Did I say autumn??? More like SPRING today!! (1)

Pics from yesterday. I went to Hartington, one of the loveliest Peak District villages in my humble opinion. It DOES suffer with too many tourists, but then that's the price of beauty. It still manages to hold that 'sleepy village' atmosphere though, especially if you get there early on.
I particularly wanted to see Beresford dale, where there is a plethora (I learnt that word in 'scrabble' at the weekend) of Horse Chestnut trees, and when conditions are right, they give the finest display of colours I've ever seen.
Guess what? Conditions were NOT 'perfect' - far from it, in fact. You need a long period of warm, dry and windless weather to get the leaves just so. Also, the river needs a good supply of water to get in on the act. I took the perfect picture here about ten years ago, and haven't managed to reconstruct those conditions since, but I intend to KEEP trying!
It was also a good excuse to go to the Manifold valley, one of my favourite places. There, the rare sight of the river Manifold with water in it was to be seen. Usually this river is subterranean, due to the porosity of the limestone bed.

(Don't forget - you can click on the pictures to enlarge them, and they look much better for it).

Who wouldn't want to live in a house like this eh? The beautiful limestone walls, surrounded by the copper of Autumn.
LOVELY!

This is Hartington village pond, complete with ubiquitous ducks.
I LOVE this scene, it really is a quintessential country village.

Although I am not, and never will be, religious, I DO think churches are such an integral part of a village view.
Hartington is no exception, and sports this lovely item at its centre.

Well into the dale now, this is just beyond 'pike pool', where the famous 'compleat angler' was written by Izaak Walton. He fished the river around here with his friend, Charles Cotton.

This is the bridge from Beresford dale to Wolfscote dale. here is where the Horse chestnuts grow, and the leaves give the best autumn show but, as you can see, the strong winds of late have stripped most of the leaves off the trees, and left a copper carpet on the floor.

It's still lovely, but not perfect.

The lane down to the river. I love the sign at the top of this road. It says; BERESFORD DALE (ONLY)

After the bridge, a green meadow is crossed before the path goes into the deepening Wolfscote dale. there are no wolves in England now, but the name suggests that there once was? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Dove,_Derbyshire I can find no evidence of this though. All I know is, on a sunny day, it's a really beautiful place.

There's this cave a short way up the dale side, just after Ravens tor (on the left in the picture). I always tell people it's impossible to take a bad picture from here, as the view is so aesthetically good. It helps if you take the picture when the sun is on the rock, but today it was Hobson's choice. Still, not bad though, eh?

Please go to post below for next pics.............

Did I say autumn??? More like SPRING today!! (2)

Whenever you're in a dale, you just KNOW there's a good climb coming. Mine was Gypsy bank, up to Alstonefield village. Looking down the climb on a picture, it doesn't look bad. When you come up it, let me tell you, it's a real 'knees in chest' climb!
Mind you, I always think it's worth it on a day like this.

Now YOU tell ME - is this spring or late October? I had shorts and tee shirt on, and was STILL quite warm! And just LOOK how green that grass is - someone should tell it - it's the 30th of October!

After Wetton village, a walk down a lane brings this view. that's the top of Thors cave, with Grindon spire in the background.
I heard some very sad news today about Grindon, the village pub, the Cavalier, for MANY years a favourite of mine, has closed due to lack of custom in the week. I knew the landlord and landlady. They were in the fortunate position of not having to make a living from the pub, they just wanted it to pay its way.
Alas, it couldn't even do that, so it's now gone for good.

Yours truly on top of Thors cave. I LOVE standing here, it's one of my favourite places. I first fell in love with Derbyshire on a school trip to the Manifold valley. To this day, I remember the effect that first view of the cave from the valley had on me. I think it's called a 'defining moment'.

And here it is - so you can imagine the effect this view would have on a schoolboy,
I nearly dropped my cigarette! (Don't smoke now, though)
You can see where I was standing earlier above the cave.
I was amazed to see quite an abundance of flora on this walk. There was no shortage of colour from Vetch, Harebells, of COURSE gorse (they say kissing's out of fashion, when gorse is out of flower).
All around me were the brown 'bones' of dead cow parsley, and yet, here was a NEW one, growing without a care, just as if it was spring!

At least, when the hard weather DOES come, IF it does come, the birds have this larder of berries on the gorse.

