Down to the River (to pray)

We’ve had a break from watering whilst staying at the Slimbridge Wetland Reserve for a couple of nights. We were staying in ‘Chiffchaff’; one of five very well equipped shepherd’s huts in Warblers Meadow. Such a lovely spot.

Each hut has its own little pond beside the outdoor seating area. It was hot and sunny so it was wonderful sitting there in the evening shade watching dragon flies, butterflies and moths. I was particularly excited to see this large Jersey Tiger Moth.

Jersey Tiger Moth

We could hear the geese, gulls and an oyster catcher over on the reserve and saw various birds flying over. Our little pond was visited by moorhens with at least two chicks and even a muntjac deer. The first evening we were gifted with a stunning sunset.

We were using the Merlin bird id app to recognise birdsong around us - mostly reed warblers. 

Unfortunately my good camera, with the zoom, not only thinks it’s May 2012, it also struggles to get the correct white balance so this is the best (bad) photo I got of a warbler. 🙄

A reed warbler - probably

And when the birdsong paused it was so quiet - much quieter than home. I opened the door at 5:30am and watched from the bed as the Sun made its way round the corner. Then we got up to enjoy the breakfast bake hamper in the morning glow. Just lovely.

It was delightful and we intend to return. On the first evening we drove to nearby Sharpness to see the docks and the River Severn. What a view.

We had a day walking round the Slimbridge Centre - around the ponds with walkways. The ponds were clearly missing the rain like all of us but the bird life didn’t seem bothered.

Especially as you can buy bags of food for them. We enjoyed feeding the geese - with their pinchy beaks.

Greylag goose

And the pretty flamingos were nice to see. Can’t help thinking of Alice in Wonderland!

Flamingos

Look at the “beautiful plumage” on this Emperor Goose which was in the Arctic Adventure area of the park.

Emperor Goose

Walking around was rather hot and exhausting so it was great to return to our nearby hut. It’ll be nice to return to Slimbridge and go further afield away from the main centre to see the wilder lakes and waterways if possible, though we fear the canoe safari could end in disaster for at least one of us!

After a tiring day we decided to visit a nearby ‘Ship Graveyard’ in Purton. Turned out it involved more walking, along a stretch of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal - much wider than our Kennet and Avon Canal.

The graveyard is where boats and barges were beached in an attempt to prevent erosion of the River Severn banks as this sign explains.

Seeing the hulks in their final resting places was rather poignant, but comforting to see how they’ve grown into the landscape and become part of it.

There were some remains of timber-framed ships above ground further along from where we stopped.

More info about the Graveyard is here.

We had to clear out of the hut by 10am so took the easier motorway route home so we could stop off at the tiny Severn View motorway services. After a coffee we were told there’s a “7 minute walk to the viewing area”. Well, it took a bit longer than that, uphill in the wind and Sun with already aching legs, but I think it was worth the walk - “if you like bridges” Jamie adds here. Well, luckily I do! 😊

The suspension bridge was opened in 1966 by the Queen - coincidentally the year I was born which is why we enjoyed this Birthday trip 🥳 Before the bridge, access was by ferry. There’s a newer bridge now, but this is the Severn Bridge I always think of.

The song title is sung by Alison Krauss - no-one was praying on our little break, but it’s such a lovely song and a great scene in the film 🙂

And now I should get moving to see how our allotment fared in our absence. Still no rain…

Heat Waves

Oh, I know I’ve moaned a lot about the weather over the last 6 months or so; too cold, too wet, too windy but the last 3 days really have been too hot! Even for me, a Sun worshipper. The early mornings are so beautiful and not too exhausting to carry watering cans around.

A few of us had an early-ish session on the roundabout on Sunday morning, before it got too sweltering.

It’s just about complete now, though Nia wants to fill a few spots. There are two outside rings of seed - calendula and cornflower. We’re away for a couple of weeks soon so I hope when we return it’ll be a mass of flowers… it would be helpful to have a few downpours.

We waited for storms yesterday; we could hear thunder nearby but it seems that a fierce storm emptied all the rain over Wiltshire and didn’t reach Berkshire, at least not Hungerford - shame, but the building clouds were impressive.

Watering is an unavoidable chore at the moment, the tomatoes are happy in the polytunnel but germination of our beans seems slow (nearly 2 weeks, though we’ve now seen that some have germinated but not appeared above ground yet). We decided to buy some dwarf bean and runner bean plants yesterday. If the sowed beans also grow then that’ll be a bonus. It feels like there’s too much bare earth showing at the moment, but it is only May so I think I’m being impatient.

The runner bean plants we bought are Painted Lady which are a red and white flowered variety.  As it happens we’ve just started seeing Painted Lady butterflies on site, they’re very pretty and quite large but I haven’t managed to get a photo yet. I did capture this lovely Small Copper butterfly that was in the polytunnel. Wasps will eat them if they stay in there so we always release them.

And this impressive male thick-legged flower beetle was on one of the perennial pot plants - it eats pollen so doesn’t cause any damage. No points for guessing how he got his name!

