The Great Escape...

Yesterday was just one of those days that were made for escaping from it all. Mist, ice, snow still lying on the ground and two days holiday booked from work.  Off to Bradgate Park with 7D then...

I include this last shot only to point out that I WANT THAT HOUSE!

Also linking to Photo Story Friday

ABC Wednesday - R is for...

Rivers...

Boats and gulls on the River Avon...

River Avon with Holy Trinity Church in the background...

Gull landing on the river in Bradgate Park...

Another gull, this one

is soaking up the autumn sunshine...

A river runs through it...

Bradgate Park today.

Also linking to 

 

The Park in the Mist

Bradgate Park on a very cold and misty Saturday morning...  The park once belonged to the Grey family, of Lady Jane fame who became Queen of England for nine days before, literally, losing her head...  

This is my image for Black and White Wednesday and Wordless Wednesday.  For more images click on the links.

Sunday in the park...

I actually took my camera with me on this morning's walk.  It was cool, blustery and just a great morning to be out of doors.  We got to Bradgate Park at about 7.30a.m. and slogged up to Old John where we met a group of fellow masochists who kindly offered us food.  We unwillingly declined as we had our hike in front of us and then after admiring the view for a few moments, set off downhill trying to avoid two stags standing on the path who were 'looking at us in a funny way'.  We made it around our normal route in record time without mishap (apart from Cath almost falling off the path) and decided we must be getting fitter as we didn't feel as if we needed oxygen quite as badly as usual after tackling the last hill back up to the car park.  Something strange happened on the way home though, we had to nip into Sainsburys (post-Starbucks) and I picked up a copy of the Mail on Sunday for D as it had a feature on Nigella.  It's not a paper I'd normally even put in my rabbit's cage but D loves Nigella so it had to be done (I like to think he would have done the same for me if it were George Cloony).  What was really odd is that I had to be over 16 to buy it.  I kid you not, it said on my receipt that the checkout operator confirmed I was old enough so I asked her about it.  Was it the fact that the Mail is such an awful paper it can't be allowed to corrupt the young, or just that Nigella was seductively inviting people to 'come into my kitchen' on the cover of the magazine, wearing a dress that looked as if Dulux had had a hand in spraying it on her?  One of life's little mysteries...

Old John with rather dramatic cloud formation...

Apologies for the poor quality of this one - the stag was so close to us I became inept and couldn't change the settings on my camera in time!  He was posing so nicely too...

The views make it all worthwhile...

At least this bit's downhill...

I love the look of red berries and have to take a photo of them whenever I see them - it's like a pavlovian reflex...

Not a Bradgate Park wild rabbit.

This is Ben snuggling up to D this morning to watch the Grand Prix

Wet Monday

So much rain, so much life like the swollen sky

of this black August.  My sister, the sun,

broods in her yellow room and won't come out.

Everything goest to hell; the mountains fume

like a kettle, rivers overrun; still,

she will not rise and turn off the rain.

The wonderful Derek Walcott says it all really, this is a small section of the poem Dark August which was  poem for the day on Saturday (in the book Poem for the Day Two).  Very apt considering what's happening in the world.  On a much lesser scale we also had very bizarre weather yesterday - one minute torrential rain running down the street where I work, the next brilliant sunshine.  D ran outside last night with my camera to snap a photo of a rainbow before it disappeared.  I was in the bathroom using my eyedrops so missed the whole thing!

I did manage to snap a couple of images on my phone at Bradgate Park when out for the weekly cross country.  The first is of the deer - they are absolutely beautiful and are so used to people that they will stand quite close to the path.  The second is just an amazingly large mushroom or toadstool growing in the bracken.

A nice Sunday...

 I won't talk about Saturday which, due to male ineptitude and general unpleasantness was written-off, but Sunday was great.  I left everyone else asleep then went to pick Cath up for our Sunday morning yomp around Bradgate Park.

Charlie demonstrates the 'after breakfast, before mid-morning snack' sleeping position

Whilst Pod does her 'cushion slug' pose

How can a day not go well which starts with your best friend giving you a BIG jar of giant olives at 7a.m?  I love olives... it says on the jar these have to be eaten within two weeks of opening - it won't be a problem. 

THE OLIVES!!

Then it was off to Bradgate Park.  It was misty, cool and damp, a hint of autumn in the air.  We started off by climbing up to Old John, a folly on top of the highest hill in the park with fantastic views, then to the War Memorial and then we just walked for an hour and a half.  It was a lovely morning with the deer appearing out of the mist and the bracken just beginning to turn.  By the time we made it up the last hill back to the car park the sun had burned through and we were hot, tired and very ready to collapse in Starbucks on the way home!

Old John

The War Memorial

The Park deer

The reward!

Then it was home, shower, change and I then decided to go to the meditation centre at Kelmarsh in the depths of Northamptonshire for lunch.  It is a lovely, tranquil place with a World Peace Cafe which serves the nicest veggie food.  D hadn't been before but was impressed.  They have a lovely black cat who lives there but who ignored me despite my overtures of friendship. 

The Kelmarsh Panther - guarding the path to enlightenment...

D then wanted to visit Harrington, a place not far from Kelmarsh with an abandoned airfield.  We walked probably a couple of miles up the taxi-way and back - me admiring the view and enjoying the peace and quiet, D taking photos of old concrete bunkers.

Yet more walking...

Then it was home with enough time to catch a few more episodes of The West Wing on DVD before bed.  What's not to like?