With the promise of a warm sunny day I had designated Wednesday as our day off and planned a walk.  We hadn’t walked in the Manifold area for a while so I opted for a six mile walk from Wetton.  First though we had to say goodbye to departing guests and hello to the cleaner who was up for a couple of hours.  We set off for Wetton, passing a number of large farm vehicles on the way, so silaging is under way in the area and in the evening I could see in the distance that some of the dark green fields are now light green fields where the grass has been cut.  There is a small free car park in Wetton where we were able to park (often full at the weekend) from there we set off across the fields.  Although it had started sunny it had clouded over by the time we got to Wetton though we could always see blue sky in the distance it never seemed to returned. We descended down to the Manifold Trail (river was dry) with Beeston Tor visible and then a long steady ascent up Old Park Hill.  Down to Throwley Hall Farm where we came across Throwley Old Hall which we were able to have a look around.  Well worth the detour.  Just a bit further along we found a wall to sit behind to have lunch.  From here we could see back to Throwley Old Hall across to Castern Hall, which we would walk pass later in the walk and along to Bunster Hill and Thorpe Cloud.  In fact from where we were sitting we could make out most of the walk back to Wetton.  From our lunch spot we headed down to Rushley where an inquisitive lamb provided a photo opportunity for Chris.  Across the bridge over the Manifold, which had little water then another long steady ascent, this time to Castern Hall.  From here we headed to the Castern Nature reserve and the path along the ridge overlooking the meandering River Manifold.  In fact from this side of the river we could look across and see where we had walked before lunch. Finally the car came into view with just one last hurdle, a field of cows for Blue to negotiate!  There were some spots of rain in the air and we decided to head to Ilam for afternoon tea.  Usually we sit outside with views of Thorpe Cloud but it was trying to rain so we left the dogs in the car and had tea inside.  Back to our peak district cottages and caught up with emails and phone calls before sitting down for the evening.