Cheshire: maybe not the MOST exciting outdoors environment in the UK...

I'm realising that, living in Cheshire, being outdoors is not usually going to be about big hills and vast open skies, nor about bagging the ... dale Horseshoe or doing sections of some well known trail. This means that the content of my blog is not what I expected, being less about the scenery and more about the creatures which live in it.

Today a walk around Swettenham offered some lovely opportunities to notice the bees feeding on comfrey flowers:

and on wild roses:






Damselflies are rather harder to capture with a phone camera but here's my best effort, note to self: take a camera next time (I know, I've said that before).

It might be a red-eyed damselfly like this one (but it's only a possibility given how blurry the picture is...). It's interesting to think that damselflies were around when the dinosaurs were alive, in fact they're among the oldest creatures on earth, first appearing around 300 million years ago. And the facts that 5 new migrant species have been recorded in the UK and other species have migrated North are seen as evidence of rising temperatures, according to The Natural History Museum.

Pollyanna at the station

A cancelled train (gnashing of teeth) gives me an opportunity to notice and appreciate the fantastic platform garden created at Alsager station by volunteers. Five awards this year, says the notice, and I'm not surprised.

More buff/white tailed bees here too, rolling around gleefully inside the yellow poppies like a dog in a muddy puddle. Maybe they've been cosy in the nest boxes here over last Winter:

It seems the bees here have a lot of support generally:

I'm unsure whether the herbs are for commuters to pick for supper:

If so it's a brilliant idea! A huge pat on the back to the gardeners involved.

By the way in case the reference is rather obscure, Pollyanna is the fictional girl who, on being sent crutches as a Christmas present by a charity for needy children, was joyful because she was so 'glad, glad, glad' that she didn't need them. Making a virtue out of necessity, you could call it.

The Ancients Wouldn't Have Done It Like This, says guest blogger Dave

The mysteries of Wiltshire's Avebury neolithic stone circle date back some 6,000 years, according to the many prominent National Trust signs dotted around the grassy site. 

One newer mystery struck me as pre-eminent: how did anyone allow the A4361/361 Swindon to Devizes trunk road to be routed right through the middle of this ancient monument?

 Perhaps it was once part of a pre-historic transport network; maybe the lichen-encrusted stones themselves were the precursors of the trucks, vans, cars, and tourist coaches which today make their way to and through this beautiful, spiritual place. No one knows where the stones came from, nor their purpose; and no matter. 

Despite the contemporary intrusions, the ring itself retains much of its pagan mystique. The immense earthworks alone are enough to have inspired sundry astrological conspiracy theories, but for the average visitor, it's enough to wander, wonder and marvel.

There's free access to the Avebury monument itself, thought to be the largest stone circle in the world. Both for the two-legged visitors who flock (sorry!) from around the world, and the sheep who graze the site.

Other onsite attractions include the adjoining Avebury Manor, recently restored in the BBC project To The Manor Reborn, reprising Penelope Keith's famous TV role. The stately home's unique selling point: you can sit on the chairs and bounce on the beds.

It's a shame about the main road running through this wonderful place. But it does also remain a real functioning village complete with authentic rural pub. For me, Avebury is a much better day out than its rather better known near-neighbour Stonehenge. That is getting a brand new visitor centre which means you'll need to be bussed to the stones there. But despite decades of in-fighting, there's currently no hope of re-routing the much busier A303 dual-carriageway which blights one of Britain's greatest attractions to a much greater extent than the road through Avebury.

Bees galore

How lovely to see lots and lots of bees in my garden, all over a rhododendron bush and a flowering hedge. Looking closely at them, I noticed a white tail on many of them - I like to know what kind of creature I've seen so I open my bee book eagerly - to find that the buff tailed and white tailed bees are virtually indistinguishable, at least by one with poor eyesight and no inclination to get stung. Ah well, it was one or the other!

See if you can tell the difference:

Buff tailed bumble bee (NB only the queen's tail is buff, all others have a white tail)

White tailed bumble bee

Let me know if you're finding it any easier than I am!

The unique joy of being by the sea

During a day of meetings in St Andrews, there was an opportunity to break away and spend a little while by the sea. Sitting on the sea wall, looking out over two miles of unbroken sandy beach, I was reminded that there's nothing like sea air and a sea view.

It's hard to say quite what makes it unique; the wide open views... the negative ions... the sound of the waves... It's no surprise at all that Victorians used to be prescribed a sojourn by the sea to cure miscellaneous maladies. Research on UK Census data actually showed that living within 3 miles of the sea tends to mean you feel healthier, all other things being equal. It certainly worked, albeit briefly, for me.

Outdoors in Edinburgh

What a delightful city. There is such a lot of open space in Edinburgh, even though it's buzzy and lovely, there's space for everyone to get some outdoors peace and tranquility, although some of it is rather steep, like the sides of the hill below the castle.

Just look at all this green space across the city:

Having an extinct volcano and SSSI in the city centre - Arthur's Seat at 250m - is quite something too. It's so close to the city centre, as this photo shows. I can see why surveys rate Edinburgh's liveability score so highly.

A nostalgic visit to Rudyard Lake

I was passing the sign post that said 'Rudyard' and I happened (for once) to have a spare half hour, so on an impulse I headed off to revisit a place which used to be a regular weekend haunt. Many a happy hour was spent riding on the tiny steam train that chugs slowly along the lakeside track.

It must be six years since I last saw it and much has changed. The 'station' at the end of the line is now very smart and proper, and the lake car park has a bustling cafe with tables outside looking over the lake.

It's even longer than that since Rudyard was the scene of high jinks on weekend outings on a real steam train from the Manchester smoke ; apparently there were dozens of tea rooms then, not just one:


There were boats, albeit not so many, on my visit too:

The trees along the path provided a welcome shade on a warm sunny day - no complaints from me, I hasten to add!

Nature's timing seems somewhat awry

Visiting a friend near Leek today, right off the beaten track, I was amazed to find - still - the woods full of bluebells in full bloom. So close to the woods I visited almost a month ago, it seems strange that these are so far behind. But this year, timings do seem very odd, with a grapevine in my garden (alas, fruitless) only just coming into leaf in the last day or two. It's lucky it did, as I was just about to give up on it, assume the winter had finally beaten it, and chop it down.

Back to this wonderful wood, an amazing bird chorus included ravens and chiff chaffs, with buzzards flying overhead. With only the occasional plane overhead, it was a wonderfully peaceful spot.

A blaze of glory

I just had to share this extraordinary display - it was so bright that it seems to have overwhelmed my phone's camera. And I found it in a street which could reasonably be described as ordinary, where it had the extra value of surprise.

No-one could ignore this particular piece of outdoors today!

A re-purposed post box that makes a lovely noise!

Here's an example of wildlife resourcefulness that really made me smile.

For the visually challenged, like me, who might struggle with this photo, the words on the black box say:

'Bird nesting in here: please use white temp post box, thanks'

Thank goodness for the kind homeowner, just around the corner from where I live, who went out of their way to let the new residents raise their family in peace.

My only disappointment was that they shot in and out so fast that I couldn't make out what kind of birds they are, but I'm guessing they're blue tits or something about that size. Certainly there are several healthy chicks in there, judging by the noises coming from the black box!