Long Walk

The warmth of the day today, made us want to take a longer walk and to take the flask with us. So, we set off along the Nutbrook Trail, heading firstly for Shipley Hill. From the hill, we turned along Bell Lane, walking towards the village of Smalley. I did this walk earlier in the year, but as Malcolm was away at the time, he hadn't yet taken in this new route. The open farmland in the area was variously filled with grassland and fields of Wheat and Broad Beans and we walked along accompanied by the songs of Skylarks and the now quite rare, Yellowhammer. When we reached Smalley, we stood to take in the pond at Smalley Dam.

The pond and dam, was created in the late 18th century by John Redford of Smalley Hall.

Following restoration and much clearing out of silt, the area was given to the village by its then owner, in 1990. It is a delightful little waterway and well worth stopping to for a while.

Turning back home, we headed back along Bell Lane to Mapperley and paused for coffee under the shade of the trees around Mapperley Reservoir. From the shade, we looked out, through the surrounding foliage, at the sunny meadows beyond.

The fence-line was decorated with the seed heads of Cow Parsley...

And the whole scene was framed with Hawthorn leaves. All extremely beautiful.

We covered a little over 8 miles this morning and by now, we were getting rather hot and sweaty, so we headed for home.