March 31st 2014

 

Swanborough Tump. A 3 foot high lump of stone by a lane in the middle of the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire. And yet according to the legend on the adjacent concrete marker, here in 871AD, King Alfred met his brother Aethelred  enroute to a bit of a fisticuffs with the Danes and in doing so wrote his will thus....

 

From King Alfred's will (translated into modern English):

But it came to pass that we [Alfred and Aethelred] by all the heathen folk [the Danes] despoiled were. Then discoursed we concerning our children that they would need some support to be given by us out of these estates, as to us was given. Then were we in council at Swinbeorg; when we two declared, in the West-Saxon nobles' presence, that which soever of us two were longest liver, that he should give to the other's children those lands that we two ourselves had acquired, and those lands that Athuf the king gave to us two while Aethelbolde was living; except those that he to us three brothers bequeathed. And of this, each of us two to the other his security did give, that whether of us two should live longest, he should take both to the land and to the treasures; and to all his possessions, except that part, which either of us to his children should bequeath.

 

A decisive moment in that it began the process of uniting England something Alfred would begin but not see accomplished. It's timely that I passed this stone this afternoon as tomorrow I'm off to see some Vikings myself.

March 30th 2014

 

As can be seen from these two photographs a busy day in the garden today; but let me tell you about Lulworth Cove.

 

Somehow in the hour between having breakfast and discussing the need to work in the garden plus spring clean the house, 11am arrived and we were to be found on the A303 heading to the seaside in glorious spring sunshine; the planning of the day had gone slightly awry. Actually what had gone awry were two single children of middle aged girth, both Aries, who have a hatred of everything domicile especially when the sun blazes down from above and the clocks had sprunged-forth giving an ETA for sundown at 8pm. British Summertime is here. A break in the journey at the Udder Farm Shop confirmed it was also Mothers Day gauging by the plethora of floribunda carrying ankle biters. Cake and tea consumed we alighted at Lulworth Cove as the tide was on the rise. East Dorset is not a great favourite of mine being just a hop skip and a jump from the Poole-Bournemouth wastelands, however today a silken sea lapping on the pearl white pebbles of the cove gave it an almost Mediterranean feel. I became intrigued by the ripple effect of sunlight on submerged pebbles as the tide ebbed and flowed and spent a fair few moments trying to capture the beauty of the natural world around us. If ever there was a perfect antidote to housework, Lulworth Cove today was that medication.

March 29th 2014

 

I've heard about this problem in studies conducted with modern society and their inability to cope without the distraction of technological conveniences, initially at least. As I've mentioned earlier one of the things I'm doing whilst on leave is keeping well away from online services apart from this daily blog post. Too much time spent online, thus logic tells me that I'll have new improved additional time to do the things I've always said I never have time to do. Well only 24 hours into the experiment and I'm struggling. So much have online distractions become a part of my every day life that without them I've become twitchy and a bit bad tempered and don't want to do anything. I can't think straight, I'm adrift.

 

Take the above image. For ages now every Saturday I post a photo of whichever coffee house I end up in. Why I started this or why I continue to do this is anyone's guess. Today it was our usual haunt, Mipo at Planks Farm Shop near Devizes. Photo duly taken at our preferred table, number 10, then what? I can't post it on Facebook, I'm not allowed on there. I still took the photograph though, that was automatic, yet my vehicle for expression has ceased to be. Later on in the day I could be found pacing the house hinterland like a sore bear with a head. I tried reading, I tried many things but they didn't distract me. Worrying, deeply worrying that all too soon my withdrawal symptoms are producing negative emotional effects. I think every study I have read into this social experimentation (such as banning TV for a month in a community) has concluded that after the lost cause phase, in a day or so the individual come out of this malaise and regains the ability to interact with other people.  I hope so because this is driving me mad. I just hadn't realised how much Facebook and Twitter not only use up precious time in the day but drive my entire thinking at times. I think Orwell was correct in his assumption that the machines take over eventually. Unplug me please.

March 28th 2014

 

When I first thought about this day it seemed a very long time ago. Back in November 2013 I was at a pretty low ebb. 2013 had been a bruiser of a year what with one thing and another and by the end of the year I knew both mentally and physically I was in a mess, or as people bizarrely say these days 'I was in a dark place'. What does that mean? Haven't paid the electric bills? Joined a Black Sabbath reunion forum? I know for me I was above everything else mentally drained and at absolute zero. It needed a remedy, and so in early December I broached with my manager the notion of having April off, partly as a present to myself reaching 50. It was agreed and with Easter and the May Day Bank Holiday in the mix, I'd leave work on the 28th March and return on May 6th.

