Tags
Black-headed gull, Bristol Water, Chelsea Flower Show, Chew Valley, Chew Valley Lake, mallard, moorhen, Salt and Malt, shoveler, Yeo Valley, Yeo Valley Organic Garden
Anyone following the Chelsea Flower Show this autumn (it’s normally held in spring) will be familiar with the name, Yeo Valley, makers of organic dairy products. Their organic garden won the People’s Choice Award for large show garden this year, not bad for first-time participants.
I had visited their garden, with my friend, Zoe, previously – it is situated roughly halfway between the homes of each of us – but the weather had been miserable on that occasion, and we didn’t get as much from the outing as we might have done. Our birthdays fall close to each other, and, for our October birthday ‘first Friday’ monthly walk, we decided to visit the garden, and make a day of it, visiting other places in the area afterwards. We went on the second Saturday, as in October the garden only opens to the public on Saturdays, and this was forecast to have better weather than the first.
In fact the weather was gorgeous. The autumn mist above us allowed the hazy sun to bless us early in the morning, and had disappeared entirely by lunchtime. My camera clicked away – I couldn’t restrain it. In the order I took them:







On 23rd November, I shall be ‘going to’ this talk by Sarah Mead and designer Tom Massey, on how the Show Garden came about.
























At midday our allotted time was up, and we had seen just about everything there was to be seen. Zoe knew of a great fish and chips place, Salt and Malt, by the side of Chew Valley Lake, just a short distance away. Alas, I took photos of neither the view nor the fish and chips, but both were very good.
We drove round the Lake to the next car park, intending to do the short ‘Grebe Walk’, which would take us firstly through some woodland, and then along the lake to see, theoretically, grebes among other birds.



But on the return leg we saw nothing but reeds in the lake at that end. Whether this was deliberate cultivation for wildlife reasons, or because of Covid-related (or other) neglect we could not tell.
We walked on beyond the car park to see what we could see. We couldn’t get closer to the lake than this.

Zooming my camera showed me that the boats were colourful.

And, looking back, gave me the chance to see some unidentifiable birds.

We had no desire to find ourselves back at the fish and chip place, so turned back to where our car was parked, with a view to winding down from our day’s outing. The drive back to Zoe’s, where my car was, took us along a quite busy road, which serves as a dam of the lake, and which is actually a reservoir owned by Bristol Water, the fifth-largest artificial lake in England. The lake is also a nature reserve and an SSSI.
There were many people leaning on the rail, but the birds were unfazed.









Zoe and I had not quite finished putting the world to rights, so before I got into my car, we had a cup of tea in her garden, and I admired the mini-woodland she and her husband are creating there.
What a beautiful place that garden was, thanks for showing us round. You certainly saw a multitude of birds too, a splendid day out.
LikeLike
A lovely day out, blessed by the weather.
LikeLike
Wonderful colours – and what a lovely place! Glad you got the weather too – result!
LikeLike
Sometimes everything comes together…
LikeLike
A wonderful place to visit. Thanks for taking readers along! You are right, there is still a good amount of color about for mid October.
LikeLike
Sadly, some of it is no doubt due to global heating. And we’re having extraordinarily mild weather still, two weeks on.
LikeLike
You picked a good day for your outing and got a feast of good photographs as a result.
LikeLike
Thank you, Tom.
LikeLike
What a wonderful day out. Splendid pictures – so glad you had just the right weather to bring out all the colours. Mr and Mrs Mallard made me smile.
LikeLike
And me. In fact all the birds made me smile! 😁
LikeLike
Une belle sortie d’anniversaireS, variée et réussie. Après le reflet du bassin, j’ai admiré la couleur des grandes feuilles, avant de découvrir que c’était une sculpture. Ce qui n’enlève rien à leur beauté !
Oui, il reste encore beaucoup de fleurs colorées, comme j’ai pu le constater à Giverny, il y a 10 jours.
Dommage pour le manque d’accès au lac depuis le sentier, mais des oies du Canada à la place de grèbes, ce n’est pas si mal 😉
LikeLike
Interesting what you say about Canada geese. A few decades ago, when first they started to become common here, everyone thought they were fine. Now they’re becoming so widespread that they’re almost a pest. And walking in a park (e.g. St James’s Park in Westminster, next door to which I worked for ten years, you have to be careful where you put your feet to avoid their excreta! (And I’ve just learned that St James’s Park is where they were introduced, 300 years ago! https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/birds/waterfowl/canada-goose )
LikeLike
Ah ! Ce n’est pas le cas en France, en Bretagne en tout cas, alors j’espère que nous ne serons pas envahis ainsi, pour que ces oies restent fascinantes et non un fléau.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: The Glastonbury Way, Part 1 | Musiewild's blog