Searching for a pot of gold ….

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Today’s walk started at Cannon Hall in Cawthorne – a country house museum that used to be the home of the Spencer-Stanhope family. It is surrounded by extensive parklands and houses Cannon Hall farm which is a large family run farm packed with animals, playgrounds , a shop and several restaurants.

Cannon Hall on a lovely sunny day !

The weather forecast was dubious to say the least and, as my Scottish neighbours would say, it was already blowing a hooley! I met up with Lucy, our daughter in law, in a fairly empty car park ( only the hardiest of hardies would be walking on a day like today!)

Leaving the car park ….
Swans, geese, ducks …and a daring Millie !

The lakes were full – not just of water but also of water fowl

A torrent of water which we crossed – Millie dubious at first! She wasn’t the only one 😉

The ground was sodden but so much easier to walk on than the icy slush of previous days. However the parkland has been well restored with man made paths and the majority of the walk in the park, was just that!

Grass as far as the eye can see…….
Three giant swans peeking over the fence…….well, swan boats for the lakes on better days!!!!

We walked round the back of the house and out of the main farm entrance ….the Dutchmen still have plenty of blue sky for their trousers, and because it had been raining , look what we found 🌈🌈🌈

Pot of gold here we come ….

We’re heading for Deffer Woods now and hooray, we’re in the right direction for our pot of gold….not sure the farmer will want us to trespass on his field though ..

Ah but there are two pots of gold aren’t there ? In this case no pot anywhere to be seen ! But we do have a double rainbow …that must be lucky ……
Lambs ……trust me they are a pair of twins , though you probably can’t tell from this photo 😉
More lambs with their Mums , but what is that in the distance ? The star of Channel 5’s Casualty 24/7 …..Barnsley District General Hospital !

So into the woods ! I have to say I wasn’t sure this was a good move . Snow melt plus already muddy paths was not necessarily a good idea – but since I last visited the woods a lot of work has taken place on improving the paths and walking was easy!

Millie in her element !

Then it started to rain – so we made haste to a shelter in the woods ….

Our shelter….

However I use the term loosely – the wind and rain were howling around from the wrong direction driving straight into our faces…..

Looking out over the countryside towards Clayton West …you have to take my word for that ….

Time to set off before we really get drenched …….too late was the cry! We arrived back at Cannon Hall like two drowned rats …well three actually !!!

Not just the pup that was lucky – thank goodness for dog friendly cafes!

After a welcome bite to eat and hot drink we set off back to the car park …..

An interesting shaped walk – makes a change from the previous days straight lines !

I’ll leave you with this thought ….

“Rainbow in the morning gives you fair warning” …apparently a rainbow in the morning indicates that a shower is in your near future – what a pity we were so fixed on our pot of gold. A shower was indeed in our near future and we got caught in it !!!

Until tomorrow Dear Reader … when hopefully I will have dried out 😉😉

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