February 2021

Sunrise over Charlton Kings

 Isn’t it strange how the time just seems to leak away, at the moment? Days pass by almost unmarked by any memorable incidents and I keep putting off until tomorrow what I could easily do today! It’s more than a month since my last blog and I had such good intentions of writing more regularly!

Out of the blue, I was called for my first Covid vaccination, so hightailed it back to Somerset for the weekend of 13^th/14^th February, to make sure that I didn’t miss out. I chose the coldest nights of the year to return to my less-than-cosy home and, although I had left the central heating to come on twice each day for an hour, and had asked Mary to switch it to constant at lunchtime on the day of my arrival, it was still really cold! I slept in my dressing gown, with the hood up, a pair of fleecy bedsocks and with a hot water bottle, too and I was still cold! I duly had my jab and suffered no more ill effects than a slight headache and feeling really tired that evening. Both of these symptoms could have been triggered by the socially-distanced walk that I did, in the afternoon, with Jeni. 

Ice sculpture 1

Ice sculpture 2

Ice sculpture 3

The wind was strong and bitterly cold but we decided to be intrepid, after all, and went for a countryside walk along some paths that Jeni discovered, in the summer, not far from her house in Shepton Mallet. I had been a bit worried about getting muddy but it was so cold that all the mud was completely frozen solid and I was more in danger of twisting an ankle! An ancient sunken trackway that we followed downhill towards a small hamlet, had a stream running down one side of it and the little splashes of water had created some great ice sculptures, in miniature. Typically, as we reached the farthest point on our walk, it began to snow and we were soon contending with horizontal snow stinging our faces as we turned for home. However, despite the weather conditions, we were entranced by the frequency and variety of the snowdrop clumps that we saw and also little groups of primroses braving the conditions. Our lovely walk was made complete when a red kite suddenly hove into view silhouetted against a snowy sky! These are still relatively rare in this area so, as I fumbled to get my camera out of its case, Jeni fired off a couple of shots with her smartphone and, by the time I was ready, it had disappeared over the treetops! Note to self: stop procrastinating and get a smartphone!!

Red Kite against a snowy sky

On Monday I drove back to Cheltenham again and took up the battle of the cupboard doors. I think I may have been a bit too ambitious when I designed the cupboard as I wanted nice crisp lines and flush doors, but I’ve had dreadful trouble getting the doors to line up with each other – everything has to be done so accurately, and I only have basic tools to work with. Needless to say, my Mum (who never swears) has had to put up with hearing some rather bad language! I think I may be almost there now, but it’s still not finished.

Yesterday, in a fit of the blues, I took myself off for a long walk to try and lift my mood. I set of with no clear idea of where I was heading but ended up walking into Cheltenham, following the course of the River Chelt as it wound through a large meadow where the circus and fun fair used to pitch when I was a child, and then through the lovely Sandford Park, where Mum used to take us as children to see the ducks and ducklings and watch the goldfish in the Italian Garden. There were several mills along the Chelt, back in the day, and one of these, Barratts Mill, is situated in the park where you can still see and hear the rush of water under the building and the relative calm in the pool beyond.

The old millstones

Topside of Barratts Mill

Below Barratts Mill

Sadly, the Italian Garden is a very neglected space now – the pool is empty and the low wrought iron fence surrounding it desperately needs a new paint job. There is a board telling its history with a photo taken back in the 1930’s which shows how it used to be – what a contrast! A few years ago they had a new initiative to turn the area into a sensory garden for the visually impaired and lavenders, roses and other scented shrubs were planted to great effect, but even those have gone now – it is such a shame to see it now.

From there I walked along a couple of streets until I came to a small alleyway between shops where an historical ‘happening’ is recorded in mosaic plaques: the Bertram Mills Circus used to come yearly to Cheltenham and set up in the meadow that I have already mentioned. They used to parade through the town to advertise their arrival, usually with several elephants, as well as clowns and a band. This particular year, the elephants got away from their keepers and raided the local corn merchant’s shop! There was much pushing and shoving until the elephants could be persuaded to leave the shop and return to the parade. It seems strange that this little historic gem is hidden up a back street with no signage to show that it’s there!

Mosaic #1

Mosaic #2

Mosaic #3

Mosaic #4

Mosaic #5

I then meandered my way along Victorian terraced streets that gradually segued into semi-detached Victorian villas and then, finally, into large Victorian houses set in their own grounds, before climbing uphill to the very up-market Battledown area and thence back down into the village and home. I’d been gone two hours, walked several miles and my mood had miraculously lifted!

