Lazy-ish afternoon at Kedleston

For our second day out this week I decided I wasn't in the mood for much exercise, so we started our trip to Kedleston with a visit to the gardens. The flowers are going over a little now, certainly not as stunning as  at the end of July but still bright and cheerful.

Then it was time to decide where to walk. There are several connected walks through Kedleston's park but the one I chose this time was slightly different. The Long Walk forms a rough letter 'D' around the hall, and the Short Walk cuts through its widest point to form the lower half of a 'B'. I frequently take that one - it's short (as you might guess) and has good views over the countryside - but this time I picked the upper half of the 'B' - straight up the grassy hill behind the hall, then left following the markers along under the trees and down to the bottom of the lakes.

The views on this section are inwards towards the hall, sometimes clearly seen, sometimes glimpsed through the trees.

Mainly there are just trees to meet.

Having got the hill out of the way first, this is a roughly flat path till the descent to the lakes. Back on flat ground there's a choice of paths - through the Shady Oaks where you can build dens, off to the right to the Splash Pool, or straight forward to the lake. I decided on dead ahead, to where there's a convenient seat by the water.

Somewhere there's a heron sitting oh so still - about two-thirds down in the centre of the photo - and I spotted another higher up towards the weir. 

Now, I know I'm a slow walker. It takes me ages to cover any distance. In part this is due to my lack of speed, but mainly because I like to stop and look at things - like a view, flowers at the side of the path, or strange faces in trees - and to just sit somewhere peaceful, by this lake for instance, and let everyone else rush on. While I sat here, several people came down the hill behind us and headed off in the direction of the hall and car park. None of them seemed to notice the coots dabbling about near us, the heron on the opposite bank, or the family of swans  just off to the right. Sometimes it's good to sit and look around.

Not even I can sit forever, and the park closes at five-ish, so eventually I had to head up, past the next weir and second lake, which was full of noisy geese, to the hall and home.