Walking East Stoke's lanes: July 2026

I thought we’d only managed one ‘walk’ through the lanes this month, and that one a cycle at the start of the month as we headed over to the Allotment Open Day over at Elston, so it was a nice surprise to find another set of photos from later in the month. Though this was on our walk to the pub to watch the England semi-final against Argentina in the World Cup, which didn’t turn out the way any of us there watching wanted, but hey ho.

Let’s start at the beginning of the month with that cycle, and a stop at the bridge for our usual view.

As these first photos were on our way to the Open Day at the allotments in Elston, I thought I’d share a few from there too. I was quite taken with the whole site, but the polytunnels especially, particularly the two shown here. The central layout with side borders was ingenious, and very different to the usual greenhouse layout - and the second photo, for the melons - I’m sure there were larger ones in there somewhere too.

There was plenty on show on the plot, both flowers, veg and fruit - and while I was tempted to put my name down, I knew that really I’d have plenty enough to keep me busy with my own garden.

Our second walk of the month we headed out on foot in the same direction, but veering off after the bridge over the A46 to the bridle path and the pub.

There was plenty to see, especially those being constrained or climbing over the crash barriers. It was already the middle of the month, and about a month since we’d last had rain. The fields were looking dry already and harvest, like many places around us, started much earlier than usual.

As you can see the sun was out, and we were full of optimism (and dread) for the match ahead. The pub was busy, and had some extra screens outside for an extended viewing area. The atmosphere was good, especially as England scored first - but that’s when the fear kicked in, and that’s just for us spectating! Alas, though it was not to be, not this time anyway, maybe next time, who knows?

Thanks for joining me for this update, if you enjoyed this post you may also like to see all of the posts in this series.

This July...

It’s been a busy July, and time has flown by and felt in short supply. So much so that I’m writing this post a day later than I usually would, but sometimes life just happens doesn’t it?

This month we’ve celebrated three years in our new home, and that too has just flown by. I’ve spent a week cat sitting for our neighbour’s two beautiful kitties who rather obligingly made themselves available for tickles, conversations and extra treats every time I visited, which was much appreciated.

It’s continued to be hot - parts of the UK are on its fourth heatwave, but it’s just three for us - and that’s three too many in my book. Watering the pots in the garden has become a nightly thing, and I’m now resolved more than ever to get things out of pots and into the ground - but of course it’s still too hot, and the ground too hard, to dig any new beds so my genius plan, hatched way back in May is still on hold. But I am starting to harvest a some tomatoes, with more to come and a few strawberries too so it’s not all bad.

We’ve celebrated MOH’s birthday and this year he chose to cook picanha steak (also known as top or rump cap) on the barbecue. Our favourite farm shop butchered the steak for him and we knew it’d be good, and it was. Sadly though the gas on the barbecue ran out just as MOH started cooking, so everything had to move indoors instead. New gas was bought very soon afterwards too!

We’ve been watching the World Cup - I’d say we enjoyed England’s last game against France but perhaps that’s not quite the word, it was definitely nail biting and probably the best game of the competition, and at least we ended up on the right side of the unusually high 6-4 scoreline.

July is also the month of the Tour de France and so that’s also been on our screens, sometimes during the day when we’ve been avoiding the high temperatures outside. In cycling news closer to home MOH is back cycling with his club after his recent health scare and he achieved his next target on his personal recovery plan to complete the annual London to Dunwich overnight cycle, which at just over a hundred miles is no mean feat.

And with it being July, there was another update to dad’s birthday bunting - he had the best birthday present ever he told me, along with his drill and new shirts, and that was me taking him to the tip so he could get rid of the glass from the greenhouse which he’d removed after we’d been encouraging him not to use it anymore. It’s the small things, it seems.

At the start of the month even I dusted off my bike and we cycled to two nearby villages. In Elston we had a look around the allotments at their open day, and then we cycled onto nearby Sibthorpe for the last weekend in their open gardens series raising money for the church bells. They’d opened every month for five months, and it’s been great to see how their gardens progressed over the month, and quite honestly to see in some local back gardens. There’s a lot to be said of learning from your neighbours, especially which plants work well and it’s been great to meet the villagers opening up their gardens too. And there was huge slices of cake available in the church too, well, it would have been rude not to.

