Keeping feet dry in Milford

As you'd expect of a well-kept estate like the Shugborough environs, these stepping stones across the stream at Milford are almost too tidy to be believable. 
Still, they are very useful !

You'll see lots of walkers - and bicyclists - on these paths... not surprisingly, as the location is very attractive.  You'll find a very good, flat walk that passes along these stones on the mapmywalk website.

Cave garden opening

The National Garden Scheme 'open garden' events in Staffordshire enable nosey people (like me), and enthusiastic gardeners too of course, to look round private gardens.
It's all for charity, so there is a small charge.

Mostly the gardens one sees are nothing particularly out of the ordinary - though they do glow with the reflected pleasure and hard-work of their owners, and you can spend a happy thirty minutes chatting with those owners about how they created their pride & joy.

On Sunday, I went to this one at Brocton, where the property was built on the side of a sandstone rock hill.  The owners, rather cleverly, ensured that an old cave, hollowed out of the rock, was highlighted as a curious and interesting feature of the garden.
It rather bemused visitors.