Martin's Mag.

A circular walk, with F. and P., from Stroud up onto Rodborough Common, stopping at The Bear for lunch. Lucy reasonably good, much to Sal’s relief.

Nice old Massey-Ferguson in a field near Portbury.

Until now when working on Walton Common we have had to carry tools from the small lay-by on the road near the entrance. This can include some heavy-duty equipment and as it’s quite steep up onto the ridge some of us are knackered before we even start work. Not any more! We now have a smart metal container unit to house everything we’re likely to need. There should be room for a few emergency beers, too. Here it is en route to it’s final location, being checked out by our friends the dexter cows.

When it was in place we set about deciding how to get all our junk in it:
And we had an unwelcome visitor, a harlequin ladybird seemed attracted to some of our old notes:

The Forest of Dean sculpture trail is always good for a stroll. There are a few new installations this year, so I’ve saved you from ploughing through them all again and just concentrated on the new ones:

YASASIN by Pomona Zipser. The title is from the Turkish word for Hooray!

COAL MEASURE GIANTS by Henry Castle 2016. 300 million year old tree fossils sit alongside two cast iron sculptures sited 300 metres apart – the distance of the nearest coal seam below ground.

COAL MEASURE GIANTS by Henry Castle 2016. 300 million year old tree fossils sit alongside two cast iron sculptures sited 300 metres apart – the distance of the nearest coal seam below ground.

Much of the new building in Portishead is on previously industrial (“brown field”) sites. Conditional in the developments was the provision of areas sympathetic to wildlife. Ponds were constructed, which, as well as being safety “valves” for flooding, provide attractive places for birds to visit, such as this heron, spotted this morning by Lucy and me.

…the Roman name for the river Severn. We walked around the long loop, south of Gloucester, centered on Arlingham, with views of Newnham and Bullo Pill on the west (right) bank.

On the way home from Scotland we made a diversion through Hull.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A week in Dumfries and Galloway, in SW Scotland. We stayed in a farm cottage in Colvend, on the coast between Dumfries and Kirkcalbright. The weather was much better than forecast and we managed lots of walking but not much swimming. Actually, Lucy did all the swimming.

“Rushcroft”, Colvend.

Colvend Parish Church at sunset.

Kirkcudbright and St Mary’s “Isle” (it isn’t, really):

Kirkcudbright

Kirkcudbright

Kirkcudbright

Kirkcudbright

Kirkcudbright

Local beaches at Rockcliffe, Kippford and Castlehill Point:

Dumfries, Loch Kindar, New Abbey and Sandyhills Beach:

A walk around Castle Douglas and Loch Carlingwark, then drove up River Dee to Loch Ken and Dalry, through the Galloway Forest to Newton Stewart. Along River Cree estuary to Mossyard where Lucy chased (and lost) balls for a while.

Walked up through the Dalbeattie Forest and back down to Kippford. Later we drove down to the beach at Rockcliffe and Sally sketched and Lucy and I threw sticks for each other!