I am only here for another couple of weeks and then I must return home and try to get back into the gardening routine as things are already beginning to move, the weeds are growing and vegetables need to be planted.

Spring catkins

January 2021

 

Amazing sunset over Cheltenham

I have tried, a couple of times, to write a new blog, but the words wouldn’t flow, so I gave up, put it to one side and hoped that inspiration would strike when I wasn’t thinking about it. Unfortunately, inspiration has been in short supply, but I will endeavour to write a little something to entertain you.

I am still in lockdown, in Cheltenham, with my Mum, as I feel that we are each benefitting from the company and the time spent together. Mum was called for her first Covid jab on the evening of 13^th January, so we duly made our way to the Cheltenham Fire Station where a team of friendly, and very helpful, volunteers made sure that we negotiated the system with the greatest of ease.  All the fire engines had been relegated to the outside area at the back of the fire station but had to be brought back in at night so that they could be kept in readiness for any emergency. I hadn’t ever considered this, but they have to be kept at an ambient temperature so that iced or misted windscreens aren’t an issue, if they get a ‘shout’ on a cold, frosty night, so the vast indoor area was surprisingly warm, as we awaited our turn. At the end of the session, all the vaccination positions and all of the chairs, etc, have to be cleared away completely, to allow the engines to return! What an undertaking!

Mum likes to go out for a daily walk although, as she is now using a four-wheeled walker, we are a bit constrained as to where we can go. The pavements around here have been dug up for gas/electricity/water so many times that they are really rough and uneven and the tyres on the walker are solid (to prevent punctures), so that Mum’s upper arms get a thorough work out from the vibrations, and the noise is so loud that chatting whilst walking is quite difficult! We decided to see if we could find a more all-terrain style walker on the internet, but hadn’t realised how many different ones there are, but very few of them have pneumatic tyres or suspension, so we’ll just have to shake, rattle and roll our way around the neighbourhood, I think. Although we are limited to fairly short walks on pavements around the area, we entertain ourselves by looking for signs of spring in people’s front gardens, and have been rewarded by sightings of snowdrops, mini-daffodils, hellebores, coloured primroses, violas, little irises, aconites, crocus, wallflowers, spring snowflake, mahonia and winter box. These little treats delight us and help to lift our spirits.

Paw prints in the snow

Another lift to our spirits has been brought by the wildlife that continues to come into the garden. One morning we had six sightings of foxes, three going in one direction across the lawn and three coming back again! We also realised that they were three different foxes – Greater Bushy Tail, Lesser Bushy Tail and Mangy Tail. GBT saunters across the lawn, taking his time and showing off his lovely coat and glorious brush; LBT is much more nervous and trots across the lawn with nose lowered to the ground and never pauses, and poor old MT might stop and sniff around the base of the bird feeder, but soon makes for the safety of the border and the hole in the fence. The other, snowy, morning I went out to feed the birds and happened to glance over the fence into the neighbour’s garden. As he is elderly, and not much of a gardener, the bottom section of his ground rarely gets disturbed and I spotted GBT asleep under the conifer tree. Luckily, I’d taken my camera out into the garden with me, to photograph the tracks across the grass, so was able to put it on full zoom and take a couple of photos before he lost his nerve, stood up and trotted away under the far fence, away from prying eyes.

GBT watching me, watching him!

I realise that I hold very different views on wildlife, depending on where I am located! Because I know that there are no chickens around here and no young lambs, I really enjoy seeing the foxes, whereas, back home, I would be feeling quite differently about them. It’s the same with squirrels – I love seeing them in Mum’s garden, but I know that they cause an awful lot of damage to trees and are really vermin. Is this very hypocritical of me?

We also get a fair range of wild birds to the feeders, which I have managed to keep replenished while I have been here, and we have signed up for this weekend’s Big Bird Watch for the RSPB. We took part a few years ago and, during the hour that we chose to observe, hardly any birds came to the garden at all! On a normal day we might see sparrows, dunnocks, robins, blackbirds, black caps, chaffinches, coal-, great- and blue-tits, long-tailed tits, magpies, jackdaws, crows, seagulls, wood pigeons, and very occasionally, a pair of jays. We are keeping our fingers crossed that they don’t desert us at the weekend.

