Winter draws on.........

....so we put our 'winter drawers on' Yes - the first walk WITHOUT shorts for a LONG time. In retrospect, we could have worn our shorts, as it turned out to be very mild, but the start of the day was cold and dank, with heavy mist. We hung around, waiting for it to clear a little, and it did so off we set for a ramble around Chatsworth - our last walk before France!
We parked at Bubnell, and set off along the road towards the entrance to the Chatsworth estate.

The leaves are mostly fallen now, but a few berries are hanging on. No doubt, when the birds get really hungry, these will go too.

'Leaves on the line' might stop the trains, but we are far more intrepid, so we just walked down these steps - just like that!

This is a lovely way to start a walk, a 'kissing gate' (which, of course, we made good use of - probably a bit more than we are allowed actually).

It was such a shame that it was a dull day, as the sun on this chestnut tree would have made it GLOW with 'copperness'.
You can see the trees are mainly past their best now, but a few still impress.
 

This avenue of trees was planted in 1953 to celebrate the crowning of the queen, but as it was also the year I was born, I prefer to think of it as commemorating my birth ;-)

This is quite a carpet - it would be WONDERFUL to kick through, if it was dry and crispy.

Ah well, at least it wasn't raining.

A gentle breeze made the leaves flutter and fall - straight into my camera lens!

Everywhere we looked - this wonderful copper carpet. All this for free, and EVERY YEAR!
How lucky are we?

More steps, this time we had passed through the grounds next to Chatsworth House, leaving the hub-bub of people (it was VERY busy, as it was half term), and began the climb up to the Hunting tower on the top. It had been re-named 'the Haunting tower', due to Hallowe'en being imminent.

The once-green fronds of the bracken were now all dead.
The fractal pattern is still there though, and I always think this is one
of the warmest browns I've ever seen.

"FIRE A BROADSIDE, MR CHRISTIAN"
Well, I see no ships, but this is a great view on a clear day.

Then it was along the leafy track and up to the Emperor lake.

The Emporer lake.

Next, it was Swiss lake, and the Swiss cottage.
All these houses (including the Hunting tower) are lived in by Chatsworth estate workers.

A strange paradox - green leaves above - brown ones below.

We left the enclosure of the estate, and took this path through chest-deep bracken towards Beeley hilltop farm.

We crossed the river by this bridge to re-enter the Chatsworth estate.
There was a handy fallen tree trunk, so we decided to have our lunch here.
WHAT a lunch as well - I'd really spoiled us today, one roll having a three bird roast leftover meat on it (turkey, duck & chicken, with stuffing), with a lime pickle dressing (yummy), and the other having roast chicken with a mango salsa dressing - double yummy!

After eating, we felt much better. I had a walk around this poor old rotting trunk to discover it had its own beauty - fungi!
The organism was slowly removing the old wood from the system,
and managing to look fantastic in the process.

After our lunch, we set off for the climb upwards.
We passed through Calton Lees and followed the track up to Calton Houses, where we headed for the ridge over the top, then down towards Edensor village (pronounced 'En-sore'), where we got this great view of the house, and the Emperor fountain.
You really could just sit here and sigh for the rest of your life.
What a GREAT place to put a seat!

Some of the locals weren't very friendly though!

In Edensor, we passed through to the road, and made our way to Pilsley village.

Just outside the village, we came across this rebuilt wall. The waller had built VERY artistically around this live tree, but I just couldn't understand why, as the tree would undermine the wall very soon, and it would probably fall.
Looked very nice & skilful though.

At last we reached the car back at Bubnell. The day was just dying, and it was beginning to get dusk, but one last shot of the lovely leaves before we set off back home.
Just over nine miles, with an easy 1500 feet of up and down.
A good day, despite the weather.