 

So here I am. March 28th has arrived. I worked at home today and so as I closed the lid of the laptop at 5pm I knew I'd not be involved with work for 38 days. The longest break while working ever (excluding being a mature student in the early 1990's); as someone who left school aged 16 and 2 months to work full time, those 34 years working have left me feeling quite tired.  Computer off, a quick dash to the Co-Op in Pewsey for some emergency comestibles for supper, home and open a bottle of one of my favourite tipples to celebrate 38 days. During this time my only involvement with the internet is going to be this blog. I spend too much time looking at a computer screen, both for work and at home. It's not healthy, it's not real life, its just nuts really. Yes it has its advantages but it is a form of distraction behaviour, no one is there, real life is what happens outside, not in a virtual world. Thus with Twitter and Facebook mothballed, emails suspended from my Blackberry, my only foray into the world of virtual reality will be here. Let there be light. Cheers!

March 27th 2014

 

At my age it's downhill to the pipe and slippers apparently! While in the office today I was surprised by an early (5 days early) Birthday gift from colleagues. As a whisky drinker this bottle of English Whisky was a wonderful idea. Norfolk is known as the whisky capitol of the Western World, maybe not. However this is the only English distilled whisky on the market. Up in Northumberland there is another whisky called the Black Rory based on the illicit stills along the upper Coquet Valley, however this is distilled by Glenmorangie for the English Market.  I shall look forward to tippling Norfolks' finest. And then there's the present of the pipe - I mentioned ages ago I'd once smoked a pipe, the sort of thing one tried as a 14 year old. Today I now own a pipe. Wonderful, especially as the 'baccy' supplied with it is a whisky flavoured brand with a wonderful aroma. Hopefully I shall receive new slippers on April 1st and all will be set for a photograph to end all photographs.

 

Ohh and I forgot, it's Julie's birthday today - many happy returns pet!

March 26th 2014

After a chaotic and busy day it is always good to relax with friends. I don't have this many friends, rather this grainy picture of the BBC Bristol Bar was taking while chatting to the old guard here. By old guard I mean anyone aged over 40. The media is a young persons game and tonight was yet another farewell event for a colleague 'early' retiring at 54, although bizarrely this was the official leaving event for Alan Baker my first manager and Film Librarian. In February I attended his last official in the office day with his team. Tonight was for the whole Bristol site to wish him Bon Voyage. As 6 of the old guard stood pontificating the old days I looked across this sea of humanity and knew 3 people. Tempest fugit dear boy, Tempest fugit. 

March 25th 2014

Tweet of the Day was a light bulb moment about 18 months ago. In a radio development meeting someone, and for the life of me I can not recall who, suggested a play of the words for the micro blogging site Twitter and bird call Tweets. Could we Tweet a Tweet each day. The idea then was to only put something out as a Tweet on Twitter, but after submission and discussion with Radio 4 commissioners on May 6th 2013 the first ever Tweet of the Day hit the Radio4 schedules at 05.58 precisely. The first ever was of the male cuckoo, that harbinger of spring and cascade of letters to the Times from a Mr Trellis of Sutton Benger.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s6y1h

Today almost a year later I saw the first pre-production copy of the accompanying book written by colleague Brett Westwood and ex colleague Stephen Moss. It is an excellent book which I've watch develop from embryonic copy in the autumn and will be available to the public on April 10th. I even find my name in the back acknowledgements something I am now getting used to as an infrequent contributor to wildlife tomes. Maybe then in Tweet terms, I am forever the best man and never the groom.

March 24th 2014

Unison pastels are possibly the Rolls Royce chalk pastels and today as an early Birthday present I gave this box of 18 to Julie. Made in Northumberland by the grandmother of a former work colleague of mine these pastel chalks are made from natural pigments. From a small business by an artist looking for the quality and texture for his own needs the company now manufactures over half a million individual sticks a year. They are still made by hand and are mixed to the original recipe, based on traditional pigments such as cadmiums, cobalts and natural and synthetic earths. Even in photographic form they look good, but legend has it from the recipient they are wonderful to use.

March 23rd 2014

Sometimes it is the unexpected that brings me the greatest sense of life is good and people are better. We were on a drive back from the Vale of Pewsey today and just past the hamlet of Lockeridge this creative work of the woodsman caught my eye. I've seen this a lot around this part of Wiltshire, which presumably is the signature of a local tree surgeon. A line of conifers had been felled alongside the road of which a few of the stumps had been carved into toadstools. I like this, I like this a lot, bringing artistic sculptures into the job of a craftsman. It brings joy to what is in essence a destructive task. I hope they remain here for many a year to come. Good work whoever you are.