There are masses of bees and other flying insects about. They really love the purple thyme flowers but this bumblebee was determined to get something from this pretty poppy.

We’ve been waiting to see the great tits fledge - the parents have been so attentive. Taking turns to take grubs and caterpillars back to their nest in that storage area. They’ve not minded us working around them. The great tit is in that photo.

Here’s a little video where the parent flapping its wings seems to be encouraging the young to exit but then the other parent takes some food down to the nest. When we went back in the afternoon there was no sight of them so it seems we missed the little ones actually fledging, but it’s been nice watching the parents over the last few weeks.

The flower plot is looking pretty with pink verbascum, white valerian, blue Nigella and red poppies providing scent and colour. 

These wild poppies are so delicate and pretty but the flowers don’t last a day. Other seedlings are emerging but no flowers yet.

We were amazed to see that the remains of the tagetes French marigolds which were completely frosted and brown have actually re-grown! Good job I was lazy and didn’t bother pulling them! I definitely thought they were dead. 

Monday was incredibly hot - the hottest May Day on record, it was certainly about 32/33° on the plot and Jamie and I had a barbecue <phew>. We did start quite late in the afternoon and stayed till the Sun was about to set. It was so lovely, mostly staying in the shade and just enjoying the lovely warmth in between cooking.

I lay on the grass at one point, it was quite nice and cooling and provides a different view of the world, although it was rather itchy. Aah, just look at that beautiful blue sky.

My next post will probably be about Tenerife, unless something dramatic happens during our final plot visits this week….

The song title is thanks to The Glass Animals as the heatwave continues. 

Something got me Started

It's been a very blustery couple of weeks - with another named storm (Kathleen) passing by but the strong winds helped to dry off the land a bit to make weeding a bit more feasible. There's still a lot to do though!

Other plots are looking a lot more ready than ours but we'll get there - in fact, the site was looking rather lovely as the Sun was slipping away yesterday. We have just one empty plot left at the moment - a bit different from this time 8years ago where I recorded that we have 50poles empty! We're celebrating 15years of the site this month.

Other celebrations have been going on in Hungerford over the last two weeks too. Hocktide celebrations included decorated trees with flags and ribbons in the town. Here's our HAHA tree (a pollarded tree is quite hard to decorate!); the man who lives nearby came out while we were decorating it and said he was looking forward to having a stew 😀 But the veg was still there last time I looked!

And this weekend the 'Constable's Parade' was held. HAHA opted for a less-traditional participation which caused much amusement. Drawing attention to the allotment in an unusual way but also interest was gathered for the Horticultural Show planned for later in the year.

We had a celebration of our own when Ivan brought some wine and we had a little picnic though it did get rather cold so we made good use of the fleece before wrapping up the strawberries 😆

And while we were sitting there we saw the first two swallows of the year on the site! So we decided that two swallows must make it Summer, but it really didn't feel like it. Hoping the fleece will save these little flowers from the frost risk this week - it would be nice if they could survive to become our first strawberry treat of the year!

Last weekend we thoroughly weeded the strawberry bed but the bindweed has started re-appearing already.

Saturday was warmer than Sunday, especially when I was clearing out the polytunnel so we now have our inner greenhouse up for the seeds to start off. There were so many bees, flies and ladybirds in there but also snails on nearly everything I moved and so many ants nests! It was a good weekend for insect spotting with several orange tip, brimstones and peacock butterflies flitting by and I added an Ashy Mining Bee update to my Wildlife blog. Also the little froggie in our pond even stayed above water for long enough to be photographed. He's definitely sharing the space with a few tadpoles.

Oh, and exciting news! Our new tiny cherry tree has it's first blossom and the pear and apple have leaves appearing. Talking of trees, here's our hazel sapling which I planted up after a squirrel had left a hazelnut in the ground at least 3 years ago.

All-in-all the weather has been decidedly April-y and we've had a fun start. And this morning Jamie has sowed our first seed - a Zucchini courgette to grow in a pot, initially in the polytunnel and then to be moved outside. Simply Red provide the song for getting started - yay! Go on, have a little dance, it's Springtime.

Home

I'm on my final lunchbreak of 2023 - breaking up for Christmas in a couple of hours! 

It's not like it used to be - no driving home for Christmas (no, not that song) because I'm already home.

I just need to pack away my laptop and sit back down. With 3 days to go I must admit that I'm not feeling very Christmassy. Maybe it's the weather - it's been a very damp December so far and it's rather warm and windy today.

We've had a few December visits to the allotment - it's not very inviting, but we've pulled some great parsnips and we bought 3 tiny fruit trees - here's the Thompson & Morgan photo.

And here's the real thing 😆 I'm sure they'll be fine in a few months! They have buds already but they're waiting in the polytunnel.

The broad beans and garlic have sprouted which are welcome signs for next year. Yesterday marked the Winter Solstice so we're on our way to Spring now 😏

At each plot visit recently we've seen flocks of (probably) redwings - a regular Winter migrant. They don't stay still for long and have proved tricky to photograph.

Anyway, back to work (I think everyone else has already gone!). Have a Happy Christmas!

This jolly song is brought to you by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros!