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Sunday afternoon walk on Bredon Hill

Mr Gaucho and I are on a winter holiday, staying with family and friends, between Worcestershire and Devon.  Happy days!  Yesterday we took a walk up Bredon Hill, which can be officially called a marilyn (think munro in Scotland, and yes, there is a connection in the choice of the name marilyn!) There are 176 marilyns in England, which have to reach 150m in height.  From the top of this hill we had wonderful views to the south, over the western edges of the Cotswolds.  Lovely.
There is plenty of mistletoe in this part of the world.  Large round lime green clumps of the stuff, which can be clearly seen in the trees, now that the leaves have fallen.  
Part of our walk took us across the Overbury Estate.  They have a significant number of handsome, but disused, barns on their land.  They are all kept in good order but sadly they stand empty.
We were not quite at the top of Bredon Hill, but the views were wonderful.  
 From "A Shropshire Lad" by AE Housman
In summertime on Bredon 
The bells they sound so clear; 
Round both the shires they ring them 
In steeples far and near, 
A happy noise to hear. 
.......
The bells they sound on Bredon, 
And still the steeples hum, 
"Come all to church, good people," -- 
Oh, noisy bells, be dumb; 
I hear you, I will come.

Further on up the hill there is clear evidence of the earthworks of an Iron Age hill fort, called Kemerton Camp, now the domain of sheep!
We passed an abundance of spindle berries, which made my day. I love the gorgeous colour combination of the hectic pink outer casing of the berry and bright orange seeds inside. 
 At the bottom of the hill, in the lane leading down to Conderton, we passed some extremely large and luxurious horsetail plants, Equisetum arvense.  They were so big they looked as though they should have been growing in a botanical garden hot house!
And then these ........
Snowdrops in November?  Sorry, that's just not right.  

Comments

  1. Rambler20 November 2017 at 23:24

    Beautiful photos as always. I love the one of the thatched farmhouse, with the smoke rising from the chimney - so welcoming.
    I discovered a Spindle hedge near my last home and tried several times to grow one from seed and from pushing a few stems into good soil, but it never worked. They are a beautiful sight.
    Snowdrops at this time of year??? Wow!! I have several clumps in my garden of different varieties but there's defintely no sign of any yet awhile.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the running wave22 November 2017 at 16:05

      Isn't spindle wonderful! I am trying to grow a small one at home. It is one of my favourite country trees/shrubs. Not sure which category it comes into, I know just I love it! Not happy about seeing snowdrops in November though. That is just insane. It should be a joy which comes with a new year. Ho hum.

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