March 22nd 2014

Woodpigeons have a bad press; numbers increasing to the point where they are a major pest to the agricultural sector. But I like woodpigeons. As a boy I remember finding a ramshackled nest in an alder tree alongside a river in Northumberland and there within 2 ivory white eggs, stone cold but unmarked. The nest itself seemed not much more than a fall of twigs from the branches above caught in a fork but a nest it was. ever since then the coo of a pigeon has reminded me of that day. So it was a thrill to notice Mrs Woodpigeon has started to sit on eggs in the silver birch at the bottom of our garden. So a lean out the bedroom window and take a photograph moment followed. Later in the day the wind picked up and the tree was swaying well, which reminds me, if I needed reminding, how vulnerable nests and eggs are at this time, the incubating female too. A huge investment to keep the next generation safe. 

March 21st 2014

Richard  Jefferies was arguably the most important writer of the English countryside there has ever been. His influence down the decades has been immense with writers like Henry Williamson, Edward Thomas and Robert MacFarlane all suggesting their writing is as a result of his works. The view above is Coate Farmhouse, his boyhood home and from where he wandered the fields and hills of this area of Wiltshire. Sadly most of the area he loved so much is this year being turned over to building land and so it was with a certain irony that today I attended the first AGM of the newly re-formed Jefferies Museum Trust, of which I have been honoured to be asked to be a trustee. I'm so thrilled and excited to be involved with this new venture, to actually be a small cog in a much larger machine which will eventually transform this wonderful asset into a museum of joy and exploration for everyone who loves the outdoors. Big changes ahead, thus as a record then, just before I went into the meeting this snap of the original farmhouse on a wonderful spring day to remind me the journey really begins here, as did many of Jefferies own journeys.

March 20th 2014

 

As I sat in the BBC Club bar having a screen break this image came to mind, a summation of my daily life, a tea and a kit-kat moment away from the screen.  I wonder how many disposable cups I have used in the 20 years at the BBC? At least these are compostable paper versions, previously they were Styrofoam. In the office we were talking about the new comedy on television last night W1A with is a parody of life at the BBC. Or it is meant to be. Those of use as insiders worry it is a bit too close to the truth, a bit too much of a documentary with the odd pastiche moment thrown in, rather than a fictional account of this mighty organisation. It is so true to the mark as to be almost as if some gigantic webcam had been installed with the resulting footage edited together without script. As if to add to my thoughts on W1A as the kit-kat went south, a couple of 'youth' BBC types walked by and said;

 

Y1 "yeah well like you know it's good to get out like you know and take some images like coz this digital stuff is all about content you know"

 

Y2 "Yeah it's so cool how that happens - do they do coffee here"

 

Wise words from one so young.

 

 

March 19th 2014

The question I often ask myself is why do we buy a book on impulse? I don't mean the purchase of a book on a topic we are interested in anyway, but a completely random buy. What is it about one book that attracts the reader. Take the above book as an example. I have just bought it. I have no idea what it is about other than quickly reading the back cover. Never heard of the author and found that while heading into a book shop to purchase Dickens Pickwick Papers, this fell off the shelf into my lap.

So what made me buy it? I'm interested in Paganism, so this title drew me to it. I liked the cover illustration (countryside and corvids) and the fictional village whence this is set Nether Monkslip caught my eye. In simplistic terms then I purchased this book as it ticked a few boxes in my comfort zone. Maybe that is the answer, simply we impulse buy a book because it somehow ticks a few of our comfortable boxes. Which themselves are a result of the nature and nurture process of all life. Would that I was a Metropolitan Buddhist with a phobia of feathers, this volume may have remained on the shelf alongside many other equally enticing tomes.

I am yet to read it but will begin this weekend.

March 18th 2014

Tonight I met up with a friend of mine Sheena for a catch up over a meal and roaring fire. However this photograph was taken a few hours earlier as I drove from work to her part of Gloucestershire. Avoiding the Bristol rush hour traffic and having some spare time I drove the long way round over The Downs, an area which was never developed as Clifton expanded in the 1850's. Formerly this area was pasture land, used for grazing animals for Bristol, but it is now a large recreational area compriding of Clifton down and Durdham Down. So being a pleasant evening I stopped at the sea wall as it is known and took this photograph, which has to be the most superb view of the Avon Gorge and the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Not for the feint hearted though. If you suffer from vertigo I'd recommend standing well back. Hard by was an ice cream van of which my steely resolve prevented me from frequenting as I had a lasagna and garlic bread waiting in the wings.

