We’ve had a couple of squirrel visitors in our garden for several months now. One of them looks perfectly healthy, the other has an injury and at one point all of the fur on his right paw was missing, but now that seems to have grown back. Only the last photo shows the squirrel’s injury clearly, so if you’d rather not see that then simply stop scrolling after photo number five.
Last week we decided to go for a walk around the lake at Clumber Park. Run by the National Trust entry is free for members (which we are) or £5 for an adult. The park spans 3,800 acres and was quite busy; we had to park in the overflow car park which we’ve never had to do before, but as it’s so large it never felt crowded at any point, and at plenty of sections there was no one else around at all.
Last week I decided to head out to Gedling Country Park as the weather was bright and sunny and I’d realised that I could get a bus straight to the Spring Lane entrance. There are a few different walks around the site so I decided to do two of the ones I hadn’t done on my last visit, the Top Hard which has some steep inclines through a wooded area and the Low Hazels which is the longest route.
I recently visited Attenborough Nature Reserve for the first time in years as I was in need of a change of scene. Run by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust it covers 205 hectares of lakes, wetland, grassland and scrub. There are several walks around the reserve – on this occasion we did the Tufted Duck Nature Trail which took us past some of the lakes as well as through areas of grassland.
Carsington Water, located between Wirksworth and Kniveton in Derbyshire, is a reservoir operated by Severn Trent Water. It’s definitely somewhere you could spend the whole day though we only went on a short walk around part of the grounds on this trip; there is a parking charge which you pay on the way out otherwise the site is free to visit. There were lots of trails towards the water we explored though do be mindful of important safety notices and don’t enter the water unless at a designated spot (the site has an Activity Centre with a watersports facility for sailing, canoeing etc. as well as for the hiring of bikes).
I love snow. Nothing quite makes me smile like wandering through snow taking photos, even if it’s cold and I’m being battered on all sides by wind. Obviously with lockdown I couldn’t travel far but when it snowed here on Sunday I did have a good wander around my neighbourhood and get my exercise in for the day.
Gedling Country Park is built on the site of Gedling Colliery which started producing coal in 1902 and closed in 1991. It was opened in 2015 as a 580 acre park with lots of open space, a choice of walks of varying difficulty and two viewing platforms that on a bright day allow for views across to Lincolnshire and Leicestershire.
Betws-y-Coed is a village in Snowdonia National Park in Wales where we stopped off for a brief wander around during our stay in Llandudno. Our first stop was the railway station which was built in 1868. Whilst still an active station it is now owned by Jacha and Gwyn Potgieter who use the businesses they own at the station to raise awareness of conservation issues. We were very taken by the artwork below highlighting the growing problem caused by plastics.
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