Out & About: Calke Abbey Grounds & St. Giles Church

My turn to drive this week and we thought we haven't been to Calke Abbey for a while so that's where we headed. On the way we spotted an adult fox just ambling on the pavement before disappearing into a hedge, beautiful colour. It took just about 45 minutes to get there and we were first in the car park. We had a look at the map showing the footpaths and just set out on a circular walk. The path we took went from the car park down to the Thatch House Pond then along towards the deer enclosure where we saw some deer in the back lit morning light. Made the photo's a bit tricky and the local birds were were doing there thing on the backs of the deer, not sure if they were eating bugs or using there fur as nesting material. Carrying on up the hill there were just loads of squirrels everywhere and the woods full of Bluebells waiting to burst into bloom. The next stage took us past a huge old tree (not the old man of Calke) and then to a bird feeding station. As we were there a couple pulled up in a 4x4 and started to fill the bird feeders, we spoke to them later and they do this every morning out of their own pocket. From there we found our way back to the car park and settled on a bench for our breakfast. When we had finished i wandered over to what looked like a shed but to my surprise it turned out to be a fully equipped bird hide. There were 2 photographers inside and the view was over feeders of all sorts attracting numerous birds, a couple of squirrels and even a young rat. From there we went past the house and up to St. Giles Church which is fascinating inside. On the way back to the car we bumped into the bird couple again and had a long chat then our Rob spotted this tree with a huge hole in it and said give me your camera and climb in there. Well i like a challenge so in i went.