Stag at Trentham

Stag and hind sculpture at Trentham Gardens today. I walked about four miles, not a great distance but it was warm and humid. I think they are casr bronze, they are hollow. There is a small herd of deer at the Gardens, or there were a few years ago. They are up higher on the hill, or they were. There is a path round the lake and a longer one, so I wonder if they are up there. We will explore further.

Sun setting

Back at Trentham after a walk round the lake. I took this looking towards the low sun. It was hard to see the phone screen so it was a bit hit and miss what I would get.

I like the way the trees and clouds are silhouetted. There is a walkway with metal hoops to the right of the tree, various climbers cover parts of it including wisteria and roses. At the far end is a statue, but we came out one of the side entrances and walked down a grassy slope to look back at this.

Beetle sculpture

Carved into the base of a tree trunk. This giant beetle sculpture was on the lakeside walk around Trentham Lake last weekend. It’s good to see sculpture in the landscape. I remember visiting Grizedale Forest sculpture Park in the Lake District around thirty years ago. It had world renound sculptors who created art works all through the forest. There is also something called the Merz barn? in the Lake District, but I can’t remember the name of the artist maybe Jeff Koons? (German?). I hope someone knows what I’m talking about. Must visit again before it’s too late. X

Playing

I sort of see birds, owls, flying out of these flowers? Or old fashioned rocket ships, or a totem pole. When you play with patterns you can find all sorts of things. I like seeing faces in things. I recently found out it’s called Pareidolia. We studied it during one of the semesters at college, the mind looks for patterns and sometimes finds them.

Joined

Passionflower

Another visit to Trentham Gardens today for a gentle stroll after a few too many Gin and Tonics last night. It was far cooler today although the sun did shine. My sunburn kept me warm. We had a meal and enjoyed exploring the show gardens over in a far corner of the site.

I still managed a reasonable 6000 steps although I never really raised me heart rate.

When I looked into joining there were various factors that helped me decide to join. I hope we go frequently enough to make it worthwhile and its pleasant to walk in grounds designed by Capability Brown although urban streets are OK too.

Faeries

At Trentham Gardens there are a collection of wire woven fairy sculptures. They are dotted here, there and everywhere. Each time we visit we see new ones. One was even dipping down into the lake for a drink. There seems to be a warrior queen on one plinth and lots of them are holding dandelion seed heads. I tried buying a kit and making my own.. I didn’t make the best one.

Otter sculpture

We are thinking of getting a tree stump carved in our garden. We had to get it cut down to about seven foot high as it was over growing a part of the garden and making it shady.

This sculpture was in Trentham gardens today. There were quite a few other ones but this was my favourite, especially since it is next to the river Trent which has got a lot cleaner over recent years.

It was a short but tiring walk. Trentham gardens is worth a visit for a day. There is also a retail village and a monkey forest on the site. But do check what is open before you visit.

X

Black Swans

Seen on our walk round Trentham Gardens this afternoon. Two black swans with red beaks, they were gathering nesting material by the side of the lake. They were not bothered by us being close, probably be ause we were not threatening them and they won’t have seen many people over the last few months of lockdown. I’m not sue what species of Swan they are. They had a few white feathers and a white line on their beaks. I wouldn’t have said they looked and different, it was not obvious whether they were male or female. It was a pleasure to see them today.