Rivelin Valley and Redmires Reservoirs

We've been happy to stay mainly at home this week as gardening has taken up our time, but yesterday we decided to go out for a lunch date in case the weather turned to rain as it can do quite suddenly because of our changeable English climate.

We both thought of going to one of the many reservoirs in our local area as being near the water on a sunny day can be very pleasant.  Redmires Reservoirs are three large expanses of water on high ground with many public footpaths and places to sit and, therefore, a good option.

We drove up steep and winding lanes to get there.  We stopped by an old iron bridge and walked along one of the paths by the stream that feeds into the reservoir.  Although these particular reservoirs seem remote, residential homes are not far away.  It's a popular place to come and walk the dog or have a picnic.  Being man-made there are posters showing maps of the area and other information about how the place was flooded to make the reservoirs.  Old stone pillars that were once on farmland are submerged deep in the water.  

We drove along the road by the water until it wasn't possible to go any further as visitors then take the paths up to the moors or down to picnic places by the water.  The paths were narrow.  High grass, nettles and ferns made it more difficult to walk that way.  The wider path by the stream was a better place to walk and take photos of the wild flowers.  Apparently a visitor can see water voles and other endangered species in the area.

The water is very deep although at the moment there's less of it.  Yesterday the shoreline looked  exposed and wider than usual. 

I didn't see any small mammals, but the wild flowers caught my attention.  It was interesting to see purple betony, white dead nettles, wild geraniums, yellow vetch or toad flax, bramble flowers, many foxgloves as well as buttercups.

After the short walk we retraced our route and stopped at a country pub for our lunch break.

We enjoyed our lunch.  Mr P had a steak with chipped potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes and a side salad and I had wild mushroom ravioli with a rocket salad.  After a look at the view of the farmland from the pub garden we headed home, this time going back down the winding hills and then along the Rivelin River valley road where the long avenue of mature trees provided a tunnel of greenery and shade for several miles.

Well. that's all for this week.  Thank you for your visit.  I hope that you have a good weekend!

A woodland nature trail

Across the water from the Ladybower Reservoir Fairholmes Visitors' Centre and over the other side of the meadow from where we sat and had our picnic is a nature trail.  There's an easy route through the woodlands of mainly sycamore, rowan, oak and other deciduous trees. The original woodland of the valley was reduced by cutting and grazing. Now broad leaf species are being planted to replace some of the conifers that had been been introduced around the reservoirs to reduce soil erosion and these are being protected so that they can regenerate naturally from seed.

Some interesting sculptures and seats have been placed along the trail.  I hope you enjoyed the short walk in the woods.