Whirling around Willington
Friday 12th July 2019
Well trained in time keeping, Helen J was greeted by Maggie, Alison, Jo and Bob, Helen M and a whirling dervish of a Betty at precisely 1015 at the definitely free Willington station car park. A combination of reasons meant Julia, Charlotte, Lynn and Pam were unable to join us. A pity, it were good!
With good weather promised by both the BBC and yours truly, we still took precautions and had a spell of waterproofs, now on, now off, now .....
Definitely not something to do with our age!
Feeling a bit adventurous, we started, not with a coffee but a walk along the tow path. Although it was very tempting to have a splash in the canal, there were plenty of other curiosities to investigate. And, in typical fashion,
Betty's attempts to 'barge' in are thwarted.
Over the bridge and into a field we come across a land art spiral made from local willow cuttings and, once we had found the entrance, couldn't resist seeing where it ended up: in a very snug middle, of course!
Maggie daren't sit down in case she gets her white (!) trews dirty!
Poetry, sketches and sayings add a bit of humour, but hopefully this was not a prophecy for later on.
We are now about to enter Mercia Marina, named after the Kingdom of Mercia which came to an abrupt end around 800AD when the Danes deposed of the Vikings and deposited their bodies in Repton. A pity they didn't sort out the dinosaurs at the same time......
Alison also checks out other ancestral facts.
Mercia Marina has, over the last few years, developed into a 74 acre marina with shops, restaurants, holiday homes with plenty of boating and walking opportunities.. It also been awarded a gold star for its rich wildlife from David Bellamy, but I bet he didn't expect courtship between a mute and a black swan!!
Pretty in pink.
We check out a few of the barges and reminisce a little about barging holidays. We think about maybe a GB barge trip. But, if we were to buy one, what would we call it?
'Bwaajigengwaagan'? 'Rampant Rhubarb' ?
By now, desperate for a coffee we decide it is definitely sunny enough to sit outside.
Helen makes sure we all get a dry seat and a good view.
Amongst chat about the usual things, we decide that armchair viewing of music festivals may not be very atmospheric, but at least you get a good view and opportunity for a brew up whenever you like. We have also decided that Bubbles will now be on a strict ration of Days of Culture (arts, sport, food... anything to stop her getting on a plane to somewhere exotic). Assisting at a concert would do very nicely!
A cheeky robin poses long enough for a fuzzy photo.
Freshened up, in more ways than one, we set off on the next leg of our journey.
What, no wifi in Willington?!
We spot quite a few more narrow boats. This one is perfect for Alison: a place to grow her flowers and veg, and if you look very carefully in the window,
display her hand knitted crafts!
The green paint is obviously the undercoat!
Another interesting 'observation'..
Crossing the roads in Willington proved to be quite a challenge, and because there had been quite lot of housing development, we were not quite sure where the footpaths might lead. Perhaps this is why the locals need clear signage
for local people.
However, a very kindly gentleman helped us out and those of us familiar with the village, have now discovered a new way into Willington Nature Reserve. What a treat! Lots and lots of unkempt flora and fauna. Identifying everything proved a bit of a challenge, but when Helen J asked Alison to hold a plant still for a photo, little did either of them realise that Cinnabar Moth caterpillars are highly toxic!
Should have suspected that stripy things equal danger!
At least other creatures seemed to be more friendly:
I am not an apostrophe floating in the air; I am a comma
If I told you that we saw a rhino in the grass, you woodn't believe me!
We pottered down the welcoming shady lane and stopped off at a couple of viewing platforms. There was some discussion about whether the kestrel was indeed a peregrine, or the peregrine was even a sparrowhawk. Something didn't 'quite fit'; 'it' had a moustache but later ID (and a Phil comment, which must not be ignored) means that we saw a hobby which for which the reserve is famous!
Look, 'it' is even on the poster!!
A quiet spot and look how still Bob is..
Perfectly still.
So, how his lead got completely tangled up with the bench, is anyone's guess!
Having walked precisely 7.5km each (or an even less scientific few thousand steps), we were a little hungry and Bevington Tea Rooms did not disappoint. Betty and Bob were greeted with a sausage each and we all tucked into delicious granary bread garnished with something scrumptious and a cuppa tea (mostly). Further cauliflower recipes were shared, as were our concerted efforts to recycle, freecycle and more attempts at ridding ourselves of plastic.
The peace and quiet was soon shattered, not just by a barky Bob but by several whirly things in the sky.
If only Alison had booked one of these instead of a balloon flight, we might have had a 'fly-by' today!
Whilst our wildlife list also included other butterflies, rabbits and a stoat, our bird list was good for the day. Perhaps this had been a good omen at the start of our walk:
black headed gull
black swan** (An introduced bird but it fits number 101
perfectly!)
blackbird
blue tit
buzzard
canada geese
common tern*
coot
cormorant (birds of the day for their playfulness and
seal-likeness)
crow
goldfinch
great crested grebe
great tit
grey heron
hobby** (I defer to the wise one and gut instinct)
house martin*
house sparrow
jackdaw
little egret*
magpie
mallard
moorhen
mute swan
oystercatcher*
pochard*
reed bunting (or posh sparrow!)
robin
starling*
swallow
tufted ducks (in eclipse)
wren
31 for the day. 60 for the year. * are firsts for the year. 102 for our running total.
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