Palladian Bridge

Palladian bridge
Palladian Bridge, Wentworth Castle
fallow deer
Palladian bridge

A fallow stag bellows to bring his group of hinds together and soon sees off a young buck that is hanging around at the edge of the herd.

The red deer hinds have gathered in the lower corner of the park and some wander out of the wood as we approach. A group of 10 or 15 mallards have gathered under the oaks, probably browsing for acorns. Squirrels are busy, but they seem to be going for sweet chestnuts. Sadly, Sudden Oak Death has infected some trees up by Stainborough Castle and that area is currently being cleared prior to replanting.

We’re told that the resident red deer stag is called Bertie. If he’s the one with the hinds, he’s lost his antlers. He’s the one in the background in my photograph, on the far right.

red deer
View of High Hoyland from Hilary's cafe, Cawthorne.
View looking towards High Hoyland from Hilary’s cafe, Cawthorne.

Hilary’s

Hilary's, Cawthorne

Looking at Hilary’s cafe from the garden you can guess which was the original cottage and in what order the adjacent cottage, lean-to extensions and extensions of extensions were added.

The Nectar Thief

bumblebee on salvia

At Cannon Hall garden centre, this bumblebee was busy visiting the flowers of a salvia but instead of entering the flower in the usual way it was using the back entrance, checking out those holes nibbled in the back of the flower and bypassing the stamens and stigmas. It occasionally paused, apparently to do a bit of nibbling itself, perhaps to enlarge an existing hole or start another.

Grapevine

grapevine

At Hilary’s Village Store in Cawthorne we sit under a vine laden with bunches of small green grapes. We’re told that this vine is a cutting from a desert grape grown in a large south-facing greenhouse in Scotland. There the grapes were edible – although they were best eaten outside in the garden so that you could spit out the seeds – but here, outside and north-facing, they’re not going to ripen enough.

scone

However we didn’t come here for the grapes, in a village tea garden it had to be cream scones with our lattes.

Link

Hilary’s @ Cawthorne