Shipley - Common, Reserve, Trail
w/e 18 October 2015
All of this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490

It's been a week of bright mornings with cloud increasing in the afternoons. With nowhere in particular in mind to go for this set of images, as it neared the weekend I thought I'd better make the effort which meant I set off on one of the dullest afternoons of the week. I was heading towards Heanor wondering whether to visit Shipley Country Park again to see the autumn colours but it became darker the nearer I got so I diverted along Shipley Common Lane, parked up and walked to a patch of greenery between the housing estate and Shipley Wood - Shipley Common.

Woodside Nature Reserve

Nothing struck me on the Common and I was beginning to think I was wasting my time so headed towards the stile that leads to the land that is now owned by the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and is known as Woodside Nature Reserve. It was actually much darker than it appears in this image.
Bird

As I approached the stile a big black bird that was perched on it flew off and landed on a nearby post and some of that autumn colour that I was expecting to see in Shipley Park was apparent in the trees behind.
Notice Board Extract

The notice board at the stile has a lot of information about the site including a section about farming and the rotation system.

Field Path

The board also includes guidelines for visitors and asks them to keep to the paths to avoid disturbing plants and animals so I headed straight on along one of the said paths.
Stile & Bridge

The path led to another stile and footbridge to access the Nutbrook Trail.
Nutbrook Trail

With every step it seemed to get darker so I turned left along the Nutbrook Trail to head back towards the Shipley View housing estate where I had parked.
Path Crossing

At a bend in the Trail where is is crossed by another footpath the first spots of rain began to fall, several of them landing on the camera lens.
Cycle Sign

Time to beat a hasty retreat I thought so turned left at the post with the National Cycle Network sign to head back to Shipley Common Lane.
Sheltered

As the trees crowded in from each side providing shelter it was hard to tell whether it was raining or not.
Runner

As I walked I was passed by a runner. I'm not sure whether he was running just for the fun of it or to get home before the rain started falling heavily. As it happened neither of us need have bothered. The rain stopped altogether although the overcast sky remained and it never did get any lighter until the next day.
Trees

We were not to know that at the time though so I headed back to the car noticing how close the trees were to each other on the left and it brought to mind the old expression "You can't see the wood for the trees." In this case nothing could be truer.

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