I have taken myself off for a couple of longer walks, on my own, but have mainly kept to roads as everywhere is so muddy at the moment. I went to post a letter in the village the other day when, suddenly, the clouds cleared away and it turned into a glorious sunny morning, so I just kept on walking and found myself in my old, childhood haunts on the other side of the village. Some changes have taken place – some new houses, the pub turned into a dwelling and both the local shops long gone, but a lot of it is still easily recognisable and I indulged in some nostalgic moments, remembering walks with both of my childhood dogs and with our ‘gang’ of local children. I was gone for an hour and a half and Mum had begun to wonder what had happened to me!

For much of the time, we have stayed indoors as Mum has the majority of her shopping delivered by kind neighbours, who got into the habit of placing Mum’s order with their own, during the last lockdown and have continued doing it during this one. This means that I have managed to finish the blanket that I was knitting to go in my camper van (should I be able to travel anywhere in her, ever again!), I’ve knitted a pair of socks for my daughter and a new ‘infinity scarf’ to add to my collection of saleable items. I have also, finally, painted Mum’s shower room so that it is now virtually complete – I just have to fit and paint the doors for the under-sink cupboard that I made last year. At some point we need to buy a chrome towel rail and put up a couple of hooks for bathrobes, etc but that is not urgent. Having almost run out of things to do, I found myself eyeing-up Mum’s dining room this morning, over breakfast, and thinking that perhaps I could decorate this room while I’m here!

As I have no urgent need to rush back to Somerset, I am thinking of staying here until at least the middle of February, as any gardening chores for my clients can be left until the end of February or even into the beginning of March and I have no farm sits booked until the end of March (if this allowed to go ahead). However, we are running out of ways to entertain ourselves and I have even succumbed to playing Rummikub with Mum. At this rate I shall end up playing her at Scrabble and, as my family knows only too well, I don’t ‘do’ board games!

Stay safe everyone, and stay positive, if you can. x

Snow scene

New Year 2021

Winter lake

I can’t believe that it’s more than two months since I felt positive enough to write a new blog! However, today is the beginning of another year and I feel I should try to look forward in a more positive and hopeful frame of mind and put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard!) once more. 

 As is natural, at the end of the year, all of Nature slows down, retreats into itself and awaits the coming of the Spring. We humans are no different, if we just allow ourselves to tune in to the gentle whispers of our more primitive selves, and this year has forced many of us to do just that, whether we want to or not. Life has still gone on, but at a slower pace and in a restricted way, and this sometimes proves very hard to accept, when we are used to bustling to and fro. I am no exception to this and have felt that life has become harder in lots of indefinable ways – worsening weather and darkening days have restricted how much outdoor activity I can, or want, to do and I have spent far too much time being sedentary and unmotivated. 

However, I have been out for a few short walks but, like me, most of the larger animals, such as the deer, have been reluctant to show themselves! Jeni came with me for a circular walk that took in the barn where I saw the owl and, as we walked towards it, I told her to have her phone camera at the ready, in case he/she put in an appearance. As we got to the gated entrance and looked inside the beautiful Barn Owl flew from the dark recesses, directly towards us, skimmed over our heads and flapped off across the field on silent wings! Jeni was so surprised by the silent beauty that she only caught a whitish blur in her photograph, but we were both so pleased to have seen it.

 On another day, we met up and went for a walk around Shepton Mallet and across increasingly muddy fields to complete a grey and drizzly walk, but we shall try to do it again when the weather is better, and perhaps walk further. 

View towards Shepton Mallet

 Like many, our Christmas plans were pretty much scuppered, but Jeni and I made the decision to drive to Cheltenham to spend Christmas Day with my Mum. I cooked the turkey the day before – it was much larger than we really needed as, originally, Dave was also going to join us until Milton Keynes went into Tier 4 and he had to stay put. I got up at 5.00am on Christmas Day, collected Jeni at 6.00am and drove to Cheltenham to share breakfast with Mum. A lot of the journey was completed in darkness but gradually the sky lightened in the east throwing the bare winter branches into stark relief against a pink and golden dawn – it was really beautiful and quite awe-inspiring. 

I decided against taking my usual cross-country route from Tetbury as the temperature was below zero and only the major roads had been gritted, so we went by way of Cirencester. Usually, I skirt the town on the ring road but, as there was so little traffic about, I decided to try and find my way through the Town Centre ( a route I am not that familiar with) and I am so glad that we did! The little, winding streets in the old centre of the town were hung with beautiful, glittering lights and, in the centre of the market place, was a lovely Christmas tree – we both began to feel quite festive – a feeling that had been entirely absent in the run up to the Big Day! 

