• The summit of Pooley Slag Heap!

  • The view towards Tamworth

Staycation

Since Richard broke his arm 10 days ago, our planned summer holiday in Norway had to be postponed. Backpacking and sleeping in a tent would not have been a viable proposition at this point.

So, we decided to stay close to home and have a shorter summer break than planned. Nevertheless we have had a great time, catching up with lots of people and spending some time around the house (which is unusual!).

Day 1: Visit to see my parents and Grandfather.

Day 2: Pressure washed the drive(!) and visited friends in Ilkeston.

Day 3: 17 mile run (take a look at for Mark’s GPS track) and visited sister and Brendan in Leicester.

I was accompanied on the 17 mile run with Mark from running club. We set out with map in hand and ran towards Hints through Gorsey Bank and over to Hopwas Woods. The weather was perfect and the views were pretty good for middle-of-England terrain. Thanks to Mark for the photo

Day 4: Visited friends in Shropshire.

Day 5: Painting and jobs around the house, plus a walk up the local slag heap(!).

The summit of Pooley Slag Heap!

Day 6: Visit to see the Staffordshire Hoard in Birmingham and an afternoon with Keith and his garden railway.

One of Keith's trains arriving at Birdlip station

Whilst the trains were unable to take us on a trip around the garden, my camera had a nice ride…

So, no great adventures this time, but everything is slightly more ‘adventurous’ with a one-armed husband!

13 thoughts on “Staycation”

  1. The garden train set is awesome! :star: I want one! :mrgreen: We need full details from Keef… How does it all work? Where do you get the bits from? Did you build the mini-dry-stone walls by hand? How does it cope with rain? etc. etc!

  2. My favorite bit is the tags: “pressure washing, slag heap, train.” Indeed. Now would be an excellent time for Richard to read that large stack of books I’ve pushed off on him on every visit.

  3. Really cool Southern Railways guards van. I have always liked that design but never got one for my OO gauge when I was a kid. Does Keef have much SR rolling stock?

  4. The railway is great, and I’m sure that you’re pleased you managed to get your camera a seat before next year when all the tickets go up by 8%. Do you think the platform will be as crowded then, or will you ebay the nun( :good: ), who will surely have to take the bus πŸ™‚

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