Catching up

The school holidays end so I will visit somewhere else soon 🙂

The 3 ducklings on the Coalport pond are all grown up! The exciting news is there are 2 adult Little Grebe on the New Hall pond and they have 4 stripey headed babies I first saw them Tuesday and they are all there this afternoon. It's not a first but not common.

I was strolling down a bridlepath and saw my first Painted Lady of the year. Typically I only had my phone that day.

The ponies are all doing well.

Not often a blue poses!

Still a light year for butterflies locally.

Rivers Nursery

A friend of mine had to spend a couple of nights in hospital and I volunteered as the taxi driver :) 

On the second afternoon he had 3 family members visiting in the afternoon so after dropping off my charge off rather than wait outside and read I grabbed my headphones and went to explore.

Thomas Rivers Hospital is private (he was referred by the NHS, and it was rather nice, especially after having visited Dad in hospital) and is in the small village of High Wych which is bordering on Sawbridgeworth.

There seemed to be a path that looked interesting and I came out into a rather large field. It was full of wild flowers and there were butterflies

There were a few apple trees  dotted about 

And then I went through an opening into an orchard! 

I got summoned back to the hospital for chauffeuring duties. 

Rivers Nursery dates back to 1725 when it was established by John Rivers but it was Thomas Rivers who is the most important name in its history. He corresponded with Darwin and was a pioneer of fruit cultivation under glass, developed many fruit and rose varieties and helped restock the Californian orange industry.

He introduced the early Rivers Plum extending the fruit growing season and authored many books on fruit and rose cultivation.

At its height at end of the 19th century there was 400 acres under cultivation what we see today is 1% 

Today it remains an important site for both flora and fauna (I saw a Jersey Tiger Moth, sorry RR ;) ) 

You can see a list of the cultivars etc on the excellent Rivers Heritage Site and Orchard website. When you see the number of   cultivars on such a relatively small site e.g. 83 Apple, and how few we now eat ..... I believe that the fruit is picked by the society and used to finance the upkeep. And can I say how indebted we are to such organisations

I'd have liked to explore more ! 

The suffolk coast

I am home tomorrow but back for a longer visit soon.

I wandered to the village of Dunwich first.

Dunwich was a thriving town of 3000 people at the time of the Domesday book with 3 churches.  In the thirteenth century a  combination of storm surges and coastal erosion means washed most buildings away and today it is a small village. About 8 churches have disappeared. 

It needs to be noted that storms alone didn't destroy the town. According to wikipedia ;) it developed as a sheltered harbour where the River Dunwich entered the North Sea. Coastal processes including storms caused the river to shift its mouth 2.5 miles (4 km) north to Walberswick, on the River Blyth. The town of Dunwich lost its raison d'etre and was largely abandoned. Sea defences were not maintained and coastal erosion progressively invaded the town.

Still there is a sizeable medieval town under the sea.

The ruins of the friary.

The leper chapel. its a pity this fascinating building didn't survive to become the parish church.

The current church is Victorian. It is ironic that for a period Dunwich had no church!

I wandered to Dunwich Heath. And yes I saw a Dartford Warbler! Lucky the thing called!

The obligatory scone!!

I wandered to Minsmere... it was quiet and I didn't have a camera. Nice to hear Bearded Tits pinging! I guess I'll have to bring a telephoto in September.

Then to Leiston Abbey

The "new" buildings are due to farming and a Christian retreat. 

I popped into Shawsgate Vineyard and walked amongst the vines. Bottles may have been bought :)