The road from Cirencester to Cheltenham runs alongside the River Churn, which had flooded in many places, creating lakes in the flood meadows, and at one point, just outside North Cerney, the whole road was flooded. Luckily, by then, it was quite light so we were able to navigate safely through it, keeping to the crown of the road, and sending up bow waves on either side. 

We were at Mum’s by 8.30am and soon tucking into smoked salmon and scrambled egg, before opening our presents and preparing the Christmas lunch. In the afternoon we had a family Zoom meeting, which slightly made up for the fact that we couldn’t all be together this year, and then, after a mince pie and a slice of Jeni’s cake, we repacked the car and headed homewards. The temperature had registered 1C as we left Cheltenham but, by the time we reached North Cerney, it had dropped to -2C and just before the flooded bit we saw a car nose-down in the ditch at the side if the road. There was police tape around it, so it had obviously happened earlier in the day, and been dealt with, so we carried on, through the water and out the other side, only for the back wheels to twitch as we came into a bend. I corrected the little slide, only for the back end to twitch out again, so I cut my speed to ‘crawl’ and we carried on carefully. In hindsight it was probably a small area of ice created by water from the flood dripping off vehicles and freezing just at that point, but I drove very carefully until the temperature rose to a more acceptable 0C and the roads were dry. We still made it home in about 2 hours, which is my normal journey time, so the lack of traffic on the roads obviously made quite a difference.

I had already decided to return to Cheltenham for January to keep Mum company during her least-favourite month so, just before all of Somerset was thrown into Tier 4, I headed back, with a laden car, to spend New Year with Mum. 

Bemused cock pheasant!

Even though Mum lives in, what is now, a suburb of Cheltenham, her garden often hosts more wildlife than I see in the countryside. When I was here at the beginning of December, we were visited by a cock pheasant, who flew into the garden, and then seemed quite bemused to find himself surrounded by fences. After pecking about in the borders for a while, he fluttered up onto the back fence and posed for ages before launching himself into the next garden. Yesterday, we were visited by a small flock of fieldfares, who spent a long time pilfering the berries from Mum’s holly tree (there are two in the photo, but it’s a bit blurry, as I took it on maximum zoom through a double-glazed window) and today, whilst we were eating breakfast, a large, beautiful and healthy-looking fox trotted across the lawn and disappeared through a gap under the fence panels! I am half-expecting to pull back my bedroom curtains one morning and find a deer on the back lawn – I’ll let you know, if I do! 

Berry thieves!

Well, we are now past the shortest day and into another year, the days are imperceptibly lengthening, the light is returning and, being a fairly optimistic human most of the time, hope for a better year is starting to grow in my heart. Already early signs of spring are here – a small group of snowdrops flowering in Mum’s rockery, purple primroses flowering in my shrubbery and, back in November, Jeni and I spotted a tree in a park in Wells in full bloom against an azure sky! 

I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year and will endeavour to write more frequent blogs to keep you entertained in this coming year. x

Winter blossom

October Ramblings

 

It is nearly eight weeks since my Mum fell and broke two bones in her pelvis and, for the last three weeks she has been back to living completely independently again! Her determination to regain full mobility has been inspirational, not just to her immediate family, but to everyone who knows her. Even one of the Reablement Team said that she is going to use her as an example of what can be achieved with grit and determination. She is still not venturing outside much, but there are plans afoot to make it safer for her to access her beloved garden, and her wonderful handyman, Pete, has already been and fitted handrails in the conservatory and a handrail by the steps up from the patio. He really is a gem and an unsung hero, so I shall sing his praises here. One of the things that needed doing to make Mum’s life a bit easier, was to raise her fridge up, in some way, to enable her to access the bottom shelf safely;  within a few hours of being called to look at the job, he turned up, discussed what needed doing, took measurements and then turned up the next day, having made a box the previous evening!

Nature's Bounty!

