Packington / Normanton

• Walked: 23 April 2010
  
• Distance: 5.5m
• Terrain: flattish
• Summary: Park in packington, cross fields to Sprng Lane and continue straight along track. Take the muddy bridleway to Normanton le Heath, and take paths which run parallel to the road back to Packington.
• Time: 2 hrs

The weather's been so nice recently, so the muddy bridleway wasn't. A beautiful afternoon, with lots of signs of spring around; various shades of green in the trees and hedges, blackthorn flowers, dandelions in full flower, elder starting to come into leaf, lambs in the fields.








The route above was generated using Meander.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Map image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Eerie silence

the reason that this little chap has a puzzled look on his face is that it's unusually quiet. Eerily quiet.
We're beside East Midlands airport, and the reason for this silence is that somewhere up there is a cloud of volcanic dust from a volcano far away with an unpronounceable name. It stopped the aeroplanes from flying yesterday and again today. It looks like continuing into the weekend. The walk around the perimeter of the airport is pleasant enough, but I wouldn't normally do it because of the constant stream of aircraft going to and fro. But today they're all sat on the ground going nowhere. :-)On the way round, I went out of my way to visit the memorial plaque to the people who died, were injured or helped in January 1989 when a plane crashed on the M1 motorway below.

It has turned into an extraordinarily nice day today.
Some kind of fungus? Or something alien? Not sure what this is.
I do know that this is hawthorn - the leaves are unfurling now turning the hedges a beautiful bright green.
And these are the flowers of its sister, blackthorn, the flowers generally come out earlier than the leaves. And eventually turn into sloes, which make gin into a gorgeous liqueur.

Albert Village circular walk

Distance: 5m
Walked: 28 March 2010

My first tentative steps into the sunshine after a long hibernation were to explore some paths around Albert Village on the South Derbyshire / North-West Leicestershire border. A short 5m walk was just enough to get the legs working again.

After a very long cold winter and a long wait for the daffs to come out, I managed to spot several very early signs of spring. some trees as well as the hawthorne were coming into bud, and a few of those buds were starting to unfurl. Fluffy catkins were showing on willow trees.

Extra year-round colour on this walk is provided by gorse.

The National Forest is a Forest in the Making. This walk takes in some well-established as well as some newly-planted woods, and has some beautiful views over the lake at Albert Village.

On the second loop of this walk, to the east of the lake, a viewpoint gives you a great view over the lake and surrounding woods.

Stretching the legs around Ticknall

Walked: 18 Jan 2010
Distance: 6m

Words but no picutres today on account of no memory stick in the camera. This is the start of me picking up my walking again after a bit of a lull and starting to work my distance up ready for this summer's Ivanhoe Way walk.

Would there be much to see in the middle of January? What distinguishes January seems to be more about what's not there than what is there. The recent snow flurry has now melted and it's reasonably sunny and warm, meaning that there's little to distinguish this season from others now, other than the absence of leaves and flowers.

There's a surprising amount of green. Holly and ivy kleep things looking green where they grow, and the fields have just turned from white (snow) to green as this year's winter crops are starting to show through. It's fascinating to see what's been planted where. In one field I could see rape springing up where wheat had been last year and maize the year before.

I deliberately left the walk until mid-afternoon because I'd predicted a beautiful sunset. Sadly not correctly, but there was a beautiful thin sliver of a new moon in the clear sky.

My route is on OS Explore here

South Derbyshire Saunter

This picture best sums up today. The trees are now in a partial or total state of undress but after a horribly wet and windy few days, it's now unseasonably warm and sunny.



Distance: 9m
Walked: 15/11/09

For reasons of time I cut out some of the less nice paths and ended up with a cut-down 'lite' version of my '3 viewpoints' walk. (Missing out two of the original viewpoints!).

The first alteration was to cut off Bardon church and use a beautiful path from Burney Lane (just past Scotland Farm) to Melbourne.









The next alteration was to turn left at Robin Wood and head directly to Ticknall, using another very pleasant countryside path.





Holly berries are out! Jollymerry.





Click the map to view on OS Explore.