ON THE PLOT AT ELSTON

SIBTHORPE OPEN GARDENS

The logistics for MOH’s epic cycle ride were obviously more tricky than when we lived in London, and so we combined it a few nights in Suffolk, staying in Framlingham which is a pretty little town, and probably most well known for its famous resident, Ed Sheeran. So while we were there we took a stroll to see the infamous ‘castle on the hill’ but opted not to go in, and instead visited Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh and on the way home Ickworth House.

THE CASTLE ON THE HILL, FRAMLINGTON

SNAPE MALTINGS

We hadn’t been to Snape Maltings for a while - since 2014 it turned out - and it was good to revisit to see what was new, and like the sculpture above what remained in place. We stopped at Ickworth House on our journey home, which appeared to break our journey into two equal sections, it too was a place we’d been before on a couple of occasions, the last time though was in 2017 when I expect the gardens, the grass especially, were a lot greener than on this visit.

ICKWORTH HOUSE

At my various sewing group meetings this month I’ve spent some time ‘playing’ with some of the pre-cut squares and sewn flying geese I picked up from someone else’s stash - though still need to finish those, and I’ve added to the number of completed houses for my villages, so village quilts 2 and 3 should be completed soon I hope. My aim is to finish them by the Linus Project sewing day at the start of September, so that they too can be donated with the more slowly growing this year pile of charity quilts that I have. It was great to take mum along with me to the Saturday morning sewing group, and even better when she offered to iron my blocks - she knows I’m not an ironing fan.

To end the month I spent the day at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham with my SIL and we saw so many beautiful quilts, more than I could photograph to be honest. But so much inspiration and talent on show, and of course there were a few purchases made throughout the day, as well as the workshop to create our own appliquéd guinea fowl.

Mine still has a way to go before it remotely resembles the gaggle of guinea fowl it’s supposed to, but with two irons between around twenty of us there was always going to be a queue. But I’ve relearnt and refreshed the technique from my rustic barn at a previous craft show, and so it’s something that I’ll finish at home.

NOT QUITE A GAGGLE OF GUINEA FOWL YET

Soon hopefully - and before I lose all the beaks!

And maybe time might slow down a little in August to give me a fighting chance…

Taking the train to Paris, Angers and Tours

At the very end of May we set off with a heavier than expected suitcase, a small wheely case and plans for a complete break. With MOH still on ‘light duties’ I think it was just the thing we both needed, especially for him as it was good for him not to attempt too much and jeopardise the holiday. Typically we’d booked this holiday just two days before any of this, so we were grateful that we were still able to go, even if that meant changing our plans slightly and definitely no cycling.

Newark to London and onto Paris

One of the things we loved about Newark when we were looking to move here was its connectedness, and the ease of getting into central London. Turns out that worked even better for getting to the Eurostar as it is just literally across the road from Kings Cross.

You can’t beat the Eurostar, and it’s been a while since we’ve been on it - but it is just fabulous.

Gare du Nord to Montparnasse

We stayed in Paris overnight close to the station at Montparnasse where we’d pick up our train to Angers the following day. People often say that Parisians are unfriendly, or brusque but I found exactly the opposite, especially with the suitcase and stairs on the Metro and more than once. Those people who offered to carry the case don’t know just how grateful I was.

Staying in Paris also meant that we had the perfect excuse to revisit our favourite Parisian restaurant, and even though it had changed hands it was just as good as we remembered. I’ll share more in a future post on this and another bouillon we visited when we returned to Paris, but in the meantime, here’s a glimpse of why it’s so special.

BOUILLON CHARTIER, MONTPARNASSE

Montparnasse to Angers

The next morning we were at the busy Montparnasse station earlier than we probably needed to be to make sure we could locate our train to Angers, which of course we did and was easier than expected. We settled in to our upper deck seats, yes the case came up the stairs too, and after a short taxi ride, arrived at our base for the week, a very pretty little chateau.

