A walk around Bury Ditches - an Iron Age Hill Fort in Shropshire

The sun shone hazily and the clouds drifted by the hand gliders on the distant crag of a Shropshire hill and the wings of patrolling buzzards were tickled by the thermals. Time to get out again with Little Bird, Sweep and the dogs. Time to explore this new home of mine in rural Shropshire in our first spring here.

A sign I had seen on winter journeys across the county was for Bury Ditches, tucked away between Bishop's Castle and Clun in south Shropshire. Sweep despite living nearby had never been so it was good to tread new territory together in his homelands. The Ditches are an Iron Age hill fort dating back to 500BC and a superb example of a multivallate fort which is one with two or more ramparts as defence.

The fort was once all pine plantation until a great storm in the 1970's blew down many trees revealing the details of the ditches and ramparts and so the Forestry Commission now manage as a historic site.

We walked down a woodland path past carved tree folk and information to guide us as to how the fort would have looked. The dogs pulled eagerly and Little Bird tromped through heather lined paths to the summit of Sunnyhill where the oval lines of the fort can clearly be seen and walked along. Views all around were amazing, across to the Long Mynd, the Clee Hills and across to the Stiperstones back home.

The place has an ethereal feel to it, treading on a landscape shaped so long ago, what lies beneath these folds in the land. Folklore says that gold is buried here by fairies and  the lucky finder will discover one day as there is gold wire attached to the bounty.

But for us the treasure will be found here in late summer, plentiful purple winberries for gorgeous pies and the reward of fantastic views each season.

Forestry Commision Bury Ditches

Joining in with Country Kids to share my tales from a new life in rural Shropshire.

Embracing new colour schemes in my home

Since moving in with my man, I have been getting used to a new interior style and going with the  existing look of the home, which is amazing and suits the unusual property and its layout. I have been adding my own bits and pieces that complement the look. OH used to paint in a particular style in rich earthy colours, primitive naive art style cows and sheep, oils and textures, a time gone by, it's what he loves. I've come along with my interest in autumn, Halloween, folklore, the macabre, churches and graveyards and so there is now a merging of two lives. I've embraced the rural scenes and added my corn dollies, vintage doll and wooden rabbit. I guess lots of our interests cross over and we are endeavouring to create a real eclectic mix of found items. We've added mini skeletons and things we have recently bought in odd bits and bobs boxes at the local auction...more on this another time. 

OH is extremely creative and also used to be an antiques dealer so has the gift of being able to sift out unusual things and create all kinds of things, such as the dioramas of the bakery and the butchers in the images. I think the colours blend really well together and all have a traditional feel, deep blues, greys, browns and hunter greens, an autumnal ochre vibe and shots of mustard. The shade below was a recent eBay find and I love its slightly sinister feel. OH bought me the soft lime coloured pineapple jug from the local florist that I've popped some seed heads into once I've collected the seed for next year and some faux berries. Also some bargain green pressed glass bottles for 50p each from the florist, a religious icon from a random auction box for some kitsch style, some silver plated ware with owl fairy lights trailed across a toast rack and a funny faced mint sauce pot.

The main colour used within the home is probably green, at least I seem to be drawn to this the most at the moment, forest greens, sages, mossy shades, with ferns and trailing houseplants, jade and emerald bottles for using as single flower stem vases,
What does the colour we tend to use within our homes tend to say about us? Well..... https://www.juliancharles.co.uk/ produced a guide to what your home colours say abut your personality and according to that I am a very patient an collecting person as it is a calming colour. Also it says I don't stick to trends and I probably have a house full of knick-knacks and mismatching furniture......how true!!!

In contrast, at my old house I was definitely more pink - approachable and making the home accordingly so apparently. Pink also indicates somebody reserved and shy which is true of me.

There is much less pink going on in this house, the colours instead are earthy and spicy, exposed brickwork with vintage gilt frames and wooden shelves. However, my blogging room has pink in it but I am becoming more natural, antique loving and rustic, with a bit of Victoriana and distressed furniture, so I can foresee it changing pretty soon. The colours fit well with my love of weird and I feel like I have a lot of scope for creating new areas within the house.

* collaborative post

A dog called Brillo

A walk up Bromlow Callow in Shropshire as the sunset, blanket to sit on and something to drink. Along with the shadows and the last rays came a dog and a pup, a Brillo and a scamp. Long legged and long snouted, coming over for a back scratch and a happy sniff before running off to play on top of the hill in the golden hour grass.

