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Every so often you come across a Peak District farm that looks so perfect in the landscape it's almost as if it's grown there, if you know what I mean? This scene outside the little Peak District village of Rainow in Cheshire can't have changed much for centuries. The farm has the date 1593 above the door, so it's certainly seen a few centuries come and go. I rather fell in love with it, plus it's on Hooleyhay Lane, which is surely the best ever name for a road?!
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The rocky outcrop of Higger Tor, high above the village of Hathersage, is one of my favourite places in the Hope Valley to watch the sun set. With the right conditions the whole valley floods with a golden light and the trees cast long shadows over the landscape. On this particularly evening the light was glorious, and I knelt down in the damp heather to capture the view beyond these gritstone rocks. Then, as I did so, a curious little woolly face peeped around the corner and looked at me quizzically, as if to say "what the ...?!" This is one of my own personal favourite ever photographs, as much for the reminder of the laugh as for the image itself.
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The hardy sheep on Stanage Edge really do seem to love their time on the moor, bounding around from rock to rock, grazing among the heather, and always enjoying those incredible views! This little crew were exploring together on a summer evening but they were very happy to pause and stand, posing perfectly for me against the sunset sky.
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This entirely natural heart-shaped hole is in the bottom of a beautiful old beech tree in Padley Gorge. You have to crawl about in the leaves to see it, but it's well worth the effort and dirty knees. The area looks beautiful in every season, but in Autumn, when the floor is strewn with the bright jewels of fallen leaves, it's probably at its most inspiring.
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This beautiful little footbridge in Padley Gorge looks wonderful in every season, but with the bright jewels of autumn leaves strewn across the tree roots and moss-covered rocks, well, you can see why I've called this image 'Riches'. Material wealth has nothing on sights like these!
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This beautiful girl is one of the Highland Cows that live on Baslow Edge in Derbyshire. They're perfectly suited to grazing the rough ground and heather on the moor and are very well equipped against the harsh winds with those wonderfully thick coats. I love the flash of sunshine that picks out her highlights!
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This wonderful lone tree is at Sheldon in the White Peak of Derbyshire, an area famed for its gently rolling hills criss-crossed with limestone walls. Its arching shape made a perfect silhouette curling around the setting sun, which lit up the slopes and hollows of the land.
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This entirely natural heart-shaped hole lies at the very bottom of a beautiful old beech tree in Padley Gorge, where the tree has weathered centuries of winters and seen generations come and go. I love to visit the 'heart tree' in all seasons, and it looked perfect in the falling snow.
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Flash is the highest village in England, and this old postbox must have seen some windy days by its wonky angle. It looked so perfect against the lovely old church in the falling snow - a timeless English country scene.
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This beautiful little wooden footbridge in Padley Gorge spans the crystal-clear Burbage Brook, captured here in midwinter with the snow gently drifting down and melting in the water.
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Deep in the quiet pine woods covered in snow, standing alone and almost hidden among its lofty proud neighbours, I spotted this perfect little Christmas tree, its branches dusted with snowflakes like icing sugar.
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This is one of my favourite spots in the Peak District, a quiet, tree-lined lane above the villages of Hathersage and Grindleford. After a fresh fall of snow it looked wonderful with its parade of small bright beech trees adding colour to the winter whiteness.
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I stumbled across this beautiful winter scene during a walk in some very pretty woods above the little Peak District village of Grindleford, just after a fresh snow fall. Early in winter, the last of the beech leaves were still clinging to the branches, covered in a light dusting of snowflakes. I love the little 'ping' of colour that they add to an otherwise almost black and white view, and that suggestion of the seasons changing, the turn from autumn to winter.
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These beautiful woods are above the pretty Peak District village of Hathersage, approached by a narrow path up a hill. Walking through that little gate is like entering a different world. In Spring they're full of bluebells, in Summer the birds sing crazily in the beech trees, in Autumn they're a riot of colour ... and in Winter, well, they're magical. The snow falls so softly amid the ancient trees and the whole place is silent and sparkling.
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"When snow falls ... nature listens." There's something so perfect about winter trees. Stripped of leaves, with every twig exposed, you can really see their intricate beauty. For an extra dose of magic, add in gently falling snow, silently piling up along the branches.
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Padley Gorge in the Peak District is a wonderful place to visit in the autumn. The foliage is a fantastic spectrum of colours above you, and the ground under your feet is littered with red among the tree roots. This beech tree is a particular favourite of mine and it looked so beautiful decked out in its autumn finery.
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Poppies are such beautiful flowers, with their poignant symbolism and their fragile, delicate, tissue-paper petals. They're also very fickle about when and where they grow. The seeds can lay dormant in soil for up to 100 years and need light to flourish, so you'll only find poppies in ground that has been disturbed. This might explain why this Peak District field in Bubnell was an absolute sea of poppies one year, yet had not a single bloom in the years to follow. It made me feel even more privileged to have seen it, and to have been able to watch the sun set over these crimson petals.
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The summer heather in the Peak District is a truly awe-inspiring sight, with the hills and moors turned briefly into a palette of vibrant pinks and purples. This shot was taken on a perfect summer evening at Millstone Edge, when the dusky colours in the sky matched those on the ground. The bright green of the grasses and those lichen-covered rocks in the foreground just completed the scene for me.
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This lovely lane is in Staffordshire, not far from the little Peak District village of Wetton. The setting sun was turning the sky a beautiful pinky purple, which matched the colours of the wild scabious flowers in the verges. It was a warm, quiet evening and just a very pretty scene that I felt privileged to be able to capture.
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This is a little gated lane just outside the Peak District village of Hathersage, and it was a perfect early summer day when I chanced upon this view, with the road winding through the bright gorse ahead and into the trees. What I couldn't capture was the scent of the blossom in the tree above ... and the incredible noise of the thousands of bees enjoying the flowers!
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This beautiful, quiet lane between the villages of Grindleford and Eyam is a wonderful place to wander in every season and at every time of day, but I felt so incredibly lucky to chance upon it in the summer mist, with the sun shining through those magnificent beech trees beside the gate. Everything had a slightly ethereal, magical glow.
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Poppies are such poignant flowers, with their delicate, paper-thin petals. To see so many in this beautiful field in the Peak District village of Hassop was an incredible privilege, and the storm clouds above just added to the drama and colour of the scene.
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These woods above the village of Hathersage in the Peak District are a family favourite of mine - easily accessible and with an abundance of trees to climb, rocks to scramble over and secret glades to explore. The spaces between the trees allow the sunlight to filter through, and in the Spring it looks wonderful as the light hits the bluebells and creates shadows on the little grassy paths.
