I took this picture during our visit to the Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire back in 2019. It was our last English holiday and one of my favourite discoveries in Derby. Journeying in a tramway is not as excitingas in a vintage train (that is the top), but it was a great fun and it felt like being in another time. I cannot wait to do it again.
I blogged a few times before about the Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire, one of the best thing we discovered during our last English holiday (it feels like ages now). In a piece of woodland next to the village itself, there is a little promenade where there's many sculptures of creatures of folklore and legends, including many, many trees with faces. I think they were meant to represent Green Men. It must certainly be the case of this one,who looks like a typical Green Man. He alsolooks alive and I was half expecting him to start talking. I really loved walking there, it was like becoming a character of old myths and legends.
La photo a été prise à Crich Tramway Village dans le Derbyshire, dans le boisé à côté du village même, où il y a pleins de sculptures et d'artefacts qui m'ont fascinés. Dont des arbres, enfind es faux arbres ayant des visages, comme celui-ci. Ainsi que bien des sculptures vues lors de notre promenade, l'arbre doté de conscience et vaguement anthropomorphique est un personnage récurrent dans le folklore et les mythes et légendes et il a aussi été présent dans bien des oeuvres modernes de fantasy (dont bien entendu Tolkien). Celui-ci a l'air fâché, mais je ne crois pas qu'il soit malveillant, sans doute simplement environnementaliste. Dans tous les cas, ces arbres à visage m'ont beaucoup fasciné.
I took this picture at the Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire, more precisely in this little pathway in the woodlands by the village. It is the sword in the stone, most likely the one from the Arthurian legend. And no, it's not the same one as Excalibur. I have seen more impressive displays, but in the woods, it's still a pretty nice sight. I was rewatching the pictures from our day there and it struck me that I must make time to reread proper Arthurian literature. Or read the numerous pieces I have not done so since I finished my PhD, and that was a few decades ago. I am a bit ashamed to admit it really. I need to check my bookshelves, but I know I have at least a few titles here and I think one of my reading objectives this year (and the next) should be to rediscover the Matter of Britain.
I took this picture at the Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire, one of my favourite attractions there. It was taken in thelittle pathway in the woodlands by the village itself. There were lots of crafts like this one, representing monsters, or Merlin, or other things from folklore and legends. There was also this treasure. It struck me then that any story and make belief game set in a far, far away past needs a treasure of some sort to have the heroes motivated. And a forest, however small, is the perfect place for adventures and dangers. I can't wait to go back there with Wolfie, when he will be able to enjoy the walk again and use the treasure and other things there as props for his games.
La photo a été prise à Crich Tramway Village dans le Derbyshire et je la partage ici parce qu'elle sert mon propos. On ne peut pas sortir bien souvent ou bien loin ces temps-ci, mais cette semaine, j'ai pu voir des chauves-souris qui volaient au dessus du jardin. Des chauves-souris très petites, très rapides, mais j'ai appris à les reconnaître. Je les appelle nos voisines. Je sais que ça peut paraître un peu bête d'être excité à l'idée de voir des chauves-souris voler, mais comme on ne peut même pas voyager dans un avenir proche, il faut se divertir comme on peut. Et puis j'aime bien la présence de nos voisines dans les airs.
I took this picture at the Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire. There is a path in the wood, a bit outside the village and there are a lot of wooden statues and creations, some representing characters and monsters from British folklore. Including this old mage on a throne.I have good reasons to believe this is Merlin. There was a sword in the stone nearby, for one (and for the record, no, the sword in the stone is not Excalibur, see my post here for more details.). It could be any other mage or wise old man, but let's face it, when you see a wizard in the woods in a medieval or pseudo medieval setting, it is either Merlin or Gandalf, and it is almost certain this one is Merlin. And as a former medievalist, I cannot wait to visit these woods again.
I blogged a few times and not long ago about our time in Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshireand the pathway in the woodlands nearby, which was a great place and worth the admittance fees by itself. Going through the pictures I had taken then, I saw this one, which I had completely forgotten about. It is a very unhelpful yet very charming road sign. if you are struggling to read the directions given on the arrows, it says "WHERE'S THIS?" and "WHICH WAY?". I wonder if it frustrates people walking around there. I cannot remember if it frustrated us, but I liked it enough to take this picture anyway.
I blogged before about our visit to the Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire, one of my favourite places there. Now, a few meters away from the village, there was a long pathway in the nearby woodlands, where you could walk. And there were lots of wooden sculpture and other alongside the pathway, including these monsters which you can see here, these kind of ugly looking creatures hiding underneath boxes or treasure chests.
Now I am not sure what they are meant to represent, but my money would be on trolls. There was a bridge nearby, for one, and they have the deforme and grotesque look of trolls. Beside, of all the humanoid monsters, trolls are the ones closest to nature and these were literally crawling off the some underground hideout. They could also be ogres, although I always imagined ogres more at least somewhat more civilised. Be that as it may, it was as if we were stepping in a fairytale or n old legend and they were the adversaries we had to overcome before carrying on our journey. I envied Wolfie for a moment, because he could still use these monsters in his make belief games. He did not seem scare of them, by the way. Or that much impressed. But I still think they were absolutely as scary as they were lifelike.
je partage encore une fois ce soir une photo prise à Crich Tramway Village dans le Derbyshire, lors de notre promenade dans le sentier en retrait du village. Un peu parce que je veux bloguer sur d'autres sujets que des photos de saisons, un peu aussi parce que j'aime bloguer à propos de jeux de société, même les plus simples comme le tic-tac-toe. Que vous avez j'espère reconnu. Bon, la table est un peu ronde, c'est un tronc d'arbre transformé en plateau de jeu, mais vous pouvez voir les x et les o. Anecdote amusante: petit loup aime bien jouer au tic-tac-toe, même s'il en saisit mal les règles: son idée d'une partie est de remplir la grille, point, dans un agencement qu'il essaie de rendre diférent à chaque fois. Et il joue toujours contre lui-même.
Photo prise à Crich Tramway Village dans le Derbyshire. Il y avait un sentier pour se promener, un peu en retrait du village lui-même, et on y trouvait des sculptures en bois ainsi que des jeux, dont ce jeu de dames. Je trouve que c'est bien pensé: de quoi s'amuser en se reposant entre deux séances de marche dans un sentier entouré de boisés. Et les dames, c'est juste assez simple et les parties sont assez brèves pour pouvoir en jouer une de manière impromptue sans que l'on néglige la promenade ou les autres activités du village (lequel est pas mal mon gros coup de coeur de nos dernières vacances dans ce coin-là). Je n'ai jamais été un grand amateur de dames (j'ai toujours préféré les échecs), mais en plein air comme ça, c'est peut-être un jeu idéal.
Some people collect stamps, some people collect rare coins, I collect bookmarks. It is not as glamorous, I know, but it is not nearly as expensive either. So during our last time in Derbyshire, we visited Crich Tramway Village, which was really fun. I don't love tramways as much as I love trains, nevertheless it is a nice, elegant means of transport, and stepping in that village was like being in a different time period for a day. I decided that I needed to buy a souvenir from the place, and what better souvenir can someone buy than a bookmark. It does not cost much and it always comes in handy, when you are like me and you read books the old fashioned way, the ones with pages and no batteries. So I bought a bookmark, the one you can see on the picture. It is now one of my favourite. Now my favourite is the bookmark featured in this post, as it features trains, but still, a bookmark with tramways on is pretty cool.
