Lesvos 9 – second Wednesday and Thursday

12 Friday May 2023

Posted by Musiewild in Cats, Countryside views, Photography, Plants, Travel, Wildlife

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I was feeling somewhat better the next day, but the day’s walking promised to be quite long, with no chance to rest in the bus, so I decided to stay behind. As on the previous Monday, I had a very pleasant day in Molyvos, which this time did not involve going up and down the main slope.

*The church was a stone’s throw from the hotel.*

From there I took a road behind the hotel which I knew from a map could in due course get me, rightwards, to the town centre, but which would, leftwards, give me access through a field to the far coastline.

It was two fields in fact. This is the first.

*This circular ruin was five or six metres wide. There was no clue as to what it had been. Given its position, it could well have been defensive.*

This map, at the car park where the coach had dropped us on Sunday, shows that, while Molyvos is at the north of the island, it is also on a headland pointing westwards, the location of the hotel. I was exploring that very tip. (Cycling friends may be turning green, sorry.)

This video therefore starts with part of Lesvos in the background, and ends with part of Turkey in the background. (Sound on.)

I sat on this bench for quite a while.

I moved on to another bench, even further west by a few meters. It even had plastic-covered cushions. But it was really windy and chilly there – I didn’t stay.

I wandered on round the further field, looking this way and that.

*No-one around to identify the flowers for me…*

*An observation post? From what era? This is all there is to it, with space for just one person.*

*James later identified this for me as a black and white chafer in the genus Oxythyrea*. *David Re and Felicity visited this field an hour or so later and likewise had taken a photo of it* – *though I can’t guarantee it was this very specimen…*

I made my way back to the road, and turned leftwards towards the town centre.

I came out at a favourable part of the double slope.

*I kept meaning to find out what this chimney was/had been for, and kept forgetting.*

By the time I got back to the hotel, it was past coffee time, so I treated myself to a cake as well. (I put on 4 lb, 1.9 kg, in the week.)

Dimitris, our host, came by and asked if I wanted another, saying I could have a third free if so. He knew he risked nothing! But I engaged him in conversation about these, hanging by his boat, which I suspected were octopus legs.

I was right, and yes he had caught the animal himself. It had been a big one, with a body about the size of a football, as he indicated with his hands. In response to my questions he explained that there were only seven legs because octopuses, when hungry, will eat their own limbs, which will grow back. He would be grilling the legs. No, not for us, he would be selling the dish. (My inference from his tone was that he would make more profit that way.)

I was most relieved that we would not be invited to eat them, and I ventured on to more sensitive ground. What did he think of the proposal to farm octopuses? (I had recently signed a petition against such treatment of such a sentient being, one of the most intelligent creatures with which we share the earth.) Given, he said, that the population was declining, he thought is was OK. I dropped the subject.

In part 3 of this account I mentioned the cats seen everywhere, and have there corrected the wrong impression that it was the Greek government which helped keep stray cats healthy. I asked Dimitris to whom did all these cats belong. He said, “No-one, they are harbour cats. Someone comes to feed them and we all toss them the fish we catch that are too small. I once counted 35 cats around my boat!” My maximum had been twelve seen at once from my balcony. They had been hanging around those eating at the next-door restaurant, with no-one apparently objecting.

After eating my lunch on my balcony, I wandered along to the end of the roadway, without going on to the harbour wall.

*Clambering up here (there were a few steps) would have been another way to the fields I had been exploring in the morning.*

The rest of the afternoon was spent in my room and on my balcony, pottering again – reading, thinning photos, contacts with friends via email and Facebook, and – I know, it’s pathetic – ordering a new suitcase! I was rather worried that the zip the one I had with me would not survive the journey home, and certainly I wouldn’t risk it on another holiday. (It did just last, and then finally gave up the ghost.)

The main news from the others when they came back was that Philip had been stung by a scorpion! It had settled on his bag when he had put it down, and he hadn’t seen it when picking it up again. No ill effects, but it had hurt a great deal and his hand still felt numb at dinner. (Spoiler alert – he was still alive the next day.) That dinner was interrupted very briefly by a power cut, due to a very fierce thunderstorm and very heavy rain. How lucky we had been throughout the week, with very pleasant spring weather, and never too hot.

The next – our last – morning dawned chilly and gloomy, and I was definitely on the mend. Which was as well, given the day’s travel ahead. This time I was not staying anywhere overnight, and should just be home by a ‘felt-like’ midnight, 10.00 BST.