I have been back to Cheltenham for a couple of short visits, this month but, generally life has returned to its previous pace – very slow! I have still not gone back to selling my produce at markets although I can’t resist making things when I have a glut, or the produce is in season. After mentioning Nature’s hedgerow bounty in my previous blog, I couldn’t stop myself taking a foraging bag and going off for a walk around the fields! The result is yet another few jars of jelly to add to my collection – Hedgerow Jelly, with blackberries, sloes, hips and haws and a handful of rowan berries! Sloe gin is also on the go and I am experimenting with a damson gin and a blueberry gin, too! I never measure any of the ingredients for the gin, so it is probably slightly different every year, but I haven’t had any complaints yet!

Hedgerow Jelly and Sloe Gin

I have not been exactly overrun with gardening jobs this month, either, and several have had to be rearranged due to rain stopping play, so I have re-volunteered at my local organic market garden, because I can always weed in the polytunnel or greenhouse, whatever the weather is doing outside and I am still moving about a bit! I even ended up doing two stints in one week as the rain kept pouring down and I was fed up with being indoors and sedentary, so I earned a bigger veg box, which I shared with Mum and Jeni.

Bunty had a little run out the other weekend. Jeni's partner wanted to meet up with a friend to go mountain bike riding on some trails at the top of Burrington Combe, on the other side of the Mendips, but his car was in the garage and Jeni's is too small to carry his bike. The plan was that we would all go off to the venue and Adrian and his friend would go bike riding for a couple of hours, while Jeni and I went for a walk. It was a dry afternoon, but strangely still and very overcast, but we walked up to the trig point, the highest point on Mendip, where we had a surprisingly clear view in all directions. We then made our way into the woods and walked beneath the magnificent beech trees and between the stands of conifers. There was no birdsong, but voices seemed to carry over long distances, and it all felt a bit eerie. After we had been walking for quite some time, we bumped into Adrian and his friend and walked back with them towards the trig point - it seemed such a long way and the terrain was quite uneven, so my ankles, knees and, eventually, my back all started hurting, ages before we got back to the van. However, as the light was beginning to fade we came across the herd of Exmoor ponies that roam loose on the hill as part of a conservation grazing scheme and that perked me up a bit! They really are very beautiful.

Exmoor pony herd on Mendip

Exmoor's at twilight

On 3rd and 4th October, we had the heaviest rainfall that I had experienced, whilst living here, and the usually minor trickle that is the Whitelake Stream turned into a raging torrent, flooding its banks in a few places and gushing over the little footbridge almost to handrail height. It was augmented by the huge amount of water pouring across the yard from the main road as the drains overflowed and the water found its easiest escape route! Luckily, it didn't flood up as far as my annexe, but I was a little concerned for a while.

The swollen Whitelake Stream

The flooded path out to the fields!

I have also taken myself off for a couple of walks around the fields and was rewarded on one walk by seeing no less than seven herons in the field at the back of us. The majority of them looked like young birds, although it was difficult to tell from the distance that I was at, and they appeared to be feeding. I can only guess that the huge deluge and subsequent flooding of our little Whitelake Stream had caused lots of earthworms to come to the surface and the herons were gorging on those. At the beginning of this week, I went out again and saw at least five buzzards feeding on earthworms in the fodder bean stubble, plus huge flocks of wood pigeons feasting on the beans that had been dropped by the harvester and which have all started sprouting again, thanks to the wet conditions. One of my WWOOF hosts used to feed sprouted seeds to her cattle and pigs, as the nutrient value is much greater in sprouted seeds, so I guess the same is true of fodder beans.

Herons feeding in the field

On another day, I decided to walk a bit further and do a circular walk, which took me across a couple of maize stubble fields. In one of the fields was an old barn that I wanted to look at more closely (I love old buildings) but, back in the Spring, when I had first done this walk, the maize had been newly sprouted and I hadn’t dare walk across to the barn, as there was no track to it. However, with the crop all gone, I ventured across and had a look. I couldn’t go inside, as there was a gate across the open end, so I was going to just take a photo of the interior. Imagine my surprise when a beautiful Barn Owl flew out, just over my head, and flapped off towards the trees! Unfortunately, I was too slow to take a photo and just stood there going ‘Wow!’ What a treat!

The old barn/Barn Owl roost

The old barn interior

Autumn begins

 

Hawthorn berries

As October begins, Storm Alex rages and the world seems to be falling in around us, I am trying very hard to remain positive! My usual stance of ‘head-in-the-sand Ostrich style’ works most of the time as I remain fairly oblivious to world news by refusing to watch television news or read a newspaper (although I do subscribe to a weekly news magazine, so am not totally unaware of what’s going on around me or, as the magazine is always a week behind, gone on around me.) I find that it is easier to stay positive if I don’t hear relentless news bulletins of bad news. I was once severely berated for this attitude, by an almost complete stranger, but it works for me and so I shall continue on my way.

