This is a random throwback post to this time last year. Last September (2019) I left my employment of 8 years and moved to my current employment. I won't bother going into all the reasons and other baggage I had for moving jobs... it isn't worth dragging up bad memories. Suffice to say, the move was correct at the time, and looking back on it now, I'm glad I took the chance.
As a leaving gift I received a Gift Card for the National Trust. This is an an Organisation which looks after old and historical buildings and other monuments. They do a fantastic job for the most part, but I think they are very expensive and loads of people visit so I generally avoid the places. However, it was a gift (and not my money) so I thought I might as well have a look.
The closest National Trust Property to us was Belton House which looked quite a nice building and was a rare chance for me to do some architecture photography.
Quite an imposing building don't you think? According to Wikipedia it was originally built in the 1600's. There is loads more stuff I could waffle about but all I would be doing is copying and pasting stuff. Check the link if you want to find out more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belton_House
We paused to get Carrot Cake from the Café on site. It was gorgeous, but at the price I paid it had better had been!
It cost extra to go into the house, so we stayed outside and looked at the formal gardens. Obviously in October, it wasn't looking its best, but it was still quite nice to have a walk around... my partner pointing out the names of various plants while I looked on, utterly clueless.
Credit where its due, its quite a nice looking building, and it has obviously been looked after. We had arrived here early and it had been quite quiet. We were now approaching lunchtime, and people were starting to gather and be a nuisance...
[I'm not a fan of people, can you tell?]
...so we headed off to explore the grounds surrounding the house. There was supposed to be Deer around here somewhere, but we couldn't find them. Instead we managed to find some Mushrooms, which was a blessed relief!
Shaggy Parasol - Chlorophyllum rhacodes
The first one was this Parasol species (Chlorophyllum family) but I'm not 100% on these, if you can do better then please let me know.
Sulphur Tuft - Hypholoma fasciculare
These were everywhere... mostly in open ground and fields. They are usually found in woods, so I probably have my ID wrong with this one
Shaggy Inkcap - Coprinus comatus
This was an easier one to identify...
Stump Puffballs (Lycoperdon pyriforme)
And these Puffballs growing on a tree stump are very likely to be Stump Puffballs
(if only they were all that easy eh?)
Unknown species.
It turned out to be a nice day in the end. And now that I have finally visited a National Trust building, I know to ignore it in future and go wander round a random field instead, its considerably cheaper haha!
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