*Prue and Nick take a final walk along the harbour wall*.

Luggage on a truck, we had the up and down kilometre to walk to the coach which would take us, past the Killoni salt pans, to Mytilene airport. I took a few photos on the way, observing the sky clearing.

Arrived at the small airport, we checked in our luggage and then sought places to eat our packed lunch. Along with a handful of others, I followed Philip and James. They had hoped to be able just to cross the road to the beach, but there were roadworks in the way. We had to go a few hundred yards to avoid them.

Then, again, the interminable wait to get through passport control, so long that I was concerned that those behind me night not make the plane, since they called boarding while I was still some way back in the queue. They did, and then the flight was 20 minutes late taking off.

My journey from there should have been smooth: Stansted Express to Liverpool Street station, tube round to Hammersmith and a dreary 3.5 hour bus ride back to Glastonbury, where I would have taken a taxi, if available, to avoid my own up-and-down slope (not nearly as long or high as Molyvos’s!) to my house. Forgetting that Stansted serves other places than just London, and a little concerned about time, I leapt onto the first train I saw, which was very packed and, I assumed, near leaving. I looked up and saw the destination panel. ‘Norwich’. Something made me remark on this out loud, which caused fellow passengers to tell me that all Stansted Expresses were cancelled for the foreseeable, because of a fatality on the line at Harlow, that I need to stay on this train to go to Cambridge, and there take a train to King’s Cross. Help! I would never get to Hammersmith in time, and that bus home was the only one until the sane time next day.

Calm down. Think. King’s Cross to Paddington, train to Castle Cary, and taxi home from there. Which is what happened, with chaotic scenes at Cambridge. At Paddington it occurred to me that perhaps there would be no taxis at Castle Cary at that time of night. Fortunately the second company I had found on line was able to respond. All went smoothly from then on, and, because the train was so much faster than the bus, I got home at pretty well the same time I would have done, though £73 the poorer.

Friends have since said ‘Oh, you should have called me’, but it was late and home is far from Castle Cary. Greater Anglia have reimbursed the full cost of my return ticket, Liverpool Street to Stansted, but their small print means that I am still £50 out of pocket. Ho hum.

But neither that nor my cold spoilt what was a really lovely holiday on a beautiful island. Thank you Philip and James, and all my companions for being so lovely, and knowledgeable, and … companionable. I imagine that some of you, like me (with my new suitcase) are already looking forward to your next holiday. Mine is in June, a week on a barge going down the Caledonian canal for a week, on a cruise with a wildlife theme…

*Felicity, Ruth, me, Andrew, Alison, Helen, Sally, James, Maureen, David Ra, Philip (top of head), Jane, Prue, Nick, David Re*

Lesvos 8 – Tuesday

11 Thursday May 2023

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Geology, History, Museums, Photography, Travel, Wildlife

≈ 8 Comments

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Black-eared wheatear, Ipsilou monastery, Lesvos, Northern Wheatear, Ordimnos, Petrified forest, Petrified forest of Lesvos, Prodeinotherium bavaricum, Short-toed eagle, Sigri, Snake-eyed lacertid, Vetta Kelepouris-Agnos, Violet carpenter bee

In terms of how my cold was treating me, this was probably my worst day, but I really, really wanted to participate in one particular element of the holiday, and also the prospects of being able to sit down from time to time were good. So heavy-duty masked up in the bus, I joined my companions for a trip to the west of the island, furthest point Sigri. Here’s a reminder of the map of the island.

S = Sigri, My = Mytilene, SK = Skala Kalloni, Mo = Molyvos. Map by Vetta Kelepouris-Agnos

On the way, we stopped near Andissa, and were dropped by the bus such that we just walked just the final kilometre or so, on a fairly gentle slope, towards the Ipsilou Monastery, which stands on the highest peak of the Ordimnos mountain range.

*An alternative way up to the monastery – not much used!*

*They said it was a Short-toed eagle, and I was determined to get a picture…*

*Philip thought I should appear in my own blog.*

*So I return the compliment. He’s off checking where the bus might be – it went up by a different route*

We continued the last few yards/meters to the monastery.

It wasn’t intended that we should eat our packed lunch there, but we were invited in, and facilities were opened up to us. It was lovely to sit in the cool of the chapel’s porch.

*This slope was steeper than the whole of the previous climb – or did it just seem so?*

Like the others, I wandered around after eating. I did not go into the museum.

