Sometimes...

Sometimes I just want to be by myself with my camera so I get in the car and see where the road takes me.  Yesterday it took me to Calke Abbey in Derbyshire - I love that place. If I had acres of garden I would want it to be like Calke's; a tended wilderness with unexpected paths and overgrown meadows full of wild flowers. I don't like gardens that look regimented, I like them to look as if they had been designed by nature and could revert to a wild state at any moment.  I'd also want a kitchen garden like theirs with beds of pumpkins and cabbage, fruit trees full of buzzing bees, and a well-dressed scarecrow overseeing it all.  I can but dream...

Out and About... Calke Abbey

As we're off work for two weeks we took the opportunity of heading north for forty minutes to Calke Abbey (pronounced Cork) just over the county border in Derbyshire.  I've been there before but David hadn't, and after he'd been bribed with coffee and a cookie and recovered from getting up early he really enjoyed it.  We had great weather in the morning and spent an enjoyable few hours lurking in the grounds taking a lot of photos.  For shots of the Abbey itself see last October's post when I went off exploring by myself for the day (David had a BIG THING ON HIS LIP going on then and couldn't leave the house).

Love my wide-angle lens so much - it gives great warp...
This is part of the very long Drive up to the house.

Is it a Dhalia?
I think it's a Dhalia, we'll say that it is...

A few shots taken around the buildings...

David almost smiling...

Last year it was Edward Thomas,

this year they had my man TH...

I may have to have a poetry chalk board

in my own garden now
(even if it's only the cats and any passing literate slugs who would see it).

From the sublime to the...
well it just had to be done.
David's impression of The Wicker Man...

And just because it wouldn't be October
without pumpkins...