Author Archives: Barbara

Heritage Open Days gave us a treat: not only was Croxteth Hall open, but also the old walled garden, which used to provide flowers, fruit and vegetables for the Great House. An old photo on display showed a posed group … Continue reading →

Meols pronounced “Mells” is a village on the north Wirral coast, once a Viking settlement. From the  station we walked along Dovepoint Road, Park Road (past a house claiming to have been built in 1649), and down Bennetts Lane to … Continue reading →

The Southern Grasslands is a new park in Liverpool, south of the Festival Gardens on the Mersey riverfront. The press release says “Over the last two years, over 400,000 cubic metres of soil and waste have been removed from the … Continue reading →

The park doesn’t open until 12, so we wandered around Port Sunlight village and had lunch in the sunny rose garden. New Ferry Butterfly Park occupies the site of the former goods yard of New Ferry and Bebington railway station. … Continue reading →

The terminus of the bus to New Ferry is on the edge of an open field facing a view over the river from some of the Mersey’s last natural shoreline. The tide was well out and the mud flats were … Continue reading →

At the southern end of the park, the shrubberies have been cut back hard, which allowed the inner shrubs to show off. There were masses of ripening blackberries, just a few hazel nuts forming (although one appeared to have been … Continue reading →

There are several pithy Scottish words for today’s weather, but the one that sums it up is dreich. Damp, drizzly and dismal. It made the ice cream and candy floss shops look particularly forlorn. The boat operators had tied up … Continue reading →

The coast at Waterloo isn’t just Crosby beach and the Iron men. Inland from the dunes is a row of early nineteenth century houses that were built on the seashore, fronted by four seafront gardens and a Marine Lake. It … Continue reading →

Another day of looking around private gardens with the National Garden Scheme, which raises money for good causes. This time we were in Hale, a village south of Liverpool, an oasis of thatched cottages, which the modern world seems to … Continue reading →

Sefton Park has everything we look for in a Sunday walk: lake birds and woodland birds with occasional rarities, interesting trees, and the occasional surprise. (And, importantly, a set of reliable public toilets!) Today didn’t disappoint. Even the weather had … Continue reading →