And so ended a lovely day at the end of October. No one can deny, we've had a great summer in 2006, but bot I look forward to the frosts and snow (remember snow???) of winter. The next two months are typically very dull, with not a lot to see but I am SURE I'll find something to put on here! Don't foget, by clicking on the 'comments' button, you can leave me a comment in my guest book. Thanks

In the throes of Autumn (1)

Today REALLY felt like Autumn, no wonder, because it IS! What I mean is, it's been unseasonably warm, but things seemed to 'tip' somehow today. Leaves were golden (well, some were, as usual the horse chestnuts are leading the way), and the air was dank and heavy. The mist didn't really lift all day, so panorama's were not the order of the day, close-ups were. Luckily, the damp conditions are perfect for fungi. These enigmas of the plant kingdom (if indeed they ARE plants?) are many and wonderful. There are some truly amazing varieties. I WISH I had the memory to name them, but all I can do is admire and take pictures.

Anyway, they come later, but here's a peek at winter's larder. This is what the birds will turn to if things get tough. The hedgerows abound with berries right now, is it me, or are there more than usual? If the old wives are to be believed, we really are in for a hard winter.

Walking along the riverbank, I saw a few, not many, flowers still in bloom. Again, I don't know what they are all called, but this one looks a bit like a bee orchid, but of course, it's 'just' a weed growing alongside the path. Weed or not, today it really brightened up the walk, along with the berries.
Please see next instalment below, as blogger only lets me put up so many pictures per posting. Very frustrating, but I have to chop most posts in half.

In the throes of Autumn (cont)

I took a deliberate detour across a field when I saw a pile of rotting logs, as I KNEW there'd be good fungi there. I was rewarded with this little throng! The light didn't really allow too good a picture, but they were beautiful in real life. They had a sort of waxy edging to them, making them look ghostly somehow. The moss on the trunk made a nice background, I thought. I THINK they may be shaggy ink caps, but I'm not sure.

This lady was asleep under a flower. She didn't move at all, and I got pretty close with the macro to take this shot. I took several, but this was the best one. She didn't seem to be feeding, rather resting. She was very lethargic, whatever she was up to. I noticed she was still there five hours later when I finished the walk and she'd only moved a little. Do bees die, hibernate or what in winter?

I think this picture sums up the air quality today - poor!

The reflections are nice, but the light makes everything look very drab.

Here's a 'conker', or horse chestnut tree, to give it its proper title. The ground was carpetted with it's brown fruit. Schoolkids would have a field day collecting them. I was on the lookout for sweet chestnuts though, but didn't see any on this walk. I HAVE noticed that this year seems to be a good one for them, and I expect a pocketful of plump ones before the week is out (if the squirrels don't beat me to it, which they often do)

A patch of nice orange fungi.

This little beauty was perched on a wall, amongst the moss. It was a devil to photograph because of the light behind it. I got this one in the end though, which I like and think is quite good. It was only about the size of your little finger end.

Looking up through the canopy, which won't be there in a couple of weeks time, as the wind will strip the brown leaves away to the floor.

Little brown bonnets! They look like a little family, don't they? They sat on a log, looking as pretty as a picture, so I made them into one.

A Mexican hat? That's what this one looks like? It was on the same log as the bonnets, but obviously not in their gang.

And that's it! A lovely day out in the Autumn air. Not at all cold (yet), but showing signs of what is to come. I'm looking forward to a few crisp, frosty mornings. Days when you can see your breath and can walk briskly without overheating. Days when the grass has an icy coat, and the puddles crack when you tread in them.

If I read the berries right, who knows, maybe even some snow?

A walk along the edges

Last Sunday saw me taking a walk along Curbar edge, Froggatt edge and White edge. It was a little rainy, but not too bad. The walk started in the small village in Chatsworth park, called Edensor (pronounced En'zuh). I was dismayed to see that the estate have started to charge people two pounds to park at the Calton Lees car park. I think that's too steep, and I won't be going there again.

Anyway, here's the classic view of the house through the trees. You can see it's not the sunniest of days!

The walk through the park to Baslow is very pleasant, this avenue is typical of a walk around Chatsworth.

With it being quite wet of late, there is LOTS of fungi about. I'm not sure which one this is, but it just looked so nice.

October, month of mists and melow fruitfullness. Here's a lovely bunch of Elderberries, and I did pick and eat some. They are usually very tart, being so full of tanin, but these were quite sweet.

As I climbed up onto the edges, I could see model aircraft doing stunts. The great thing was - there was NO noise, as they were radio controlled gliders! I must say, the guys flying them were very skilful and we watched them for quite a while before moving on.

The Grouse was our chosen lunchtime stop. here it is, looking from White edge.

The day cleared up a little, and we had a long period of settled weather but just before we got back to the car, the heavens opened and we got very wet.

This is my brother Colin, jumping about on gardoms edge.

A nice little corner on gardoms edge, just before it started to rain.