The Quarry is a 29 acre, Grade II listed park in Shrewsbury that borders the town and the River Severn. I found myself walking around here quite a few times on my visit to the town – on my arrival after checking in to my B&B to stretch my legs and as a convenient place to sit and watch the world go by when I needed a break from walking around.
Haworth is a small village in West Yorkshire, known largely for its association with the Brontës. To get there from Nottingham I got a train to Leeds, changed to a train to Keighley (pronounced Keith-lee) and walked from Keighley Railway Station to the bus station (about 10 minutes) and got on a bus from there to Haworth. There are about three buses an hour literally named Brontë Bus 1, 2 and 3 and a single costs £2.50 which you can buy on the bus via contactless. The routes vary by where in Haworth you want to be dropped off but you can check which bus will be best for you on the bus company website.
Last Boxing Day my Dad and I decided to go for a walk around Gedling Country Park for a bit of fresh air and nature. Lots of other people, and their dogs, had had a similar idea so we did have to wait about 10 minutes before we could find a parking spot but after that the park is so big that it was easy not to feel crowded.
A small green space just down the road from Mostyn Art Gallery, it perhaps isn’t the most photogenic of Llandudno’s areas but it is home to the White Rabbit statue, part of the Alice in Wonderland trail and a couple of other interesting items, including what I’ve since learnt are some infamous public toilets. It was named for the nearby North Western Hotel which is now a Premier Inn.
Recently needing to de-stress after a particularly busy week at work I ventured out to Colwick Country Park with my dad, prompted to do so by a recent council email about improvements to the footpaths at the park. A huge park with lakes and a marina that was opened in 1978 we were impressed with the new pathways – much more comfortable to walk on and far better for pushchairs and wheelchair uses.
Nottingham has a great deal of green spaces many of which I’ve never actually visited, so this year I’ve decided to try and visit more of them. Arnot Hill Park was the first of these, which I picked solely because I happened to be roughly in the area on the day. It was easy to get to by bus – there’s a stop right outside the entrance on Nottingham Road.
The area that is now Regent’s Park once belonged to the monks of Barking Abbey until Henry VIII dissolved the monastery and turned it into a hunting park. In 1835 it became a public park on the instructions of the future King George IV who at the time was the Prince Regent (ruling in place of his mentally ill father George III until his death in 1820 when he became George IV). That’s why the park is The Regent’s Park, but hardly anyone ever calls it that.
On my most recent visit to Woodthorpe Grange Park I went to have a look around the Plant Shop and saw that the Tropical House was open. I haven’t been inside for probably at least a decade because it has had some very odd opening hours, but now I see they are keeping it open at the same time as the shop, so Monday-Sunday 10-4. There’s been a nursery (in the flower sense!) at Woodthorpe since the 1920s and the flower displays that adorn the city during the spring and summer and for the Britain in Bloom and other competitions in Nottingham are grown here; the shop sells off excess stock as well as locally produced gifts.
Not long ago I went for a walk around Woodthorpe Grange Park, which I’ve blogged about before. The park recently celebrated its centenary having been opened by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham on 1 June 1922. The weather was bright and sunny and did not at all feel like October, but some of the trees were wearing their autumn colours at least.
On my last trip to London there was such glorious sunny weather that I decided to head to Holland Park which I last visited in 2018. I wanted to see if the blossoms were in bloom yet on the trees – they weren’t quite but there were lots of lovely colourful flowers.
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