Views

This morning, we took a longer walk in the sunshine, but still battling against the naggingly cold easterly wind.  Heading out around Shipley Park, we walked off in the direction of Mapperley Village and were amazed to see so much snow still clinging on in some of the fields.

Through the village and past the reservoir, we climbed Shipley Hill which afforded fine views to the north and off in the direction of he large open-cast mine at Smalley.

Close by, a rather gnarled and odd-looking ash tree caught my eye.  With a large chunk of it missing from the top and the rest of the branches held at some very strange angles, this Ash presented an interesting shape against the blue sky.  With the threat of ash die-back disease every-present, it would seem as though this particular tree's 'number is up' one way or another.