3 October 2021
The Weather App on my phone said that it was going to rain all day with the afternoon being the heaviest. So it looked like an inside Sunday afternoon rather than being able to take my car out for a drive.
However, Mother Nature decided to play nice. When Nat let us know that swimming had been cancelled because of a heating issue with the pool used for toddler lessons, I rechecked the Weather App and it now said that it was only going to rain at 3pm. So that meant we could go out for a drive.
Glossop is a town on the edge of the Peak District, a beautiful area of countryside about 40 minutes from where we live. There is a park, which includes a playground, called Manor Park which had a recommendation from another Nanna I met. That sounded like a nice place to check out. Nat and Mark where ok with that as somewhere to go for the afternoon.
Although Alex hadn’t had his usual afternoon nap, we thought if he wanted to have a sleep, he could in the car. Nat wanted to drive, which was fine, as it gave me a chance to see the pretty countryside coming into view as we travelled along the motorway.
The traffic was very heavy. It seems that a Saturday, when it isn’t going to rain until later in the afternoon, is a very good time for a lot of people to head into the Peak District. So there was quite a delay getting off the motorway onto the road to head towards Glossop. This is a beautiful part of England and it is very close to major cities like Manchester. Plenty of moors, pretty historic towns and a much more relaxed pace.
It was a bit tricky following the Skoda’s GPS/Sat Nav directions, as it wasn’t very precise about how to get to the car park for Manor Park. Luckily Google Maps is readily available on our mobile phones, so we were able to find the car park with more detailed instructions. As we drove around to the car park, we passed tiny streets and historic buildings. A photographer’s delight! I’ll add it my list of places to go wandering for my blogging.
The rain that had happened over night make everywhere a little muddy. Puddles are a delight to Alex and there were a few, along with soggy autumn leaves. I am waiting for my belongings to arrive at the end of this month, so I can be reunited with my hiking shoes. Currently, I am wearing runners which get muddy really easily, so I have to avoid joining Alex and jumping in puddles.
The sound of running water welcomed us into the park, with a fast flowing stream passing through it and a lake with very hungry ducks on it. As we walked towards the lake, we had a following of ducks who were hoping we had brought food with us. Sorry ducks, not this time, but if we come again, we will bring our bread scraps for you.
Unlike the other parks we have visited, this one isn’t part of a historic home, it is a park that was set out as part of a hall in the 1700s. When the hall was demolished the land was kept by Glossop to be a public park.
Once we crossed over the stream and walked through the woodland area, we reached the pretty gardens on the other side.
One of the things I like about the gardens that I have seen so far over here, is that they combine the woodland areas with the manicured gardens. This one also has several different sporting areas, as well as a kids playground that are all linked by quite good paths and trails. We found that this park also has a mini-golf course. That could be fun once Alex is a bit bigger.
Mini Golf course
It was lovely to see that a few of the trees in the park were just beginning to turn to their autumn colours. This one had beautiful red leaves.
We had seen the playground area from the carpark and as we reached it, we could see that it was nicely set up with a gated area for the little ones and a larger equipment play area for the bigger kids. Alex loved exploring the different pieces of equipment and we had fun joining in with him.
This park also has a minute railway circling around it, which would have been lovely to have seen, but it had stopped running due to the cooler weather. When we come again, it is something to look forward to for when it is running again, as I think Alex would love it. In the mean time, he pretended to be a train on the tracks.
After a nice walk in the sunshine, we decided, that as the rain was supposed to happen soon, we would go to find somewhere to have afternoon tea. Mark said the Glossop Cafeteria had very good reviews on Google, so we picked there. The park does have a small cafe, but it was only taking cash today and none of us had enough cash on us. We are all now “pay by card” people, because that’s been recommended with COVID.
We walked back to the car, following one of the woodland trails and as we were loading Alex and his pusher into the car, the showers started. It wasn’t quite 3pm, so they were a couple of minutes early. Perfect timing though, to wait until we were at the car, rather than out in the park.
By the time we reached into the town of Glossop and the carpark across the road from the cafeteria, the showers had stopped. Again, perfect timing for crossing the road.
The cafeteria wasn’t very big inside, but they had hanging clear table dividers so that they were trying to be COVID responsible. The menu options were quite good, so we could all find something that we fancied and the staff were keen to help, although a bit slow.
While we waited, Alex had lessons in how to play simple games. He had a “Thumb War” with his Dad, played “Rock, Paper, Scissors” and then we all played “Hand Stacks”. It was fun and passed the time until our food arrived.
Mark and I had BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato toasted sandwiches), Alex had nuggets and chips and Nat had a chicken burger. While we were nice and dry in the cafeteria, down came the rain and this time it rained very heavily. But after a nice meal and us being ready to leave to go home, the rain stopped.
It was a great afternoon and thanks to Mother Nature, we managed to avoid getting wet.
Life is a Journey 