Feed the birds- Tuppence a bag

 My Mum has always had a special affinity with animals.  The family always had pets when she was young and she used to be able to get them to do all sorts of things.  She became a vet nurse when we were children and indeed, a lot of my Saturday afternoons and school holidays as a child were spent at the Vet's surgery.  I always enjoyed watching operations.  However, this is not where I am going with this post.

Mum has taken to feeding the numerous wildlife which frequent her garden.  CBC is green with envy at the amount of Goldfinches which visit her feeders.

She's recently started to  grow very fond of a particular dove/pigeon hybrid who she calls Speckles who visits her garden and is incredibly pretty.  Speckles enjoys tightrope walking and swinging on Mum's washing line.  She sent me various videos and pictures of how she has got the birds to come and feed in shapes- hearts, circles and various other shapes- the birds seem to segregate themselves into different colours and breeds. I thought you'd enjoy the photos!

The Saffron Trail- Battlesbridge to Danbury

I am ashamed to say that the last stretch of the Saffron trail that CBC and I walked was back in July 2016.

This is a walk which extends from Southend-on-Sea to Saffron Walden in Essex and is roughly about 71 miles.  We have previously walked three sections of it (We also walked back in May 2016 and April 2016). Somehow life has got in the way of our completing it.  

Luckily, CBC had the bright idea of resurrecting it 2 weeks ago.   WKWTTG, CBC's Brother, made the journey from London on the train to come and meet us.

The walk begins in Battlesbridge which is known for its extensive Antique centre.  I've been there once.  There are some very quaint looking buildings around there so it is a nice place to visit.

Here we are. Alas, I didn't realise how cold it was so I didn't bring a hat so CBC gave me his and I discovered I had stuffed the little scarf that Lisa sent me in the bag.

 We parked by the main antiques building.  These are some very attractive buildings nearby.  The walk took us behind aa  garden centre and across a ploughed field.

 What wasn't so nice was the dash across an extremely busy A road after the ploughed field. CBC and brother were ahead of me and handily had a lull in the traffic but I had to wait a little while.

Amusingly, we found ourselves in a 'pick your own pumpkin patch'.  Security was surprisingly good as two members of staff came over to check we were ok and knew where we were going- read that as, "Don't pinch our pumpkins!"

 After that, we lost most trace of civilization and human interaction! I love it when walks get like that.

 It was cold but the sun shone intermittently and made me heartily glad we had commenced this endeavour.

 A typical Autumnal scene created us when we had to cross ontp the road for a short while.

 Onto another field, alongside some sort of brassicas- I do so love walking alongside crops.

 The contrast in colours is greatly pleasing to me- I stared around me in rapt enjoyment as we advanced.

 The sight of Borage flanking the fields pleased me and the bees who buzzed around. 

 Eventually, the Public footpath brought us alongside someone's house.  We sat on a bench in the field and ate some snacks.  CBC had thoughtfully brought coffee for him and his brother. I do not like coffee. They had also stopped to buy cake from a cafe in Battlesbridge. Unfortunately, if you ever read the blog posts on my cake dislikes, you will know I am extremely fussy about cake, and did not like the three flavours they had purchased- in fact I think they bought 4 slices!! Le Sigh...

 Up in the sky, we sighted this glider which was lazily wending its way across the sky.

 At some point soon, we entered into a little footpath by some houses which had a wooded area with graves in it.  It was most curious.

 Making our way across a field, we glimpsed a beautiful fleeting rainbow. That excitement of seeing one never seems to go away, does it? I'm glad it doesn't. It'll be a sad day when I fail to be excited by something like that.

 We came towards East Hanningfield and found we had taken a wrong turning so had to make our way around the Reservoir. It was a pleasant sight though.

 I could scarcely believe that as I texted my friend A to say that we were walking from Battlesbridge to Danbury (she lives in Danbury), it turned out that she was about 100 metres away from me in the community hall in East Hanningfield at an Art Exhibition. We met up briefly to say hi.

 As we left the village, we saw a cottage with a few interesting sights.  These statues...

 And, just sitting there, by the path, a de Havilland Vampire TP1  which is a 1950's trainer version of a Vampire Fighter used to teach student pilots how to fly fighter aircraft.

 And then randomly, this large body of  water with a pagoda.

 Which had a sofa and fridge inside...

 The path continued and CBC and WKWTTG carried on ahead whilst I trailed behind.  I spied some curious fungi

 which reminded me of that dried apple you can buy in Holland Barretts.

As we neared Danbury, we passed through the Ford where typically, we encountered several vehicles.

Our penultimate stop was in the Danbury Parish church graveyard where I took a picture for TARDIS Tuesday.

We finished our journey in the Griffin pub, enjoying a delicious roast dinner- the boys had Nut Roast and I had Chicken.

We ordered a taxi back to the car in Battlesbridge as it was now dark and I was shocked how long it took.  The distance we walked was about 9.7miles but by road seemed much further.

It was a great way to spend our final freedom of Half Term and made us yearn to conquer the whole of the Saffron Trail. I hope I can bring you more installments soon, despite the imminent Winter!

x

The Wildflower Meadow 2017

This morning, after church, I decided to walk through the park back to town as CBC was supposed to be picking me up and was still cycling.  Despite the fact we are now in October, the wildflower meadow was still going strong! I can scarcely  believe we are now in October and the flowers are still growing as beautifully.

 Talking to a gent who was probably around 45ish, he told me that the flowers are all self-seeded now and they just grow in the park every year. This surprised me as I thought many of these were just annuals.

 Do you spy a bee bottom?  She's getting right into the petals!

 The honey bees were all buzzing contentedly from flower to flower only occasionally moving because of the human with the camera.

 Such beautiful blues.

 I'm not usually a pink girl, but the pink of these beauties really captivated me.

 Bluey purple was probably the most prevalent colour here but don't be fooled into thinking that there wasn't a variety.

 This vivid yellow and orange flower was one of a few which were nestled beneath taller breeds and was rather hard to reach.

 When I see Cosmos flowers, it reminds me of preparing for my wedding.

 I ate one of these Borage flowers!  Did you know that they taste of cucumber?

 It's hard to tell from this picture but I think it is the Stigma which is such a striking blue shade in the middle!

 It is so hard to capture what you see with your eye- but I like the variety in this picture.

 There's plenty of colours and examples here.

 For some reason, these make me think of face paints!

 Can you spy the little girl wandering amongst the flowers?

 Such a display makes my heart sing.

 What a jolly but delicate-looking bloom!

 And fine lace.

 These pink flowers are just perfect!

 I really liked the shadow of the Cosmos foliage upon these two beauties.

 Again, a real assortment of flowers here vying for attention.

 The honey bees were really difficult to capture.

 We began with the back-end of a bee and we shall finish with one too!

What an exquisite half an hour I had there!
Do you have anything similar nearby?

xx