Wandering round Chatsworth Gardens

 I'm trying to set aside two days each week to go out walking, generally Monday and Friday to nicely bookend the week, but I still want to stay behind the 'paywall' of advance tickets and timed entry slots. Having already visited Kedleston on Monday, we decided to head further out into Derbyshire on Friday and re-visit Chatsworth.

The house and farmyard are now open which I think accounted for the increased number of visitors since the last time I was there, but I was more interested in walking and fresh air, and there's plenty of space for that in the huge garden. While everyone else seemed to head straight for the Cascade and Canal Pond, we walked up the hill to the kitchen garden

A vegetable patch might not be everyone's idea of a beautiful garden, but I love this area. There flowers, presumably to cut for the house, but also attracting in pollinating insects, the views are wonderful, and, in my opinion, even the vegetable beds look attractive. This is how I would like my garden to look.

Leaving this area we were already quite high up the slope on which the garden sits, so we stayed up there, following the path under trees and beside streams. This area definitely feels more like a woodland or forest than a garden!

The path eventually brought us out above the Grotto Pond. If I've walked UP to here, I usually can't be bothered to visit the viewpoint above - coming downhill to it is much easier.

From here we zig-zagged our way downhill by the side of mini waterfalls

to the gardens by the Maze where palms and banana plants are flourishing

Then along to the Strid, with only a tickle running down the rock face in the hot weather.

By now closing time was approaching, and the crowds thinning out rapidly. Just time for a quiet visit to the hidden Ring Pond, before we too had to leave.