Derbyshire 156 - Chesterfield /facts and figures /the 4th July and the campers and drinkers are out in force

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Facts and figures - do you love them? I do . The driver does too. Fact 1 - this is the 156th blog I have written about Derbyshire . I never imagined I would write so many about Derbyshire and Chesterfield whilst still sitting at home. It is Day 105 of lockdown or partial lockdown . I have probably walked 103 days and still counting. I have lost count of so many things . I bet you have too. Staying at home has that effect. Losing track of days, dates , events .

It is Saturday . The weekend and the 4th July . Our American friends and relatives will be celebrating their release from the British yoke . For us the 4th July has a very different meaning . Today no doubt Independence Day means something different . You can go for a drink in a pub . Outside. Order drinks and food on an app after picking what you want from a laminated menu . Drinks and food brought to the table . A very different experience to pub life in Britain . STanding at the bar no longer allowed . So I can drink and eat outside . Not that I would want to today . It is breezy . But I cant get my hair cut. I could in England but not in Wales so the shaggy dog look prevails . 21 weeks and not a cut in sight .

I have loved my facts about the village . I loved facts at school . Facts in History lessons , facts that I read in the Library. I did not care where I found the facts I just devoured them. I suppose I was and still am like the game Pac Man . Devouring facts like the character devoured dots . If you are of a certain age you will know what I mean. Look it up if you don't . I have though reached the extent of my fact finding knowledge.

My walk today started off somewhere different. We headed up to the St Lawrence church in North Wingfield . We wanted to take flowers to the churchyard . Glenn parked Ziggy up. He was driving home . I was walking . The church yard was empty. We had it to ourselves . We lay the flowers on the grave and headed off in different directions. Glenn was driving home a different way. He said as he left me " I wont go your way or I will feel I need to pick you up and take you home and I know you want to walk " We parted company and I stood for a while outside the church looking up at the dark substantial pile . A dominant Norman building on top of the hill . The pub the Blue Bell was gearing itself up for todays onslaught of drinkers . Tables had been set up on the grass outside . Three tables set up on a patio with a tent like covering over the top. Now a public house the pub started life in the 15th century as a chantry chapel . I stopped to take a few photographs and then set off on my walk .

Down Hepthorne Lane , the Shinnon pub looked closed . Freshly painted it was not opening to the public today. . I walked past the Reiki healing centre and the unpaved streets . Berry Street and John Street . The Judo club . Over the river Rother and the railway . " Up there past that gate is where there used to be horses and carriages " I heard the voice behind me "Just watched you talking photographs " the man with the two dogs was talking to me . "Horses and carriages used to take people from the station " he said . "Are you from round here " We talked for a while . He had guns . He shot at Bisley . Serious stuff I thought . We parted company as he arrived home . I walked along Ankerbold Road alongside the Rother and the railway . Being an early Saturday morning there were no people about nor any trains , It was a quiet walk home along the road . "Morning " another voice broke my thoughts . "I am off to the allotments " An older man had stopped . He told me that he went up often. His back was bad and his knees but he needed to get there to pull up the weeds that would grow with all this rain .

Along Nethermoor Road I was waved at by the young man who normally walks with his dog and stops to chat . Today he was driving to work. By now I was nearly home and coffee time beckoned . What would the day bring ?

Fireworks tonight celebrating perhaps American Independence or a party to celebrate our Independence . It would be interesting to watch the news tomorrow .

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