Mapperley

What a pleasure it was this morning, to be able to get out and about again after the bad weather and yesterday's trip to King's Lynn, to return my mother home.
The sky was blue and the sun shone, but the breeze was still rather strong and was doing it's best to rip the leaves (and a few twigs) from the trees.
Here is our route this morning...

Mapperley Reservoir is rather lacking in water, something of a surprise after all the rain we've had recently. There are a number of very large Carp in the lake, which stir up a lot of mud from the bottom when searching for food. This makes the water very cloudy at times and often obscures the fish altogether.

There were a couple of Common Terns nesting on a man-made island in the reservoir earlier in the year, but they now seem to have left on their long migration journey (probably to South Africa). In their place were a pair of Black-headed Gulls, squabbling over the possession of a floating log.

Turning away from the reservoir and heading for home, the views across the surrounding farmland are quite good. Especially the view over the thistle-strewn meadows, towards Shipley Hill...

A closer view of the hill is always a pleasure... Lets hope the weather holds up for a while longer so we can get out and about a bit more.