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 I STILL  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! (I 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 forget, 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, but as usual the horse chestnuts were leading the way), and the air was dank and heavy. The mist didn't really lift all day, so panoramas 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 mellow fruitfulness. Here's a lovely bunch of Elderberries, and I did pick and eat some. They are usually very tart, being so full of tannin, 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.

Beautiful Bakewell, a pictorial study.

Today, I went for a walk around Bakewell, probably one of the most-visited towns in the Peak district. As I was early, and I rarely get the chance to get pictures that are not full of people here, I decided to do a photo shoot. There's a link above to their own site, where you can get any info' you need, but this is my own little montage of a place I love, especially when there's no-one about!

(NB - I now live in Bakewell, as of 2010)

I suppose any photoshoot in Bakewell HAS to include the old Bakewell pudding shop, and here it is. There are several claims to who was the 'first', the 'original' etc etc, but for me, this is the one. If you haven't tried a pudding - you don't know what you're missing! You can go and get one (the best way), or you can order one by post. They will post to anywhere in the UK mainland.

There are quite a few back alleys with little coffee shops and restaurants in Bakewell. This one used to be just an alley, but like such a lot more, it has been developed. They seem to know how to do this JUST right in Bakewell, and here is the result. This one even has grapevines strung across it for that extra added something to make it look good.


Here's another one. Notice the huge stone trough on the left - over a thousand pounds worth there I imagine, but again just a little touch of class to make things 'just so'.


Here is Riccis, the BEST pasta and pizza place for many a mile. You can eat well here for under a tenner, and the quality of the food & coffee is exceptional. Only 'proper' ingredients are used, and cooked right in front of you. It's a little small, but I prefer to call it cosy and romantic. Try the house special cheesy garlic bread - bellissimo!

(NB - we bought and ran this lovely cafe for 14 years, before retiring in 2019)

 Across the road is Tyroller Stubel (I think that's right). They sell a fantastic sausage called 'kasekrainer'. I always call and get four to take home, and have a super duck recipe to use them with.

NB - Tyroller Stuberl is now closed)

This is looking back down the shopping alleyway where the trough is. It really is too pretty for words, isn't it?

The other main attraction in Bakewell is this bridge. It's so lovely, and old, yet copes well with the HUGE amount of traffic it gets in the present day (which it was NEVER built to handle!)

The arches are special, as they are not 'straight'.

Looking at it from the other side.

This is the smaller footbridge at nearby Ashford in the Water. This is called the 'sheepwash bridge'. On the other side bank is an enclosure where they used to herd in the sheep, then put them in the river to wash them. The arches are 'normal' on this bridge.

This time of year, the Buddleia is still in flower and attracting lots of butterflies. here are a couple of shots I got on my walk around bakewell.

http://www.butterflygarden.co.uk/plants/buddleia.htm

And that's it! I hope you like the pictures, I LOVED taking them :-)

There are more pictures on my other blog at www.walkderbyshire.blogspot.com

Please sign the guest book, and you can click on any picture to see a larger one.

UNCHARTED TERRITORY

Today I decided to do something I have been wanting to do for a long time - walk over Ravenstor crags. The thing is, I HAD contemplated doing it before, but a friend I had with me at the time was reticent to 'break the law' and trespass. Now, however, we have the 'right to roam'. I KNOW it's controversial, BUT I am really happy about it. You see, I AM a good walker, I don't drop litter, or fag ends (don't smoke) or anything else, especially not remains of fruit - banana skins etc (no mate - they don't look good, whether they bio-degrade or NOT - take them HOME with you).

I knew that across the dale, on the other side, they had opened up the top ridge and put in new stiles. To my amazement, and joy, there was a new stile here on this side too, so off I set.

I had to 'bushwhack' a bit, as it was VERY overgrown, but I was well rewarded with what I saw and the walk I got. It's amazing, but very precarious. The path is tummy-churningly close to the sheer drop in some places.

Anyway, first off, I got a whole new perspective on the viaduct at Monsal head, and here's a the first picture I got looking back to it. You can double click on ANY pictures in my blogs to see a bigger version.

Of course, there were some very nice rocks to stand on, and me being me - I just HAD to go and stand on one!

This is the view coming to above Water cum Jolly dale. If you look, you can see the 'alpine path' halfway up the dale on the opposite side. The top ridge is where I walked a few weeks ago, after it was opened up, as I said before.

I just took this one because I thought it looked nice with these berries for foreground. It's Water cum Jolly dale village.

So - here was where I wanted to get - and GOT! This is looking down to the Ravenstor cottages (all but ONE are holiday lets!!!!). Many a climber has stood here after the arduous climb up, so I felt I was cheating walking there, but it sure felt great to BE there after longing all these years.

There is also Wardlow Hay Cop nearby, and as it was never 'permitted' (although locals have been going there for YEARS) to visit it before. It now was, so I thought I ought to go there, just to say I had.

Now I was coming back to ordinary public footpaths, and I dropped towards Cressbrook dale. I got a short shower here, but nothing of substance. I sat in the dale in the warm sun, and ate my lunch beneath Peter Stone (pic later). This is a really beautiful dale, either looking from above or in it, and in the spring, it's filled with cowslips and early purple orchids.

As Blogger doesn't seem to like too many pictures in one post, I have had to split this, so you will just have to scroll down to read the second part. Enjoy!

Les.