Frist Trip to Herefordshire 2025 - Part 2

 

On the Thursday we went for a wander around Burford House Garden Centre.

I adored this dragon which is very similar to the one in the gardens at Burford House but at around £4,500 it was way past my budget!!!!

I spotted my first bumble bee of the year - a Buff-tailed I think - on some hyacinths.  There were a couple of them around and a Hairy -footed Flower bee on pulmonaria.

This dragon was within my budget and I was very tempted to buy it!

We didn't make any purchases in the end but B did see a plinth for his sundial. At the moment it is attached to an upturned square stone large flower pot but the plinth would look much better.  

Burford House - I really must buy a year pass to the gardens this year and visit again.  I so missed going last year.

We stopped off in Tenbury Wells to buy some bird food and a few items from Tesco.

I'd still love to move permanently to this area - the house below is on the market and is affordable. It has super sized rooms but sadly only a tiny courtyard garden to the side and it is a bit too close to the River Teme for my liking bearing in mind the problems Tenbury has with flooding. It was sad to see that the farmshop/greengrocers looked as though it had closed whether due to flooding I am not sure.

We had a quick look at the River Teme in the hope of spotting a Kingfisher but we only managed to see Mallard.

Hellebores in flower in Tesco's car park.

On the Friday we returned to the garden centre to buy the plinth for the sundial.  We didn't go anywhere else because by now it looked as though I was getting cellulitis again.

On the Saturday B gardened and I had a zoom conference all day  given by James Wright, who is a Buildings' Archaelogist, and gives talks on various aspects of historic buildings. I really enjoyed all his talks.  

Sunday we came home.  Hopefully, we will return soon probably with either D and/or E.

(Cellulitis has returned so yet again I am back on pencillin.  I have to go for a blood test next week and have asked my GP to refer me to a specialist as the bouts are becoming so frequent).

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).

First Trip to Herefordshire 2025 - Part 1

 

We made our first visit of the year to Herefordshire last week - it was so good to be back and the weather was lovely.

My three favourite trees look very similar to our last visit at the end of November 2024.

The Herefordshire Oak

The Octopus Tree

The Constable Tree towards the right of the photo.

Ash Tree buds in the shape of a foot!  I've put the branch in water in hope the buds will come into leaf.

View over the valley from the garden at the rear of the caravan.

We saw lots of cherry plum or blackthorn in flower (hard to tell which when driving past in a car), primroses, snowdrops, lesser celandine and daffodils.

Primroses flowering in the garden.

D bought a rhubarb plant last year and we thought it had died but here it is alive and well.

Lichen (Xanthoria parietina) I think growing on the hawthorn hedge.

We did a click a collect at Morrison's in Leominster on the Wednesday afternoon and bought a new pot.

This pink primula never seems to stop flowering! Sorry about photo quality it was taken through the window which obviously needs a clean!

At Hatfield we saw a good variety of birds - Red Kites, Buzzards, Pheasant, Blackbird, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Great, Blue, Coal and Long-tailed Tits, Chaffinch, Nuthatch, Bullfinch, Wren and a Siskin.

One evening I watched bats swooping round the caravan and listened to them on the bat detector.

Timothy back on his shelf :)

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera.  (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks.)

This and That

 

I am sorry for lack of posts recently but I haven't really been anywhere to make it worthwhile writing a post.

Recent Reading

I do enjoy Peter Robinson's DCI Banks books and read two at the beginning of January.

I enjoyed this Rachel McLean book more than the previous ones I had read in the series.

I haven't read a DI Wesley Peterson book for ages and really enjoyed the next in the series.

During the first covid lockdown I attended an online course on heraldry run by the Heraldry Society from memory and really enjoyed it.  Recently and not being able to go to Herefordshire for a few months I thought I would try and learn a bit more about the subject. As a way of revision I read this Ladybird book on Heraldry - I know the books are meant for children but you can learn a lot of basic information from them.

I am a member of the Mortimer History Society and last autumn they gave a couple of zoom talks on Heraldry which I found really interesting.  They also have a free online Heraldry course on their website which I am working my way through.  It is a fascinating subject although there are lot of technical terms to remember but I thought it would be good when I see heraldry in churches on monuments and stained glass to know a little about the subject.

I've also bought the following two books secondhand.

Yesterday D and I went to Coleshill for a wander around mainly to visit Books Revisited where I bought one of the books above.

This is an old fashioned ironmongers in Coleshill - B loves shops like this!

As usual we walked back via the church of St Peter and St Paul which is a Grade 1 Listed medieval church.  The C14th  tower and spire reaches to 710 feet (52 metres).Construction of the church began in the early C14th and it was completed by the early C16th.

Preaching cross in the churchyard.

In other news I've been trying to fend off cellulitis for the last 11 days using a cream the GP gave me. Sadly, it got a lot worse overnight and so yet another trip to the GP's today and yet another dose of pencillin :(

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would appreciate an email first - thanks).

A Visit to Berkswell and Churchyard to see Snowdrops

 

D had heard that the tea room in Berkswell had recently re-opened under new management so on Sunday we drove over to Berkswell for lunch there.

The tearoom is called the Nook and it was lovely.  D had a very tasty baguette filled with goat's cheese, pear slices, chutney and rocket which looked delicious and I had cake which was good too!!

Afterwards we wandered up to the churchyard of St John the Baptist to look for snowdrops.

This cottage used to house a museum sadly it is now closed.

Bercul's Well (from which Berkswell takes its name).  There is some evidence of a pre-Conquest shrine at the village and this well near the church may have been used in connection with religion as an immersion site for early baptisms.  The well is in a stone walled basin and is 4.9 metres square and was  restored in 1851.

The Gothic War Memorial by Sir Charles Nicholson erected in 1921.

St John the Baptist is one of my favourite churches and churchyards and regular readers I am sure will remember previous posts I have written on the village and church.

The chancel, crypt and parts of the nave are Norman built in the C12th. Pevsner describes the church " as the most interesting Norman Parish Church in the county".  The church is built of red sandstone and has an interesting corbel table.

The Preaching Cross has a base of steps which predates the church and may even be Saxon.  The cross at the top was changed in 1850.

The two storey timber framed porch with an external staircase dates back to 1500.

It is always good to see a sign saying the church is open :) I didn't venture inside this time but if you wish to see  the interior please see an earlier post - link here. St John the Baptist Berkswell  Just scroll down a bit past the exterior photos!

C12th oak door to the church with handmade nails!

The wall of the tower has some graffiti - many from the C20th but some are older.

There are bird boxes in the churchyard including this owl nesting box. D heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming somewhere nearby.

The whole churchyard had carpets of snowdrops - so fitting as it was Candlemas Day.

Cyclamen were in flower and there were buds on daffodils and a few Lesser Celandine in flower.

This is Well House which was once the Rectory.  Maud Watson who is buried in the churchyard lived here with her father, the vicar.  She was the first Wimbledon Single Ladies' Champion.

The village stocks on the green which only have 5 holes.  Local legends suggest that this is because  they were built for recurring offenders, one of whom only had one leg.

All photos taken by me (except for the fungi photo which D took) with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).