Midlands Summertime - Nottinghamshire & DerbyShire, England

May 2018.

After a lot of hesitation, we finally decided to rest my feeble knees that i had twisted in the Amalfi  hike and canned the lake District plan for the week. Instead, we drove to Nottinghamshire with an intent of walking around the countryside of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

After a 4hour drive through the busy M25 and M1 across the middle of the country, we reached Nottinghamshire at around 2o clock in the afternoon. After a brief chitchat and coffee, we strolled up to the Bramcote Park which is just a few minutes walk from my friend's place. Bramcote Park is pretty with the rhododendrons crowding every bridleway at this time of the year. We walked around the park among the long trees and the Rhodies ( as they are fondly referred to here) bushes , across the fields, passed the sun clock on the ground and up to the Hemlock stone on the other side of the park. The Hemlock stone has many myths around the origin of the rock. It looks like a solitary barren rock in the middle of nowhere.

The next day we woke up to heavy rain and dark cloud and decided to make a day out of it indoors, so ended up playing a little piano, watching TV shows, playing a bit of darts, and finally cooking Prawn Malai for everyone's dinner. Once the rain eased down a bit, got all the cooking ingredients for the dinner and then went for a walk in the Wollaton Park. This is again a big green area with stretches of open fields, lots of trees of different kinds and a sixteenth century castle and most importantly, it's a home to many deer. We saw a herd of baby deer with white spots on their bodies in the field. It was fun. We went inside the castle which has been made into a museum and admired the many stuffed animals that adorned the walls.  

The following day turned out to be a bright sunny one, perfect for a hiking trip to Derbyshire. We drove to Chatsworth and climbed up the hill behind the Chatsworth house. We climbed a few uneven steps and eventually reached a folly. We were then met with a small waterfall whilst walking through the woods. A bit of cold splashy fun there! We walked all around the landscaped gardens on the hills and saw many heathers and brackens on the moorland before making our way down to the Chatsworth garden centre for some coffee and slices of lemon drizzle and coffee walnut cake. 

Heathers, Bracken, Moors - reminds me of Jane Austen :) This area is different from my very beloved South Downs. It is more rugged and wild. I love the English countryside and I cant stress it enough. It is not just the nature that appeals to my heart but it casts some sort of poetic spell on me.

The next day was also equally promising and we found ourselves a nearby countryside walk , commonly known as The Coffin Walk. It was a easier walk compared to the hill climb of the day before. We made our way through farm lands and cutesy villages, passing by the river Derwent. We learnt about the three major rivers that run through this area- Derwent, Trent and Sawley. There's also Erewash. The names intrigue me. There is a certain charm in the way things are named in this country, I feel. My friend's dad was talking about a restaurant named 'The frustrated chef', not to mention the many interesting pub names I often come across.

We found ourselves in a relaxed lazy mood the day after. After watching an interesting documentary on the 'Origin of humans' on the BBC, we lazily made our way to visit my friend's brother and admire his new self-made garden. We then went for a brisk walk by the Trent Lock and the Erewash canal. It is a short 3Km walk each way but its quite pretty with the house boats lined up in the canal and the chirpy birds by the trees alongside. In the evening, we spent some cosy homely time watching comedy shows and discussing countries and culture. As the day rolled into the night, we packed our bags for an early morning departure the next day.

It was a nice relaxing week in a cozy homely atmosphere with a few doses of nature and lots of food. The best part was the garden in my friend's house. I spent some quality time there reading book on the swing chair, having coffee and muffins, watching the tiny tadpoles swimming in the pond, admiring the poppies and just absorbing the serenity of the place. Reminds me of my own childhood home in a way.