Martin's out and about blog

Naturally at Rufford Old Hall (NT)

National Trust Historic Houses are usually situated in pretty impressive grounds well managed by the Trust. This usually means there is a lot of nature to see besides the actual historic building.  Rufford Old Hall in Lancashire is no exception.

We (my wife and I) arrived on a day that was expected to be squally - heavy prolonged showers and windy. But after the first early morning shower the day turned out to be mostly sunny if a little windy and cool. So we thought a stroll round the grounds first was what was needed

No sooner had we stepped into the formal gardens and we heard a lot of tweeting and squealing coming from the beech trees.  After watching and listening for a while we noticed that a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers was flying into and out of a hole in the very first beech tree. 

Here are just three of the photos of the daddy woody coming to and fro.

 

The Woodpecker Family

Approaching the nest with beak full

 

Just checking in

 

Slipping out

 

Beautiful Views

Cowslips among the bluebells

 

An aisle of bluebells approaching the manor

 

Reflections in the Canal

 

Afterthought

All these photos can be found in my Flickr stream

You can also discover all my Nature musings as a timeline in my Memolane 

 

Spring in the Trees at Winkworth Arboretum

This is the time of year to go bluebell hunting.  The National Trust Winkworth Arboretum is known for its display of bluebells.  So off we went to sunny Surrey.  We found more than we bargained for.

The first surprise was that we very clearly heard a cuckoo calling twice.  There was also a very noisy nuthatch or two and of course the ChiffChaff was out in abundance.

The bluebell display wasn't that spectacular this year but I did manage to capture the sunlight streaming through the trees onto these bluebells.

The daffodils were still out making a graceful display

 

Winkworth is also known for its Camelias.  I particularly liked this Camilia. It looks as if someone has kissed it with pink lipstick.

 

 

Winkworth also has a County Champion Tree.  The Tree Register holds details of all the Champion Trees in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This one is a Nothofagus Dombeyi or a Coigue in common parlance.  It's registration number 11392 is shown on the photo of the plaque.

 

 

As it was a sunny afternoon with some cloud and threatening rain there was ample opportunity to capture dappled light through the trees....

 

... ad contrasting colours. Here light green foliage against pinky white blossom against deep green holly.  The many colurs of the moss on the trunk and the brown dead leaves on the ground.

Wood piles were a feature of these woods. This is a particulary mature pile. Lots of lovely creepies living in here.

Water is meant to be a great feature at Winkworth but the streams were running very low - perhaps why we never saw the Kingfisher.  Even this waterfall was dry.

However this was still enough water in the lake to go fishing.  There was hardly a breath of wind which meant we were ably to clearly see the reflections of the fishermen in the water.

Some of the trees looked as if they had gone rusty but on closer inspection were just covered in orange lichen as well as green lichen

 

Then finally ever visit always has to have its funny side. Here are a pair of Greylags performing the Goose Tango on stage.

 

If you would like to see all the photos from our visit as a slideshow then click here

 

 

Avebury Manor National Trust

 

This is a slide show of are visit to Avebury Manor National Trust on the 25th November 2011. 

Avebury Manor was restored and filmed for the BBC Series The Manor Reborn. Nine rooms were restored covering four periods:

1. Tudor Parlour & Bedroom
2. Georgian - Queen Anne bedroom, antechamber and withdrawing room and the Governor of Jamaica Dining Room
3. Victorian kitchen and kitchen garden
4. Early 20c Billiard room & Keiller parlour

The Manor Reborn book bit.ly/rQ94PI
NT link bit.ly/ruHS92
BBC link bbc.in/tJK56L

 

 

Wildlife along the Kennet & Avon Canal

It was a glorious hot sunny afternoon. Time to go out and see if the Hobbies have arrived yet.

Here is our route

 

 

KVFC & The Lawns Housing Development

This blog item is for those ex members of Kennet Valley Free Church (KVFC who might want to know the good news - that the housing development next to the church has at long last begun.

This is a develoment of 1 & 2 bedroom apartments and 2, 3 & 4 bedroom houses. It is called the Lawns and the developer is Bellway. The developer's web page of the Lawns is here it includes a site plan.

Here are some pictures of the situation as at 26th March 2012.

The first photo is of the NW corner of the new development taken from the Community Centre. Note that the KVFC grounds which were a combination of lawns and car park spaces is now all car park spaces.  The original public car park has been subsumed into the housing development.

 

 

The second photo is taken a bit further round and shows that the building adjacent to the church (west) will be 3 story block of flats. The house on the northern edge is one the 4 bedroom houses.

 

 

The third photo is taken from between the Community Centre and the Play Area

 

 

I hope to keep you updated as the development progresses.

Wandering lonely as a cloud at Clandon Park

It was Mothers' Day. The weather was fine. Where to go? How about Clandon Park (NT) a National Trust property in Surrey to wander through the daffodils "lonely as a cloud".

