They were just beginning to come into bloom last time we walked this way, just a fortnight ago – we thought a check was in order. They’re not at their best yet, but coming along nicely. The sunshine was warm enough to persuade an orange tip butterfly to pose for us – but only for one photo…
Not that we felt the cold – we arrived at Cosford just minutes before Tornado. Hauling “The Red Rose” from London Victoria, it was stopping to drop off visitors to the RAF Museum. Soon it was away again, accelerating quickly with its 11-coach train, and making a fine sight despite the sleety rain.
Murky too! Not a day for the hills, and it’s wet underfoot. The paths at Attingham Park are well-maintained – we can get a leg-stretch there. Many others have had a similar idea, though they’ve thinned out considerably by the time we reach the far perimeter. There are some attractive reflections in the Tern, and there’s some wonderful bracket fungus on a tree near the entrance. It’s still there when we return…
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=355090&Y=310136&A=Y&Z=120
…but bright and sunny – we’ll have a leg-stretch, but we’d better avoid the hill tops. We follow the lane down to the Severn valley, which is well-sheltered, but mostly in the shade…
It’s a steam-hauled excursion from Bristol to Chester and back, hauled by the reliable pair of Black 5s 44871 and 45407. It was running around 40 minutes late when we saw it near Craven Arms, but going very nicely… For more (admittedly very similar) photos visit “Christmas Cheshireman” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries
We’re having a wander around Attingham Park. It’s dry and bright this afternoon (though breezy and chilly), and there’s a wonderful crop of pumpkins (some of them bearing messages) in the walled garden. There’s a rather fine colony of little pale toadstools on a stump in the woods, not to mention a large wooden frog.
Too warm for anything very energetic… A wander around Attingham Park, focusing on the colour in the walled garden.
Beside the Severn in Shropshire: a brief visit to Buildwas abbey, and a stroll along the river bank near Cressage.
We needed a leg-stretch – down to Coalport, perhaps, for tea and a piece of that rather-nice choc chip shortbread they sell at the youth hostel… There’s colour in the field edges and the hedgerows, but beyond, the landscape is in its grey mid-summer mode on this warm afternoon. We’ll concentrate on the flora, mostly…
Day 1 of the “Cambrian Coast Express” tour: it was to have been hauled by “Flying Scotsman”, but in the event, 46599 “Galatea” hauled the train between Paddington and Shrewsbury. We’d better go and see it, though there probably won’t be much visible steam on a warm day like this. Having see the large red engine pass (five minutes early), we headed north (ish) to Woodseaves, near Market Drayton – it’s a “garden plant centre”, and has a rather splendid 7.25″ gauge railway (quite the other end of the scale…). The little green diesel “Sydney” was in charge when we arrived, but “Jean” was soon in steam – so we had two trips around the interesting layout – one hauled by Syd and the other behind Jean. We met the toad shortly after Galatea had hurried past; the aquilegia which came home with us will join several others (which invited themselves) in the garden.
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