Another day and another change in the weather. After yesterdays gales, heavy rain and temperatures so low that we had the heating on in the house, to-day is just the opposite. Blue skies, sunshine, so hot that it is shorts and T-shirts and on this mornings walkies Carla was so glad to take a break in the shade….
The meadows are awash with yellow buttercups, purple clover and a mix of grasses that seem to grow by the minute.
In the woods the Rhododendrons have started to drop their flowers creating a colourful carpet of red, orange, yellow and as below purple…..
The Orange and Reds seem to be the most resilient still presenting a good strong show of colour, no doubt a last flourish before they too fall….
This Rhododendron seems a little different and something I have not spotted before. Just prior to the flower falling it suddenly extends into a bell shape dangling below the main bloom and swaying in the wind…
Sheltering amongst the Rhododendrons is a lone Mahonia. Its blue-purple berries now display and looking very much like bunches of frosted grapes…
A SAD REFLECTION…..
Please allow me a little moan. Our walkies to-day was arround a Country Park where once stood a large house and an extended farming community. The owners followed the trend of earlier days and turned to mining for coal beneath this land. Eventually the seams became less prosperous and as mines were exhausted and unused subsidence came and the house started to crumble. By then the estate was owned by the National Coal Board who, as the land was now redundant, negotiated for the local County Council to acquire them and create a Country Park. Initially all is well. The grounds are reclaimed and all signs of its busy industrial heritage removed. The house is demolished but the foundations are preserved for all to see and arround them there are pathways laid out and flora gardens on raised beds.
But to-day through lack of care and maintenance no doubt down to lack of cash the gardens are sadly neglected, weed ridden with overgrown paths…..
Shipley Country Park
This Park is not unique in its decay, many historical sites and buildings are ‘saved’ by Councils across the country.Just about all benefit from grants, legacies or dowries from the previous owners. Much work is put into the recreations and restorations…….then the money runs out. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad that the estate became the responsibility of the Council and pleased it has become an ‘open space’ for all to enjoy. But it could and should be so much better….it should be maintained and cared for as originally proposed. This and other parts of our Heritage need continual care……There has to be a better way.
10th June
DAVID OAKES - IMAGES. 