 

 

What a beautiful display of daffodils. I do enjoy huge displays of single varieties. One of my favourites is the magnificent display of snowdrops at Welford Park

 

 

But daffodils are not the only attraction in the Clandon Park gardens.  The sun was just in the right position to capture this view up th avenue of Lime trees.

 

 

There was also a beautiful patch of Hellebores.  This is a beautiful pinky/ red

 

 

Having seen the Sarah Raven programme on Bees, Butterflies and Blooms I have found myself constantly looking for pollinators on simple open plants. Here is a hoverfly inside a creamy white Hellebore.

 

 

And lastly Mothers' day would not be the same without something for the children.  Clandon Park provided a couple of ponies for them to ride. Here however they are having a well earned rest.

 

Lace, Architecture and Pollinators at Knightshayes

We're in Devon on holiday visiting family. We use these opportunities to make full use of our National Trust membership.  Today we are visiting Knightshayes Court in Tiverton Devon.

Knightshayes was the home the Heathcote Amorys who were the Lace magnates. In fact the lace factory is visible from the property. The building in one of the finest examples of a Gothic Revival house. It was designed by the architect William Burges (1827 - 81)

It is a very homely, warm building. I particularly liked the painted wooden ceilings.

Topiary

Most historic houses have some topiary. Knightshayes is no exception. Here is photo of a pack of hounds chasing a fox in a part of the garden called the chase. The fox by the way is in the previous photo.

 

Spring Flowers

Kightshayes is also known for its organic kitchen garden which supplies the cafe and its woodland garden

Here are some examples of the flowers tha caught my attentions

 

 

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Bees, Butterflies and Blooms

I have been following the BBC 2 TV series Bees, Butterflies and Blooms.  The programme shows how we are losing are pollinators and what effect that has on our countryside and food production. One of the points raised is that single flowers (as opposed to doubles) with prominent stamens are so much better for our pollinators.

Here are three examples

 

 

The 2012 Welford Park Snowdrops

Visiting Welford Park at this time of year is becoming habit, but their display of snow drops is just a magnificent nature spectacle. This year it wasn't cold or windy. It was a bright sunny late afterrnoon with very little wind. Great weather for taking photos with soft light and long shadows.

First of all some photos of those magnificent snowdrops. Note the subtle lighting of the sun through the trees and the long shadows.

 

However there are more than snowdrops at Welford Park.

This is a carpet of aconite

 

This is a tranquil scene of the river Lambourn gently flowing through the estate.  The sun was softly illuminating the bark of the tree in the centre and the emerald green water plants (not sure what they were). As there was only a light breeze the water was still enough for me to capture the reflection of the tree in the water.

Nearly all the trees on the estate are festooned with mistletoe. The sun gently illuminated the light green of the mistletoe and contrasted well against the clear blue sky.

We weren't the only ones enjoying our visit to Welford Park. This buff tailed bumblebee was making a meel of it. His head and shoulders were covered in yellow pollen.

 

If you want to compare this year's snowdrops with those from my previous visits then follow this link to my Flckr photostream tag Welford Park

 

Out and About with the Sky at Night

    

Orion. January is the best time to view it

TV Programmes

Star gazing is a bug that is easily caught.  Scanning the heavens with just a pair of binos reveals enough for you to want to know more. Combine this with TV programmes like Wonders of the Solar System and Wonders of the Universe with cute Prof Brian Cox is enough to provoke you into getting serious with books, Star Maps and maybe more sophisticated equipment. 

There's more fun to be had with Prof Brian Cox and comedian Dara O'Brian on Star Gazing Live on the 16th, 17th and 18th January 2012 

   

Books

I was given the book Wonders of the Solar System as a christmas present and was surprised at how captivating it was to read. I have just finished it.  I shall have to move onto Wonders of the Universe next and then maybe I will be able to go back to Stephen Hawkings books A Brief History of Time  and the Universe in a Nutshell. I was given these some time ago and have struggled to digest them but maybe now I will understand more of them.

Planetarium

As a sign of my increasing captivation with the subject I have downloaded the planetarium Stellarium on to my laptop.

"Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope".

This is such fun and so informative I am in danger of spending more time watching it than watching the skies.

Monthly Star Guides

I like to know what I should be looking out for in the skies so that I can plan my stargazing. I'm too mean to buy a magazine each month so I find online monthly star guides are a great help in letting you know what is important and significant to look out for in the month and helping you navigate the skies to find it. The guides I find most useful are:

1. Telegraph Star Guides these appear on the first monday of each month  
2. The Universe Today Star Guide the January 2012 guide

Alerts

Finally I also like to know if I am about  to miss something important so I follow @VirtualAstro on Twitter who is very informative and amusing.

 

A sunny afternoon stroll along the Kennet and Avon Canal

Whenever my wife and I go out for a nature walk we always seem to find something interesting or unusual. Today was a gloriously sunny day so we went to to Aldermarston Wharf to walk along the Kennet & Avon Canal starting from the Visitor Centre 

We first went east and came across this wonderful example of bracket fungus.

Then we returned to the centre and walked west to the bridge across the canal just as it was being lifted to let a barge through

I wonder what surprises our next walk will bring