Thorpe Cloud

Looking back, I found that it was almost exactly five years since I first photographed this feature in the White Peak on the border of Derbyshire and Staffordshire. It's an isolated limestone hill that formed originally as a reef in shallow Carboniferous seas. How things change.

Len and I had got fed up with the roofers banging away on the roof so we resolved to go out today. I remembered the tea room at Ilam Hall. As soon as we reached the car park, the heavens opened. Thus we were delayed in reaching the tea room. In fact, it was inaccessible to my little scooter but fortunately the old coach house housed a dog friendly grab and go café. 

Very helpful staff even show you what's available in the main tea room, order what you want, and fetch it for you. So that was alright then.

The terrace isn't very long so we didn't get much of a walk and although there was a suitable path to follow away from the car park, it was surrounded by sheep. It would have never have been possible to let Basil off his lead. The ewes have been freshly sheared. The lambs still have their woolly coats.

On the way back to the A50, I 'persuaded' Len to drive into the Fairway Garden Centre drive. It's large, virtually a department store and very clean. Signs say it was Garden Centre of the Year in 2023. We had a pot of decaf tea on the terrace while more rain thundered down on the roof.

Extra is of the lavender walk at Ilam Hall.