Redesmere
and beyond
A favourite weekend short
run-out for Maxonians is to Redesmere, where the perennial attraction
of the countryside, water and activity is irresistible even when
heading further afield. Many of us leaving Macclesfield approach
from Henbury ...
... where strange things
have been happening and appearing in the field adjacent to the
church. The white concrete blade shown above is obvious from the
Chester Road and I for one did not know its significance until
recently. It is a sundial. A part of the 'makeover' of the field
...
... into a local amenity,
courtesy of the recognition frenzy that accompanied the arrival
of the Twenty-first Century.
It is but another century
to this house that overlooks the site and has already probably
seen in at least two other centuries.
Keeping aloof at some greater
distance and jealously guarding its privacy is Henbury Hall, glimpsed
from the road ...
... and set in rolling parkland
where 'sheep may safely graze' in the meadows between ...
... the elegant copses of
beech and other stately trees befitting such an elegant estate.
Overfed and gluttonous ducks,
geese and other waterfowl have learned to congregate alongside
the 'promenade' of Redesmere for the ritual feeding of these poor,
lovely creatures who would surely starve without their semi-stale
slices of 'Mother's Pride'.
And after those exertions
one may be revived with ice-cream or hot-dog or a genteel sip
of coffee in the car.
There are some, however,
for whom the whole experience is just 'too much' and they gratefully
accept refuge in slumber.
Activity on the water is
not confined to the squabbles of the ducks and geese. Tacking
and gybing around the marks (yellow or red buoys to us bystanders)
the dinghy sailors squabble in their own way for precedence.
Continued
-Part II
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