Having decided that all the photography was slowing me down too much, I just ran my 10km along the Owl Road and Pykett's Wood today flat out to try and get a decent time in.
As chance would have it, a sharp pain on my foot on the woodland path turned out to be a wasp of some kind stinging me four times after it somehow got trapped under the tongue of my running shoe. A bee would have died after one sting, and this was a rather dark red looking insect as opposed to your standard wasp. Hence the stings didn't become weals, but still hurt at the time.
Still, ironman Si still got round in 55.17 for 10km.
Deciding it was too beautiful a day to waste, I decided to forget trying to run to Claypole, and cycled there instead, a distance of about 7.5km give or take. It's one of the larger outlying villages round here, dominated by the sharp spire of St Peter's church, and the River Witham.
I remember a friend of the family taking me fishing here once, me with my tiny little bright yellow fishing rod. Parked up by the river, and seemed to walk miles downstream. We fished for the large Witham pike, with luridly coloured yellow and green plugs that sank, swam and wriggled in the manner of a wounded fish. He could cast them for miles, my pathetic efforts went about 10 feet and wouldn't have caught the stupidest pike in the aquatic universe.
But then, he caught nothing either.
I saw no pike today where the river swiftly runs under the bridge, but instead I had the pleasant surprise of two egrets suddenly taking off from the south side of the bridge. Wasn't expecting to see that!
So, enjoy the photographs from my sunny day out, and hopefully nature will spring surprises on you too.
Si
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| Pleasing bluebell island in library gardens |
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| Biggest blossming tree in town |
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| Close up of the scentless flowers |
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| I've crossed the border! |
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| Witham downstream |
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| Witham bridge |
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| Tulips in the middle of nowhere for some reason |
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| Looking upstream |
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| St Peter's church |
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| Blossom |
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| Claypole high street |
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| Not getting eggs from this farm |
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| Fernwood bird hide |
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| Inside th hide |
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| Wasp chewing up garden tree stump for pulp |
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| Garden cherry blossom |
I really enjoyed this visit - I am a Lincolnshire lass but have never heard of Claypole. And again loved the view of the Witham.
ReplyDeleteClaypole is just over the border from Newark, you feel like you are going into "here be dragons" country. They used to have a crazy raft race on the river, but seemingly not for a little while.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Simon, sting wasps aside!
ReplyDeleteGood blog and pics. Enjoyed your day, apart from the wasp stings of course!
ReplyDelete