19 June: After a couple of rainy days, it looks as though the evening should stay dry. The paths we’ve trodden in recent weeks will be very muddy – we’ll have a wander along the quiet lanes around Willey and The Smithies.
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We walked this way at the end of May – today we’re retracing our steps. Last night’s rain has left the air humid – it feels quite warm in the sunshine, and there’s a chance (once again) of thundery showers. Under the trees (no shortage of them up here) it’s cooler, and very pleasant for a leisurely stroll.
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Years ago, they were very common. More recently, we seem to have seen more painted ladies and commas, with a smattering (fluttering?) of peacocks and red admirals. This year, the small tortoiseshells are out en masse, raiding the plentiful bramble blossom (and presumably ensuring a good crop of blackberries later in the year).
Once again, the thunder is rumbling in the distance, over Bridgnorth – we’d better get back before it comes any closer.
… and showers? Not this afternoon, we hope; later maybe. It’s too warm and humid for anything energetic – the ascent of Ned’s Lane, on the woodland fringe, is quite enough.
We almost set off for a walk – but heard distant thunder as we got out of the car, and changed our minds. A minute or two later, we realised we’d had a close shave when it began to pour.
We drove on, sitting for a while to watch the rain at Morville, before continuing, hoping for a break in the clouds. It came a few minutes after we pulled up in Shirlett Lane, allowing us to enjoy a brief leg-stretch and views of the passing storm. It hadn’t passed very far – just a couple of miles away, we had a taste of what we could have enjoyed on the walk, as we ran for the front door on arriving home…
The other road at Shirlett: a short walk down the lane and through the woods to the redundant trig. point on Hawthorn Bank, and a fine view to the Clee hills.
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Just look at the weather! Rain last night, more forecast for this evening. Between, leaden skies, but at least it’s dry. The distance is hazy – we’ll concentrate on what’s close by. The spring display is over, replaced by summer’s foliage, and in the sloes and blackberry flowers are reminders that autumn will come – but not just yet…
A short walk with the camera, after a welcome little drop of rain earlier in the day. There are one or two rather fine thistles coming into flower, and there’s some woody nightshade down by Dean Farm. Nearer home, the bindweed is beginning to flower.
The heavy clouds threaten rain, and one or two spots appear on the windscreen as we drive the couple of miles to our parking place. They continue to threaten as we walk, but no more spots. The fields could do with more than a few spots – tomorrow perhaps?
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A walk around the mosses… It’s a peat bog, and just a few hundred years ago it was a raised bog, which has since collapsed as a result of drainage and peat-cutting. There are paths and tracks on and across the bog, but it’s not wise to stray from acknowledged routes – there are some very wet places, not all of them obvious. We’re walking around the perimeter, more or less, before exploring some of the waymarked routes into the bog. Within that perimeter it’s a different world – very quiet, very few people around (we passed just one other person walking, in eight miles). There’s the distinctive call of a curlew, and the tick-tick of chats – is that a whinchat there? – reminds us we’re not completely alone. There are views to faint distant hills, but the near and middle horizon is a flat one, interspersed with the odd tree, and forests around the periphery. It feels rather strange, on setting off home, to drive back into reality.
Natural England: Shropshire’s National Nature Reserves
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