March 17th 2014

Okay I know what you are thinking. He likes to take photographs and this one is absolutely hopeless. Well that is because it is meant to be like this, a little bit arty. Sometimes I love taking pin sharp images and revelling in the composition, sometimes I like quick snaps with my Blackberry. This mobile is absolutely hopeless in anything other than perfect light, anything shot at night or in gloom is fraught with blurring. But that doesn't matter, not in this case, as this is the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge tonight as I bobbled my way home. After 20 years crossing this bridge I still get a thrill to look down and see Bristol below me. At night it is even more spectacular as it is illuminated much like a work of art. Which it undoubtedly is. 



March 16th 2014

The forecast for today was for a bright start but becoming dull and cool in the morning. They fibbed. The cloud did not materialise until dusk. Allowed then for another wonderful day gardening. Gardening has to be my greatest pleasure I think. Always has been since I was knee high to a dandelion. After yesterdays mass clear up, today it was planning ahead. Julie here was potting on 170 geraniums (okay I know they are pelargoniums) which had arrived from the growers in Guernsey over the weekend. I love that process of seeing minute plants thrive and become mature specimens later in the year, at which point it is good to sit back and enjoy. Or as Julie will possibly comment, I supervised while she potted on. Well someone has to.

March 15th 2014

What a fantastic day today. After a week of mist and fog this morning dawned sun kissed and good enough to eat. A weekend in Somerset had already been planned and so after a leisurely breakfast we set to with a vengeance on the winter neglected garden. First job was to rotate the shed 90 degrees in preparation for a greenhouse installation. Here you see it in it's new position, being a big lad I revelled in manhandling a shed by myself, with a little guiding help too, The day was then one of creating raised beds and general tidying up in preparation for the seasons ahead. The garden is not huge so it was amazing how chaotic it had become. Next job is to remove all the decking the previous owner installed about 5 years ago, I loathe decking. A very good day which ended superbly with a sunset sky to stop and stare at.

March 14th 2014

 

 

In the 1950's this may have been known as a 'Pea Souper'. Not quite as back in the fifties the smogs that blanketed many cities in Britain were a combination of fog and pollution chemicals such as sulphur dioxide or soot, mainly from the burning of coal and coke. Today it was just a thick fog which we'd more likely see in the autumn. After the winter past of gales and rain, its come as a surprise to wake up most mornings this week enveloped in a thick fog. Thankfully these days after the clean air act this fog is just a nuisance rather than a danger to health, so it was a moment in time I wished to record on my year journey, the passage of seasons which in a week or so will see the Equinox and day length will be longer than night for the next six months.

March 13th 2014

I have no idea what this cat is called, but for the last 3 years I've tickled its ear. About 3 years ago a small playful kitten appeared in the street I usually park my car in. Then it was small and gangly of movement but very affectionate and used to race all over the place at great speed. I'm not a huge cat lover but enjoyed giving it a tickle and pat. Since then I have seen it grow up into this more sedate fine feline, and this spring it has begun sitting by my car as if in tremendous anticipation for my return and a bit of an ear tickle. Tonight as the sun began to set here it was (he? she? I know not) and we had out 30 seconds of purring, before it shot off as a neighbour emerged to walk her dog. Simple pleasures of life are always the best.

March 12th 2014

Back on the Shared Planet treadmill today, not that we've ever been off it. Series 1 of Shared Planet on Radio 4 looked at the increasing numbers of people on the planet, and how (the now) over 7 billion people are in conflict with the needs of the natural world. Series 2 is moving the agenda slightly to look at people and wildlife and as such we can look at some positive topics as well as remaining focused on some of the bigger conflict issues. This image was taken in the studio just before we began recording programme 1 of Series 2. Monty Don is in relaxed mood and ready to tackle to issues of the day, the secrect of wildlife information in a world of mass media. 

March 11th 2014

 

Indeed Sir, this is most moustacheo. There are times in a day when life seems to become more surreal by the moment. I was out for a luncheon perambulation around the cobbled streets of Cotham when this ocular emporium's window display caught my eye. Hersuit glasswear is one thing that would arrest the casual walker, and so it did as I walked casually today. A photographic image of the display was of course needed at which point I almost managed to create a selfie of myself in the glass reflection. I love things like this as they do exactly what they should, a window display should arrest the public perambulator and bring a smile, plus of course open the wallet with some spending cash for the shop concerned. Sadly this is where this display finally failed as no sooner had the photograph been taken than I continued on my way down the street. Fun though.

