Having Your Cake . . .

This past Sunday was the first time since before I got sick last year that I did some proper walking. I used to do a lot of walking, even a bit of hill-walking, but for a variety of reasons, that fell by the wayside a bit. And over the last year, there were two big reasons why I wasn't walking so much. One was the obvious lack of toilets in the countryside, which is a huge issue for Crohnies. The other is that I just didn't have the physical energy to do it anymore.

So this past Sunday, I went to Croome Park, which is a lovely National Trust site south of Worcester. I'm a long standing member of the National Trust (and English Heritage), and can wax lyrical about all of the reasons why I love the Trust so much, but have nice places to walk, that are busy enough where it's safe to walk alone, is one of the big one. And I'm a history geek.

I have never seen the grass that brown before, it shows how dry it has been!

I've been to Croome several times before, summer and winter, but the attraction and reason for the walk was that I found out that the huge estate around this lovely (although still somewhat dilapidated) country house has follies. Proper, "Capability Brown" follies. They don't open them often, but they opened one that day, and I decided I needed to go find me one.

It was a 3-mile walk there, and 3-miles back again, much of which was along a lovely landscaped river, which had many swans, geese and even a heron. And lots of trees. Although these kinds of landscapes aren't "natural" because they've been landscaped, they are very pretty.

This summer has been unusually hot and dry for England. One of the reasons I was able to contemplate this walk was because it was the first overcast day in ages. Not that it was cool out, it was definitely hot, but at least there was no glaring sunshine. I don't handle the sun well, and never have. These sheep had the right idea hiding under a tree. Of course they kept their distance from me, they knew that I was looking at them and thinking about what tasty things I could make with lamb!









Just how dry it has been this summer was well shown when the footpath went through a wheat field. This would normally be mud.


One of the other things that stopped me from walking last year were stiles, like the one below. When the oedema got really bad last winter, I could barely climb the stairs, never mind swing my swollen legs over one of these. On Sunday, this was an easy climb, not least because the designer of this stile of stile understands that some of us have short legs. I have had the misfortune more than once of climbing over stiles that were clearly built for giants.

 

I came across some cows in the next field. Only one looked suspiciously at me, and only after I took her picture (she must have known I was thinking of steak!), but you can see the top of the folly stick out behind her.

And this is what I was aiming for -

A fake ruin! It looks real. It ain't.

It was very trendy in the 18th century to have a "romantic ruin" on your property to show off to your friends. If you didn't have one, you had one built. Apparently, these were often used to train apprentice stone-masons, because if they messed up, no one was likely to notice too much.

The opportunity was there to climb up the folly. So, of course I took it. But it was a bit of challenge. I needed to climb a ladder just to get to the door! Earlier this spring, I turned down the opportunity to climb down into a cold war bunker because it involved a ladder, and I couldn't have imagined hauling myself back up with the state of my back. I had no problems getting up this one, clearly my osteopath is right to be happy with how my back is now!



The stairs going up were some of the steepiest, narrowist and dark ones that I have ever been up, even worse that some cathedrals I've visited. I needed a head torch to see in there! And the last part of the climb involved coming up through this -


I seriously banged my shoulder on that glass door! And so did the person coming behind me. But it was worth it for this -

The view from the top overlooking the Malvern Hills. Never mind the view across the rest of the park.










You can't see the country house for the trees, but you can see other landmarks in the park, like to Rotunda.

You can see the house on the walk back. It has a rather interesting history, having been the house of the Earls of Coventry for many years, and also having been an RAF base, a residential school and was the one-time home to the Hare Krishnas!

The Hare Krishnas left their mark on the dining room

 And of course, the other reason why I love the National Trust is cake!

A visit is never complete without cake! And I don't care if there were seeds in the jam of this Victoria Sponge making it not low-residue compliant. After 6 miles of walking in the heat, I bloody earned it! 

 #fuckyoucrohnsdisease