We moved on to Sigri, to visit the Natural History Museum of the Petrified Forest. This is at one of the four sites on Lesvos, all in this region, where trees fossilised 20 (as we were told) million years ago by volcanic activity may be seen. This was the reason I had particularly wanted to go out with the group that day, but had also been very happy with my morning.

A few minutes after our arrival we were given a short talk, then invited to go round the small geological museum, and the garden.

Those teeth were in the museum. They were e-nor-mous. Sadly photography was not allowed inside but it was in the garden.

I was very pleased to sit down for a while in the café there, feeling done in by now.

The day was still quite young, so Philip decided to add an hour or so to the programme, a naturalist walk in olive groves nearby, where lots of good things were seen. I stayed in the bus, where the sleep I craved eluded me.

Lesvos 6 – Sunday (part 2)

09 Tuesday May 2023

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Plants, Travel, Wildlife

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Anchusa undulata, Caspian terrapin, cockchafer, Common blue, dung beetle, Eastern black-eared wheatear, Lesvos, little grebe, masked shrike, Metochi, Molyvos, olive, Skala Kalloni, Starred agama

This was a last sortie from Skala Kalloni, as we would be moving on to our second hotel later in the day. We went inland to Metochi Lake, where we saw water creatures and then wandered along a couple of tracks within olive groves. (Just remembered – many decades ago, I had a singing teacher called Olive Groves, right towards the end of her life!)

The land surrounding the olive trees varied somewhat.

Once at the rocky hill appearing three pictures back, the fauna changed somewhat.

*I didn’t get this dragonfly’s name*. *(Ha, ha, that’s an old one.)*

On the way back to the bus we came across dung beetles,

and sheep – again.

We returned to our hotel at Skala Kalloni, to collect our luggage and to change on to a coach big enough to take both humans and it.

Our route to Molyvos was directly due north. I snatched a few photos through the tinted windows on the way.

(Did our phones all sound the test alert at 5 pm local time, 3 pm, BST, this 23rd April? No, since we weren’t in Britain.)

As we approached the small town, we could see a castle on its hill, which sent me straight back to our trip to Morocco, that is to our hotel on the hill, the Atlas Kasbah.

The coach could not get all the way to our hotel on the harbour front, so we had to walk a kilometre up an incline and down the other side, our luggage fortunately being taken on a truck.

On the way, birdwatching continued.

This is the downhill part. (The photo is darkened by camera because it was directly facing the sun.)

The obligatory photos from my second floor balcony. Dinner was served under the canopy to the right a couple of hours later.

Lesvos 5 – Sunday (part 1)

08 Monday May 2023

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Plants, Travel, Wildlife

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Tags

avocet, black stork, black-winged stilt, drinker moth, echium plantagineum, flamingo, Lesvos, Purple Toadflax, salt pans, Scolopendra, swallowtail, Temminck's stint, wood sandpiper, worm snake

Today we started at the Kalloni salt pans, just east of the Tsiknias river. We dawdled south and then eastwards. At point 2 I left the party to sit in the bus, which had followed us by then, since my hips were telling me to stop. They just don’t like going slowly. Most of the rest of the group went on down to the gulf’s edge.

*James’s first description: ‘Scary, bitey, poisonous centipede. Do. Not. Touch’ . Proper name: Scolopendra.* *About 4 in/10 cm long.*

I’d been aware of this vast ‘tent’ in the distance over the previous days. I now realised that of course it was a vast pile of salt!

*Wood sandpiper. Incredibly difficult to see unless zoomed in like this. Thank goodness for the expert eyes with us.*

*No apologies for all the pictures of wildflowers. They were just breathtaking.*

*In James’s hand this looked just like a worm. But here you can see its scales. It’s a worm snake.*

Time for lunch, which we ate in the shade at our hotel.

Lesvos 4 – Saturday

07 Sunday May 2023

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Plants, Travel, Wildlife

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asphodel, beautiful demoiselle, bee orchid, cornflower, eastern tree frog, green-winged orchid, Lesvos, Mount Olympos, Naked man orchid, Provence orchid, red-backed shrike, Star of Bethlehem, tongue orchid, tree frog, Upright myrtle spurge, violet limidore orchid, Yellow bee orchid

Today we piled into the minibus to go further east and southeast, stopping after a short while at a marshy area, with a rocky bank beside it.

