Garden, Reading and a Brief Trip to Herefordshire

On the patio quite a few plants have self-seeded - yellow corydalis, lobelia, marjoram and valerian.

The Christmas Tree re-potted last year has put out plenty of new growth.

Wall Pennywort plants continue to do well in the greenhouse although an inspection today suggests some of the leaves are being nibbled :(

Scented white flowers of a climber on the patio arch.

Marjoram is flowering - Gatekeepers love this flower but I haven't seen any yet this year.

Lavender

We are growing potatoes in "bags" on the patio.

Orange and yellow "lilies"

St John's Wort

Last year for the first time the Passion Flower flowered and there are loads of buds again this year too.

Blackberry flowers

Astrantia which I love is starting to flower.

Last week we watched a female Blackbird taking food into shrubs where a recently fledged youngster was hiding. As the week wore on he/she became more brave and started flying round the garden.




Recent Reading

This is an interesting little book which I have now taken to the caravan.

The Caravan Park mid-way between Bromyard and Leominster finally re-opened last Saturday so on Sunday we made our first trip there since last October to take the items we had bought for the kitchen.

The Worcester Road passes NT Brockhampton which might be worth a visit in the not too distant future. The grounds and estate are open if you pre-book (I've just checked tomorrow to get an idea and there are still time slots available) and I gather the estate is big and you could walk for miles so it sounds like a good place for a "safe" walk.

By social distancing the caravan was handed over to us and we finally got the keys.

Here it is in its new location.

The owners of the park had made a lovely gesture by leaving us a huge bouquet of flowers and a bottle of sparkling wine.

Timothy imbibing!

View to the front and

view to the rear of the caravan.

The people who had a caravan on the plot previously had left a bird feeding station which will be useful and save us having to buy one!

There is a little area to the rear of the caravan where you can create a small garden which again the previous plot holders had done - we even found a small apple tree!

B spotted a Red Kite (I missed it) but apparently there are 3 in the area so I should see one on a future visit.

I spent most of the time washing up and putting away all the kitchen items we had bought with my daughter's help.



But we did walk down to the pool and wildflower area.

The pool is mainly used by people who want to fish but

there is a small bird hide.

The wild flower area where I saw quite a few Meadow Browns - it was quite cloudy and very windy so I think you would see a lot of butterflies and bees when the weather is better.

Meadowsweet

We only stayed for the day but will hopefully be going for a short stay in the not too distant future. I still have items to take as we only had room in the car for so much. Unfortunately the lock down has meant I haven't been able to get all the items I wanted to.

The journey only took an hour and twenty minutes as the motorway was unbelievably quiet and there were none of the usual traffic jams by Worcester where there are roadworks. Herefordshire itself seemed remarkably quiet which is good news for future visits although of course places like Ludlow may well be busy and I think it will be a while before we venture to places like that.




All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera