Just photos – no particular theme
An overnight stay on a journey north – it looked a pleasant and quiet place (it was!), in the Forth valley west of Stirling. (I wondered if there might be kippers on the breakfast menu? No – far too corny!). A brief exploration with just the phone camera on a fine sunny evening – just the thing to work up an appetite. Kippen has an interesting history – see Kippen on Wikipedia
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Quiet lanes – apart from the birds. They were singing merrily near Hazel cottage – Merlin says my recording includes chiffchaff, blackbird, thrush, goldcrest, wren and chaffinch. I think his ears are better tuned than mine…
View OS map in Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=367470&Y=298250&A=Y&Z=120
Wandering around the estate a few miles south of Bridgnorth. It’s a varied route – woodland, asparagus fields, parkland and lake, and all very pleasant on this fine afternoon.
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?X=374655&Y=288930&A=Y&Z=120
It’s a fine sunny evening – an hour beside the river at Ironbridge will be perfect for a leg stretch and some fresh air
… and maybe bees? Around this time last year, we walked this way and found a bee orchid, the first we’d ever seen (https://geoffspages.blog/2023/06/08/the-bee-that-did-not-buzz/). Perhaps we can repeat the trick? Perhaps not… There would be some pyramid orchids, surely? Yes, but only a few. I think it was warmer in June ’23. Plenty of other things to see, especially now the wild rose – it’s really in the pink…
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?X=359225&Y=298565&A=Y&Z=120
Just published to Geoff’s Rail Diaries, lots of photos from yesterday’s visit to the Staffordshire railway. Visit “Statfold Scenes” for the full picture
I’ve been at the Statfold Barn Railway in Staffordshire today, and taken far too many photos (as usual). It’ll take a while to sort through them (and certainly not this evening) but here are one or two “tasters”. A “Rail Diaries” page will appear in due course.
Statfold Barn Railway
We’re heading for Shrewsbury (a quick shopping trip) – “we could go before lunch, and have a walk in the woods on Haughmond Hill” (and we could lunch at the café – excellent bacon sandwiches). Shopping? The Oxfam bookshop in Dogpole was possibly the most fruitful bit, certainly the most interesting…
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A fine afternoon in a quiet part of the county – starting from the end of the Hurst Farm lane, we’re heading up Round Hill, down Ned’s Lane and around the Willey loop. We’ll start with the cows – the Round Hill belties – and end with sow thistle and cow parsley…
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?X=367585&Y=297825&A=Y&Z=120
Another blue sky Sunday! It would be good to take a picnic lunch and eat en route – let’s go to Mortimer Forest. We can walk up to High Vinnalls (there’s a bench for our picnic on the way), admire the view, then walk across the top of Hanway Common and drop down to Richard’s Castle.
The picnic place was perfect (only two other walkers passed), the view from High Vinnalls was wonderful. The descent to Richard’s Castle was not on… There’s a herd of cows with young-looking calves in the field we must cross, and one of us had read, just a day ago, of the fate of two walkers trampled in such a field – one killed and the other paralysed. “No!” We’ll retrace our steps to an alternative. The descent of Hanway Common, was pleasant; the sheep and lambs entirely harmless…
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