Calke Abbey - up close

Like any stately home, Calke Abbey looks impressive as you approach it ....but get really close and the effects of time and weather can be seen.....

The buildings have been preserved as they were when the National Trust took them over, rather than restored to pristine newness.
























This fantastic glass roof isn't in the house - but the Orangery!

I just love the different colours showing on these 'un-restored' walls - with its blues and browns it almost looks like a map.

And there's such amazingly detailing here - at a height where I'm sure very few people would have noticed it!

Back to Calke - more snowdrops

 Dodging between hail and rain, we went back to Calke Abbey, this time without Dylan the dog, so round the pleasure grounds of neatly laid out veg patches and flower beds through a wooded area, carpeted with snowdrops.

Calke Abbey and Dimminsdale snowdrops

AT this time of year, with the first signs of Spring around, I generally go to see the snowdrops at Shipley but last week I stumbled accidentally on a link to a snowdrop walk at a local National Trust property, Calke Abbey.






The walk led from the hall through the parkland with its rare breed sheep to Dimminsdale Nature reserve - once the site of quarries and kilns, now, particularly in the misty light, almost a magical grotto.

The best of it was saved till last - a wonderful array  of snowdrops.

... and the next week we went back to Calke to see more snowdrops, this time inside the gardens