*Tongue orchid*, *serapias bergonii*, *the first of many orchids we were to see that day.*

*I didn’t get the name of this damselfly*

*Eastern tree frog. It was thanks to James that we had such a clear view.*

We drove on to a pine forest, at Achladeri. The hope was to see a Krüper’s Nuthatch. Lesvos is the only place in Europe (reminder, Lesvos is geographically part of Asia Minor!) where this can be found. Almost immediately we arrived, James received a tip as to where one had been seen, though it would involve a steady climb of about a mile. Initially the group split into people who would go with him, and others who would stay with Philip, botanising. Although I puff on the slightest incline, and have done all my life, I opted to pretend I was an ornithologist.

I have to say, I really, really enjoyed that walk though the pine trees.

It was good to have patches of shade where we could rest.

*A large grasshopper, about 2 in/5 cm long.*

Most of the botanist group joined us in due course. We didn’t find the nuthatch.

Back in the minibus, we went up, up, up, up to a chestnut tree slope on the side of Mount Olympos, the highest peak on Lesvos. But before we got there, there was a clamour to stop in order to take a picture of a field of poppies.

We ate our packed lunch on a slope which I found a little difficult to navigate, so I didn’t join others clambering over it afterwards looking for some wonderful flowers, but stayed on on the path below. Nevertheless I did get a couple of (badly-focussed) pictures.

The bus took us down again, and dropped us off on a gently descending roadway, which we were invited to walk down for a kilometre or so.

*Upright myrtle spurge, Euphorbia rigida*

What a very pleasant day. A fair chance of rain had been forecast, but it held off until we were back in the bus for a final time – and then it teemed down, but kindly stopped before we got back to our hotel.

Lesvos 3 – Friday (part2)

06 Saturday May 2023

Posted by Musiewild in Cats, Countryside views, Photography, Plants, Travel, Wildlife

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Tags

alkanet, Anchusa undulata, bee-eater, Caspian terrapin, coot, corn bunting, deadnettle, European bee-eater, Great tit, Gulf of Kalloni, lamium moschatum, Lesvos, Little Owl, milk thistle, Poppies, silybum marianum, verbascum, wood sandpiper

Suitably refreshed, we continued eastwards to the Tsiknias River. There we sheltered from the sun and a stiff breeze in a hide to eat our packed lunches, then walked northwards along the river.

*Some are ahead of me and some, these, behind.*

The next photo, a ridiculous one, is here just for the record. It is the best I could do of an entertaining bunch of European bee eaters – a very long way off!

By the turn round point, my hips were telling me they wanted to stop dawdling and to start walking properly so I did so, though quite slowly.

*(Dung?) beetle. The body was about an inch long.*

I crossed the village of Skala Kalloni again. There were many cats, healthy-looking ones, everywhere there was habitation. Many of them were ginger. I have learnt since my return that the Greek government pays people to look after stray cats, and I am aware of someone on Crete who receives such a subsidy. Later edit: Correction. Not the Greek government, who ‘couldn’t care less’, but an association.

I spent a pleasant half-hour just sitting on a bench a few minutes away from our hotel, watching the waves on the gulf. I thought the party might catch up, but heard later that the walk back had had many stops to see interesting things, and that a final stop had been made at the place we had taken refreshment in the morning!

*Coot spotted on the lake-that-(almost)-no-longer-was*

Lesvos 2 – Friday (part 1)

05 Friday May 2023

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Plants, Travel, Wildlife

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Aristotle, avocet, Barn swallow, black-winged stilt, crested lark, flamingo, greater flamingo, Judas tree, Pallid harrier, Poppies, Purple Toadflax, Skala Kalloni, spur-winged plover, swallow, Tragopogon sinuatus, Wildlife Travel

Friday, April 21st was the only day when we did not use the minibus. 8 km of walking was anticipated. In the morning we dawdled westwards along the shore past where Andrew and I had found ourselves the previous afternoon, and then back eastwards, past part of the lake-that-no-longer-was, as far as Skala Kalloni’s village centre, where we stopped for drinks and ice-creams (mine being a delicious and very generous chocolate one containing large chunks of chocolate).

*Swallows gathering mud for their nests*

*Avocets, way beyond the flamingos. I took photos of the latter on the way back*.

*People were very excited to see this, a log way away – a spur-winged plover*.

Turning back from our furthest point west, we spend a long time admiring the flamingos, many of which flew in while we were there.

