Autumnal Belton

Earlier this week we took heed of the weather forecast which was casting doom and gloom about the temperatures for the next few days and took advantage of the beautiful sunshine to visit our local National Trust property Belton House.  We thought the children would have been back at school after half-term but evidently they had an inset day so it was pretty busy but the beauty of Belton is that it's large enough for everyone.

The colours in the gardens were wonderful so I'll let the photos do the talking.

 The lake with a party of swans looked wonderful and was very peaceful without its usual company of geese.  Presumably they are still on their way.

 The walls of the Orangery were covered in ladybirds, or more accurately ladybeetles that originated in Asia.  Apparently these bugs are becoming a nuisance in America so it seems it might be our turn now.

 One of the offending lady beetles.

 These are the fruits on a Spindle Tree.  I thought they looked a bit like butterflies.  You would think that they were flowers but, no, they are the fruits.

 This fungus was on a trees tump down by the lake.  The fungus ran in a line along the track of the roots too.

Unexpected strolling

Some days turn out differently from how you expect.  My plans for today were to go and fetch Mum from her care home so that she could have Sunday dinner with us and enjoy some time with my brother and his wife.  With the unpredictability that always attend dementia, when I went to fetch Mum she was very sleepy and even the thought of the company of her lovely son and 'lovely sunshine' was not enough to rouse her sufficiently.  Her spirit was willing but the flesh was never going to be strong enough today.  I left her to her roast turkey at the home, assuming they could wake her up enough, and came home disappointed.

However, disappointment turned into a gift as we decided to go for a walk at our local National Trust property.  It has been a glorious day, less cold than recently, and we were really glad we made the effort.

 There was a definite Harry Potter vibe to this lovely larch tree, above.

 "I never knew I could walk on water!  What do you think to all this cold stuff then?" 

 I had a little play with in-camera functions and dabbled with a little black and white.

The boathouse had a lovely shadow across it and the children were enjoying themselves breaking off chunks of ice and winging them across the lake.  I hope the trout under the ice weren't being too upset by the vibrations.  Have you heard the noise the ice makes as it slides across itself?  It's a very delicate sound.

Plenty of inspiration for stitch.

Beautiful shapes and contrasts in the Italian garden.  The lavender is a silvery grey, not quite the lilac colour it appears here and has yet to be cut back.

Our walk was rounded off with hot chocolate and cake, (well, you have to don't you?) and this beautiful beast and his friend seemed oblivious to our approaches in the car park.  A lovely end to a wonderful late winter day.  Hopefully Mum will feel a little more lively next week.  She is getting more frail but considering she is going to be 90 this year she is one amazing lady.

Belton Horse Trials

Saturday saw us at our local National Trust property Belton House who were staging their annual Horse Trials.  Apparently this is the earliest yearly event in the three day eventing world and provides a lead in to future horse trials at Burghley and Badminton.  For the first time National Trust members, like us, were allowed in free which was very gratifying.  We are not particularly horsey but I do like seeing the show jumping and enjoy the atmosphere these events generate.

We were blessed with a mostly dry but blowy day and it was interesting to see Belton with a different scene from the usual Sunday cricket.

The paparazzi were being papped:

and the amateur paps were busy too!  The guy standing next to my DH had the biggest telephoto lens on his camera and was rapidly firing away as the horses came over the jumps but DH was happy to get his low angles.

There were some very famous riders and horses participating including Olympic gold medallist Sir Mark Todd and world number one William Fox Pitt who we saw set off and finish in the cross country course.

This very smart and poised young lady is Dani Evans, an intermediate rider who is representing Great Britain for the second year at the FEI Nations Cup.  Her beautiful horse is called Smart Time (I think).

There were lots of trade stalls at the Trials but I mostly resisted apart from buying some Oddsox!  My feet will no longer match!  I did fall in love though,

I could have stayed all day with these two beautiful spaniels who would have taken all the fussing I could have given them.  They belonged to one of the stalls selling riding and other boots.  I think they might have noticed if I'd made off with them ;-)  

Since the weekend I've been busy making a quick birthday present for a friend.  Fortunately she doesn't read my blog or facebook page so I can show you what I've made.

I've made these two mug rugs with thermal wadding.  I've decided they're his and hers and added some bling to 'hers'.  Who said I'd made a mistake and was covering it up?!!!  Lies, vicious lies! LOL

Wish us luck tomorrow, DH is having a biopsy, poor thing.  I'm off to watch the Great British Sewing Bee Final to take my mind off it.

Autumn

I thought you might like to see a few of the photos I took today on a very cold but enjoyable walk round the parkland at Belton House.   I think it must be the amount of rain we had earlier in the year that is giving us such a glorious Autumn this year.  With the sun shining beautifully today the colours were stunning!

It's coming to something when you have to apologise for nature!

Experimenting with angles.

Not a clue what these pretty toadstools are but I don't think I'd eat them.

You'd think from that rucksack he was stalking someone but, no, it's just a photo opportunity.

I'm not sure whether this is a handkerchief or a tulip tree but it looked stunning today.

Thanks to some advice from Mark Highton-Ridley I have been experimenting with taking photos on 'Aperture Priority' and I'm liking the results.  Thank you Mark!