Trentham Gardens parkrun
Saturday began warm verging on hot. It was the kind of morning where running was ever going to be pretty. Fortunately, Trentham Gardens is a nice enough place that it can carry off a parkrun even when the weather is being uppity. The estate itself has centuries of horticultural pedigree behind it, shaped by some of Britain’s most influential garden designers: Capability Brown’s sweeping serpentine lake and mounded viewpoints, Charles Barry’s Italianate terraces, and more recently the modern perennial planting schemes by Tom Stuart‑Smith and Piet Oudolf.
Running through it feels like moving across layers of history. There are medieval yew plantings, Georgian avenues, Victorian Italianate formality, and contemporary meadows all stitched together into one long, elegant lap. The parkrun route itself is mostly gravel, drifting through parkland with wide vistas and mature trees, before finishing with a flourish through the formal Italian Gardens. Even when you’re warm, slow, and slightly melting, it’s hard not to appreciate the setting.
My time was slow (nearly 38 minutes), but that was expected in the heat. A gentle upslope around kilometre four added a bit of resistance, but nothing too dramatic. I enjoyed the run despite the conditions. The scenery does half the motivational work for you.
I didn’t stop for breakfast here (or to visit the shopping vilage) because Winsford was waiting. But still, venue #74 tick.
Winsford caching event
The event was in a pub. The same pub as last year, in fact. I settled in for breakfast and began labbing away with my iPad, expecting a modest continuation of the Cheshire Cat series I’d tackled back in February 2025. I didn’t really know anyone at the event, and I think the event was mostly done by the time I arrived anyway, as it had started at 9am.
Anyway…. they’d released a bunch of new sets overnight and the available tally for me was 160 sets, equating to 800 individual finds. That’ll be enough to make the day worthwhile then. It took me a goodly while to get through them, but thankfully the breakfast was OK and they weren’t hurrying anyone to get out again.
Up the M6 to Keswick
The drive north was smooth and civilised — not school holidays yet, so traffic was light and cooperative. No stops, no drama, just a clean run straight up to Keswick.
I arrived around 3pm and was allowed into the flat early. The flat itself is described elsewhere, but the access road deserves a mention: a narrow squeeze between two buildings, decorated with downpipes, road signs, concrete steps, and finished off with a metal fire escape at one end. Essentially a vehicular assault course. I took one look and decided the car would be spending the week in the public long‑stay car park.
Dinner O’Clock
After a bit of downtime, I headed to Casa Bella — familiar from last year. Carbonara pasta hit the spot perfectly. Good food, no fuss, exactly what I needed after a warm parkrun and a motorway sprint.
England vs Norway
And so to somewhere to watch the football. The King’s Arms was already buzzing when I wandered over. In fact, they clearly had the football on, and I wandered into a full bar. I was advised to grab a beer and go out back, but “good luck” with that. The pub’s layout included a traditional front bar, sports bar tucked behind, and an open courtyard linking everything together. It creates a natural space for a small-scale but still loud England fanzone. By the time the match kicked off, the courtyard was packed.
It was lively, enthusiastic and good‑natured, with occasional bursts of shouting that echoed off the surrounding stone walls. A couple of the patrons might have been slightly the worse for drink. Someone inevitably sloshed a bit of beer when England scored, and it set off a chain reaction. The warm evening air made it feel almost continental. It felt like a perfect combination of relaxed, communal, and rowdy without tipping over into violence or chaos.
