Two out of three aint bad!

Two weeks ago, we had a PERFECT day for walking. This week, it was the same again. Dry, cold and clear, just the way we like it. We decided to walk around Chelmorton and the dales, simply because it was a long time since we'd done that area, and it was close to home, so we got to the start fairly quickly.

This is Chelmorton church.
Its claim to fame is the wind vane on the spire - it's a golden grasshopper, the only one I know of.

As we set off walking, I paused to take this picture. The sheep must be fed at this time of year, because as soon as they saw me, they came running towards me.
Lots of snow about, and that fabulous blue sky.
It was cold, but we were well wrapped up against it, so we could enjoy the day.

I always think that a tree, standing starkly against a clear, azure blue sky in winter, is really beautiful.

We walked along this long, frosty track, each of us giggling and cracking the frozen puddles.
Ours were the only set of prints this morning. Virgin snow!

Chelmorton low. A paradox, but in Derbyshire, 'low' means 'high'???
There is even a house I noticed in the village, called 'high low'.
On a good sunset night, this hill catches the red rays really well, and looks like Ayers rock (when viewed from a certain angle).

As you can see, the snow hadn't fallen as much lower down.
I really like this situation, when you can see the green fields, but are standing in snow.

LIFE!!!! Tractor marks showed the farmer had beaten us to it on cracking the puddles on this part of the track.

More trees against the sky, this time a small copse.......

....and Sue ( maybe she should change her name to 'Dot' - geddit???)

The entrance to Horseshoe dale. It would be quite tricky and messy in normal temp's, but with the ground frozen, no problem.

How strange, as we walked into the lower part of the dale - NO SNOW!

I'm not sure how long this has been there, as I've never noticed it before. I don't think it's ancient, but today the snow picked out its borders. I wonder who took the trouble to lay this, and why?

After Horseshoe dale, we met and walked down Deep dale. The terrain here is very difficult at the best of times, but today in the snow and ice, it was treacherous so we had to take great care. What did we see next? A RUNNER!!! However he kept his footing to run on this sort of stuff defies logic. Sue & I both commented, what if he slipped and broke a bone? He was in very light clothing, and there was no phone signal in the dale. In that situation, you would rapidly freeze to death.

Anyway, each to his own, and we were in no rush whatsoever to get away from this beauty.
This is the mouth of a huge, inominate cave in Deep dale. I'm told when it rains very heavily, water issues in a huge gushing torrent from the mouth of this cave.
It's one of my ambitions to photograph this phenomenon.

We emerged from Deep dale, crossed the A6 and dropped into Wye dale. We were only there briefly though, as we climbed out, onto the trail, and up onto the tops again to head for Blackwell......at least, THAT was the PLAN!

Before we left though, I got a nice shot of a dipper on a rock.

Here's Sue, again, carefully negotiating an alpine-style path. If you look on the hillside in front of her, you can see how the path continues in a zig-zag up and over the top.

A nice view of the Monsal trail and Chee dale

Yes, the plan was to go through Blackwell, but shortly after we left Wye dale and climbed up onto the top, we got......errmmmm..... TEMPORARILY MISPLACED (oh, alright, I got us a bit lost!). We did eventually find the path, but not until we'd messed about for about 45 minutes, time we could ill afford at this time of year, as the sun goes very early! I blamed the snow - Sue just kept giggling!

The evening light was now fading, and the long, white track led to Chelmorton, and the car.

The sun began to set on our lovely day, so we watched it's last rays before going home to a nice, warm bath. The sky, which had been clear all day, now began to cloud over.
Another special day locked away.