Nature Diary #7

Dappled sunlight

This week has been a week of two halves as far as the weather goes – at the beginning of the week I was wearing a long-sleeved top and a thick sweater and putting the central heating on in the evenings and since Wednesday I have been in vest tops and wished I’d found my cut-offs!

I have only been for two walks this week as I have had a couple of paid gardening jobs and, yesterday, I did my first volunteering stint at my friends’ organic market garden. I suddenly realised, at my usual ‘idea-having-wake-up-moment’ (usually around 5.30-6.00am!), that the young couple, who run the organic veg stall at Castle Cary market, might be struggling a bit, as I knew they were doing fruit and veg boxes for people and delivering them all around the local area, which wouldn’t leave them a lot of time to tend to their garden. I got in touch and volunteered my weeding skills in return for a small box of veg. So yesterday I drove the few miles to their plot and worked for most of the day, weeding and clearing beds for replanting, firstly in the polytunnel (until it got too hot) and then in the outside plot. It felt very much like my WWOOFing days, and I thoroughly enjoyed it but, heavens, was I tired last night! Six hours of weeding in hot conditions nearly broke me! However, I have a lovely box of fruit & veg and a bottle of local apple juice to show for my endeavours and have volunteered to go again next Friday! I just needed to get a bit more structure in my week, for my own mental health as I was beginning to drift through the days.

Elder flower

My first walk of the week was going to be just to the lake and back, but as I drew nearer I could see that there was a vehicle and trailer manoeuvring up to the large bonfire heap that has been steadily growing for the last few weeks, so I went around the field and over the stile instead. It was just as well really as, when I looked back, they had set fire to the heap and the smoke would have been most unpleasant to walk through. The downside of taking this route was that I had to cross the solar farm field and had to virtually wade through the grass as they still haven’t cut it for silage and it was almost knee high in places. Having reached the far side by the old crossing keeper’s cottage, I continued along the lane to the far end, turned up the A371 for a few hundred yards and back along Bagborough Lane. There was very little wildlife around and no notable flowers, so the camera stayed in my pocket, however I did notice that the elder flowers are coming out, so I must get the ingredients together for our family favourite, Elderflower Cordial, and hope that, at some point in the near future, I will be able to give some bottles to my children! 

Wild rose

This morning I set off at about 8.30 with not much hope of finding anything of interest, that I have not mentioned before, but Nature had a few little delights and surprises for me! It was already sunny and warm, so I was quite glad that I’d decided to go out early. I started off by walking on the pavement along the A37 but soon struck off towards Pylle village proper, past the Village Hall. I was idly scanning the hedgerows when I saw a lovely wild rose, just coming into flower and had to take a photo. A bit further along the lane I could hear soft snorting noises coming from the other side of the hedge and, when I reached the gateway, I could see a herd of cows, most of whom were lying down contentedly sun-bathing.

Contented cows!

Pylle church was looking particularly pretty in the sunshine against the bright blue background of the sky, and there was so much birdsong that I leaned on the wall for a while just listening to all the sounds surrounding me – it felt very peaceful and soul-restoring. I managed to identify, either by sight or song, robin, black cap, chiff chaff, chaffinch, goldfinch, blue tit, blackbird.

Pylle Church

From there, I turned right towards Pilton and very soon crossed the bridge over the old Somerset & Dorset line and dipped down into a shady wooded area, where the smell of wild garlic was quite overpowering! I have never seen as much wild garlic as I have this year and it seems to be lasting for ages! The actual wooded areas on either side of the lane were remarkably devoid of birdsong, but I kept getting tantalising glimpses of small, brown birds flitting about in the hedges and trees. As I came up the slope, and back into sunshine, a beautiful solo song took my breath away – I waited for a while, scanning the hedges, and suddenly a beautiful song thrush flew into a dead tree nearby and gave a virtuoso performance, just for me!

More wild garlic!

Shortly after that I had to climb over a stile and walk back across the fields. Even though I had a map with me I still failed to follow the footpath, without making a detour, but eventually got to the right field where there were ewes and lambs enjoying the sunshine, but they didn’t take kindly to me invading their field and walked smartly away, as I approached.

Ewes and lambs

My final surprise of the morning came as I climbed over yet another gate (why did I think wearing a skirt was a good idea?) onto the final track before meeting up with Hedge Lane, and noticed a silken hammock on a small blackthorn bush. It was a caterpillar nest (of the Lackey Moth, I later found out) and all the caterpillars live communally in the nest for safety, coming out to feed during the day and returning to the nest at night, until they get big enough to go it alone.

  

Lackey caterpillar nest

More meanderings next week. Stay safe and sane, everyone x

wild bugle

Dandelion clock