Just some of the things we saw today.

It would seem that the draught we have been having over here, only recently relieved by a smidgin of heavy rain, has done nothing to stop the abundance of sloes in Somerset. Walking down the Strawberry Line today, an old railway track that is now used as a cycle track and footpath, my chum Richard and I came across some wonderful sloes. They looked like bunches of healthy grapes on the ‘trackside’. Hopefully, someone will find a use for them. As I understand it they are wild members of the plum family. Mr and Mrs Plum have done their very best but these little beasts seem to like to be soaked in gin.

Doctor Beeching probably closed this old railway line back in the 60’s when he managed to shut down most of our countryside train lines. We all cry “Shame!” but I suspect that hardly anyone travelled on them. It’s now a very well signposted walk across some of the flatter parts of Somerset starting at Yatton Railway Station, which still has main line trains thundering through now and again. It’s too small a place for them to stop, but they should, if only for the brilliant little tea rooms that serve the little trains that do stop and the many walkers and cyclists.

By the side of the track, every now and again, there were streams. Still full of water, and algae like this one above. A green stripe across the meadow. I might turn this one into a print like some of my previous posts. It’s in the running.

The grass still a bit parched from the hot summer sun, but ever so slightly recovered by the recent small downpours. It was a long but flat walk, on a hard track, which served to give us both sore feet. We might head for the hills next time, but it was a very pleasant branch line to divert us and came with the bonus of tea and cake at Yatton Station when we hobbled back.

Oh! and I almost forgot, we saw Winston Churchill riding a mountain bike wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Honestly.