Tuesday 24th May 2016

I really, really didn't feel like walking today, it was a busy day at the school supervising the pupils taking their GCSE's. I also sell handmade cards and had four orders to do in the evening plus a couple of other little jobs including this blog.  In other words, I just didn't think I could spare the time.
However, I set off with my camera and I'm so glad I did. It was nice just to slow the brain down a little, breath in fresh air and have a little sun on my face. 

 I managed to take another photo of the goats from a bedroom window just before I set off; I see they were still eating the hedge.  I could do with borrowing them but I suspect they wouldn't just eat the hedge.

After showing you our largest oak tree, this is our baby at 16 years old.  This is the one with its own certificate as it was grown from an acorn found on the Great Oak tree to mark the millennium.  I was contemplating how long it would take to reach the telephone wires.  I might just have planted it in the wrong place.

I have yet another picture of the mountains to show you but it is landscape and wouldn't fit in the frame so I will save it for another day.  This Thursday is the start of the famous Hay Literary Festival when the small border town of Hay-on-Wye will be filled with visitors and celebrities.

Before we moved here (over thirty years ago) this rhododendron was already established and still going strong, it is about to be covered in these beautiful flowers.

Talking of beautiful flowers, on a part of our drive we can't get at to mow, this cow parsley waves mockingly at us.  It is, however, rather splendid when in full flower.

 

Monday 23rd May 2016

I was later than I meant to be when I eventually got out tonight so, sorry, it's the field again as that is where the sun is still shining.  I think I have found a few different things to show you, though.

The first picture is one of my favourite spots, leaning on the wooden bridge watching the stream.  I actually took this to show you 'Rocky Island' but, due to the sun being in my eyes, I  missed to capture that bit.  Just above the greenery on the left, there is a circle of stones in the shallow water and my children and their friends used to have immense fun playing on what they named 'Rocky Island'. 

As mentioned before, the sides of the path are getting long and the nettles and grass now reach my knees. I did feel as though I was on an assault course picking my way through.

The next image shows this lovely gate on the pathway.  It has been there a long time but is in good condition and blends in so well with the scenery.

Then we have a field of barley that will slowly grow golden as the months go by. A few years ago, I was merrily marching along this path and the last field (the largest of the three) had a huge crop that I had never seen growing in this area before.  It stretched way above me and I had the urge to sing 'the corn was as high as an elephant's eye'.  I didn't but might just have hummed it quietly to myself.  After some investigation (asked my farmer brother-in-law) it was thought to be maize and, as they just had their anaerobic digester, explains the change in crops that year.

I prefer maize being in the field than what was there the year before.  I left my car in the garage for its MOT and decided to walk home, approaching the field from the other end of the footpath, only to find a group of young cattle, with horns, curious about the walker in their midst.  I have always been a little nervous of cows, particularly the horned variety, lost my nerve and climbed behind the barb wired fence that edged a ditch.  They all followed me up the field watching my every move as I tried to climb round nettles and thistles. I was beginning to panic slightly as I was running out of fence when, luckily, they lost interest and made their way back down.  I made a swift run towards the next gate and made my way home.  It took me over an hour to walk what should have taken half that time!

Last photo- make a wish!

Sunday 22nd May 2016

A great improvement in the weather to yesterday.  I seemed to be on a nature ramble today, apart from some annoying gnats flitting round my head, I managed to photograph a little brown beetle munching on a leaf and, with a little bit of patience, this beautiful peacock butterfly.

My closest neighbour to the one side lives on a farm three fields and a bit away (last photo). Sadly, she had an unfortunate accident a few years ago falling downstairs at night and breaking her back.  She is now in a wheelchair and trying to learn to adapt to a different life.  Her husband has a vehicle that can anchor her wheelchair as a front seat.  They passed me by as I was doing my 20 minutes and we had a little chat.  I must admit I think about her situation quite often when walking and, when I feel like not getting out or not quite in the mood, I am just so grateful I still have legs I can use and tell myself to just get out there and use them! 

The gate into the field is a metal gate that has to be lifted slightly to open and then it has a reverberating clang when pulled shut.  As our drive is part of a public footpath, we get quite a few walkers with dogs that our cat, Charlie, hates.  As soon as he hears the gate, either he runs in the house or up on top of our roof just in case he is chased.  He must have experienced that quite early on when we had first had him as a rescue cat. He is quite small but at least he can run fast!

 

Saturday 21st May 2016

Another wet day, this makes my photos a little dull.  As you can see, the rain was so heavy it formed a little river that usually finds its way down our drive, gradually eroding the tarmac. I made it out between storms and incorporated my walk with visiting a friend and neighbour.

