Knole Park, Winter

Flooded footpath in Knole Park, 26 December 2013.

Knole Park is large – 1,000 acres – and pretty, and with the recent rains, also wet.  Not excessively so, but some of the footpaths are hard to negotiate without getting wet socks.  In the large grounds are a few houses, which I think were originally cottages for the various grounds keepers, and Knole House itself with its enclosed gardens.  

Fallow Deer, Dama dama.  Male.  Knole Park, 19 December 2013.

There are also herds of Fallow Deer.  The groups of females scatter if you get too close, but don't seem to be as alarmed as wild creatures would normally be.  Males like this one will stand their ground.  I took this with a 100mm lens, so I wasn't quite as close as you might think.  It may not be as tall as me, but those antlers look handy.

Black Spleenwort, Asplenium adiantum-nigrum, on the wall of The Wilderness.
Knole Park, 26 December 2013.

I went hoping to find something interesting on the walls enclosing the house's immediate grounds, and indeed there were lots of Polypodies and some of these nice Black Spleenworts.  Its distinguishing features are: small, yet full of spores, so a mature plant; growing high on a wall; triangular frond shape; bipinnate; frond stems are dark brown and shiny towards their bases.

View along the Chestnut Walk.  Knole Park, 19 December 2013.

I was tempted to try for a silhouette effect by seeing those two walkers on the horizon.  When something like this lines up I can hardly get my camera up fast enough; who knows how long this picture will be available?

The top photo was taken with my iPhone.  The others, with my EOS 6D and 100mm macro lens.  I used a ring flash for the fern.