More flooding in the Welland valley

No, no, I'm not litter picking today

I'll just take a walk down to the Welland, and maybe come back tomorrow...but the verges have been cut and there is a bit of trash! Not as much as I have seen before, and I'm really not going looking - I'm only wearing sandals, and i haven't brought my picker or a bag. So some things were definitely out of reach.

I end up with several flattened drinks cans and one or two shredded ones, a couple of flattened plastic bottles and a few crisp packets, plus one broken Budweiser bottle and one that's intact. All put in the litter bin, rather than carried home to sort.

There is a spot near the bridge where comfrey was in flower, attracting several bees. I also saw damsel flies, and a small tortoiseshell butterfly. It flew away when a car drove by, so no photo today.

Bluebells and more

We go to see the bluebells in Barnsdale woods again. The sun is sulking behind the clouds. The trees are showing shades of new green,  yet the wind blows chill.  Summer's almost here, but she's forgotten something.

In the air above the grassy slopes are the first swifts I've seen this year, diving and swooping.

Blackthorn trees, their blossoms beginning to brown, as close by the creamier pink tinged hawthorn flowers are taking over.

Over the cattle grid into the woodland. By the path a few bluebells, mixed with cowslips and pink campion, and now the blue mist and the sweet smell as we walk deeper into the wood.

On our left the ground slopes down to the water - trees stand knee deep, like mangroves out of their comfort zone - of course they're willows.   We walk past memorial benches,  fallen trees,  tepee-shaped stacks of branches.

Birds sing. People walk, talk and cycle.  In a car park fishermen are putting their gear into a van - N29 FLY.  It crawls past us as we climb the hill.

Up there is a bench I haven't seen before.  And an orchard, planted for the Diamond Jubilee and open by "HM" the Lord Lieutenant of Rutland - in honour of "HRH" Queen Elizabeth.  Is this a red plot hatched by crazy egalitarians?

We walk down the grassy slope, back to the woods.  Stop to look, take photographs, even though the sunlight is still AWOL.

Woodland turns to grass, and here the air is thick with dancing midges - I swallow one, then disguise myself as a Western outlaw, with a handkerchief round nose and mouth, tied dashingly behind my ears.
Where are the swifts?

As we begin the drive home the sky turns blue and five miles later the sun comes out.

Yes, we have sunlight

Today is the first really bright day since we returned on Sunday, so we went for a short wander by Rutland Water, with a coffee break at l'Oliveto, near the fishing lodge.

human and landscape

A stone cockerel, chunky rather than delicate, and apparently wearing wellies, sits on a chimney pot not far from the garden wall.  We almost miss him as we wander by.

Two tree stumps, carved into mushrooms, stand in leaf litter near the water’s edge. One of the felled trees lies nearby. An art project linked to conservation? Is this a habitat for insects with added humour for humans?

The Old Hall, out on a limb at the waterside for the last forty years – we can hardly believe it’s lived in, but there is a car – plans to squat will have to be put on hold.

A stone woman stands in the back garden of a magnificent house. The track beside the lake allows us to be peeping toms – it’s a cold day to stand there in all your naked glory, even if you are made of stone.

Then the rain begins, and the red and white outsized umbrella comes into its own – a splash of colour on a drear day.

humankind

shapes the landscape

and still it rains






This is based on a recent walk .

bluebells and birdsong

The bluebells are not yet in full blue bloom, but they’re close. Wet weather has damped down the scent, but it’s just about perceptible. In a week there’ll be a tide swell of blue on the hillside by the water. Early evening after a sun-warmed day shows them at their best.

The rain has brought a sharpness to the bird-song today. We hear a bird singing a tune, almost a recognizable tune. He sings it over and over. The only bird we see is a great tit. Later a chaffinch perches on a twig singing loud and clear. They are not the only songsters, merely the most striking.

rain enlivens
colours and sounds
but we stay dry

We're thrilled that we have avoided a soaking. One swift shower blows over in minutes. 

caution
can be overrated
a wet banket

on your bike

bike round the water

new lagoons are promising

a lapwing flies by

Rutland Water

reservoir walk

sun, sails and mist

my inland sea

photos when I've upped the capacities of this blog :-(

London aquarium visit - 2

London aquarium visit

j

This drinking lark is a serious business!

I love the patterns on the rays.

Going back a year and a bit

In her blog Mille Fiori Favoriti Pat has featured the Brooklyn Bridge Park, which should be two thirds completed by 2013.

I walked along there in April last year, and met Leonie for a picnic lunch at the Manhattan Bridge end.

Photos with my old Fujifilm A303 camera, before it stopped working.  It was not underused!

And one or two family photos from around Easter 2010 as well:

Easter Sunday at Coney Island

Lepe Beach

My third or fourth visit to Lepe, and I didn't realise the connection to the D-Day landings in Normandy

Some of the remaining structures

The joy of sorting stones

Shame the sea is on a slope!

Marbled white butterflies in the wildflower/ conservation area, and lots of different wildflowers, then yellow poppies on the shingle

Rain

Of the softly dripping constant variety - just what the thirsty soil and plants needed.  Then we had a brief very heavy downpour late in the evening.

Above the Water on foot

On Monday 30 March

The merry band of walkers hit the 'summit' of Mill Hill (not as I thought earlier Ranksborough Hill). In the background are clouds, not, alas, distant mountains.

with a distant view of Rutland Water.

Water

Once again the Welland is full of water. Spreading out into pools, no longer snake-fragments along the valley floor, all the way from the viaduct to Stamford, there are new lakes, and in Stamford itself the river is almost level with the land.

And still snow patches linger in the hedge bottoms and on some sunless fields. They're shrinking fast as the temperature reaches dizzy heights - well 9 degrees Celsius.

Good vibrations....meme

A meme from moondreamer...Five ways to 'raise your vibrations' (aside from operating a pneumatic drill?)



Walking, always walking - in the countryside, in the hills, in the city, on my own with a camera, with friends, with family. This is a picture from today's walk.

Swimming - We usually go once a week - I love the water, and the way swimming feels like gliding. If it's warm enough I especially like swimming outside, in the sea, or a lake.

Travelling from place to place, preferably with no timetable to keep to, on my own or with others. I like driving or taking public transport. Once we cycled and camped for two weeks. I think Bruce Chatwin was right - we are a nomadic species.

Reading and writing - for the escape from the everyday.

Watching Mastermind and University Challenge - though why they make me feel good is a mystery. I can't answer many questions.

There are other things which I do from time to time, like knitting, making bits of patchwork, and I really should start playing the keyboard and weaving again. Hey, I haven't mentioned surfing the internet either.

I'm going to tag Rich Sampson

Floods in the Welland valley

The River Welland is high today, as it was in January last year. We turned back rather than take the car through a flooded patch of road.

A bit later we were diverted near Rutland Water where the new Oakham bypass seems to have been built along the flood plain - not the Welland. We walked at Rutland Water, which has been fairly full recently - a change from the last couple of years.

By the time we returned near the viaduct it was too late to take photos, so I'm posting one from last year. Normally the river follows its narrow course, but the valley is wide and floods regularly as water drains from further upstream. It looks spectacular, but it's not a place to build houses.