CHATEAU DES FORGES, ANGERS

It was perfect, and our room had a great view of the garden. It was a little out of town, but we knew that - and let’s be honest, not many chateaux are in the centre of town are they.

From here we explored the Jardin des Plantes with it’s spectacularly shored up tree and so much more, dodged a brief rain spell and discovered another art deco gem in a department store and saw the new bedding purchase which beat us home!

We visited the cathedral with its newly opened porch which was built to protect the fragile and deteriorating facade following the removal of the mediaeval porch. I didn’t realise at the time, but it was only officially opened in April of this year and was designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. We explored the town and I was unexplicably drawn to these large apples by Bruno, which were almost 2000 Euros and nonchalantly on display outside the shop.

And we enjoyed walking beneath the floral arched tunnel alongside the river on our way to the Castle, though MOH and his hayfever possibly less so. The Castle gardens were impressive as I peered in and looked over the wall, but those on the ramparts were even more impressive and I’ve more to share from this visit, including the vineyards on the ramparts and the Apocalypse Tapestry - the largest medieval tapestry known in the world.

Another day we left the hotel on foot to explore the nearby Ile Saint-Aubin and marvel at the Bac, a small chain operated ferry which is the only public access to the island and its 600 hectare nature reserve.

We went along to the Museum of Fine Arts which was fascinating though both MOH and I preferred the contemporary pieces, and then we spent a full on day at Terra Botanica which if I’m honest I wasn’t sure about beforehand. Afterwards though I’m a complete convert, and we had a great day - though we walked just under six and a half miles that day, including getting there and back to the chateau. It’s billed as a theme park for gardens, which was what put me off, but it was brilliant - and I haven’t yet worked out how I can share what I saw there yet, we saw so much.

It was our first time in Angers, and it was brilliant - there was so much to see and do, and it definitely lives up to its reputation as France’s greenest city, but it was time to move on.

Angers to Tours (via Le Mans)

We were back at the train station, this time heading to Tours for the second main part of our trip. We needed to change at Le Mans, so we got to see some more of the French countryside on our not quite so direct route. Once in Tours, a city we’d visited before, some ten years ago we immediately noticed some changes, and yet familiarity too.

We took the tram to our next hotel, also a chateau but more along the lines of a larger corporate hotel, but no worse for that. We came to Tours for one main reason, and that reason was to revisit the Chateau de Villandry.

In 2016 we’d arrived by bike, and that was our original plan to for this trip - but as we couldn’t a taxi did very nicely, and much more comfortably instead. Again I’ve much more to share from Villandry, and somehow I never shared my photos from there before, but this sneak peek will explain why I was so keen to get back there for another visit.

Yeap, it’s a wow of a garden isn’t it? Wait until I tell you that the section at the top right is a potager and is filled with edibles, yes my mind is blown too. It’s probably my second most favourite garden ever with Huntes Garden in Barbados firmly in number one spot.

We also found time to celebrate our nineteenth wedding anniversary with a spot of wine tasting, as you do - and it was just as well that MOH insisted on bringing his wheelie case as that went home three bottles heavier. Well, when in Rome and all that…

Tours to Montparnasse and onto Gare de l’Ouest

Just a couple of nights later we were back in Paris, arriving once again at Montparnasse and this time taking the Metro to our hotel located within walking distance of both the Gare de l’Ouest and handily for the next day the Gare du Nord. We also found ourselves in another Bouillon which was just as good as the one we knew and loved.

BOUILLON JULIEN, PARIS

Paris to London and home

With supplies of baguette and pastries secured the night before we back at the Eurostar to start the final leg of our journey home, but there was still the chance to put some final holiday stitches into my holiday embroidery project. It’s far from finished - and of course I haven’t touched it since we’ve been home - but I’m loving how it’s going so far, and it’ll be a great keepsake to have of our trip.

I’ve plenty more to share from our trip and I’ll do that over the coming weeks and months, and as and when I do I’ll add links to this post so eventually the story will build up with several layers.