The Snowdrops of Kelham Hall

Most of the time when you set off to see something, it isn't there.

Most typically, this is when I head up the cycle path to "The Owl Land" to see the short eared owls, which are never there and indeed no-one seems to have seen one there for years, but also occurs when I try to photograph the winter ducks at Langford, or fail to find the Eco-Park near Stapleford on my bike.

Today was different. I figured that with the early spring, the impressive snowdrop display at Kelham Hall would be early too, so made the 5km trip out there in running mode, and on a starbright day with a chill in the air, I set out.

Stupidly I took the trail route again which meant awkward running across farm fields, but I did flush out a sparrowhawk from a tree at the rugby club which then made a spectacular low level escape through a gap in the hedge.

There was a sort of "will it be a show or no show" as I reached Kelham Hall, and headed along the long driveway round to the church. To be fair, I wasn't treating it as a life or death matter, but if they weren't there would be no photographs and no blog post to put up. Unless I wanted to put up pictures of green grass with "Hey! No snowdrops" captions.

I hate doing that.

Luckily, there they were, carpeting an area about the size of two tennis courts near the church. They make such a pretty sight, and all were in good condition. Some of the cemetery snowdrops are past their best already. I was trying really hard to get good light for the shots, but the sun was blocked by trees, and not in a good, lens-flarey way either.

Also of interest was a tree stump covered in attractive turkey tail bracket fungus. This gave a nice fungal grittiness to contrast with the flowers, I feel. But overall, it was the beautiful pure white glade that shall be the memory I'll take from the visit, as I turned myself round and headed back across the fields to Newark.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 03.02.16