Completing a Loop

I left home at 5.30am and was in
Hay-on-Wye by 7.30am. Then after walking
5 miles and ascending 2000ft I felt
it was a good moment to stop, admire
the view from Hay Bluff....and have some
breakfast!

The aim thereafter was to walk from there
along the long Hatteral ridge and down to Pandy Inn.
This image, from Google Earth conveys something
of the experience, although one should picture the
far end swathed in grey cloud, dampening the later
stages of my days walk!

So I continued on my way across the winding path
on windy moor....birds, sheep, ponies and the
only very occasional other walker for company.

There may have been few walkers today
but over the years there have been thousands,
each of us wearing away at the peaty soil, as
testified to by heather-topped stumps such as this..

Finally descending to Pandy Inn after
61/2 hours (four of them on the hilltop!)
I achieved an end to a major phase in my current
walking project. The circle joining Monmouth
and Hay, via Wye Valley walk and Offas Dyke path
is now complete. Hurrah!

Random lines

Here's a little collection of pictures from my
last set of day's off....with a bit of a linear
theme!

Avoiding the heat of the heatwave days
with an early walk gave me the opportunity
of catching this shade of sunlight colouring
on a stubbly field....



In Westonbirt Arboretum, more lines.....



...and a bit of attractive pattern on the trunk
of a Tingiringi gum tree (I like that name!) .



In the grass, occasional spiders webs retained
pearl drops of dew (lines and globules!)



Speaking of spiders, and lines.....a spider on
a sedge leaf in my garden pond...



Also found in my pond, a feather...



Two final photos that are just nicely
colourful (forget the linear theme now!)

Meadow campion



...and a gatekeeper butterfly, enjoying the sun.
(I hope you have been too!)

Holiday in Norfolk: well, visiting Ely in fact.

Before leaving East Anglia entirely
I tool the opportunity of dropping in
on Ely to revisit the cathedral

whose two highlights (for me at least)
are the cental tower and its internal
"Octogon", and the remaining pieces of
stone carving (having survived the Reformation)
in the Lady Chapel

Unusually I was able to get a view up
to the Octogon from a directly central position.
Normally this is occupied by an altar but this
had been moved for a "Rave in the Nave"
youth service.

This next shot I took on a "fireworks" setting.
I like the effect, don't you?

What's going on in this shot? Answers on
a postcard please....





A "Green Man"

and another one...



Finally, I could not resist this amusing
composition (no disrespect to the bishop!)

Holiday in Norfolk: Across the Brecks

I drove homeward via the Brecklands.
Around Thetford are large plantations
of conifers, but away from there are
striking long avenues of scots pines

These started out life as managed hedges,
planted as windbreaks in the 19th century
to cut down on sandstorms as the topsoil
blew away from the brecks (temporarily
cultivated fields)

I stopped off to visit Grimes Graves.
(Link: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/ConProperty.24/chosenImageId/2)
Having visited the small display at the reception
office I had a look down in the cool depths
of the flint mine pit open for viewing.
Then I wandered over the "minefield" interested
not only by the pock marking of the surface from
1000 years worth of flint mining....

..but, as you might expect, by the fauna and flora
around me.
This is an essex skipper (butterfly)

and unless I am mistaken, this is a silver-spotted
skipper (its quite rare, but increasing, I believe)

This is rock rose...







this is some sort of vetch

..and this is a speedwell (apparently
the breckland heaths have several
varieties of speedwell, to the great
delight of the more knowledgeable)


.... as for birdlife, well I managed to add
another "first" moment to my holiday.
I visited Weeting Heath and was able
to watch some stone curlews (big yellow eyes
"knobbly knees". Quite rare) ...and here's
a photo to prove it!

Holiday in Norfolk: Blakeney and Cley

On the north Norfolk coast a
visit to the Grey and Common Seals
on Blakeney Point is a must.
(More detail about the area at:
http://www.norfolkbroads.com/guides/area/blakeney )

So having walked the coastal path
from Blakeney to Morston
I boarded one of the boats taking groups
down the muddy creek and out to
the Point


The seals behaved impeccably for the cameras!








I could have then returned to Blakeney, trip over.
But I decided to be "marooned" on the point
and the boat returned home without me.

Now, thought, I was alone with the "lonely sea
and the sky"........

Solititude
Video sent by agracarter2

Well, so maybe not entirely alone. But it was
wonderfully remote out there on the shingle
spit..... a haunt for a few holidaying (?) anglers
(and somewhere to stay too!)

..with floral splashes of colour.

Here's a horned poppy..

...or here some sea lavender on the salt marsh


(Are you thinking "Magwitch" yet?)




Golden mud....a goldmine for hungry wading birds..

A long, rewarding trudge and I approach "the mainland"
once again....and the windmill at Cley. (Does anyone
visting Cley come away without a photo of it? I wonder)


I was struck by the flint walls on my visit to North
Norfolk...very attractive, and such a contrast to
Cotswold stone!

I like to call this photo "Cley-with-flints"
(a rather obscure geological pun)

Holiday in Norfolk: Amid the Broads

A visit to the Broads would not have seemed
complete without calling in on Ranworth church.
It is described as "the Cathedral of the Broads"
and it offers a chance to get a great view of nearby
Ranworth Broad....

Ranworth View
Video sent by agracarter2

Inside the church, however, is also interesting for
its 15th Century rood screen complete with original
medieval paintwork

Beyond, however lie the Broads themselves,
historic haunt of Norfolk wherries

and now all kinds of boating tourists

As well as Ranworth I visited Hickling Broad,
where beautiful tawny coloured Konick ponies
(orginally from Poland)
graze areas of pasture as part of the
(Norfolk Wildlife Trust) reserve management strategy,
and Strumpshaw Fen (managed by the RSPB)

A Marsh Orchid

Not sure what this is yet...

Purple loosestrife?

...this I do know! It's a comma butterfly.
Not as rare as the Swallowtail I saw at Hickling
(A great view of a spledid beast!) but attractive
nonetheless..

A yellow flag

As for bird life, well, amongst others,
marsh harriers drifted over the marshes,
a hobby chased dragonflies and (a first for me)
a bittern (secretive brown type of heron)
flew up, over a stretch of open water, and
then dropped down into reeds at the far side.
I enjoyed that!
Whilst waiting in vain to see some cranes
I just gazed out over the peaceful scenery,
soaking up the calm swish of the wind in the reeds.
Lovely.