Witch's Cottage

Walking through a village in the Cotswolds finding a cottage of perfect proportions and fairy tale beauty, with a broom propped by the blush still buzzy bee pollen dipped legged visited roses and a battered and bent almost pointed hat hung up on a wooden peg in the ramshackle porch. Rambling wild garden filled with colour and scent, some of it musty, some of it dead, seed pods and haws with a prickly bramble hedge. Nature's apothecary gathered each morning after nasturtium tea and nettle bread, a pinch of dog rose hip and a dash of dahlia petals. By lunchtime a whisp of purple smoke circling and snaking under the wisteria, a slight spicy smell and cross words uttered as a spell doesn't work. Not enough dawn dew collected or was it the addition of blue berried badger scat. Try again.

Not a black cat here but a pudgy tabby with paws like a tiger cub and battle worn ears from many an alley altercation with the neighbourhood mog or a swooping peck from the great tawny owl of the spinney where the witch gathers her kindling for the fire. He's happiest when the pot is bubbling away, pop pop pop bursts of love potions and incantations for neighbours who quarrel and gossip. For whilst trouble and kindness are brewing, he is ladled warm milk and has the whorls on his belly tickled by the cloak of our spell maker as she dances around the pot.  

Standing outside I heard a gurgle and a hiccup, then a cackle like old saw teeth cutting through wood. Thin skin and fingernails grab the hat which gleans like the carapace of a stag beetle in the chink of afternoon sunlight. Through blowing curtains, I caught the outline of the crone and her cat, perched aloft over her shoulders. Clouds drifted across the autumn sun, a gauzy layer, a gloomy edge, a feeling of something about to happen and then it did....... For a witch also flies by day and out she shot on a tatty old broom, with her tatty old cat and her tatty old hat, out of the front door and way up high, with a smile, a cheeky curse and a winking eye. 

A weekend pause

A slow moving winding waterway runs through the verdant flat plain of mid-Cheshire, the River Dane, a name derived from Old Welsh dafyn which means trickling stream. Here in Northwich it joins the River Weaver, the confluence being in the centre of town. But before it does, its last meander is through the middle of farmland, past cows who clumsily dip in for a drink or to cool on a summer's day.

As part of a Sunday afternoon drive, the first stop is at a farm that over looks the Dane although it cannot be seen, just picked out by the trees and denser plants that flank the river. A looping greener way into town so sinuous it's as if the river couldn't quite make its mind up until deciding that town life and merging forces with the Weaver was the better option after all. 

Shipbrook Hill where I stand is the site of a Norman Castle and local folk have told me of some ruins of it being within the farm's garden. I found no trace but on this escarpment is the treasure of a view on this fluffy sky day with the steeple of the church in the distance piercing cumulus and equally cotton wooled sheep frolicking in the nearby field. On an ox bow beyond are a herd of cows, tails flicking and swallows squeal above and swoop enjoying the weather. By my feet, pink mallow stretches up and tickles the fence posts, clover flowers like baubles are bobbing about with bees and the rolling carpet of grass from shades of deep green to end of summer yellow stretches on towards the town.

Post assignment perk me up

Hooray, I have now finished my first year of my post grad diploma in Parish Church Studies and I am absolutely shattered. In the last week I did a couple of almost all night study sessions where at 4-5am I thought, well I best get some sleep. Hence I look tired and my good friend remarked that I could perhaps carry my shopping with the the bags under my eyes. 
Hooray, I have now finished my first year of my post grad diploma in Parish Church Studies and I am absolutely shattered. In the last week I did a couple of almost all night study sessions where at 4-5am I thought, well I best get some sleep. Hence I look tired and my good friend remarked that I could perhaps carry my shopping with the the bags under my eyes.  So with summer ahead, what can I do to improve my well-being before the work all starts again in September?


Beach visits

Firstly I will be going off to the beaches of North Wales for some brisk walks and that feeling of freedom on wide expanses of sand. Saltyness on my cheeks and the thundering roar of the sea, well the Dee Estuary..... Flintshire is the nearest coastline to visit and is 25 miles long, of which my favourite beach is Talacre - flat sands, a forgotten lighthouse and a series of dunes for a nature walk. Offshore there are the wind turbines, this is an industrial coast but still it is a great spot to visit for some gathering of thoughts and recharging the batteries. When you have so much space around you it is somehow a great release of stress and all those tensions of finishing essays disappears for me. The beach is great for people watching which also helps with the unwind. 

Beauty Session
For some pampering and relaxation, perhaps a Mummy Makeover Package is required  since studying and being a mum is hard. Late nights revising and writing after a little one has gone to sleep really take their toll. dark circles, skin looking dull and excess weight from midnight snacking! So a trip for some beauty therapy would be utter bliss, from laser resurfacing of the skin for a more youthful look to toning up, removing toxins and improving circulation for firmer skin. I would like to feel better and less as if the years are catching up to me, some sleep and tlc would be most welcome.

