Shipley - Common, Reserve, Trail
w/e 18 October 2015
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Kodak DX6490
It's been a week of bright mornings with cloud increasing
in the afternoons. With nowhere in particular in mind to go for
this set of images, as it neared the weekend I thought I'd better
make the effort which meant I set off on one of the dullest afternoons
of the week. I was heading towards Heanor wondering whether to
visit Shipley Country Park again to see the autumn colours but
it became darker the nearer I got so I diverted along Shipley
Common Lane, parked up and walked to a patch of greenery between
the housing estate and Shipley Wood - Shipley Common.
Nothing struck me on the Common and I was beginning to think
I was wasting my time so headed towards the stile that leads
to the land that is now owned by the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust
and is known as Woodside Nature Reserve. It was actually much
darker than it appears in this image.
|
As I approached the stile a big black bird that was perched on
it flew off and landed on a nearby post and some of that autumn
colour that I was expecting to see in Shipley Park was apparent
in the trees behind.
|
The notice board at the stile has a lot of information about
the site including a section about farming and the rotation system.
The board also includes guidelines for visitors and asks them
to keep to the paths to avoid disturbing plants and animals so
I headed straight on along one of the said paths.
|
The path led to another stile and footbridge to access the Nutbrook
Trail.
|
With every step it seemed to get darker so I turned left along
the Nutbrook Trail to head back towards the Shipley View housing
estate where I had parked.
|
At a bend in the Trail where is is crossed by another footpath
the first spots of rain began to fall, several of them landing
on the camera lens.
|
Time to beat a hasty retreat I thought so turned left at the
post with the National Cycle Network sign to head back to Shipley
Common Lane.
|
As the trees crowded in from each side providing shelter it was
hard to tell whether it was raining or not.
|
As I walked I was passed by a runner. I'm not sure whether he
was running just for the fun of it or to get home before the
rain started falling heavily. As it happened neither of us need
have bothered. The rain stopped altogether although the overcast
sky remained and it never did get any lighter until the next
day.
|
We were not to know that at the time though so I headed back
to the car noticing how close the trees were to each other on
the left and it brought to mind the old expression "You
can't see the wood for the trees." In this case nothing
could be truer.
|
