Although much of the land around here is given over to agriculture (mainly dairy cattle), we are fortunate to have a reasonable amount of ‘open access’ land close by. It’s mostly mixed woodland and an excellent place for quiet reflection. This is Maer Hills, just a 10 min drive from home. 
The fields around our house are home to around 700 Freisian dairy cattle. Their main diet is grass, but as well as maize, the farmer also grows ‘winter beet’, and the cows get to eat it through the spring until there is enough grass for them to graze. Whenever I wander up the garden, they always take an interest…
… all at once! Yesterday was my birthday, and as well as some other lovely gifts, I had these three bottles of gin! Pink Pepper is definitely my favorite, but who doesn’t love Monkey 47? Conker Gin is from Dorset where we spent the last few days, and this one is Navy Strength so 57% proof – wow, that’s strong!
Last morning of our short break in Dorset, and the weather didn’t disappoint. A quick walk down to the harbour before we left and a last chance to look at the boats. I figure we will be back before long…
An area of land in Dorset was commandeered for military training during WW2, and is still used these days for live firing. A number of roads around the area are closed on weekdays, when training etc takes place, and this involves some lengthy diversions. We didn’t actually see any tanks or similar, but we heard machine gun and artillery fire…
In season I reckon these beach huts at Sandbanks, Poole, will be pretty busy, but today not one was in use. Beach huts, most of which can’t be stayed in overnight and typically don’t have toilet facilities, can sell for upwards of £100k in some areas. I’m sure that if I could afford one, I’d be using it all the time!
Our few days this week in Dorset seems like a great opportunity to try my latest purchase – a DJI Osmo Pocket video camera. It’s absolutely tiny, shoots 4K video, and is fully gimbal stabilised. I’m hoping to get some good footage of our trip!
It’s quite common to see swans on the canal near here, but I’d never seen them nesting until today. This is actually someone’s front garden – I think I would be nervous getting too close when mowing the lawn!
We are not expert gardeners by any means, but as well as growing a few summer flowers 💐 we try to grow some vegetables as well. One crop that does well in our garden is onions, so we always plant a few. Experience has taught me that planting them directly outside will see us lose quite a few to birds as they come through, so nowadays I start them in the greenhouse and plant them out when they are a decent size. These will be planted out in another week or so, and will hopefully survive and flourish…
Seighford Hall is a 16th-century timber-framed manor house and grounds near Stafford, re-designed in the 18th century. Although it looks pretty derelict from this angle, it is currently in use as a nursing home. I bet it has some stories to tell…
One Day At A Time... 