Looking forward to - holidays

 I've been out and about a lot since restrictions lifted earlier this month, but so far I've only visited my usual close to home favourites  - Kedleston, Calke, Chatsworth and Shipley. 

Now I've taken the plunge and booked a holiday!

I'll only be away for a few nights but staying under a different roof  seems to make time stretch, and a couple of days away feels a lot longer than the same time spent at home. Due to family circumstances I'd been forced into staycationing long before covid was thought of. Last year, I waited too long, thinking July and August weren't good times to go on holiday, and then lockdown returned. This year I'm grabbing the opportunity to get out and see places while it's possible. 

When I started planning this break, I'd expected to head off to one of my regular seaside spots - Pembrokeshire or North Norfolk perhaps - but firstly I wanted to visit my daughter in Manchester on the way home, and then when I started considering Lancashire and Yorkshire I realised there are so many places I haven't been to. 

Although since my early twenties I've only holidayed in Britain (and never called it a staycation), from Devon to Aberdeen, Shropshire to Kent, there are such a lot of places that I've just passed through on the way elsewhere (respectively Cornwall, Sutherland, Wales, and France) only stopping briefly for lunch and a wander round a convenient National Trust property. Now I feel I want to explore all those rushed-past places. East Yorkshire fishing villages, quaint Devonshire thatched cottages, Aberdeenshire's castles, or just quiet country places that barely appear on the map but are filled with flowery lanes and birdsong.

So this time we're going to Malham, in Yorkshire, but I've also started to put together a sort of wish list of places to visit - it's probably far too long to cover in one year, and I do want to revisit my favourite places, but it's the beginning of a plan.

Daffodils at Chatsworth

I sometimes wonder, when I go to a place regularly, as I do Chatsworth, if delightful as it is I'm not going to find anything new there, but on my visit yesterday I discovered the most amazing daffodils. I'm not sure if these are newly planted, or if I just haven't been at the right time of year before. 

I knew about the daffodils at the edge of the main lawns and under the trees alongside the Broad Walk

and I'd seen these on the bank by the Canal Pond before

 but then we wandered uphill and at every turn encountered more daffodils - yellows, whites, the bright centres of poeticus narcissi, tall plants, and tiny ones maybe only six inches high.  

Daffodils everywhere!

They aren't the only plants brightening the gardens right now - there are anemones, leucojums, irises, erythroniums, primroses, hellebores, and bluebells just starting to flower.

 

But the daffodils were definitely the stars - nestling under trees, tumbling down banks. I'll make a note in my diary to catch them every year.

 

A slow walk by still water

Monday turned out to be another glorious warm day. 

My original plan for an afternoon at Kedleston had been to walk round the Wilderness, but it turned out to be a day for lazy ambling, for sitting in the sun, and watching the birds on the lakes.

We headed via the Shady Oaks path to the lowest point of the grounds, where the water from the lakes cascade into the Splash Pool before heading out of the estate as a small brook.

From here we wandered uphill, with lots of sitting down along the way. 

There's something very calming about placid water and watching ducks and swans potter around, so I could have sat there all afternoon!

Above the bridge the lake itself seems more manicured and tamed, but this area is home to hundreds of geese and is far noisier than lower down.

I'd had a vague idea that we might walk all the way to the stepping stones at the top of the lakes but we'd sat too long so only reached the boathouse. At least it leaves a challenge for another day 

 

Jottings - April 18th - a busy busy week

 I'm determined to get out as much as possible now we're allowed. Partly I feel like there's no knowing how long this burst of freedom may last before another tightening of restrictions; partly the sun's shining, and spring is here, and I just want to be out and about. Whatever the reason it feels like this week has been busy one way or another.

The first trip was the fortnightly supermarket sweep, though, as it has been for the past year,  this is actually just the collecting part of 'click and collect'. It's not exciting as such but for a long while has been the only event in my diary, and now it's Spring there are blossoming trees, and green leaves appearing on the hawthorn, to be seen. 

Also it was a gloriously sunny morning, so afterwards we decided to seize the day and go out, if only for an hour or so, to Shipley Country Park. It's one of our regular just-out-of-town walking spots, or at least in normal times it is, but during the last lockdown it wasn't considered 'local' enough. The daffodils were past their best but just being able to get in the car and see somewhere different is still a novelty and so enjoyable.

With the good weather continuing we decided to go out again later in the week, to Calke Abbey for a short walk around the park and gardens.

On Thursday I had an outing of a different sort - an online afternoon tea book launch for Carol McGrath's The Damask Rose. 

And I rounded off the week with Sourdough English Muffins, made to a recipe shared on Instagram by the_fussyfoodie_   

I haven't though availed myself of the renewed opportunities for visiting either a non-essential shop (I've discovered most things can be bought online, and I don't miss 'shopping' as such) or the pub. They can wait.

Out again! To Calke

 Taking advantage of post-lockdown freedom we headed out for a second time this week! This time to Calke Abbey. 

It was a little busier than I'd expected (after all we managed to get tickets the night before) so we decided to reverse our original plan, going for a short walk through the park first, then a stroll round the gardens after most people had left. 

We spent a lot of time walking round Calke's park last year but there always seems something new to find just off the marked paths. 

This time we found another abandoned stile and a lovely spot to sit in the sunshine by one of the ponds.

I thought I'd visited at this time of year before but must be mistaken as I've never spotted the daffodils lining the walk up to the church from the gardens - and they'd surely be hard to miss.

In the walled garden a beautiful display of potted pansies was filling the auricula theatre, and a dramatic combination of orange and purple tulips brightening the flower beds. 

My favourite flowers though were these anemones, being left to naturalise this area of the kitchen garden under fruit trees which looked ready to blossom any day.

It was getting very close to closing time by now, so we ambled back to the car, leaving the scarecrows in charge.

Shipley daffodils

Now we're allowed out and about I want to make the most of the sunny Spring weather, so on Tuesday we headed to Shipley, hoping to catch the daffodils before their flowers faded. They were starting to look a little ragged, and I think we missed them at their best, but they still looked stunning en masse.

I was surprised how many visitors were there - we got the last car parking spot! - but there's plenty of space for people to spread out, the paths are all good and wide, and there are a variety of directions to walk in so once away from the car park it didn't feel busy.

We followed our usual route - up the hill from the Mapperley entrance, through the community orchard to the Lodge tea-rooms (not open, even for takeaway, on Tuesday), then up the old drive and round the former gardens before heading back downhill to the car.

 It's a nice easy amble after the first uphill bit, it was warm enough to sit for a while in the sunshine, and great to be able to get outside and see more than the garden.