Nature therapy
Just like going to the beach, immersing in the natural environment is a way I like to unwind. Living up the road from a huge forest is great and going on the trail works burns off calories and stress. The country park also is a place I like to visit and walking through the woodland at this time of year, listening to the birds and hearing the breeze rustle the leaves is so calming. I also like to try and identify the flowers that I come across, a challenge with identification book in hand and a sense of satisfaction at learning something new. The local conservation groups have id sessions where you can meet other nature lovers and it is great way to learn and enjoy being in nature at the same time. For the time I really need to relax, I find just sitting on a bench on a nature walk is a way I like to release any negative energy and feel at ease. Looking at the landscape around me, the colours of the grasses and the flowers, the mixture of textures and seeing the movement and rhythm of the flower heads is a free and easy way to feel at ease again.

Flying a kite

I remember my first kite. My father bought it me, it had a tail with red ribbons that trailed beneath its red and yellow diamond frame. I ran up a hill in the park and then ran down, desperate for it to take off and dance up in the clouds. You can pick kites up over summer in some of the budget supermarkets - it's an annual offer, look out for them. The best fun you can on a breezy day, as the kite soars and you control its movements, so do your worries fly away. Look out for kite festivals as their colourful array of fun kites, coastal towns often host these events.

Local pool
If I can't get to the beach and the sea then the town pool will be great. We have two in my town, one a paddling pool with a giant toadstool fountain and the other an outside pool in a park, swimming beneath great pines and oaks. Enchanting and freeing. There are many places in the UK to swim outdoors, wild swimming is popular and the tradition of lidos still mean you can find a unique pool to visit. Compared with swimming in a leisure centre and its echoes and smell of chlorine, outdoor swims are more opening to the senses, more inspiring for feeling within nature and a wild feeling for an exhilarating rush. My son loves our outdoor paddling pool, splashing away and I can relax knowing that he is happy. 

This summer will be a chance for me to get back to having some fun after the heavy workload. I'll still be reading for my course but the extra time will be well spent doing other things whilst the sun shines. 


*Collaborative post

The Vale of Eden

When the return home journey offers views that make you stop and draw out the holiday just that little bit more. The rolling, green landscape of the Vale of Eden in Cumbria and fluffy clouds to match fluffy sheep. May trees, some still in leaf burst and lungs full of spring air, a sandwich and a bleat from beyond a drystone wall. A stretch of road where cars zoom past and I think please slow down a little, in fact just stop and look through this tree framed view of mine at this wonderful drumlin, a glacial deposit and there are lots of them here in groups known as a basket of eggs or a swarm.

Fluffy cloud reflections

 Nestled in the Staffordshire Moorlands is a 2.5 mile long lake of fluffy cloud reflections and jetties of colourful boats moored in bobbing lines. This was the 'Blackpool of the Potteries' where the North Staffs train chugged in bringing 19th century day-trippers aplenty in their promenading best.

The Aquatic Fete was the Bank Holiday attraction, watched by spectators all bodiced and bustled or Dundeary whiskered and frock coated. Marching bands trumpeted by lakeside views and a tight rope walker triumphed across the ripples. He is still remembered in a carved 150 year old beech tree. 

Built as a reservoir for the Caldon canal system the lake is surrounded by wooded hillside and dotted with wondrous boat houses built by wealthy Victorian worthies. Through lake margins of reeds and the ivy that clambers oak and the silvers of the birches, a whisper of a cold breeze murmurs a little giggle of those fish jugglers and mermaids that wooed the crowds.

A bridge of love locks leads to a bench where I catch a new romance sat talking and parallels a love that started here in 1863 between the parents of a man all Jungle Book'd and Just So'd. Will they call their child Rudyard too?

Five miles of magic paths, speared green with spring bulbs through dark winter earth, booming with the squeaky wheelbarrow woodland of the Great Tit and oars slicing through skyscape water. Funambulism, fancy frocks and fish in the imagination for a little while.

Christmas Flowers

 This week I am writing my end of term essay for uni and so I haven't been a garden visiting and the weekend was spent at a medieval fayre........Looking back to last year, I never shared the floral extravaganza that I went to at Arley Hall in Cheshire. Each room is filled with flower displays so creative and the feeling is unbelievably festive. There are also Christmas trees, see last year and a little shop that sells jams and chutneys made from the produce of the estate and garden. It's an event I really recommend and it's on the 3rd December!

Now back to my history books and time to get writing that essay.