Rambling Russells

We set off in anticipation of a good day at Kielder Water and Forest Park - despite the weather looking threatening. Some lovely scenery to look at on the way meant the journey soon passed and we arrived at Kielder Castle for our first stop of the day. Kielder is the biggest man made lake in N Europe and the biggest working forest in England. A little early for lunch, we decided to look around the castle and its various exhibitions first before visiting the café. On entering the courtyard this was our first sight! Do you remember this model of car? Somewhat different to todays transport. A look inside reminded us about indicators popping out the side of the car and the old - fashioned controls. Within the castle, there were exhibitions about the castle and its inhabitants and workers, the solar system and the observatory within the forest, and some of the wildlife found around the forest. There is also a map of the various sights to be seen around the reservoir. Af...

We don't normally write about our group meetings here but this is going to be an exception. The Eastriggs Gardening Group (EGG) meeting was supposed to be a seasonal cooking demonstration with items harvested from the garden but with such a late start to the growing season there was very little available. John Crouch the 'celebrity' chef had designed a meal so that we could all try the recipes as the items come into season. John had brought all the ingredients as well as ovens, pans and bowls but still had to prepare all the food. His 'menu' of dishes was:- Leek and Potato Soup with Courgette and Thyme Muffins Spanish Spiced Potatoes Indian Carrot Salad Rhubarb & Ginger Fool Apple and Plum Hot Trifle We weren't told how to cook. We were shown. And all the time that John was slicing, mixing, chopping and grating he was giving us information and history about how and when the ingredients were introduced to our country and how he had become so p...

Previous years we have had something else planned for the first Saturday in July but for once we were in Annan for the celebrations and parade which starts from the roundabout at the end of our street. I couldn't believe how many people turned out to watch the horses and floats in the procession. Pipe band and brass band were gathering in people's front gardens, all the roads were closed to traffic with entries for the procession lined up waiting in all directions for the horse parade to arrive. Then the combined bands (pipes and brass) took their position and the parade began. (And the sun came out too !!) Click on any photo or collage to enlarge the set.

This is our monthly max for birds in the garden during June. Blackbird - 2 male, 1 female, 3 young Blue tit - 2 Buzzard - 2 Carron crow - 1 Coal tit - 1 Collared dove - 2 Dunnock - 1 adult, 1 young Goldfinch - 3 (not seen these for ages) House sparrow - our usual total of 40-50 adults and several babies, including one that had come into our conservatory and had to be removed! Jackdaw - 1 Rook - 1 Starling - 16 adults, 4 young Swallow - 2 (they nest in a building over the other side of our hedge) Swift - 20 (swooping backwards and forwards in front of our house presumably after flies) Wood pigeon - 2   Young Starling   We've not seen our baby Great Tits since they fledged and we assume the baby sparrows we have seen to be the ones nesting above our garage, although we didn't see them fledge. We have had only 5 seven spot ladybirds as our max this month along with 22 Small White butterflies and  Gorse Shield Bugs. The cold weather so far this year has a lot to answer for! ...