Recently, I have been dividing my time between staying at Mum’s in Cheltenham and whistle stop overnight stays in Shepton Mallet and have so far managed to leave my laptop charger in Cheltenham and my phone charger in Somerset when I needed them to be in the other location! Thanks to my very ancient Nokia having been popular for a long time, back in the day, I now have three phone chargers in different locations, thanks to my hoarding landlady, Mary, who has a whole box of old adaptors and chargers that ‘might come in useful one day’!

Sloes as big as damsons!

As I’ve driven backwards and forwards between Somerset and Gloucestershire I have noticed how productive the hedgerows are this year; the sloes are the size of small damsons and so abundant that there shouldn’t be a shortage of sloe gin later on; the hawthorn bushes are covered in a haze of red berries and, here and there, long hip-laden branches of dog rose reach above hedge height to mingle with the old man’s beard that takes over the hedges at this time of year. Sadly, I have also noticed how devastating and obvious ash die back has become on both the Mendips and the Cotswolds, rendering the landscape almost winter-like with dead branches clawing at the skies and many more severely diseased. I hadn’t realised that there were so many ash trees in our landscape – the whole look of the countryside will change, much as it did when our magnificent elm trees died.

Sprays of rose hips

The consultant at Gloucester Royal Hospital told my Mum that she could expect to be in hospital for 4-6 weeks before being able to return home, so I was gearing myself up for frequent drives to Stroud Hospital where she was sent for rehabilitation. Having been held up in long queues at a notorious roundabout, near Cheltenham, that was on the obvious route back from Stroud, I devised several different cross-country routes that took me down some tiny lanes across the Cotswolds, some with grass growing down the middle and very few passing places. To be honest, I love driving down these lanes as you find some wonderful hidden gems of houses (all, sadly, out of my price range) and it all adds to my mental map of the countryside. In one particular lane I came upon a woman out walking her two dogs. There was absolutely no room for me to get past and nowhere in sight for her to get off the road, and so she started to run down the road in front of me! It was a hot day and I was in no particular hurry, so I called out to her to stop running and then I held back to a less intimidating distance until a small wider area allowed me to pass. I then promptly met a white van coming in the other direction and knowing that there were no passing places for ages behind me, I had to wait for him to back up a couple of hundred yards to a driveway, so that we could pass each other.

Having got used to the timing of my journey from Cheltenham to Stroud, I began to think about calling on my childhood friend, Carol, who lives near Stroud and also on an ex-WWOOF host who lives in the beautiful Slad Valley that was on my route to and fro but, before I could contact them to make arrangements, they released Mum from hospital – it had been 3 weeks and 3 days since her accident! Initially, they had intended to send her to a unit attached to a local residential home which acts as a halfway house between hospital and home and helps patients become more able to cope with day-to-day tasks, but there were no rooms available and so they set up a Reablement Team and sent her home. At first, I couldn’t get my head around what the Team did, as they were going to come in 3 times a day but were not carers, as such. What they actually do, is monitor and assess a patient’s ability to function well and safely at home, put in place aids to assist and make suggestions as to how everyday tasks could be tackled in a different way until full mobility is restored. They can be in place for up to six weeks and will gradually reduce the number of visits they make, if they feel the patient is coping well. Mum is so focussed on becoming fully independent again that I’m sure she will succeed.

Alpaca teatime

I have had a couple of long-booked farm sits recently and so my sister and brother-in-law came down from Sheffield in their camper van to look after Mum while I was otherwise occupied, firstly with a one day alpaca-sit at Pensford and secondly, a week-long farm sit at Dundry (from where I am currently writing this blog). The Team wanted the relatives to ‘step back a bit’ so that they could get a better picture of how Mum is really coping, so they took themselves off to a camp site near Tewkesbury overnight, and plan a two-day absence next week, if this goes well. It’s all very well wanting the relatives out of the way a bit but I live the nearest to Mum and I’m two hours away, if she feels she needs help – so this is a really good compromise.