Throughout the week, I amused myself trying to familiarise with the modern Greek letters, based on two terms of Russian learnt at school when the Cyrillic alphabet sunk in a little, though nothing else did, and some internet research at night. I make this ‘Aristotle Square’ or ‘Place’. It was where we had our refreshments.

Here is a wonderfully evocative and fascinating hour-long BBC Four documentary, presented by Armand Marie Leroi, lamenting that Aristotle is forgotten as the father of biology. He did his work, in the 4th century BCE, ‘the foundation of the modern classification of animals’ on Lesvos, around the Gulf of Kalloni, which Leroi calls ‘Aristotle’s Lagoon’.

(By the way, ‘Lesvos’ because that is the correct transliteration of the modern Greek, not ‘Lesbos’…)

*Alison, Philip (in green), Nick and the rest of us await our drinks and ice creams.*

The rest of Friday next time.

Lesvos 1 – Wednesday and Thursday

04 Thursday May 2023

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Plants, Travel, Wildlife

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black stork, Caspian terrapin, corn bunting, crested lark, giant fennel, greater flamingo, Gulf of Kalloni, James Lowen, Lesvos, Matthiola tricuspidata, Medusa vetchling, Mytilene, Philip Precey, poppy, Skala Kalloni, White stork, Wildlife Travel

I’ve been back a few days from my latest holiday, have been a little busy since, but my photos are now sorted and I can set about presenting them for such as may be interested.

Lesvos is the regional capital of a string of Greek islands which line the Asia Minor/Turkey coast. The island is 4.7 times the size of the Isle of Wight, with less than a sixth of its population. To the north it is 7.5 miles/12km from Turkey, and to the east it is not much more. It is the island to which so many Syrian refugees made their way in the 2015 crisis. The island’s tourist trade, its second highest source of income, took a great hit from that influx and from Covid, and is now trying to build it up again. (Its greatest source of income is olives – it’s said to have 11 million olive trees!)

My = Mytilene SK = Skala Kalloni Mo = Molyvos S = Sigri
Map by Vetta Kelepouris-Agnos

Our flight from Stansted, Essex, being at 7.30 am on the Thursday, I had no alternative but to spend the preceding night there. In order to leave my car at home, I had no alternative but to catch the daily bus to central London from Glastonbury at 7.10 am on the Wednesday, which at least gave me plenty of time to get to Stansted. Which was as well, since, owing to an accident (another’s) before it got to us, it was 50 minutes late. This meant that two other passengers, already cutting it very fine, with flights respectively from Luton and Heathrow in the early afternoon, may or may not have caught them. Almost certainly not.

Arriving at Hammersmith at 12.00, I was pleased to have an easy tube journey round to Liverpool Street station, and to meet my friend Mary there for lunch. The Stansted Express got me to the airport, and within minutes I was at the hotel I had booked, (the service at which left to be desired – interesting that I have not been asked for a review…)

It was great to discover that of the 13 people on the trip, six of us had all been on the same company, Wildlife Travel‘s, trip to Morocco, in March 2020, days before the UK’s first lockdown (and written up in seven blog posts starting here). Our leaders, Philip Precey (one of the directors of the company) and James Lowen, were the same as well.

*I think this is the Gulf of Kalloni, at the far end of which was the first of our two hotels, in Skala Kalloni*. I took the picture mainly for the cloud reflections.

We landed at Mytilene airport, a couple of miles to the south of the capital, around 1.15 local time (two hours ahead of UK time). After an interminable wait to get through passport control – I wished I had been wearing my tee-shirt, ‘Don’t blame me, I voted Remain’ – we were met by Maria and our driver, whose name, shamefully, I never did get in the entire week, and at around 4 o’clock we arrived at our first hotel.

Those two pictures were actually taken on our last morning, but the following are the obligatory pictures taken immediately on arrival of the views from the front and back balconies of my first floor room.

Half an hour to settle in and we were whisked out for our first walk, basically a road walk around a lake-that-no-longer-was. This involved starting at the end of the road at the Gulf of Kalloni. But first a backward look revealed that there was a black stork flying over our hotel.

What is the difference between a gulf and a bay? There are several answers to be found on the web, some saying there is really no difference, but I like this one, from the Ocean Conservancy. “A bay is a broad, recessed coastal inlet where the land curves inward. There is a coastline on three sides of a bay. A gulf is a more defined and deeper inlet with the entrance more enclosed than a bay.”

Panels like this were to be found nearly everywhere we went during the week.

