirs. Named aptly the Lower reservoir , the middle reservoir and yes you guessed it the upper one. Someone didn't have much imagination in finding a name for these bodies of water.

We parked up and paid our £1.50 fee for 2 hours. The paths were muddy, the wind blew our hair and we huddled in our coats, pulled our scarves round us and pulled our gloves on in readiness for a walk around the lower lake . Just enough to blow the cobwebs of winter and Christmas off.

Although there seemed to be a large number of cars parked the place was relatively deserted , There were so many walks - around the lower lake , a second in the opposite direction around the middle lake and then higher to the upper lake that there was little chance of bumping into other walkers. We had the silent water to ourselves. I was shocked . I hadn't expected to see such a large lake so close to Chesterfield . From a distance we could see the dam wall across the middle separating the lower and middle bodies of water. We could hear the ducks on the water. It was peaceful and a lovely break out in the fresh air .

There are 3 reservoirs at Linacre, built between 1855 and 1904 and, between them, they hold more than 240 million gallons of water. The reservoirs are surrounded by fields and bluebell woods which must be a picture in the Spring. Today there was little colour . The reservoirs were taken out of commission in 1995 and now are just used as an amenity for locals to walk and enjoy the scenery and the fresh air . Fed by the Birley Brook they looked very peaceful at this time of year. Why they are not used for drinking water I have no idea . It seems a little mad to have such a fantastic body of water , easily available to the inhabitants of this part of Derbyshire and with pumping stations that are sadly just pretty features in the landscape rather than having a useful life. Picturesque certainly - waste of a resource definitely.

The fresh air cultivated an appetite. Cod and Chips and Sausage and mash at the local pub . A perfect end to the last day of 2018.

Happy blogging from me to my travel blog friends . See you next year - Europe and closer to home - here we come.

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