Our Sunday Outing

It was a bit dull yesterday morning. I could quite easily hunker down on autumn days when the sun isn't shining but as dog owners, we don't have that luxury. We were thinking of somewhere different to go for our walk and we came up with Middleton Park, somewhere we haven't been for quite a while, and Archie loves it there as there's so much woodland, in fact, it's the largest ancient woodland in Leeds.

We park our car near the lake. It's not a large lake but it's well used with fishermen setting up their lines here. I wonder how successful they are. I suppose they must get plenty of catches as there's always people fishing whenever we've visited this park.

It's a well used park with plenty of green space, the woodland, a children's playground and a rose garden. There's also tennis courts, bowling greens and a visitor centre with a cafe which was doing a roaring trade yesterday. I have to say their bacon butties smelt delicious.

We chose a path and headed into the woodland. Middleton Park is situated four miles south of Leeds city centre and of its 630 acres, 200 acres are ancient woodland.

It's a very well used park, it's always busy whenever we visit but it's large enough that it doesn't feel at all crowded and we were able to stay socially distanced without any problem at all.

It's still very green here but we were aware of leaves falling from the trees as we walked. Some trees are showing their autumn colours.

It was rather damp. It's nice that there are pathways through the woods so that you can avoid any muddy patches, although we don't keep to them all the time. I suppose it must be the perfect environment for mushrooms as there were lots of them about.

We even spotted these tiny mushrooms growing on the trunk of a tree.

There were a few trees down. The top of this tree was lying across the other side of the path but the stump has started sprouting growth again now.

Straying from the main path, there are an abundance of ferns. I think they're so tactile, they make me want to swish my hands through them.

Talking of tactile, moss is another thing which I always want to stroke. This tree was covered in it.

If you're in the area, I can thoroughly recommend a trip to Middleton Park. As you walk through the wood there are information boards about the shaft mounds which are thought to mark the sites of medieval coal mines. Also, if you walk right through the woodland, you come to a station on the Middleton Railway, the world's oldest continuously working railway which has been in existence since 1758. Lots of great reasons to visit the park.