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This morning I tidied up the Head Gardener’s Walk. It was becoming a little overgrown.
This was the result.
Apart from a brief spell of sunshine when I was carrying out this task, today was very dull and overcast. It was not the afternoon to go in search of a field of bluebells – especially as we didn’t find it.
We understood that it was part of Ballard Water Meadow and Woodland.
So dry has been our month of April, that the streams that cross the area are all but dried up.
Conservation has been in progress for some years. A footpath, logging, and cutting back of undergrowth beside the main ditch provide evidence of industry.
A handful of small black cattle sat around chewing the cud as I left Jackie sitting on a bench and went off on a bluebell hunt. The beasts contributed plentiful pats as their contribution to the ecology.
The cows quietly tolerated the flies crawling around their eyes.
Many dog walkers availed themselves of the pet-emptying facility.
I continued in search of the elusive bluebell field, and settled for the odd clump of the English variety – not the Spanish Armada.
I reached a man-made lake with its share of water fowl and reflections of nearby buildings.
Unfortunately there was a smattering of litter in the surrounding woodland,
and in the lake itself.
The Maltesers container lay at the edge. A couple of bottles stood up in the water. Was there a message in this?
On my return the cattle had risen to their feet and started foraging.
This evening we dined at The Crown Inn at Everton. I chose well-filled steak and kidney pudding with carrots and swede wrapped in a cabbage leaf, chips and gravy. Jackie chose duck with noodles, stir-fry vegetables and hoisin sauce. Desserts were respectively bread and butter pudding with pomegranate seeds floating in creme Anglaise, and sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream. Jackie drank draught Becks, and I began with a glass of Brown Brothers Everton Red, which was accurately described as having the flavours of the hedgerow. My second glass was the well-tried Mendoza Argentinian Malbec.