A Wander Around Riber

We decided to stick to hard footpaths this week and Riber Castle was mentioned so we trotted off there. We left Ike's house at about 07:30 and the first stop was Ashbourne Road heading into Belper so i could get a pic of the lovely red clouds over Belper. We parked just along from the entrance to Riber Castle just in time to get a nice sunrise shot over the distant tree's. We didn't walk far just through to the village and around the front of Riber Castle. There are some lovely buildings in the village. We had a look in the old quarry, probably where some of the stone for the local buildings came from and found a solitary grave stone.
On our way back to the car we stopped to have a look at Eddie Hallam's gallery. Ike and Rob were looking through the window when Eddie came out from his house and offered to open up for us and have a look around. There are some fabulous pieces of work in there.animals, and birds of all sorts cast from bronze. Eddie is a very enthusiastic character and just loves his work. He went through the process from beginning to end how he sketches everything first, then rough models which he calls manikins right through to the lost wax method of producing the castings. His castings are produced in one of Birmingham's fine art foundries. We said our farewells to Eddie and had our breakfast at the small pond in front of the entrance to Riber Castle. After breakfast it was back to the car and off to Cromford canal for half an hour, then back home.

Dawn over Belper

Sunrise from Riber

Looks like an old well

Looks like the coping stone has been clipped and moved.

Fantastic chimney pots

Riber Manor

A fine weather vane

Riber Castle

A solitary Grave

Village post & phone box

Geoff with sculptor Eddie Hallam

Eddie with one of his fine bronzes

This is an ordnance survey level marker

The OS level marker is inside this enclosure

Beautiful looking horse

Geoff with his new walking pole

The barge at Cromford Canal

Swans on the canal

Feeding the ducks

Cromford canal

A tree growing over this old stone footbridge

Geoff, Rob, Me and Ike

Ike had bought some cheese from the shop at Cromford canal

This was more a ramble than a walk but very pleasant and meeting Eddie Hallam was the icing on the cake.  We couldn't get close to Riber Castle, its now  being turned into apartments. I remember it when it was a zoo and took the kids there before it closed. Eddie was involved in it back in those days and i believe they were world authorities on Lynx.
See you next week.