Daffodils at Shipley

Having failed to find masses of daffodils on my trip to the Lake District, I decided to search for them nearer to home - at Shipley Country Park just north of Derby.

Daffodils are spread all around under the trees which once surrounded the (now demolished) hall. Obviously they were once laboriously planted but have now naturalised covering a huge area.

I don't think this is the best display I've seen there - possibly due to weather conditions last summer or over winter, or it could just be that the bulbs were in one of their 'rest periods' - but even so they're lovely

On the slope of Horsepool Hill, something white caught my eye, so I slipped and slid across the slope to find a wonderful patch of wood anemones.

 

Shipley Snowdrops

My last snowdrop trip of the season was the nearest to home and one of my favourite spring walking spots - Shipley Country Park, near Ilkeston, Derbyshire.

I'd been putting this visit off for a while as last time I visited, in September, the uphill walk from the carpark to the old hall's grounds had proved too much for my not-quite-recovered legs.  This time, thankfully, all went well.

So I slowly headed up the hill, through the beeches on Horsepool Hill, where the first daffodils were flowering, and followed the ha-ha around the old hall grounds.

There are snowdrops in clumps scattered throughout this area but the best in my opinion are along the old driveway, presumably planted to impress visitors. It's always tricky trying to guess the best time to catch snowdrops at their best, and I think this year I was a little late.

Having proved to myself that I can now manage this short walk quite easily I'll be back before long as the daffodils come into full flower.

 

Not a nice walk at Shipley Park

I've been avoiding my usual walk at Shipley Country Park for a while - actually the whole of this year since I fell down the stairs. It starts with an uphill walk, not particularly steep, but quite long, and I didn't think my ankles could cope with either the up or down of it.

Last week though I felt brave enough to go. I've been walking further when out and thought I'd be okay. I was wrong.

The tarmacked hill was difficult, but the slippery path under the trees on Horsepool Hill was really troublesome with me struggling at times to keep my balance. It had rained in the morning and the leaves and beechmast one way then the other. 

Even having reached the flatter section at the top of the hill, I didn't feel comfortable. I've been choosing absolutely flat, well surfaced paths for the last few months, and this wasn't really either. Normally I wouldn't have a problem, but my legs were tired, and my ankles had had enough.

 If you go up though, you have to come back down, and this puts a different sort of strain on ankles. So, all in all, not a happy afternoon. I obviously need more practice at hills but gentler ones first.  

Red and Gold at Shipley

A glorious day of clear blue sky tempted me out to Shipley. At the moment it's looking particularly stunning - even the car park where I took this pic!

The bushes at the side of the main road were covered in rosehips and sloes (the sign of a cold winter to come, apparently), and the ground under the beech trees of Horsepool Hill carpeted with leaves.

The most stunning sight though was to be found at the top of the hill in the area that was once the garden to Shipley Hall. I spotted a glimpse of red through the other shrubs, and on investigating found a beautiful carpet of acer leaves.

Aren't they just fabulous? Definitely my kind of red carpet.

A good day for stopping and taking in the view, over the surrounding farmland or across Mapperley reservoir

And on our ambling we collected a pocketful of chestnuts. I saw other folks equipped with carrier bags which they presumably hoped to fill, but these are enough for me.
 

Daffodil time at Shipley

I'm obviously not talking about this last week of snow and hail, but most of March has been so lovely and warm that it seemed a pity to stay home. So I've been out and about watching Spring advance.

The first trip was to Shipley where I was lucky enough to catch the daffodils at their best. Despite being close by, their flowering doesn't quite occur at the same time as my own garden daffodils, so I'm often early (too many still in bud) or a little too late (yellow petals turning to brown). 

This time I got it just right!

Photographs don't seem to capture their sheer numbers or how amazing they look, flowing down the hillside like a golden river, but I hope these give a hint.

 

Spring on its way at Shipley

A sunny end to last week tempted me out for a short walk round the snowdrops at Shipley.

The sky was blue, the sun shining brightly but it was still cold, which resulted in my phone battery dying partway round the walk - so there are less photos than usual.

To be fair, the snowdrops are much the same from one year to the next, so old photos probably capture as well as new ones. (See 2018  2019  2021 and probably a lot more on the blog) Even so, a walk at Shipley has come to mark the beginning of spring and (hopefully) warmer weather.

 

Almost like Christmas

 It's been a hectic, happy few days. 

My grandson visited for two, then my youngest daughter for three.

With my grandson, we planted cabbage and sweet pea seeds from the February Mud and Bloom box, played animal dominoes and the Postman Pat board game, and got fooled into watching Peppa Pig.

With my daughter, we went out to Shipley for a snowdrop walk, played more board games, vicariously shared the excitement of her going out for the evening, had a movie night in with La La Land, and I got to show off my new clothing purchases to someone who might be interested.

 In between, there was a lot of fun and laughter, both daughters went out for the evening, there was a family dinner, and a birthday tea.  It was almost like Christmas.

We're now into the lull before New Year, as next weekend sees another family birthday

Autumn Sunshine at Shipley

Last week was written off due to tiredness after my covid booster, but a sunny day on Monday tempted me outside, for a late autumn walk at Shipley Country Park

Messing about doing things at home meant it was quite late in the day before we arrived. The sky was still clear, but with the sun almost setting it was dropping decidedly chilly.

Heading up the drive to Horsepool Hill took us back into the sunshine for a short while. Shadows were long and spindly, and the last rays of the sun turned the fallen beech leaves red.

There were so many fallen leaves piled up beneath the trees. Excellent for stomping and kicking!

I'd planned to walk further but having mis-estimated the time of sunset decided to cut things short by staying on the west sunset-facing side of the hill.

For a while I sat and watched the sky turn to red, then dim again, but cold drove me on, bacl down the hill to the reservoir and the warmth of the car