Derbyshire 155 - Carsington - a destroyed village /Merlin and the dragon/the buses come in threes /Troika pottery

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Day 103 - Buses come in threes don't they? Or so they say . When you wait for one you have to wait forever then they all come together . I wondered if deaths came in the same way. Having lost an uncle recently I heard today that a cousin had passed away. Nothing to do with Covid 19 just old age in both of them. But like buses I wondered who might be the third one . Hopefully unlike buses it won't happen. Day 103 - a work day, a walk , all the usual things . Not a day when anything remotely interesting occured. Looking forward to the weekend there will a moment of rememberance for those who had died due to Covid 19. On Sunday a celebration of the beginnings of the NHS . Buildings will be clothed in blue and we are encouraged to light a candle in the window . Hairdressers in England are re-opening but not in the other nations .Wales has opened up the 5 mile restriction but we wont be able to visit . Pubs are re-opening . I wonder if all hell will break lose when they open at 6am in the morning . Some good news to savour as I went for my walk .

Day 104 - A day to celebrate - the opening of air bridges . We can head off to Europe . Many countries are open to us . We can fly . We can motorhome . Our September holiday might be saved . Walking today all I could think of was where to go. We have been denied travel for so long it felt a relief to think that at last we might just get away.

We chose a destination for our trip out today . Carsington Water . Sion came with us . "Yes I did , they took me to water again " " What is the matter with them , they know I hate water ". You would think our little friend would have just been grateful for a trip out . But no - what did we get - his voice echoing out of the back seat shouting that he hated water . he wanted to go to the tunnel and he wanted sun. Sadly today there there was no sign of the sun and in fact before we got too far it started to rain . " Rain Rain - as if there was not enough water in the lake without more of it coming out of the sky " He rushed to hide in the sanctuary of my bag.

We were just happy to be out rain or no rain . But sometimes there is no pleasing the Sheep. We arrived at the reservoir and parked up. Should we park? We could not tell . All the parking meters were covered in black bags . Perhaps parking was free . However Sion decided otherwise . " I can see two meters - you will have to pay . As long as you dont spend my pistachio money I dont care " He was right . We had 15 minutes free and then the cost of parking went up to £3 . Our numberplate had been clocked coming in . There was no way we would sneak out with out paying .


As we walked Sion began to tell us about the reservoir . He knows all about the ones in Wales . Built by the English to take his water to Birmingham and Liverpool he gets a bit miffed . A Welsh nationalist is our Sion . So he had already looked up the story of Carsington and proceeded to tell us all about it .




" Did you know that the water from here come from the River Derwent . Its pumped during the winter months and then released back in the summer to be treated and drunk " "It is the 9th biggest reservoir you know " "Clever isn't it " He shoutedd. We walked along the paths looking at the water . It was big - Sion was right . There were boats on the water and small craft moored up. Not many people were about . Perhaps that was because we were early . It was cold walking with a bitter wind blowing . "Did you know that it was built in the 1960's and the Queenie opened it ?" No Sion we did not know that . We could not keep our woolly friend quiet once he had started telling us what he knew . He was never going to stop talking now that he was in his stride . " They drowned a village you know " He shouted . Yes Sion we know that .

"Let's go and find those stone things " he said . He had seen something that we had missed . Stone circles , Merlin and dragons . We rounded a corner and saw Merlin sitting upon a seat . Sion was more interested in his friend the dragon . Curled up Sion went to have a look . We found Merlin - a wooden statue with a sleeping dragon next to him . We stopped to let Sion have a chat with the sleeping dragon . "Chat - he wouldnt wake up . I kicked him and he still wouldnt move " Let sleeping dragons lie Sion we told him. Our last stop was a modern stone circle . The views of the lake were pretty through the holes of the stones . We climbed to the top " It looks like Troika pottery " shouted our little friend . Yes Sion it does indeed .

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