Fixed

These days I'm like a drug addict but the drug I crave is simply to get out walking in the countryside. If I don't have a fix every few days, I experience something resembling cold turkey and last week's miserable weather kept me housebound. I had a bad case of cabin fever.

Sunday's promising weather forecast came true and  even though I knew  the earth would be soggy with awfully muddy paths to contend with, I was parked up at Brooklands, near Bakewell before midday. Heading up the hill, I came across a small herd of alpacas - far from the Andes. This one is called Bob and though you can't see it, Bob is surveying the Wye valley:-

Slipping and sliding up a woodland path, I get through the trees on to Calton Pastures - part of the vast Chatsworth estate. Dappled sunshine sweeps across the landscape and I capture this image of Moatless Plantation:-

In the dew pond or small lake high on the pastures, a solitary young swan keeps plunging below the surface to find sustenance in the pond weed:-

After passing through the hamlet of Calton Lees I reach the River Derwent beside which is this old corn mill - part of the Chatsworth estate and now disused. The sheep on the estate are far less skittish than most hill sheep. They're used to people passing by:-

Here you can see the River Derwent in flood and beyond is the beautiful edifice that is Chatsworth House - home to the Dukes of Devonshire and arguably the finest stately home in England:-

I plod onwards to the quaint Victorian estate village of Edensor and then along the old drovers' track that leads to Ball Cross. Down through Manners Wood to Bakewell golf club, along the Monsal Trail - a former railway track - thence back to the car where water and clean shoes await me. Three and a half hours. Fixed!