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…

A Matter of Time

That dark sky threatening our sunny High Street has been rather a feature this week. The sunshine has been blighted with heavy hailstorms and wind. The chilly temperatures have brought frosts and we’ve fleeced up the tiny plants in the polytunnel. Our plot visits have been rather short but I managed to complete the digging in one area - it’s always satisfying to see - it’ll be worked again as that’s where the spuds will be planted in a few weeks.

I’ve hoed and weeded the ‘orchard’ and the raised bed - I’m probably going to put some more herbs in so it’s a full herb garden and I also need to think about using them a bit more… 

At the moment these are growing. I’ll need to keep them trimmed, especially the sage, but it’ll be good if they fill out more.

We’ve sown a small row of carrots (Nantes) and salad leaf in the polytunnel raised beds. The plan is to be harvesting them before the tomatoes/peppers are growing. I’m pleased to say there is room for Jamie and me to shelter in the polytunnel- we’ve needed it this week!

I dug up the row of parsnips from last year - they had regrowth so I wasn’t expecting them to be much good, though they made a pretty good spicy soup - a bit too salty but we have to blame the chef, rather than the veg for that! I’m clearly a bit out of practice.

On Friday we attended a ‘Quiz & Curry Night’ with some allotment buddies. Delicious veg and chick pea curry for the vegetarians. We did reasonably well in the quiz, which was very well attended - fundraising for the Wetland Reserve project, which now has planning permission, so that’s an exciting addition for Hungerford!

Thanks to Forbes for the photo

Can you see us in the photo? We’re the ones waving at Forbes, the photographer 😊. It was a fun evening and we won this marvellous raffle prize of “Greek treats”! And Ivan won the auction for a fabulous hamper of goodies - we’ll be sharing much of that one sunny day soon we hope!

That’s all for now, hoping to get a bit more plot-time over the coming week, which marks 2 months since I retired. I must admit, it doesn’t feel too different (yet), though I have forgotten everything about my job 🤭 The song title is provided by The Killers in acknowledgment of the clocks changing to ‘British Summer Time’ today.

HBDMF

Summer arrived - just for a day, but it was tremendously hot and sunny. So I started my holiday early by taking Friday afternoon off and we enjoyed a lovely barbecue on the plot. It was a good start to my 10-day break where hopefully more of the days are like this…

Than this!

Actually those heavy-looking clouds didn’t produce any rain. That’s fine, we’ve had plenty.. and every time it rains the molluscs turn up and eat our plants 😩 Look at this sad display!

Not a leaf left so now they’ve moved onto the flowers. A few things are getting away with less damage and we managed a tasty salad with a tasty peppery turnip.

And we had our first new potatoes Swift with it. They look good and tasted good but that was from a bag where two seed potatoes were planted so it’s a pathetic harvest - lucky there’s only two of us!!

I ventured beneath the netting on the root vegetable plot last weekend and, once I’d cleared the weeds, I found one (yes one!) parsnip, five salsify and a rather weak couple of rows of carrots - ugh, what a year! The garlic harvest was more successful and dried out in the sunshine. Some bulbs have little additional bulblets, I’m blaming the wet Spring for that.

Now, I must stop moaning! A few bees and butterflies arrived with the sunshine.

And the verbena bonariensis is looking stunning alongside the red of the crocosmia.

Also, our wildlife camera snapped a fox visiting the plot - hooray!

On Saturday a group of us plotholders were given a tour of the site for the Kennet Valley Wetland Reserve which is 40acres of ancient water meadow which we really hope will get planning permission in the next few weeks - it’s literally 5minutes walk from our front door and will be great for us, nature and the town. Exciting!

It’s been a great start to my holiday and yesterday we had a picnic, which included a birthday cake, too much wine and a lot of laughter.

Thanks to the Dropkick Murphys for the fabulous song, though I clearly don’t agree with the sentiment 🥳 it does make me laugh. Enjoy.