Days 91 and 92, Thursday and Friday 25th and 26th June.

The hot weather this week has been magnificent. Yesterday, I did very little; I didn’t feel it wise to go walking alone in this glorious but very hot weather. Thunderstorms were promised for today, the day arranged for a walk to a scenic “somewhere new”. As the crow flies, where we ventured to is slightly over two miles from where I live. A great pity then that that the spectacular peaks of Park House Hill and Chrome hill cannot be reached by direct footpaths. It never occurred to me that in fact, the Staffordshire border could be similarly close.

I was introduced to this part of the world shortly after I moved into my first (and so far, only) home in August 1975. I will soon have been here forty-five years. “Where has it all gone?” It was Mr. Thirkell whose house I considered buying, who befriended me, and showed me around Buxton and its surroundings at the start of my life here. I remember being astounded by how attractive and dramatic the surrounding countryside is. Today, I have a walking companion whose knowledge of the surrounding countryside is wide. It’s one thing cruising around by open-top car; it’s another to park up somewhere and follow interesting footpaths, sometimes easy and fairly level, at other times steep and (for me) challenging. I understand that where we are now was, 550 million years ago, the sea bed of the Indian Ocean and that there is much evidence of the very first life-forms on Earth, just two miles from Harpur Hill!

Thunderstorms and heavy rain were forecast for this afternoon. A few heavy drops did fall, but then stopped, and any rain clouds dispersed, leaving yet another idyllic warm day. Two storm chasers complete with photo gear and tripods had come out here to “capture” the forecast storms, which didn’t actually materialise.