One of the walks Nell and I often take involves a two minute drive up the road from home to the nearest village where we park in the village hall car park. We walk through the village and onto a lane, at the end of which is Bridge 72 on the Shropshire Union Canal, also known as the Hawksmoor Bridge. This is it this morning: Lovely pink cherry tree in full blossom which reminds of the cherry trees at my old primary school. The bank from the bridge to canal is on the steep side and I plan to take a tea tray with me when I am very old so I can slide down the bank which will likely be safer than trying to walk down it with my elder lady legs and risk falling over and breaking myself. But that consideration is for the distant future. At the moment, I can descend the bank quite happily and Nell pulls me up on our return. As I walked this morning, there were cows to the left of me… Calves to the right… And here I am, stuck in the middle with Nelli-Poo… The towpath travels several m...
What lovely weather we enjoyed today! Jokes are often made about Bank Holiday weekends inviting in horrible weather, but in my part of the world we had blue skies and sunshine all day which meant - you’ve guessed it - gardening time!! I hadn’t planned to do gardening today. High on my list was cleaning the car, giving the kitchen the once over with a damp cloth and sorting out the tableware in the dresser. However, when it became clear it was gardening weather, out I went to crack on. Mr and Mrs Swallow were being most industrious. Mr Swallow returned from a few days’ absence a couple of days ago with a lady swallow in tow. He was showing off with great extravagance and loudness, shouting, ‘Look at this superior nesting accommodation!’ And I think Mrs Swallow was marginally impressed but said something along the lines of, ‘Well, it’s okay I suppose, but I want a few improvements made before I move in,’ so for the last two days they’ve been swooping in and out with beak...