More walking under trees - and floods at Swakestone

After last weekend's rain, the sun has returned, so I've been out again, walking under trees, this time at Calke Abbey.

 Not a long walk as we went fairly late in the afternoon - just round the gardens, though there are plenty of trees there, giving the feel of a small wood. I'm not sure but wonder if these were originally planted to hide the practical kitchen gardens from the house.

 Indoors trees are taking on an autumnal tinge too - this is a pomegranate in the old orangery.

The palms still look much the same as ever but the bedding plants underneath have been changed, with wallflowers ready to brighten up spring.

As I said, there was rain at weekend - lots of rain! I'd heard of floods elsewhere but hadn't expected this sight as we crossed Swarkestone Causeway.











Normally this would be a view of fields - low lying and close to the river, occasionally damp looking but I've never seen them flooded like this. The Causeway must of course have been built for a reason, so perhaps it's more common than I realised.

Returning home, and looking west from the causeway. The area beyond the line of trees is a lake with yacht club, but just in front of them is the access road to it! 

Fortunately, or perhaps deliberately, the houses either side sit on higher ground, though one of their gardens looked threatened.

Gaining an hour

It's that time of year for fiddling with the clocks, and turning them back making evenings darker. On Sunday morning everyone (well, those without babies, pets, or anything that doesn't live its life by the artificial time of a clock) was feeling pleased with gaining an hour's extra sleep. Oddly I wasn't; I was up an hour early.

Always one for a resolution, even though we're a long way from New Year, I've decided to follow my body clock, and stay on 'summer time'.

I'm dreadful about getting up in the morning (or going to bed at night). Always have been. Now, with no absolute need to be up and about, I could sleep till lunch time, or go to bed at 3 am. So as the clock change makes my normal waking time of 8 become 7, I want to roll with it. Get up that hour earlier, make the most of the daylight. Go to bed by midnight at the latest.



A couple of days in, it's worked fine. Let's see how it goes

Magnificent maples at Chatsworth

Give me the merest hint of a dry sunny day, and I don't need a lot of persuading to head out somewhere - and Chatsworth, of course, is a favourite destination (I've got the annual pass, so I'm determined to use it). The flowers in the garden are mainly dying back now but the trees are just coming in to their autumn glory, so after a brief wander through the cottage garden and the vegetable patch we headed in search of autumnal reds and golds.

We walked along the path above the cascade, then higher still, following one of many streams working its way down the hillside.

These further reaches of the garden always seem neglected by visitors - hardly anyone seems to stray this far, confining themselves to the showier parts.











 I like these quieter areas though, with their wonderful trees - the huge specimen firs in the pinetum, and these wondrous acers in autumn finery.
















Walking here might not quite be forest bathing, but it almost is.

Having first passed by higher up the slope, we dropped down to the Grotto pool, and from there to the Stryd, and eventually down to the Canal Pond and Emperor Fountain.

As we reached the end of the walk above the Canal, the sun came out, sandwiched between a bank of cloud and the hillside, and bathed everywhere in a warm golden glow.
A lovely end to the day

Getting lost in the woods at Allestree Park

One thing about walking through woods, particularly at this time of year, is that they're all different.


We were trying to find a new route at Allestree park, hoping to follow the purple path as seen on this map, photographed from a sign board in the car park, but we got lost!







The old hall - a brown rectangle on the map - was easy enough to find further up the drive, but from there we followed the wrong path and had no idea where we were heading.
A dog walker recommended following a path through the beech woods that border the golf course, so we went that way hoping to eventually meet our intended route - we did, but not at all as we expected. Instead of heading for the park boundary at the top of the map, we were going off the to left!









The woods were very interesting and pretty though.

A lot of the trees are strangely twisted and warped, looking like something out of a fairy tale or horror story. I'd guess, though, that once, long ago, they were part of a laid hedge which has over time grown wild.

I'm not sure I'd like to encounter them for the first time at night; they could be quite scary.

There are lots of beech trees here with leaves already falling to cover the ground, although those remaining aren't wholly turned golden yet.






















I've noticed back in the summer that there seems to be more fungi here than in, say, our local wood, and being autumn there were lots to be seen.

From a distance I thought this was a vast spreading of mushrooms, so I went off the path to investigate - and found hundreds of crab apples.

At this point we'd been slithering down a hillside following a muddy path which led us out on to the golf course and one of its gravel paths. Remember we were looking for the purple path? Well, after a little while, we found a purple marker with an arrow, then another, and another. Obviously we were back somewhere on the proper route, just not where we imagined. Before long we were back at the spot by the hall where we'd obviously gone the wrong way. The markers are only noticeable from one direction, and we'd tried to walk the path 'backwards'.
Argh. At least we found the car again.