*A crested lark blends well into its background. These birds were widespread on the island.*

*The remnants of the lake. From here some managed to see squacco herons in the far trees, but I failed.*

I should point out that I was the least informed about wildlife of everyone on this trip, and could only admire the identification and fieldwork skills of the others. My ignorance did not spoil my enjoyment! I tried to note the name of everything of which I took a photo, and I now also refer to the labels attached to the raft of photos sent us a day or so ago by Philip. Any corrections and additions noted in the comments below will be transferred to captions and attributed.

It was impossible not to take dozens of photos of wildflowers every day. They were spectacular.

Far away, a white stork was seen.

*A corn bunting, though not identifiable from this photo!*

This was fun.

If there was one flower which dominated, the memory at least, it was the poppy, in different varieties.

The fifteen of us did not stick together all the time, as some lingered to look at things and others didn’t. Andrew and I found ourselves walking ahead at one point, deep in conversation, as we almost completed the loop, and came across greater flamingos, a long way off, in silhouette, and in full sun.

We thought the others must have found something very interesting, as they were taking such a while to catch us up. … Hang on, we realised, we didn’t see a patch like this on our way out, we have missed the turning back to our hotel. In total we must have walked a good kilometre too far as we hurried back, to enable Andrew’s wife, Jane, to have access to their room, since Andrew had the key!

The Newt in Somerset, April 2023 – twice

14 Friday Apr 2023

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Geology, Plants, Wildlife

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Tags

Arthur Cole, bee skep, cowslip, dog;s mercury, fallow deer, Hadspen House, hoop petticoat daffodil, Roman Villa, Snakes' head fritillary, Sweet Track, The Newt in Somerset, thrush, Turkish tulip, violet

Ten days or so ago, I took my friend Helen for her first visit to The Newt in Somerset. As ever, I took lots of photos, but I have posted on the subject many times before (search on ‘Newt’) so here are just a selected few taken on that occasion, followed by more on yesterday’s visit.

Helen particularly hoped to see deer. We did.

*The Roman Villa from the dovecot*. Just see those rows of vines, the pattern of which may be explained later in this post, though I didn’t know it at the time.

*dog’s mercury, which I learnt on this visit.*

Another new plant on me, Hoop petticoat daffodils – thank you Candide app. And I have been thrilled to be reminded, on reviewing my Morocco posts just this morning, that we saw white ones in that country!

*Does anyone not love snakeshead fritillaries?*

*Helen walks The Newt’s tribute to the Sweet Track*

My most recent visit, yesterday, was very different, a dawn walk. This meant getting up at 5.00 a.m. When I left home, with just a small glass of orange juice inside me, my car told me it was 6.5 degrees C. When I got to the Newt, it said 4 degrees. On the way, I had been driving almost eastwards for most of the time, and had been enjoying pre-dawn skies, with their pink, pale blue, and mauve hues, frustrated that the roads did not permit me to stop and take photos. (Get a dash-cam for the purpose I have since been advised!). By the time I got to the car park, the sun was just over the horizon.

I made my way to the Cyder Bar, and saw a few people there. The coffee-making machinery was covered, but there was a man behind the bar and about four other people assembled. I called out as I approached, with not much hope, ‘Are you selling coffee?’ Arthur, who turned out to be our leader, replied, ‘Not selling it’. But he was preparing cafetieres of said beverage for all his clients, of whom there would be eight, including me. Two were guests at the hotel, Hadspen House.

While we took our coffee I was delighted to see a thrush on the lawn nearby. Difficult to see at this angle, but I think it’s a song thrush

Arthur Cole*, Head of Programmes, turned out to be a man who knew everything about everything, all things vegetation, gardening, geology, history, everything. And incredibly enthusiastic about all those everythings. You couldn’t ask for a better guide. He took us first to the marl pits area. I wish I could remember even a tenth of what he told us during the couple of hours we were with him.

*(I confess to just having found this hour-long programme, but I shall be watching it soonest.)

*Bee skeps, not a couple of hundred years old but created in 2018*

*The original, Turkish, tulips, from which all others have come. They would open more during the day.*

I had never noticed these fossils before. They had been on the sea-bed, in tropical seas near the equator, a couple of hundred years previously.

*Arthur checks out that we understand why brick was used on the 17th century south-facing Parabola wall. It is because it holds the heat longer than the stone facing on the other side of the wall.*

The Newt holds the National Collection of Apples by County.

