Hi Family,
Here we are back in Croft after our 1,750km journey from France…
Croft, ENGLAND
Jul.29 - Aug.7
 |
| G&G Spark's - Carpet Farming |
Our welcome-back shepherd’s pie, often accompanied by a fruit crumble, is a highlight of returning to G&G Spark’s in Croft. So is carpet farming (Grandpa Spark’s term). We’d barely walked in the door and Darwin was down on the ground with the box of toy tractors. Like Grandpa J, Colin’s parents have a box of Colin’s old toys stored away for the grandkid. In this case it’s farm equipment - tractors, trailers and other implements, a combine harvester, animals, hay bales. These are spread out on nearly a daily basis, often intermingling with hot wheels, dinosaurs, or monster trucks.
True to my proclamation, I don’t travel anywhere requiring a car for a few days. We go for walks, play in the yard, go to the park and local shop, gather (eat) blackberries from Croft Mountain. Eventually we venture out for a drive to attend church coffee morning, and Sunday lunch and a walk.
 |
| Croft Mountain blackberries - some made it home for some berry crumble... |
 |
| Beacon Hill, Charnwood Forest - Post-lunch walk |
 |
| Beacon Hill, Charnwood Forest |
During a visit from Grandpa Spark’s sister, Hazel, she asked if I found it rather not-very-interesting going for runs around Leicestershire, after having been gallivanting in the Yorkshire hills and the French Alps... The public footpaths in Yorkshire, besides climbing great hills or following pretty rivers, traverse many a sheep and/or cow field, where the sheep scamper off out of the way and the cows stand firm and dare you to make them move. The network of trails in the Alps smack you with magnificent views and crisscross easily into other countries. But in Leicestershire, the public footpaths can run right through the middle of a crop field. And it’s never long before you arrive at another village, and then leave to find yourself amid the next crop. So in answer to Hazel's question, no - you never know what you might find on a public footpath, no matter where you are. It’s always interesting.
 |
| Public Footpath, somewhere Southwest of Croft |
The public footpaths, incidentally, are another fine historical phenomena of England and Wales (Scotland has its own version). They consist of hundreds of miles of public walking trails, signposted, on which anyone has the right to walk. The trails are mostly built on historical pathways used hundreds, even thousands of years ago, for example by people walking between tribal encampments, villages, from villages to the market, to burial grounds, to religious places. If the ancient path existed where a farm wanted to be, or where a suburb wants to be, well the newer entity just has to build around and accommodate the path. I’ve wandered out the end of a path right into the middle of a cluster of farm buildings, with signs pointing me out the main farm gate. The paths are marked on the British standard (Ordnance Survey) maps. It is a criminal offence to block a public footpath.
 |
| Leicester Museum |
When we were ready for car rides again, a much anticipated visit to the Leicester Museum to see the dinosaurs (and other things, for mom and dad) proved a bit overwhelming. It wasn’t so much the big dinosaur skeletons, but the din of the happy/crying/shouting children surrounding us. Summer holidays. Unfortunately Darwin wasn’t interested in the British NHS (National Health Service) exhibition, at which there were no children at all... It chronicled the creation and development of the NHS, in a great part populated by refugees and immigrants from Commonwealth countries. In a series of personal stories and photos, refugees/immigrants relayed a common theme to their settlement in England: (1) Britain was bloody cold (compared to their often African / middle-Eastern / Caribbean homelands), and (2) they quickly got fat on the British diet.
After being well-rested, we at last ventured out for a longer excursion before setting off from Croft again. Grandma Spark’s sister lives in county Norfolk, which is also where Grandma Spark spent a few young childhood years away from London during WWII. Tandem road trip! with G&G Spark...
