Cumberland House - Part 2

This is the new village garden - Cumberland Garden.
It is situated in the garden of Cumberland House, between the house and the High Street. As mentioned in the last post, this used to be the main entrance to the house.

Cumberland House

This is Cumberland House which overlooks Redbourn Common.
The original entrance was from the High Street.















The house dates from 1743 when the Duke of Cumberland was victorious at the battle of Culloden.
The house was not the Duke's residence, but was used as his hunting lodge in which to entertain guests invited to hunt with him from his kennels on Dunstable Downs.
The house had stabling for 120 horses and the first floor was a banqueting hall.















This avenue of trees links Cumberland House with St.Mary's church in Church End.

High water levels

The river Ver has not had this much water flowing for a number of years. Perhaps it's still the meltwater from all that recent snow?
Here's the ford in Waterend Lane...















No need for the bus from Redbourn to St.Albans - try white water rafting instead!

Redbourn in springtime

The Moor















A scoreboard has appeared on the pavilion - perhaps they will be ready in time for the new season?

Along the way

Nettleden Church















Violet violets and white violets















Amaravati Buddhist Centre















Back towards the river Gade valley

Nettleden

Nettleden lies between Great Gaddesden and Frithsden.
Allegedly, it is a village where there are more badgers than people.
And...sure enough, here's a badgers set - right on cue.















This cutting is right on the line of the footpath but curiously the line of the footpath is diverted round it. To me, it looks like a railway cutting but I can find no record of there having been a railway anywhere near here.















So, it seems to simply be a very elaborate crossing from one field to the next.
What a huge expense though - all those bricks!















There are some rather nice houses here too...

Nice day for a walk

Yesterday we walked from the River Gade valley at
Great Gaddesden up over the hills to Frithsden.















Part of the walk followed the Hertfordshire Way footpath.
Frithsden has some rather nice houses...






























I can't imagine what the 'purpose' of the walk was.

Further details of this splendid pub are here clickylink

Keystone Crescent

While we were wandering from the Canal Museum to the beer festival, we came upon this quaint - and probably very expensive - terrace near Kings Cross station.





























Unfortunately it was 'rubbish day' so the photos aren't that great.















All the cars were very small so as to fit on the tiny parking areas.

There was some amusing (if that's possible) graffiti at the end of the street which simply said 'Location Location Location',

London - Thursday afternoon

Unfortunately, we ended up at the lunchtime session at the London Drinker beer festival at the Camden Centre.
Oh! what a hardship that was.
Very enjoyable beers drunk in very enjoyable good humoured company.










































As mentioned on a previous post - always look up towards the ceiling...

The only 'downside' to the day came when SWMBO discovered a whole new batch of shops at St.Pancras International railway station, so a new dress had to be bought in Monsoon - obviously.

London - Thursday morning

This morning we went to the London Canal Museum which is in Camden behind King's Cross station.
It's actually situated in an old ice house, in Battlebridge Basin off the Regent's canal, which was built to store ice imported from Norway.
All very interesting, and only £3 each - or £3 for two with the 2 for 1 voucher from First Capital Connect.

Must have been good!

You won't BELIEVE what these birds have just been
up to on MY ROOF!
Well, perhaps you will, as it's springtime?
I wasn't quick enough with the camera to capture the
private/public moment but it must have been good
as it's blown her head off.

You can click on the picture to enlarge it just to prove there's been

no PhotoShop nonsense going on - it really is a genuine photo.

Sunny day!

Not a bad way to start your week - sitting in the sun in the jungle that is our back garden. Well it's not so much of a jungle now as we spent quite a while clearing out a lot of the overgrown planting yesterday.















Quite pleased with the photo as it was taken on maximum zoom, and through a window.

If you like cats - especially ginger ones - try this clickylink

There's wonderful scenery from St.Davids in Pembrokeshire and some great photos of cats who seem to go for walks with their 'owners', like dogs.