June Afternoon

Clumber Park near Worksop falls under the stewardship of the National Trust  and a beautiful location for a stroll around the lake and grounds while enjoying the warm sunshine.  Strangely, it tends not to be a place that we go to particularly often (the last time we visited must have been two years ago when we strapped the bikes onto the car and went for a cycle around the dozens of different paths).   On a sunny Sunday afternoon we thought it would be worthwhile driving over.

We weren't the only ones who had this idea.  The place was packed out.  Hundreds if not thousands of people taking advantage of the warm weather and bright sunshine to go and enjoy the remainder of the weekend.

The Chapel

Cooling Off

Is there anything more British than a game of cricket on a Sunday afternoon?  The game seemed to be in full swing when we returned to the car.

Randoms

No theme or location on this post, simply a few shots that I have taken which I thought were interesting but didn't have enough decent shots to fill out a individual post.

I call these the randoms and decided to collate them into this one post.

The rapeseed fields I took while out on a bike ride.  I only hand my phone with me to take these images and of the half dozen I took only these two came out half decent.  I hope the subject overcomes the limitations of the camera.

After seeing Welbeck Abbey on a television programme we thought it would be a good place to visit and explore the very impressive gardens.  The problem with that became apparent when we arrived to discover that the abbey and gardens are not open to the general public.

In the grounds next door to a large garden centre is the recently opened Harley Gallery that is home to the  Portland collection of fine art and antiques collected by various Dukes of Portland.  If you're interested in art then it is worth a visit as it has a good range of paintings including Van Dyck, Joshua Reynolds and George Stubbs. The area outside caught my attention with the geometric design of the benches next to the sandy walls






The robin was also taken at Welbeck next to water feature.

The paraglider pictures I took from the back garden as it passed low over the neighbouring houses.  I heard what I thought was a particularly loud petrol lawn mower and then looked up to see it coming towards the house,   I had to run inside, grab the camera and fit the memory card before rushing back, pointing and clicking and hoping that the subject wasn't blurred.

At this time of year, the sunsets through the living room window can be impressive.  I took these from the garden and the last of them I was virtually lying on the ground the get the red sky into the shot as this part of the garden faces towards the north.

Froggers

 When this post goes up we will have been in our new home for just over a year.  If you are a regular reader you'll know that one of the things that came with the house was a raised ornamental pond with approximately 2 dozen goldfish (dependent on Bob, the neighbourhood Bengal) and a few frogs that have taken up residence.

The pond has been a steep learning curve for us.  We knew nothing about maintaining them. Waterlilies will take over if you give them half a chance.  Blanketweed needs controlling, UV lamps need changing...it goes on.

What has been interesting is watching the annual cycle of the pond.  The fish stay to the depths during winter and don't feed and we wondered if any of the frogs that had survived (again, local cats seemed to like nothing better than to  reduce the population) would return to spawn.

In February, it started to look hopeful with the sighting of a frog at the base of the pond wall.

Then, just a few days later, the first clump of spawn followed.

We were also surprised one morning to actually see a frog laying spawn in the pond.  I couldn't get to close to it as it dove down as soon as I got near to it. Mornings, just after dawn seemed to be their preferred time to lay.

When the tadpoles started to hatch a few weeks later, there seemed to be thousands of them.  They appeared to feed of the spawn cases before they eventually disappeared down into the water.  We would see them occasionally, usually against the weed at the edges of the pond where the green background made them stand out.  It is surprisingly difficult to spot them.

In the last 6 weeks or so, we haven't seen a single one.  Nothing that  resembed a tadpole or a small frog.  We don't know if the goldfish have feasted on them or they have eaten each other, which is something that they can do.  Perhaps some have survived down among the silt at the bottom of the pond.

What we do know, is that the frogs have returned.  We have three that we know of that have made themselves at home.

There are a pair that stick together and a single larger frog that seems content with its own company.

Hopefully this year we have a better grasp of pond management and have added more oxygenating plants and keep up to date with the general welfare of the creatures that call it home.

Table Manners

Wildlife in public parks tend to be a little more tolerant of humans trooping around the various footpaths.  This lets you get a little closer to the subject.  This squirrel, for example.  He didn't seem overtly concerned by my proximity for the most part.