March 10th 2014

 

This time of the year is a joy. Driving back home as the sun sets can be glorious and like tonight provide some wonderful photographic opportunities. I took these images of rooks at the nest in the village Wick St Lawrence. More of a hamlet really on the flatlands between Weston super Mare and Clevedon. I'd photographed these birds last week using my mobile but tonight having my camera I stopped to take some better ones. As I snapped away a lady came out from the farm after having fed her horses. We had a chat. She'd lived here for 37 years and described the huge changes as this once isolated hamlet became ever closer to the new estates creeping out from Weston, now less than 2 miles away. Anyway she was curious to know why I was photographing the rooks as she gets fed up with their cawing all day. And that made me realise that wildlife is not always welcome when it's on your doorstep. An interesting part of the conversation was that when they moved there starlings were almost a pest, and hardly any corvids. Today it has reversed, rooks nesting in the village for the last 10 years plus many jackdaws and magpies, yet the poor starling is a rarity now. Wrens too are increasing, with house sparrows plentiful. The ebb and flow of natural populations. But as I chatted to her I looked up and above our heads rook nests and the moon through the bare branches. A perfect early spring vision.

March 9th 2014

 

Bygone agriculture is a bit of an interest of mine and so it was a delight to stumble across this almost perfect 'acrobat' hay turner our on a walk. Bizarrely it was being used as a stop for a farm gate, but apart from one broken tine it looked in perfect working order. These were everywhere when I toiled in the fields, in fact I used to get up a good speed in the MF135, this on the back and windrowing the hay as fast as I could, often on two wheels as I turned on the headland. At that time we also had a 'cock-pheasant' and a hay-bob. I've not seen a working cock-pheasant for years now. The walk along the Wessex Ridgeway also allowed me to spy this abandoned galvanised bucket in a very gappy, but ancient ash and hazel hedge. While photographing this a number of off-road scrambling bikers came past, politely slowing down and nodding. We're all countryside users after all. Earlier I'd seen an abandoned plough in a field containing two Long Stones, part of the Avebury complex. A little bit of history in this ancient Wiltshire landscape.

March 8th 2014

Absolutely brilliant day today when we toured the ancient sites of Wiltshire with my Canadian family. First stop was Stonehenge where this image was taken. This is Robin and Lauren taking photos of a guy who was on his own and trying to photograph himself and the stones, oh yes a selfie. Struggling a bit we said shall we do it so we did with his phone and his camera. In return he took our photo of the 5 of us in-front of Stonehenge, below. Afterwards we thanked him and I asked his name. It was Temple. How cool is that, to pick the one man at Stonehenge who's name was most appropriate, A Temple in fact.

After this excitement we needed refreshment so ended up at the Waggon and Horses at Beckhampton within the Avebury landscape. This 17th Century pub was the inspiration for the hostelry scenes in Dickens 'Pickwick Papers. It still seems ancient and unchanged 2 centuries later.

Finally it was to the Avebury stone circles we went which inspired us to take this image of the family. Wiltshire rocks!

March 7th 2014

Today I met more of my distant, both in distance and increasingly in the gene pool Canadian family. Robin is the son of my mothers cousin, which we think makes he and I second cousins once removed. His grandmother Dagmar was sister to my Grandfather Harald. Anyway we share a Norwegian Great Grandfather, Klaus Johansenburg which seems a long time ago but in reality he died about 1950's so in the past but not that long really.

 

From first meeting we got on famously so after suggestions of what to do for food, Lauren their daughter, who is working in Essex, was very keen on the suggestion of going to Pizza Express in Marlborough. A great night which allowed us to do all the catch up, as I met Robin very briefly 33 years ago but to be honest I have no memory of that.

 

Anyway Frances his wife is lovely and agreed to pose with some village idiot moments before he demolished a calzone pizza. Set me up nicely for a full day tomorrow doing the Wiltshire ancient landscape tours. I love meeting my Canadian family they're all wonderful and so full of life.

