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| St Mary's Lychgate, Leebotwood |
Weather
What
a week weather-wise! Early morning frosts, hazy sunshine, grey skies, rain
bucketing down interlaced with hail stones…Typical April weather! And, it’s
been cold, which has been more noticeable because of the lovely warm days we
had a few weeks ago! And, what’s even more depressing, the weather bods are
predicting the coldest May for 100 years! Can’t wait!
Red Kite over Leebotwood
Although
we are used to seeing buzzards, the occasional sparrow hawk and kestrel hunting
in the vicinity, the sight of a red kite in the skies over where I live was a
very special sight indeed! In all the years I have resided here I have never
seen one before. It is a distinctive bird of prey; it glides lazily and is
easily distinguishable by its forked tail.
And
as if this first sighting wasn’t enough, on the way home from Shrewsbury the
next day, I spotted one even closer over the road between Bayston Hill and
Dorrington on which we were travelling! (I suppose it could have been the same bird!)
The
red kite was almost extinct in the UK at the beginning of the 20th
century, but is now often seen in the skies above the Longmynd, and apparently
nested in the Shropshire Hills in 2008, the first time since 1865.
Shropshire Drought
Shropshire,
together with other counties in Britain, has been declared a drought area! And
will probably remain so up until Christmas possibly into 2013, so the powers
that be inform us. On our food shopping expedition on Friday we crossed over
the River Severn (by bridge before you conjure up a picture of me wading
through!) and I was surprised how much higher the water was after our recent
rains, although the river does have a long route over which to collect water on
its way to the sea.
The
River Severn is Britain’s longest river, its source being on the slopes of
Plynlimon, the Cambrian Mountains’ (in Wales) highest peak, it ambles its way
over 200 miles to the Bristol Channel, passing through Shrewsbury, the county
town of Shropshire, on its way.
At
the moment the ground is so hard that the precious rainfall is just running off
instead of sinking in!
Counterfeit Stones
Yesterday
evening we embarked on a trip to the Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury to see one of my very
favourite bands! The Counterfeit Stones! It’s always a good evening of rocking
rhythm and sing-a-long! As the name implies the Theatre Severn sits directly on
the bank of the River Severn overlooking the fairly new sculpture called Quantum
Leap (dictionary definition…a sudden large increase or advance), which
commemorates the birth of Shropshire’s Charles Darwin 200 years ago.
The
sculpture, which to me looks like the segments of a huge spine (call me uncultured!)
cost all of £350,000! In times of heavy rains the nearby car park quickly disappears
under the flood water from the river. In spite of the week’s heavy downpours
our car was still on dry land after the show!
Thanks
for your time!
The
Bumpkin Rambler xx
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