February half Term :: Part 2

Hello Lovelies,

Continuing with my half term tales.....Monday was rainy, all day.

The dust sheets came out. Eldest and I painted the bathroom ceiling....not very photogenic, but it does look a lot fresher.......

The paint goes on pink and fades to white ( so you can see where you have been)

By the time sunset rolled around the clouds were finally clearing and the world had it's own pink ceiling :0) .............

By yesterday morning my Daffodils had opened and a few stems in the bathroom were looking gorgeous...........

The forecast was for Sunshine all day so we had planned a day out, with my sister in law and nieces.

We adults were keen to walk and find snowdrops, the youngsters not so much. But with the cousins together they made the best of things.

The National Trust had advertised a Snowdrop walk fairly locally , so we headed HERE to see for ourselves.
Some of you may recall that we walked here in the snow at the end of December. I wrote about it in THIS post.

This time we headed in the opposite direction. First past the house, still locked up and sleeping.........

Past the estate church..........

and Calke's "Home Farm", which looked particularly pretty in it's setting overlooking the reservoir......

Soon we left the grounds and, following a map we had downloaded, walked through the Hamlet that the estate is named after.

There were just a few houses..........

and a working farm, where I loved the moss covered walls........

All the buildings were old and full of character.............

We walked down a little lane where the late winter landscape, of bare hedgerows and trees  looked pretty..........

and paused to gaze out across the water.........

over the road  we came to a nature reserve that promised Snowdrops growing wild.........

This place was made from an abandoned quarry. On a sunny morning it was so pretty. As the path wound up and down around the pools you could only here birdsong and bubbling water.......

The Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust manage this gorgeous place and they have done a great job of building walkways and providing information boards..........

You may be able to read these if you click on the photo.

Here we passed some overgrown lime kilns . The children said they looked like Hobbiton.......

which I hadn't heard of but it does look amazing....shame it's in New Zealand.

We climbed steep steps and paths alongside the quarry pits..........

where tree roots acted like a natural steps...........

Then we peered through the trees to the lake below...........

We had been in the reserve for about twenty minutes by this point, and I was starting to wonder if we would ever find any Snowdrops, when at the bottom of the next slope we saw them.........

A mass of white in this little clearing, next to the fallen tree.........

Such a treat in the bare-branched winter landscape..........

Pretty, pretty, pretty............

I couldn't resist holding my little camera under their nodding heads to get a mouse's eye view........

There was a hard frost on Monday night and droplets of melted ice hung from some of the flowers......

There was a steady steam of visitors arriving, so after a little while we said good bye to the snowdrop dell, thinking that was the end...............

Then after a few minutes we were delighted to spot a few more clumps nestled under mossy stones........

Then thrilled by a slope covered in thousands of them.........

Shafts of sunlight illuminated them, making the white bells and fresh green leaves glow amongst the brown Beech leaves..........

Such a delightful carpet of flowers........

It really was hard to tear myself away from this special spot, on a day when the air was still and the sun had a little warmth in it's rays...........

Oh tiny snowdrops you are such special little flowers........

We happily continued our woodland wander, across the stream..........

and along easy paths............

through squeeze stiles......where the youngsters saw faces............

Then uphill along field-side tracks .............

and past old barns.......

Back in Calke's grounds we retraced our steps past the house in it's little valley.......

Then had a wander around the stable block.........

Where you could look inside the stables..........

and wander through the courtyards..........

peering into the past..........

They have an excellent cafe at Calke, but we enjoyed a picnic in the car yesterday.
Followed by pancakes at home........

It was a really enjoyable day.

Here's a LINK to the nature reserve we visited. It's free and you can park nearby without entering Calke's grounds if you like ( where there is a charge unless you are a National Trust member.)

Hope your week is going well.
Jacquie x