Settling in to our gite in May (see https://geoffspages.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/a-week-in-france/), we switched on the TV, hoping we might find a weather forecast. Remarkably, the very first item, on the first programme we tuned, was on David Austin Roses, of Albrighton, Shropshire, England… They’re practically on our doorstep – perhaps we should pay a visit.

Describing themselves as “Breeders of the English rose, specialist growers of old, shrub, species, climbing and modern roses”, there are more roses in the beautifully laid-out display gardens than a rank amateur can possibly comprehend. Rows and rows of them. So there are no captions for the pictures below, which are merely a (fairly poor, it has to be said) attempt to capture the flavour of the place. Speaking of which, the tea rooms were pretty good too…

David Austin Roses website

A pleasant mid-evening wander at The Yeld,  on the western slopes of Brown Clee. The thunderstorms and torrential rain we’d had during the morning had passed – up here there was little sign of bad weather. I suppose the sheep did seem cleaner and whiter than usual…

The map below includes the logical extension of this walk to the hill fort at Nordy Bank – there wasn’t time on this occasion.

It was the Brownhills Canal Festival 2012 today – a pleasant way to pass an hour or so. We thought the deep-sea diver was rather good – not just a clever generator of double takes, he actually could sing and play the (?) mandolin rather well.

http://brownhillscanalfestival.wordpress.com/

A great spotted woodpecker decided to grace our garden with his presence earlier this evening – spent long enough on the nuts for me to get out the video camera and tripod. Filmed through the kitchen window…

Perhaps Sunday might be a bit better? It wasn’t. There was some dry weather around – but also some very heavy showers. Driving north on Blakey Ridge, the road was dry, and there was a hint of sunshine – but down to our left, Farndale was getting a bit of a shower. We drove into it a mile or two further on, though it dried up sufficiently to let us get into the tea room in Rosedale Abbey a little while later…

We were staying in Yorkshire over the weekend – trying to avoid the showers (and later, the flooded roads) – not easy. A visit to Bempton, to view the seabirds, seemed like a good idea, though I had left the longer lenses at home. Not that it mattered too much – the birds are, in places, very close. I think they’re used to having their pictures taken. Bempton is home to Britain’s largest mainland colony of gannets, apparently, with thousands of pairs nesting precariously on the vertical chalk cliffs (along with various gulls, guillemots, puffins et al.)

See http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/b/bemptoncliffs for more.