Five members met for the walk along the Yar estuary, on a warm sunny day. I stopped on the swing bridge to point out the cream house across the estuary, once the home of the manager of the Gas Works, now a lovely house owned by Helen Danby & her husband. Helen joined us at the entrance to Salterns Wood, & has offered to lead a walk from her house next May, returning to see her bluebell wood. We saw a number of swallows on the wire fence leading to Kings Manor, & a Painted Lady butterfly on Buddleia.
We looked around the churchyard of All Saints, at Lady Tennyson’s grave, & a plaque under a Dwyak Beech from Broadlands, planted in memory of Lord Mountbatten. Alfred, Lord Tennyson is buried in Westminster Abbey, but there is a bust of him in the church, & stained glass windows based on paintings by George Watts. Earlier in the year there were apparently lots of orchids, but most summer flowers were over.
Across the causeway we were pleased to see a proud pair of swans with their successfully reared five cygnets. We followed the old railway line, now a cycle track, back to Yarmouth, noting that there are several apple trees along the way, presumably from apple cores once thrown from passing trains. Some that we tried, although not yet ripe, were obviously edible. Unidentified blue butterflies were on hawthorn, & speckled woods along the hedges.
Few birds at this time of year, but many mallard in the creek outside ‘Off The Rails’ café, where we finished with a welcome coffee.
Mary Edmunds.