*This label says: Malus domesticus, ‘Beauty of Bath’, SOMERSET. I wonder why he stopped us there…*

Privet flowers are one of the most dangerous to those suffering from hay fever. The smaller the flower, the worse the effect apparently.

‘Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?’ ‘With silver bells, and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row.’ And where is one of our major cockle-producing areas? In Morecambe Bay in Lancashire, calling to mind the disaster of 2004.

In the kitchen garden, tulips replace temporarily the brassicas grown until very recently in these beds, while they await their new edible crop.

*Arthur invites us to pick a flower of the plant I know as Water hawthorn, Aponogeton distachyos. Interesting, and not unpleasant taste, but one rather to be acquired.*

In another pond, Great crested newts, which as I understand it, delayed the development of the property for a year or so, so protected are they. And thus the name of the attraction. I’d never seen one before – but then I’d never looked for them in these ponds.

The battery in my camera gave out, and I only thought to get my phone out – I rarely use it for photos – a while later. We were led to a parkland area not usually accessible to day visitors. We stood on the grass helipad, erstwhile rounders pitch for staff as they developed the land in the second decade of this century.

Here are the young orchards, destined to provide The Newt with its cider, sorry cyder, and apple juice in years to come, but not yet ready. Arthur told us the rows had been carefully lined up to provide aesthetically pleasing vistas from a distance, which I had certainly noticed when walking to and from the Roman Villa.

*The nearest goose was particularly vocal as he menaced us. At least one of its friends is brooding an egg, as can be seen.*

Don’t have bright idea, you may be stuck with it. One year someone had an idea in connection with Apple Day to carve the outline of apples in the bank. The founder liked it – and now it must remain.

*Back through the kitchen garden, with Hadspen House at the end.*

*A familiar view of the Parabola from the Garden Café – where our visit ended with a copious and delicious breakfast – but never before seen by me under this early morning light.*

It was 10 o’clock when I left, and it was already getting busy, on this the penultimate day of the Easter holidays.

Another very familiar view, of the way back to the car park, but so unfamiliar with the sun full on it from behind me.

The Newt in Somerset is ever being added to. We were informed that there is another exciting development to open in the coming months, which will increase in attractiveness over the years. I can’t wait!

The Newt in Somerset – March 2023

14 Tuesday Mar 2023

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, Photography, Wildlife

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Adlestrop, Edward Thomas, fallow deer, moss, red deer, Sweet Track, The Newt in Somerset

It was time to go to The Newt again, this time not focussing on the Roman Villa (3’37” video), as I had on my four previous visits, last year. On Sunday morning I walked mainly in the deer park and woodland. I took over 100 photos. Here are too many of them, especially of deer and moss.

I went upwards, away from the central hub, courtyard and parabola.

As I went along the sinuous raised walkway, known as The Viper, I hoped to see some deer. At first I saw nothing, and then a white patch became clearer. Zooming in with my camera, I realised that there were brown and pale fallow deer there.

There were no leaves on the trees yet, other than those of ivy clinging to their trunks, but there was green moss everywhere. When the sun was out (‘sunny spells’ had been forecast for the morning) it was almost dazzling.

*My guess is that some creature, not the bird for which it was intended, made the hole of the higher nesting box too big, so the woodstone box has been put there to foil such vandalism.*

Back in the autumn the red deer had been herded into a large field, off limits to the public, presumably because it was the rutting season. Today they had not been there as I passed it, and I wondered where they were. As I walked through the wood, I saw these few, also out of reach of the public, and wondered where the rest of the herd was.

*The Viper’s supports always seem to be hanging in the air. In fact they are firmly bolted into the ground.*

I had gone off the footpath to get a little nearer to these deer, (though the pictures are heavily zoomed) and as I made my way back to it, I saw that there were many more ahead of me.

*They blend in so well to their surroundings.*

*Counting ears and legs proves that there are 2.5 deer here.*

*Deer-proof gate with warning to them. I was able to go through it.*

*Homage to the Sweet Track. You may walk across it but, unlike some children around, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour.*

Aeration? (More fun with sound on)

Lunchtime was approaching. I could have bought a small something at the Cyder Barn.

I could have bought a hot waffle with apple caramel sauce.

I had other plans. With a few minutes to spare, I made for the cottage garden.

Through the gap in the wall on the way, I saw that I could have had an ice cream. I was surprised the selling point was open. I was less surprised, given the temperature, that there was no trade.