A visit to the Peak District in Staffordshire with my niece Emma .During my last stay in England I looked after my father with my sister Jill and it was decided that I should have a afternoon off . So having a free hand as it were I decided that we would motor towards Leek -Beyond Leek we reached the high moors ( see film on blog looking towards the Roaches )Then we motored down to the Beresford dale where the river Dove forms the boundery between derbyshire and staffordshire .This was the home of one of my literary and fishing heroes Charles Cotton co author of the Complete Angler by his dear friend Izaak Walton The drama that is created in the book about the journey to Beresford dale is very poetic and dramatic I read the book with so much pleasure because I knew the place so well and further more it was very little changed except for the the disappearance of the great hall but  the small fishing house that he dedicated to Izaak walton and himself remains ! My niece and I tried to reach it we were prevented by fences thick trees  and bog land - so we reluctantly gave it up !Here is an example of his  poetry


               Oh my beloved nymph fair Dove ;

                Princess of rivers , how Ilove

                        Upon thy flowry banks to lye,

             
                            And veiw thy silver stream ,


                When guilded by a summers beam !


                And in it , all thy wanton fry

     
                        Playing at liberty ,


               And, with my angle upon them


                      The all of treachery


               I  ever learnt industriously to try .

 

              Charles  Cotton The Retirement



           Cotton was also a famous English translator of the French essayist  Montaigne

           who like Cotton lived in Retirement in his country  abode


         How wonderful to be in the place where mr Cotton  would have spent so much time and how I would have liked to cast  a fly into that river  the  Dove!

Un titled applique card paper wood and gauche

Earth Mandala papier mache wood and gauche

The un veiling stage 1

The un.veiling This is a sculpture that I made as a student in Manchester college of art , it stood in my parents garden for some fifty years in all kinds of weather not suprisingly the elements gradually started to erode the fondu concrete.Sometimes my mother would send dad out with his cement to repair it . Anyway now that my father is sick , he likes to look out from his living down his beloved garden so whilst I was visiting I decided to repair and paint it for a new lease of life Dad suggested a official unveiling !