Clumber in Autumn

Hello there Lovelies,

last week I took mum up the motorway to meet up with an old friend from Yorkshire that she had been invited to stay with.

After seeing her safely transferred for the second leg of her journey north I was free to head home, but I had already decided to make a stop along the way.

Said stop was at the lovely national trust property Clumber Park ....yes we have rejoined :0)

There is no big house at Clumber , it is long since demolished, but the working buildings are still present and very attactive.

Of course the National Trust is just so good at adding pretty and fun seasonal touches.

I do love to notice the colours of autumn develop, though it's usually as I walk beneath them.

This was the start of my circuit of the lake today. Repair work has started on the bridge. It was vandalised last year.

After all our wet weather the little weir was gushing.

The weather was a bit gloomy so my eyes looked for small details to admire.

It's a very pleasant path beside the lake . I recalled fondly a picnic stop we made as a family here back in ( hang on, lets google it....2014!)

More gushing water at the opposite end of the lake.

This cafe van wasn't here on that first visit.

Oooh sunlight!

That's better.

Time for a rest and a snack from my rucksack here I think.

Perfect, I'm feeling very lucky now.

A little further round I was fascinated with these dead trees in the lake.

They made an excellent perch for the birds.

A Crow.

Gulls 

and cormorants I think. I just loved the twisted grey branches and birds against the changing sky.

Oooh, nice reflections here.

And looking down I spotted my favourite fungi...Fly Agaric.

Swans and ripples.

Sunlight on the woodland floor.

Sweet Chestnut cases.

I loved looking back across the lake now the sun was shining.

and wandering along the easy path.

Here you leave the woodland behind and head into the more formal gardens.

But there's still plenty of sweet chestnuts for the squirrels to prize open.

To reach the tasty nuts :0)

You walk between towering cedar trees.

And come upon the towering church.

It really is a sizeable building .

I've been inside before and time was getting on so I decided to turn left at this point and head to another part of the estate I remembered enjoying on that first visit.

Past the cricket club.

What a clubhouse!

and onto....The Walled Kitchen Garden. What a nice display of succulents.

This greenhouse it huge. It just goes on and on.

I simply loved the displays of squashes displayed here.

So many interesting varieties and great old tools for props.

Long bendy ones.

and the sort that look great on your mantle :0)

It really was a delight to admire in the warn afternoon sunshine.

This greenhouse really is a beautiful structure. I loved the ornate floor grates here.

It's fabulous looking upwards too.

All the plants looked so healthy.

More seasonal displays.

this area was scented by the pelargoniums. A nostalgic scent of summers gone by to me.

here's the outside view of the greenhouse....or is it a glass house?

The garden was still looking lovely too. With plenty of dahlias.

Rudbeckias.

This Michaelmas daisy was alive with buzzy bees.

As were the cosmos.

I loved the autumnal light and shadow.

Perfect.

Sadly, after a short rest here I had to leave and travel onward to home. But happily hubby and I paid an overnight visit to Yorkshire when we picked mum up a few days later.

I hope you will enjoy my pictures from that adventure too.

Back soon.

Jacquie x

Here and Now

Hello Lovelies,

I hope you are well and enjoying October. It's whizzing by rather too speedily for my liking.

These are a few of the images that have ended up on my camera since we last spoke....

One wet day I decided to bake, on a whim.

It was a recipe on a leaflet from the milkman and contained ingredients I had in the cupboard which need using up.

Is usual, to make me feel more organised and to make best use of the turning on the oven, I doubled the quantities and made two, weighing each to get even cakes.

They turned out great, and there's still one in the freezer to enjoy later.

As well as rain we have enjoyed sunny days. I'm still loving the zoom on my camera. This looks like a young male Sparrow to me.

It's also great to focus on the distant landscape.

Here the Ivy Flowers were a-buzz with pollinators.

Great to see.

Back home I'm still trying to make adjustments towards a more environmental lifestyle. Some changes stick and some slide. We can only keep trying our best with the time and monetary constraints we have. I do love my simple cleaning routine. Yes, there is still plastic involved here but the products are affordable and natural.

It makes me happy to buy Bicarbonate of soda in a cardboard box (wonderful stuff for loads of things....I've just discovered a little sprinkled in a tea stained cup and rubbed in with a damp cloth gets the stubborn marks off easily) and to make it last longer I create a " sprinkler" with my cake skewer, or a kebab stick.

We still use bar soap. It's just basic unscented "own brand" stuff but still creates less plastic waste than liquid soap and saves us money (also, my hands are not so dry)

These next few pictures are from a group walk in Derbyshire we did on a dull Thursday. I was shocked how cold it was too. Still, the views were pretty and I've since updated my rucksack to it's winter setting (to contain a woolly hat, gloves and hand-warmers) so I'm prepared the next time the temperatures drop.

Chatsworth house in the mist.

Back in the garden now :0)

Here my newly planted hostas are still looking great, much to my surprise. I thought they would have died back by now.

And my Dahlias are still flowering their heads off.

I'm training this climbing rose to spread along the fence (this was a prickly job).

and I'm still picking the odd rose to enjoy indoors. I love this orange one which I've had for many years. I wish I knew it's name.

I'm also trying to spread my growing space around the house. Eldest made me this large planter to go where our bins used to live. It was his good idea to mount it on casters, which he already had. The only bits we bought were the trellis panel and the planks that make up the sides. I've planted a few evergreens in it which were from the garden. I do love Lemon scented conifers. Their lime green foliage is so cheery and the whole purpose of this planter is to give me something green to look at out of my side kitchen window. I'll add some spring bulbs soon, mini daffs I expect :0)

On our front doorstep I've placed a couple of pumpkins. They are so seasonal and cheery. Never-mind it's not Halloween yet.

I also got out the one Halloween decoration out of storage that I own these days, don't think I would ever want to get rid of this cute lady.

Now it's getting cooler at night my large sunburst blanket is back on our bed, until it gets cold enough to need the winter duvet. It's a nice compromise and easy to throw off if the weather turns mild again.

I've also been doing a little sketching with my coloured pencils, some countryside scenes for an article in our parish magazine about the walking group I'm part of. I've made birthday cards for members in the past and the chairman asked me to do these too. How kind was that. Did I ever say how much I love those people :0)

One even contains the tractor I put in my first drawing of recent years, which I blogged about HERE.
Oh and Tom Tit too :0)

Onto another random subject. Here's the harvest of apples I picked from our young apple tree. Not that many but we didn't get any last year so I'm just glad to see any sort of crop.

Some are pretty tiny :0)

but I still had a go at peeling them ( they are Bramleys, cooking apples)

And popped them all in a pan with some of my foraged Blackberries.



Yay, 2 apple crumbles. One for now

And one for later

While I was in the kitchen I obviously decided to snap my "new" kitchen clock.

The old one has broken so I was thrilled to find this lovely wooden one in the Cancer Research charity shop.

£5 to a good cause and great recycling. What's not to love.

 And Finally. Last Saturday morning at 7.30am I opened the bedroom curtains to see this scene. I had to smile. I think we made right decision to invest a lot of time and effort (and money) into building a workshop for eldest.  He loves to be busy that boy, and by economising on day to day expenses as best I can I'm making projects like this possible.

 Thank you as always for reading, and for your kind and helpful comments.

Jacquie x