 The goats were eating the hedge again and encouraging one of the sheep to copy them.

 I did a trip 'round the block' and, as my friend lives by the Great Oak tree, thought I would give you a closer view and also show you the inside (the one that was made even more hollow by a fire inside sometime in the 1930s).  It is so long since I have looked inside the tree, the local children just have to go in as soon as they see it - some adults too! I believe that the whole area was a forest in medieval times. 

 

The last photo shows one of our oak trees, almost as splendid as the Great Oak and must have been there for many years but it is still a youngster in comparison. 

It was quite a while before I finished my walk and finally made it home as the minute I got to my friend's house, the heavens opened.  I was forced to shelter there with a cup of tea and maybe I also had a small piece of cake.

 

 

Friday 20th May 2016

On a strict time limit today as my husband was cooking tea (well, putting it in the oven!).  

I have been trying to get a photo of one of the many squirrels that live in our trees but they are a bit elusive.  This one was quite intent on nibbling something in the grass so, with a bit of tiptoeing and the aid of a little zooming in, this is the closest I could get.

Yet again, I am going round the bend.  Even though you have seen this bend before it is from a different angle.  I like to shake things up a little.

Birds are also tricky to photograph. I have a Fuji digital camera that has a good zoom on it but it is a little too cumbersome to carry round the countryside.  I have spent many a warm evening sat in my garden waiting for something to walk or fly into my path so I can capture a close up. This thrush was singing away and I have done the best I can to show its beauty to you.

The cuckoo has been very vocal these past few days.  Considering they lay their eggs in other birds' nests to be brought up with the other fledglings, you would think they would be a little more discreet about it.

 

 

 

 

Thursday 19th May 2016

The best thing about living in the country is the ever-changing view.  By that, I mean the scenery changes each season. The crops peeping through are a vibrant green in the summer, changing to a waving crop of golden corn in the summer, to the ploughed fields of autumn showing such neat rows of the rich red brown earth of Herefordshire, finally the winter could be brown, or have little spikes of green showing through, iced with frost or covered in snow or even drowning in a lake, something that has happened far too much the last few years. Due to rotation of crops there are further changes with maybe potatoes, wheat or spring barley visible from my bathroom window.

I have fond memories of my grandfather's farm where the fields had beautiful poppies and many other wild flowers such as campion, trefoil and cowslips round the edge of the field, something that is not popular with farmers today but as a child it was magical, I can also vaguely remember the corn was made into stooks that were carefully stacked into eight before the advent of balers - I'm not that old it's just that technology has advanced in such a short space of time. I've found a photo to show what I mean

As I was in a reflective mood, I decided to go across the fields again as the nettles and thistles are growing fast so it will no longer be a pleasant walk until either the crops are cut or the verge dies down. In addition, one of the fields has had a tractor working in there the last few days and I wanted to see what he was up to.

It began to rain before I set off and I remembered my brother-in-law gave me a waterproof gaiters so I dusted them off and popped them on.  I'm so glad I did, not only did they keep my trousers dry; it protected me from the nettles and thistles on the way as shown by the sort of selfie in the first photo. 

The next image shows the bright green I was aiming for, with the second showing the footpath with the main part of the field to the right.  It looks a little like just the grass had been allowed to grow and then cut; it certainly smelled like newly mown grass but greatly intensified. That farmer owns an anaerobic digester and they grow crops to add to it, perhaps that's where this went.

The last photo is coming back across the bridge over the stream, a place I just have to stop every time. The bridge before this one had a stile each end - a bit of a challenge, particularly when the whole thing started to list to one side.  The new bridge is nice and solid with just rails each side, open ends and this ever-changing stream running underneath.

 

 

Wednesday 18th May 2016

We are still experiencing sudden, heavy rainstorms so, after lunch I nipped out while the sun was shining, as shown in the first photo.  I was very pleased to see a couple of horses as a few fields down, some of my favourite animals.  I think he was going to come and say hello or 'what do you think you are doing?'

The third photo I actually took last but this was the contrast when I was coming back.  In just a short time, the sky had changed and I made it just before the next storm.

The cow parsley is now nearly as tall as I am; I love it when the verge is all big and blowsy except when trying to see if anything is coming when driving out on to the road. It used to eventually be cut down to make the roads safer to use, both for pedestrians and traffic but cuts in budgets seems to be the excuse not to do this now, under the guise of saving the wildflowers. They are quite tough; they would survive just one cut a year.

Nestled in the flowers are two brand new boxes that enable us to get fibre broadband at last.  It is only the cost that now prohibits us!  They stuck out when first put in but are now blending in with the foliage.