A Woodland Walk

Tuesday was such a lovely day that we decided, now that a few restrictions have been lifted, to go just a little further afield for a walk.  All the walks we've taken over the last few months have been on foot from home but we went in the car, all of three miles and still in the confines of the city, to the local bluebell woods.

Hem Heath Woods are on the site of the old Hem Heath colliery and are managed by the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.  You can park either side of the woods off the Trentham Road opposite the Hem Heath Public House or at the other side of the woods at the Wedgwood factory, museum and visitor centre. 

In a couple of weeks there will be lots and lots of bluebells and we will go back to see them as we missed them last year during lockdown.  I was looking for Wood Anemones but didn't see any.  We did find one or two clumps of bluebells.

Also lots of Lesser Celandine.

It was quiet in the woods.  Birds were singing and wrens, jays, robins, blue tits, wood pigeons, blackbirds, nuthatch and thrushes were spotted.  Most of them succesful at evading our cameras.

Pathways have been improved since our last visit.

The ground was firm underfoot.

We sat and watched the moorhens on the pond.

Skies were blue through the still wintry looking trees.

Thrush

It was wonderful to be out and about somewhere different even if just for an hour or two.
 

Monday Miscellany

It was so beautiful yesterday, the sky was bright and the sun was warm.  We spent all morning and some of the afternoon pottering in the garden.  Pruning bushes, taking the old heads off Sedum and Hydrangeas.  Pulling up the already encroaching weeds and brambles.

 

There was quite a lot of wildlife in the garden 

 We spotted a Comma butterfly

The sage was full of Ladybirds

 Both of these are seven spot ladybirds

The frogs were croaking in the pond;  every time I looked into the pond there was plenty of activity, there must have been about ten frogs in there and a couple of newts too.

 This friendly frog allowed itself to be photographed

By the end of the day there were four areas of frog spawn.

 The heather was alive with bees, so hard to photograph.  I may have caught one in the photo below.

 It was good to get out in the garden and feel the warmth of the sun as we worked.

I did take half an hour out of the garden to make some scones for afternoon tea I thought we deserved them and they were lovely with crab apple jelly.

 

Indoors and Outdoors

This week we have been busy decorating as it seemed like a good time to do it whilst the weather was stopping us doing anything in the garden. When the house was for sale we didn't bother to re-paint as we thought whoever bought the house would want to do their own thing anyway but now we've decided to stay here for a while the paint brushes and rollers have come out. First we moved the contents of the back bedroom into the garage and decorated that room. Then we moved the contents of the front bedroom into the back and decorated there too. Now we are moving the contents of the small bedroom we use as a computer room - I hesitate to use the word study as it sounds a bit too grand for the reality - into the front bedroom so that too can be painted. Meanwhile the contents of the back bedroom are still in the garage and poor little car is out in the rain. In other words - complete chaos!

However, the sun did honour us with its presence a couple of times this week so we were able to go out and have a walk and to breath air that didn't smell of paint.

We managed a muddy walk in the woods on the Trentham estate, where we saw Jays flitting secretively through the trees and squirrels scampering up the beech trees to collect the nuts. When there were several of them in one tree the sound of the nuts falling to the floor was quite amazing.

On Thursday we optimistically set out for Cannock Chase but arrived in pouring rain and hail so parked up drank our coffee and ate our homemade scones and then moved on. We headed toward Blithfield Reservoir where we watched swifts circling and swooping over the water. My camera isn't great for capturing wildlife but I did manage to catch this image of just one of the swifts. The rain had stopped for a short while but it wasn't long before we were treated to another hail storm.

On Friday we took a walk at Dimmingsdale one of our favourite local areas to walk in, as you can see from the photo above - the sun did shine whilst we were there.

Here are some more scenes from our walk

Thank goodness the rain was very good and stayed away until we got home - oh, well it's time to return to the chaos!

Cat Sitting and Cat Napping

Goodness me, the sun is shining! We have had sun for two days now and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't rain tomorrow and that the lawn will have dried out enough for it to be cut. This is the kind of weather we have been longing for throughout August. We've actually put the chairs out in the garden and are going to eat our evening meal al fresco - something I've been wanting to do all summer.

After work today we went for a walk at Trentham; we walked by the lake where the Miss Elizabeth was ferrying passengers to and fro between the gardens and the monkey forest. We heard a heron calling, I've never heard one before, a sort of cross between the calls of a goose and a crow. We went into the Craft Fair; there were some lovely things, home made soaps, candles, preserves, handbags, scarves and bears to name just a few. Then it was home to make sure the lovely lady below was all right.

All this week I've been looking after her fluffiness for our friends next door whilst they are in Wales. I've never come across a more laid back cat; as you can see she takes her leisure very seriously. The daily routine is as follows, up at 5a.m. usual morning routine for us and our own cats fed before I pop round to open curtains and feed Miss Fluffy just before we leave for work at 6a.m. back home for 12 noon, sort out our cats and then round again to check her and let her out. In between a cat nap for me and then back for her food around 5p.m. Household chores, evening meal and a perhaps bit of TV then back at 9p.m. to check once more, draw curtains and lock up for the night. Of course, this isn't going down well with our cats who follow me round and and cry at the kitchen door and peer through the conservatory windows, thoroughly disapproving of my treachery.

Oh, well....

I was hanging out the washing in the unusually warm sunshine earlier today when I came across these little fellows. They seem to have appeared on the side lawn over night, because I could swear that they weren't there yesterday. There are several little clumps of them just like the one below. A good sign that autumn is really with us.



On Wednesday I had to go to the dentist for my check up. I'd made the appointment over the phone, written it on their reminder letter and put it on the calendar. When I got there for 11.55a.m. it turns out I should have been there at 10.55a.m. Now I know the person on the other end of the phone said 11.55a.m. because I wrote it down and read it back to her but I was made to feel really guilty for not turning up at the right time. I'm guessing she was thinking 10.55 and 5 to 11 and conflated the two, who knows? They made me a new appointment for 10.10a.m. today so I was up early with plenty of time but just as I'd washed my hair the electricity went off. I had visions of going into the dental surgery with dripping hair as I knew it would take a long time to dry, it being shoulder length and quite thick, but about 10 minutes before I had to leave the house the electricity came back on and I was able to dry my hair very quickly and dash off - scared I was going to be late again and get treated like a naughty schoolgirl once more. Oh well....



Above are the Rudbeckia or cone flowers in the very bright afternoon sun.