A Local Walk

We're experiencing warm, sunny weather at the moment so I took advantage of it and took a walk on Saturday afternoon while Mr P was resting after a morning of gardening.  I've come to appreciate the trails that I can walk not far from home even if most of them are at the top end of our hilly village. Further out from this village in the north-west of the city we have open countryside and the many reservoirs managed by Yorkshire Water called "The Lakeland Loop".

The area is crisscrossed by old routes once used by packhorses and other horse-drawn carriers.  These trails were important to the local economy and are now used as a leisure resource.  Heritage Highways have created a number of walks, horse rides and bike routes to help local people explore the rich history of the area.  The British Horse Society has sponsored the research needed to train up volunteers so that the trails and bridleways are well maintained and sign posted.

Below are some of the photos I took on Saturday's walk not far from home.  The trees are back to life in full leaf now and there are many wild flowers to be enjoyed along the way (even in the new park at the top of our road where the grass has been left long and many species of wild flowers were planted last year along the edge of the playground).

 English bluebells are still blooming in shady places. 

It was a joy to hear the birds singing and capture this little sparrow pecking the ground for insects among the fallen new leaves.

Back near home I was pleased to see the wisteria flowers that droop down so prettily.   Back in our own garden the neighbour's hawthorn tree that gives shelter to garden birds in the Spring and Summer months and berries to feed on in the Autumn and Winter was looking beautiful against the clear blue sky.

Thank you for coming by.  I hope you have a pleasant week whatever you're doing. 

August Days: Chatsworth, Derbyshire

I've been away from my desk and the computer except to download and edit photos of our family times this month. Our daughter has gone home now and we enjoyed her company.  Other members of our family came over for the day and on other occasions we went out to local places of interest where we could walk and take a picnic into the Yorkshire or Derbyshire countryside.  A highlight was a pre-booked visit to Chatsworth House Gardens which we had wanted to return to.  It's always a delight to wander around the gardens and parkland there.  Mr P stayed at home whilst our daughter drove us through the Derbyshire countryside to Chatsworth Estate.   On another occasion Mr P drove us to a village where we could take a short walk along a public footpath into the vast country estate of Chatsworth. We also celebrated belated birthday occasions with exchanges of gifts and had an early pizza party bbq for Mr P's birthday which was this month. Gardens and flowers nearly always feature in my blog posts!

I'll share more soon.  Meanwhile here are a few photos of our August days. My lightbox slide show is not working at the moment although I've switched on the settings. Instead I've enlarged the scenic photos.  Enjoy!

The Cascade, Chatsworth

The Wildflower Meadow at Chatsworth House

a walk on Chatsworth Estate (a farm building)

                                                       

Thatched cottages in the village of Baslow.

a special meal out with our daughter D

                                             

                                                 

a bouquet of flowers from our other daughter M

Thank you for your visit.  Have a good day!

A Walk on Wednesday

Today was a good day for a walk with the sun shining and blue skies again after a cloudy few days so off I went down the steep hill to Loxley Valley and found some lovely new footpaths to explore along by the river.

If I were a bit more nimble I could have climbed over into this field which is a public right of way, but instead I chose the easy trail where there was a wide path. I wore my home made mask that I've just made where the path narrowed as there were quite a few families about enjoying a walk in the fresh air. 

On one side are fields of a cereal crop and on the other is the river which is more of a stream rushing along over boulders in places and calm waters in others.  

A box at the side of the river says it records the level of the water.  At the moment it seems quite high. The Damflask Reservoir feeds into the river which flows on before joining the River Rivelin and the River Don.

  

Some old photos on an information board show what the Loxley Valley used to look like.  It's still a farming area dotted with old stone buildings.  There's also an old photo of the time when one of the reservoirs further up the valley broke its walls during construction. Gallons of water rushed down the valley causing destruction and devastation on the way.

I thought the English bluebells in the woodlands were over, but there were some still in bloom in the long grass.

There were other wild flowers that are best left growing in the woods than in the garden.

a solitary bumble bee

hawthorns (May tree) are in full blossom everywhere

Some interesting boxes in a woodland area looked as if they might be beehives as there were insects, probably bees, flying around them.

I went as far as this bridge and then turned back. On the other side of the road there are more interesting footpaths to wander down.  I'll share more of what I saw there next time as some unusual artisan stone sculptures and specialist stone walls can be seen among the woodland trail.

Thank you for your visit.  Have a good day!