What's to see in November?

This new (to me) camera has been a life-changer. On this breezy but bright November day, rather than tread many miles at a purposeful pace, I spent a couple of hours covering half a mile through some woods and back. Rather than face forward and concentrate on the route, I looked around and found many interesting things.

I did visit this particular woods because I went astray here while walking the Ivanhoe Way last time, and wanted to make sure I knew the correct route ready for next time.

The most noticeable things about November are the green turning brown, trees turning bare and the ground becoming covered with a carpet of bronze leaves.


The dry pods of this broom are beautiful in macro.


The bracken is turning brown.


More bracken? No, this is moss in extreme close-up. Frondy.


These guys were tiny:


There are more new photos in my Autumn Colour set over at Flickr.

Autumn Colour at The Heart of The National Forest

Walked: 11 October
Distance: 10 miles
Summary: Starting from The car park at the bottom of Gorse Lane, Walk to Albert Village and around the lake. Cross the road and through Diana Memorial Woods and Tunnel Wood. Along the railway line to Oakthorpe, to Willesley, Boothorpe and back to the start.

This will be a nice walk to do in the murkiest depths of winter because much of it follows well-surfaced paths.

Today, though, I wasn't really fired up by the walking or the route, but fired up by the autumn colour and by the new (to me) camera that has arrived in the post. To be honest, it's battered and not very new, but it's so much better than my old one and I had to try it out! And what amazing colour there is out there at the moment.

I started close to Albert Village, simply because I pass this tree on my way to work every day and can't believe the colours it's turned:










I was pleased to see these black spots on the sycamore - it's said to be an indicator of air quality (the fungus causing it doesn't thrive in urban areas) and is part of the natural life cycle of the leaves.


Putting the macro through its paces was fun!! And there are so many beautiful things around to get up close to... rosehips, hawthorn berries, elderberries and even some blackberries left. (They were delicious!)








More photos on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shieladixon/sets/72157622438095679/

Click the map below to find an interactive version on OS Explore. Find your way around the route with an even more detailed OS Explorer 245 (The National Forest)

South Derbyshire 18

Walked: 16/9/09
Distance: 16 miles
Summary: A walk around South Derbyshire taking in some wonderful views. Starting at the Ferrer's Centre, which provides convenient free parking, through the Calke estate and Ticknall, around Robin Wood and the Foremark Reservoir, Daniel Hayes Farm, Smisby and a little section of the Ivanhoe Way. Finally a rest beside the beautiful lake at Staunton Harold Hall.

A different Start point and slight adaptation makes this a slightly shorter route than the last time I walked it. The Ferrer's Centre provides free and convenient parking. The first three pictures here were taken at roughly the same spot (by Robin Wood). No apologies, it's a great viewpoint and the sun was obliging enough to make the scenes look even better.







A lovely sun-dappled path.


This photo (apologies for the orientation) is of Himalayan Balsom. There's quite a lot of it along this part of the route. It's an invader and there are efforts to stamp it out, although I expect they'll be futile. It raises the question of whether if something finds its way here and thrives, then should it be allowed to flourish? Surely that's nature in action? And a bit hypocritical if we decide that it shouldn't be allowed to thrive at the expense of native species. (I'm thinking of Europeans in America and Australia).


This is one of the changes to this route since last time I walked it. Instead of walking by Bondwood and through the woods past Carvers Rocks, I took the bridleway a little bit further on:


This is the day's big surprise. I noticed a nice high point close by, and then noticed that there are new picnic benches at the top. On investigation, I found that it's a new area of National Forest called Hartshorne Forest, and it has an amazing 360 degree view.




Although this walk just misses the spectacular high point at Daniel Hayes Farm, it's


I think this view of Smisby church is particularly picturesque.


There are a few of these lockups around the place. I think you'd end up in here if you were arrested drunk late at night. I don't know why we don't still use them?


Finally a rest beside the beautiful lake at Staunton Harold Hall.


Click the map below to see a detailed route map on OS Explore. Find your way around the route with an even more detailed OS Explorer 245 (The National Forest)