With autumn seeming to have set in with a vengeance in the last few days, I cannot see me getting away in Bunty for quite a while, but she is not totally out of mind. Even though I have no market for my hand-knitted garments at the moment, and no idea when I will have, I have continued to produce items, mainly socks, just to keep myself occupied in the evenings, but I have now decided to knit a series of squares in shades of blue and turquoise to make into a blanket specifically for use as a throw for the rear seat of my van and also a warm, lightweight covering on cooler nights.

I’m sorry that this hasn’t been a more uplifting blog but let me leave you with a photo of one of this year’s alpaca babies at Bell Farm:

An epic adventure!

The view from the car park at the top of Porlock Hill

 I must apologise for the length of time between my last blog and this one, but life decided to bowl me a bit of a curve ball recently! I’d planned to visit my Mum in Cheltenham over the late August Bank Holiday weekend and arrived on the Friday evening to find an ambulance parked on the driveway! 

Once I’d got over the initial alarm and been reassured by the paramedics and the next door neighbours that Mum was OK, I found out what had happened; mum had fallen in the kitchen and injured her hip. Being unable to get herself up from the floor she pressed her emergency alert button and the system kicked in beautifully – the ambulance was despatched and the next door neighbours alerted. To cut a long story short, Mum was admitted to Gloucester Royal Hospital where they discovered that she had broken a bone in her pelvic ring which, like broken ribs, just has to heal itself over a period of several weeks and the only treatment is bed rest and pain killers. Once they’d got the pain relief sorted and once a bed became available in one of the seven community hospitals in Gloucestershire, they moved her to Stroud where she is making good, steady progress (but not fast enough for her!). To keep her morale up and break up an otherwise long day, we have endeavoured, as a family, to keep up daily visits which, for the most part, we have achieved. My sister and brother both thought it was important that I had my planned weekend away in the campervan, so Lynda came down from Sheffield for a week to take over visiting while I went back to Somerset and prepared Bunty for her big adventure.

Jeni and I were heading for the Ilfracombe area to start off with, to visit Karen & Lawrence with whom I’d WWOOFed ten years ago and with whom Jeni had WWOOFed when she worked for the Soil Association back in 2007. In my wisdom, I decided that it would be nice to drive the scenic, coastal route via Minehead and only realised later that that would involve driving up Porlock Hill! Because I didn’t have any service history for the van, I’d booked it in for a service on the Wednesday before we were due to go on the Saturday so I asked them if, in their opinion she would make it up the hill. They seemed to think that if I put her in first gear and took it steady all would be fine.

All ready for the off!

So, on Saturday morning Jeni and I loaded the last few bits and pieces into Bunty, had a short launching ceremony that involved hanging a tree of life pendant on the rear view mirror and placing artificial flower garlands on the dashboard, and set off via Bridgwater towards Porlock Hill. All was going well and we were enjoying the fine, sunny day and on reaching Porlock, we began the ascent. Now, I’ve been up the hill a couple of times in a car but had forgotten the two steep hairpin bends that occur part way up. We managed those OK but the revs were really dropping and the poor engine was howling in protest and then the temperature gauge started to climb. By the time we got to the top, the red light was flashing and I decided we needed to pull over and let the engine cool before going any further. There was a car park and viewing point off to our right so I indicated and started to pull across the road and that’s when the engine died and refused to start again! As luck would have it a mobile farm trailer engineer was pulling out of the side road opposite the car park and kindly towed us across the road onto a level spot, and there we waited for the engine to cool down. After about an hour we deemed the engine cool enough and gingerly opened the bonnet, to be met by rusty water stains all over the engine compartment and no sign of any coolant in the expansion tank. Jeni and I both tried to remove the filler cap but it’s a stupid design and neither of us could budge it and, unlike me, I had no tools with me (note to self: put a pair of pliers permanently in the van!). In the end I admitted defeat and phoned the roadside rescue that I’d taken out two days earlier! The recovery guy was more than an hour away, so we consoled ourselves with an ice cream from the ice cream van in the car park. The guy took pity on our plight and gave us a double scoop each for the price of one! 

Consolation ice cream

Exciting ice cream!

Once our knight in shining armour arrived it didn’t take him many minutes to remove the filler cap, fill the system with water and test all the hoses, radiator, fans and pump before giving us the all clear to carry on our merry way – we had been in the car park for three hours and I had no way of letting our hosts know that we had been delayed, so we just had to carry on as quickly as we could. The next obstacle was Lynton Hill but, having been assured by the ice cream guy, that it wasn’t as steep or winding as Porlock Hill we set off with a certain amount of confidence that all would be well. The temperature gauge did rise a bit but we kept on going and the fan eventually brought everything back to normal. Phew!

