In the Meadow

On Saturday morning we visited the RSPB Reserve at Coombes Valley where we took a gentle meander through the meadow.  

I hadn't been feeling myself for a couple of days after falling in the garden trying to avoid stepping on next door's new puppy!  It had come through the hedge and was racing around our garden like a child in an adventure playground.  

The views across the valley from the steep meadow were wonderful.

The meadow was full of orchids 

Above are Greater Butterfly Orchids below an orchid we are not sure about. Marsh Orchid perhaps?

We also saw lots of little butterflies and moths

Skipper

Chimney sweeper moth

 It was cool and shady to linger awhile under the broad branches of the oak tree

It's good that I was feeling a lot better by the time of our next adventure which had been planned for some time and took us a bit further afield.  We have to plan our days around leaving a very elderly cat with back leg problems who needs lots of attention and medication twice a day.

We managed a round trip of six hours which was a little long to leave him but he coped.  I'll report on our visit in a future post but here is a little taster.

 

Mister Finch at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, two hours to get there, two hours there and two hours to get home but well worth the visit in such hot weather.

More of Mister Finch and two other wonderful exhibitions soon.

Scenes from a Garden - Part Two

The second garden we visited was at Brodsworth Hall near Doncaster. Luckily the Hall was open as well as the gardens. Inside the Hall was really interesting; many of the upstairs rooms, like at Calke Abbey, had been left just as they had been found and not restored, so you could see what the old carpets, wallpaper, painted friezes and etc were like. There was one bedroom, complete with a huge French boat-style bed, that had wisteria painted all around the top of the walls; this would have been so pretty when originally done. It was, of course, a huge country estate, so animals including horses and dogs were venerated here, hence there were two of the dogs below at the bottom of every set of stone steps in the garden.



After a very tasty lunch we wandered around the gardens. There were some interesting features including, below, the Summer House, on its grassy mound.



I particularly liked the target house, now used for an exhibition on the history and development of the gardens, it was built originally for storing archery equipment for the ladies of the house to use for target practice on the lawns outside. You can see the practice area through the window.