Shipley Country Park - At Daffodil Time
w/e 03 April 2011
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
It's just about three months since our last selection of images
from Shipley Park and back at the beginning of January we didn't
get much further than the car park at the Visitor Centre. This
time we entered the park at Osborne's Pond and walked up the
lane to Derby Lodge where this shot showing the last of the crocuses
and blooming daffodils in the garden there, also shows the track
by which we would return later following our walk around the
Hall site at the top of the hill.
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We continued by following the lane up the hill past Derby Lodge,
the redevelopment at Home Farm and on to Gardens House (to the
left of this view) continuing towards Mapperley Village.
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A little further on we left the lane and turned into the wood
to climb up to the top of the hill. The snowdrops have finished
for this year, the bluebells are still to flower but the daffodils
were in full bloom beneath the trees.
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Following the tunnel-like path caused by the overhanging trees
we walked along the path by the folly around the top of the hill.
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About half way round we left by another path flanked by the genus
Narcissus (that's daffodils to you and me) towards the site of
Shipley Hall.
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The Hall site is surrounded by a park-like landscape with a large
variety of trees the most notable being the Blue Cedar that was
planted in 1904 by the Prince of Wales who later became King
Edward VII and is seen here in the centre of this view.
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We began our return to Derby Lodge from the Hall by descending
the hill via the old Coach Road where we saw a dozen or more
squirrels scampering about and scuttling up the trees.
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The squirrels proved exceedingly difficult to photograph as they
darted from place to place but one obligingly climbed up a tree
on the right and crossed over the Coach Road, pausing in the
middle before leaping across to another tree on the left. As
it paused just long enough for this shot, it glanced down and
gave me a disdainful look before continuing on its merry way.
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And as we continued down Coach Road, the daffodils were once
again a feature of the view along Lodge Walk towards the Suffragette
Wall and Nottingham Lodge at the far end.
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We completed the circuit by returning to Derby Lodge, this time
seeing the garden and the gates from where the first photo on
this page was taken from the opposite side. Then it was back
down the lane to Osborne's Pond. These few images only give a
brief glimpse of Shipley Country Park around the Hall site but
there is much more detail about Shipley Hall and the Miller Mundy
family in the Special Feature on this site called Miller Mundy Memories.
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