Parsley Hay

One summer day, along with another lady who had sight problems, we went with two social workers for a bike ride on the Tissington Trail. We travelled by car to Parsley Hay and then hired two tandems. This is really a great way for two people of different abilities, in this case one with normal sight and one that is registered blind to go cycling together. We set off down the track, my social worker at the front doing all the hard work, I was just pedalling away. It was a lovely warm sunny day and was perfect for cycling; the trail is thirteen miles long and runs from Ashbourne to Parsley Hay. The trail is surrounded by beautiful countryside and is traffic free; it was previously an unused rail track. On our return journey, the social worker suddenly decided to stop for some reason and then turned towards me and suggested that I had a go at the front!  Was I hearing correctly, apparently so and after discussing what signals to use, we set off down the trail with me at the front! The trail was quite wide at this point so there was no real danger of cycling off the track but after a short ride, we swopped places again. After returning to the depot, we went for some lunch and then called at Bakewell to buy some Bakewell Pudding. Some of you may wonder what is special about the famous Bakewell Pudding! The famous Bakewell Pudding was first made in the 1860’s at the White Horse in Bakewell, Derbyshire. The landlady asked a kitchen assistant to make a strawberry tart but the assistant made a mistake by leaving out the eggs and sugar. Instead the eggs and sugar were used to make a filling for the plain pastry case while the strawberry jam was spread out on the bottom of the pastry but a secret ingredient was added hence the Bakewell Pudding was produced

A few weeks later, I took my husband Ronald, sister-in-law Mary and the two girls to Parsley Hay, we all had a wonderful time and returned back home exhausted!