Karen and Lawrence made us very welcome and it didn’t feel as if so many years had passed since we’d last seen them – they’ve hardly changed at all. We had a tasty evening meal with them and then bedded down in the van which was very comfortable, although you need to be pretty agile to get into the top bunk! During the night it rained quite heavily but by the morning this had eased off to a fine drizzle which stopped quite quickly and we eventually got back on the road by late morning – next stop, Launceston.

After a good night's sleep at Lee

The drive to Launceston was uneventful and we arrived with Jo and James by early afternoon. By then, the sun had come out and it was beautifully warm, so a walk around the farm was proposed. The first stop was at the paddock behind the house where their remaining seven sheep were lazing in the sun. With the help of Jess, the Border Collie, James soon had them in a pen so that I could say “Hello” to Number 74 aka Lady, the sheep whose life I’d helped to save eight years ago. It is four years since I last saw Lady but, as the photo shows, she hadn’t completely forgotten me, which was surprising and delightful in equal measure. (Who says sheep are stupid? Not me, that's for sure!)

Old friends reunited!

 After that we inspected the vegetable garden and then walked down to the Shepherd’s Hut where they had planted a wildflower meadow in front of it. Even though some of the flowers had gone over, it was still stunning and such a lovely idea, as the Shepherd’s Hut is a rather romantic place, set well away from the farm buildings and just right for a cosy weekend away (check it out on AirBnb:  https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/3315317?s=67&unique_share_id=1c4d314b-de31-4299-bd6d-1fe96fb34dcd). 

By the Shepherd's Hut

After that we went our separate ways, Jo and James back to the farm and Jeni, Jess and I down the farm track to the beautiful oak woods and, ultimately, the river.

In the oak woods with Jess

Down by the river

 Both Jeni and I remarked on how we were suddenly aware that we had somehow exhaled all our worries and felt properly relaxed and peaceful - it really is a magical place! Four years ago, whilst clearing out the stream bed near the farm, I gathered some acorns, put them in a plastic bag and took them home to use, either as a dye or a mordant, on my handspun wool. However, when I finally remembered them, they had all started to shoot, so I potted them up and managed to grow about twenty small trees. With Jo and James’ permission, I brought fourteen of these saplings back to the farm and, in return I was given a Tamar apple variety that I had helped graft from an old tree that was dying in the orchard.

East Penrest sunset

The evening was so warm that we were able to sit outside to eat our evening meal, share a bottle of wine and witness a beautiful sunset that morphed into a star-studded night and another good night’s sleep in the van. With our souls restored by the special atmosphere of East Penrest Farm and fortified by sleep and breakfast, Jeni and I continued to the last day of our break – a visit to the Eden Project. We last visited the project back in 2001, when it had only been open for a year, and we were continually surprised by a) how little we remembered and b) how much things had grown and matured. The Rainforest Biome was more of a challenge than ever as we had to wear face masks the entire time that we were inside and the humidity and temperature were quite high, but it was worth it to see bananas growing and cacao and ginger plants, too. The Temperate Biome had probably changed the most as the original planting had matured and various Mediterranean-style buildings had been erected, with bougainvillea spilling over terracotta-tiled roofs and a ‘hillside’ of vines with an art installation depicting Bacchus and his consorts, but I was pleased to see that the cork pigs were still in evidence under the trees.

Cork pigs

Bacchus amongst the vines

After a long and interesting visit we returned to Bunty and headed home by way of the A30 and A303, with a brief couple of junctions on the M5 round Exeter. All went well, but pride nearly got the better of me when I decided to overtake a large articulated lorry going up one of the long slow hills on the A30 in Devon, only to discover that Bunty didn’t have quite the power to overhaul him easily and he wasn’t going to give an inch! Yard by yard we drew alongside and then in front with the engine screaming and the temperature rising and a longish queue of cars backing up behind me, which prevented me from eating humble pie and dropping back behind him. Again, I’ve apologised to Bunty and told her I won’t make her do that again, either! 😄 

I then spent the rest of the week catching up with my garden clients’ jobs before heading back to Cheltenham where there is a new shower room in need of painting, amongst other things. I hope it won’t be too long before Bunty and I resume our travels, as there are new places just waiting to be explored and more old friends to catch up with.