The Newt in Somerset – March 2022

Tags

fallow deer, Storm Eunice, The Newt in Somerset

Just a brief post of record really. My latest visit was last Tuesday with my bridge partner, Daphne, and her visiting 95-year-old aunt, Vera. But we didn’t see much of The Newt, because, despite the fact that we met up in the car park at 2.30, we sat talking in the café in the Story of Gardening until we were kicked out as the café was closing, and then we were kicked out of the gardens before we had completed our wander around, again because they were closing.

I say ‘kicked out’. We were in fact treated with the utmost courtesy by the staff. The car park is some way from the entrance, and we were met on time by pre-arrangement by a buggy, and were driven to the Threshing Barn, where we were lent a wheelchair.

Daphne and Vera had not managed to have a post-prandial coffee, and I’m always game for refreshments, so we made for the café at the far end of the deer park, on the grounds it was likely to be less crowded. (In the event there were not many people anywhere.)

I did do my share of pushing, honest. Indeed, the beginning part of the walk there was up a very steep hill, and even with two of us I had to ask for a short stop.

We were pleased to find that the deer park lived up to its name, and saw the group of fallow deer.

I think there are sixteen of them in this picture, but they are well camouflaged.

Every time I go along the walkway to the Story of Gardening, my eyes think that the supports are just hanging in the air. In fact they are well jammed into the ground.

Yet another victim of Storm Eunice?

The main entrance to the café had a notice on it directing us to this side door.

We did not notice the time pass, as we consumed the delicious coffee and cake that Vera treated us to, and put the world to rights. In (over)due course we made our way back to the main area, this time with the brakes on down the steep hill, and started to walk around the most accessible bits of the garden, once Daphne had bought a few bits in the farm shop. The Newt is clearly between seasons, but with lots of signs of glorious things to come shortly.

We didn’t get to go in the greenhouse, since a nice young man explained to us that it was past closing time…

Oh yes, everyone has gone home…

But there was still a buggy to get us all back to the car park.

The Newt in Somerset – October 2021

Tags

curcurbit, fallow deer, Hadspen House, Shaggy Inkcap, Southwest Early Music Forum, The Newt in Somerset

A couple of weeks ago, I took another friend to visit The Newt in Somerset. Peter was down from Manchester to lead a singing workshop, which I was organising for the South West Early Music Forum the following day. Three times postponed because of you-know-what, initially from April 2020, but that’s a whole other story.

Apples are always the principal theme at The Newt, but especially so at this time of year, as the display in the Threshing Barn illustrated.

They featured in the window of the farm shop as well. Their apple juice is delicious.

(Given that I have already posted so many pictures taken at The Newt in Somerset, I have limited the number posted here.)

We learned that the Japanese Garden would be opening a week later.

Next we walked up the Mound, where we saw a few Shaggy Inkcaps.

The Cottage Garden

Still plenty of colour, though we’re well into the autumn.

Peter noticed the curious ‘steps’ in the chimney stack.

Into the Scented Garden.

The mischievous frogs were disappointed that there were no small children around to squirt water at, though clearly some adults have been by, setting off the sensors.

Access to the (very) luxury hotel, Hadspen House, is prevented by the gate out of sight below this image. Actually they’ve just opened another luxury hotel, called The Farmyard, adjacent.

The Kitchen Garden

We were impressed by the great variety of cucurbits growing in their tunnel. Over the year, I have seen these grow from tiny unidentifiable plants, into large flowering ones, and now fruiting ones.

I wonder if the tunnel will be used for the same purpose next year, or for something different.

Inside The Parabola, the main feature of which is hundreds of varieties of apple trees.

After an excellent meal in the Garden Café, we walked though the Deer Park.

As ever, the walkway’s supports look as if they are suspended in mid-air, but in fact they are very firmly attached to the ground. I love walking up there among the trees but that is not to everyone’s inclination.

At the far end of the deer park is this ancient stile, blocked off now to visitors. The hole may perhaps be for a foot, since it is too small to allow anything larger than a hedgehog through.

Walking back through the woodland, we did get a fleeting glimpse of a couple of fallow deer. This is the best I could do, photo-wise.

Back to the entrance/exit via the old Marl Pits.

Another happy visit to The Newt in Somerset. We had to leave – we had things to do relating to the following day, written up here for those interested.

Andalucia 9

Tags

Andalucia, Andalusia, bats, bullfighting, burrowing beetle, Donana National Park, Donana Nature, fallow deer, mouflon, Naturetrek, red deer, rock ibex, Sierra Morena, Spanish ibex, wild boar

Andalucia: non-feline mammals and a few other natural things.  In Doñana National Park to start with. This was the first creature of interest we saw, a long way off and in poor light – a wild boar.  Later in the week, in the Sierra Morena, we had a good but distant and fleeting view of a large family of boar, great and small.

In both places there were many deer, but horses – in abundance – only in our first location. Everywhere we went there were dragonflies, but they very rarely settled for more than a second or two. This was the only half-decent photo I managed in five days of trying.  What follows only happened to us once, but it is a frequent occurrence apparently in the National Park.  All out and push! No, we didn’t actually have to push.  Our driver and our excellent Doñana Nature guide, Sergio, pawed away the sand in front of the wheels, and all was well after a few minutes.  The unexpected stop gave me time to look around, and take this photo. I had seen these before, but now I had the chance to ask what they were, each sandy strand about a centimetre wide. The answer was a burrowing beetle cast.

Did we see lynx? The final post in this series will answer that question!  Moving on to the Sierra Morena, there was a greater variety of mammals to be seen, but still dominated by deer.  We had two excellent sightings of courting mouflon. They are not rare animals, but we were lucky to have two such sightings just minutes apart from each other on our drive.   This was sad.  We saw many magnificent bulls like this at one point – on farmland, being bred for bull-fighting. Horrible.  I had deliberately not been to see Seville’s bullring.

Magnificent red deer stag, the other side of a wire fence

Simon’s eagle eyes spotted this exciting creature for us shortly after lunch. We stood on the dam, the rock ibex (also known as Spanish ibex) being at a very great distance from it.

My camera at maximum (x24) zoom

The same photo cropped and enlarged

It wasn’t around for long, and not everyone even managed to see it before it jumped down. But it was far to far away to have been disturbed by us.

Then we walked through a totally dark tunnel at the other side of the dam, and saw…

… bats roosting. Here are about eight, huddling together, lit by Simon’s head torch.

A single bat. Whether these were Daubenton’s (myotis daubentonii) or Large mouse-eared (myotis myotis) bats, I cannot say, but we saw both.  There were several more holes sheltering bats in the tunnel.

Continuing on the afternoon’s drive, we saw more deer…

… including fallow deer. This male has magnificent palmated antlers.

We drove back to the second of the chilly morning’s stopping points, and stood on a bridge there.  This is not a Monet painting, and I don’t know what the fish was – but it was big!  At the spot where we had awaited the sunrise, we took advantage of the shade of trees to keep out of the now very hot sun.  These deer used other means of keeping cool!

Maximum zoom again – it had required binoculars to see what the black smudges were

Cropped and enlarged

Left alone, this one appeared to be throwing around and then eating weed!