March 6th 2014

 

Tonight I arrived home to be greeted by this, an apple and blueberry flapjack. It was good to see for two reasons. Firstly it is a healthy flapjack option, basically oats, blueberries, grated apple, some almonds and pumpkin seeds, bound by honey and butter. Yes a calorific tour de force but all ingredients which if consumed in moderation are beneficial to health - or at least that's what I tell my therapist.  But the main reason is Julie made this in preparation for guests tomorrow. She's been through the mill this winter with what I call her 'dodgy ticker-box' so seeing her enjoying life again and doing some home baking was the best reason to come home ever. I had to try the merest morsel for quality control reasons and it is delicious. More please, more.

March 5th 2014

 

There used to be a Texaco garage here until 2013, then blue boards went around the site and in a week it was gone. I've been meaning to write about this since November when I first took a photograph of it. I walk past this site every day, walking in front of the late Georgian terrace to the left and crossing the zebra crossing over Whiteladies Road in Clifton. But other ideas came along and it was swept to one side, possibly as once the garage had been demolished not much had happened inside the boards over winter.

 

This week however a big orange digger appeared accompanied by much banging. The plan is that the site will be developed, the gable end of the terrace will be extended in the same architectural style creating 14 flats I believe, with a shop on the front facing Whiteladies Road presumably housing a mini-supermarket, Costa coffee shop or something. I'm glad they're developing it sympathetically as it always seemed sad to see the gable end just forlornly looking out on life as though it had run out of energy to finish itself. Tonight as I beetled back home past this I spied through the only 1cm gap in the boards - not really being able to see much I pushed my mobile phone lens into the gap, I took this quick image. Orange men and an orange digger thing. How exciting, especially as my mobile is from EE, which was formerly Orange with the slogan "The future's bright, the future's Orange". Well it certainly is at this site in Bristol at least.

March 4th 2014

There are days when coming into work on a Monday is worth while (even if I'm writing this on a Tuesday).  Having driven to Bristol through sleet and driving rain I arrived from Wiltshire shaken and quite stirred. Sitting quietly at my desk producing a small fog of evaporating droplets my colleague Sarah bobbled in to the office and hurled a large bar of chocolate onto my desk as a thank you. A thank you for providing the tools to be used as props at a play she produced in London on Sunday, starring amongst others Alison Steadman, Sandi Toskvig, Amanda Root and Julian Rhind-Tutt.

This morning my colleague sent through 2 images from the stage using the tools and chair as radio play props. So my tools from the garden shed have had a brief subjoin in London and have been gazed upon by celebrities. Maybe next time I shall go with them.

March 3rd 2014

 

An absolutely stunning drive home from work today watching the sun setting. As I drove along the M4 down to Weston super Mare I thought; I know, we don't often get these opportunities for spontaneous photographs so I drove to a place called Woodspring Priory. This ex-Benedictine Priory is now owned by the Landmark Trust and even though it is only 4 miles from the centre of Weston as the crow flies, being there is like being in another timezone. I got there just as the sun was dropping below some clouds on its never ending passage beyond the horizon. Just time to shoot off a dozen photographs, two of which are here. A perfect end to the working day.

March 2nd 2014

 

An excellent choice of reading material Sir. After yesterday's fantastic day, today dawned damp, became damper, a lot windier and by noon resembled the worst of a November day. How soon the euphoria of spring sunshine gives way to prolonged conversations along the line of "shall we go out?" followed by "lets see if the rain stops" and after gazing out of the window for ten minutes, "I'll have another cup of tea". A washout in other words, normally no bad thing in mid winter, but it left us both a bit tetchy, itching to go out, but not wanting to be soaked for no reason. The stalemate was then resolved by my sitting down to read my chicken magazine with a mug of Bovril. What else can one do on such a fowl day....!

March 1st 2014

 

My last month of being 49 years old broke with a heavy frost but the promise of a day of fine unbroken spring sunshine, after all this is metrologically speaking the first day of spring. And not a moment too soon after this wet miserable winter. And so it was that we found ourselves in the Woodborough Garden Centre having a light breakfast before walking to the Cherhill Monument from the A4 carpark near Beckhampton.

 

An excellent opportunity to try out my new tweed and leather walking bag, carrying my lunch of a single apple. Well actually not, it carried a few apples, water, camera, recording device and a few other paraphernalia. Works a treat, not heavy on the shoulder and access is much easier than with a day pack. A good purchase. Well worth the 3 hours walk in wonderful first day of spring weather to see the view from the Cherhill Monument north to the Cotswolds and beyond. A 7 mile ramble which ended at the National Trust's Avebury café with a well earned cup of tea and a slice of coffee and walnut cake, with 15 minutes to spare before closing time. A perfect day.