I have had a wanderlust in me this week and needed to Get Out - and also not to garden two days in a row as I was still aching from tacking the overgrowth of undergrowth in the paddock and on the bank. I have started the summer tidy and got a reasonable amount done, even discovering my wee Crab Apple trees and the grown-from-pips apple trees I bought with me from Ynyswen. I have given them a good muck-heap feed.
I took in four churches, heading up the Leominster road a short way and then dropping back to Eardisley. On the outward journey I stopped off at Whitney Church, familiar to Kilvert of course, and spotted a well-covered blackberry bush in the turning area.
I stopped to buy Cherries (and a punnet of huge Raspberries) at Moorcourt Farm on the junction with the Hereford road, and begged an empty punnet and on my way back, stopped off and picked the best blackberries.
These cherries are just SO luscious and full of flavour. I got them for Keith, who loves cherries, but I am not averse either!
THE best thing in Eardisley church is of course the Herefordshire Romanesque font. Lots more details when I do the post on it.
There is an absolutely SUPERB Jacobean table and gilded Reredos at Kinnersley. There is a castle behind it - not a grey stone type castle but one more like a glorious old house, and this must have come from there. Keith fell in love with this and we are going to see it again in the next few days. First I have to get some air in the wheelchair tyre which has a slow puncture. I said it was a level approach but Keith very wary of even the tiniest incline and so the wheelchair will be in the car just in case we need it.
This was the list of incumbants at Whitney - 1834 - Richard Lister Venables - Kilvert's boss.
Finally, I stopped off at Clyro, Kilvert's church.
Overcast here and threatening rain. I may tackle the paddock again with my shears before it gets wet . . .
Yes, sometimes one needs OUT!! ...anywhere!! But you had an interesting trip.
ReplyDeleteThe wild cherries, geans, are almost over here. I do wonder if cultivated varieties might thrive...
Good to be able to buy local fruit..and pick your own too!
Sad to see how short a life Kilvert had
The birds have been at the geans round here - feasting on them. I had a cherry tree at the old homestead, but never had any fruit on it. It wasn't happy there, and Fahly used to browse on it too (which gave it a set back!) and I shan't bother here.
DeleteWe used to go to a very good car boot sale at Ledbury, after we had been to Malvern Flea, and there were always stalls selling local fruit, cheaply. Sadly, since Covid it hasn't been running, which is a real pity.
Kilvert died young - some say Peritonitis, others said it was a chest infection.
Sounds like just the sort of day you needed .... and some free fruit too :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, I am "topped up" now and it's time to catch up on the housework.
DeleteYou are really finding some stunning churches. the first one really looks like one that uses history and Clryo is another I would like to visit to add a Kilvert church. Long time since I picked Blackberrys, my wife worries about bugs and maggots in them. Why would you want to attack a padlock with shears, you need to cut it off with blot croppers or hacksaw if you lost the key
ReplyDeleteTell your wife if you see a manky blackberry, you just leave it on the bush! Been picking them all my life and still here to tell the tale - I avoid any on busy roads though. I hope you will be able to check these churches out next time you visit.
DeleteP.S. Tell your wife that any bugs or maggots in them will not show once cooked and she should consider it extra protein!! You can see which ones are manky at picking time anyway and avoid.
DeleteWhat an interesting church. Yes, I know the wanderlust feeling, we've got a new pup and I'm finding he's less bored and tires himself out more if I take him out and about with me - win win!
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
Hi Alison, new pup sounds lovely. What breed is he? Keith hoping to be able to walk to the church from the car tomorrow as he did well with his walking to the clinic today.
DeleteHiya, he's a westie and we've called him Stan
DeleteGreat news about Keith x
Alison x
Give Stan a cuddle from me. I bet he's an absolute sweetie.
DeleteNot sure if my post went through but you seem to find some beautiful churches on your travels and I can see the route you took, they are all with in easy reach of where I go in Builth, just need the time. Clyro is one I have wanted to check out if only for the Kilvert trail. Read this https://bystargooseandhanglands.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteIf you're checking Clyro churches Billy, you need to check out the one before Clyro (coming from Builth) - at Llowes. There's a memorial to him in the Churchyard. Also Bettws chapel near the Rhydspence Inn.
DeleteI shall follow the progress of your grown from pips apple trees with curiosity. Apparently, the chance of growing a viable apple tree from a pip is about 1 in 4,000 or so, so good luck!
ReplyDeleteWell of course the apple trees will have elements of the ones they've descended from. We had some 20 yrs+ old we grew from pips at our old house. One was a good cooker, the other smaller and sharper and we let the birds have those. These will be handy as pollinators, if for nothing else.
DeleteYou have blackberries - ours are looking wizened in the heat and drought. I have a two square metre area of autumn raspberries (they escaped from the fruit cage and are happily growing in wood chip) and they are also wizened - taste fantastic though. I cannot water them and will wait for autumn rain. I planted Cherry Stella in the fruit cage - this protects from birds but not mice. Oh well, it’s good to share. With the mice and squirrels I should really adopt a cat. The garden visit this morning was superb - and I got lots of new ideas for drought-tolerant planting. The two hectare wildflower meadow on chalk was my favourite bit closely followed by the kitchen garden - they were growing purple tomatoes and purple basil! We also visited the church and my knight in armour was actually a stone effigy of a Knight Crusader! Lord knows where I got the armour idea from. I’m having a lazy afternoon as it is very hot here - I hope you are not overdoing it in the paddock. Sarah x
ReplyDeleteWell, these were just over the Herefordshire border - it has better blackberries and worse roads! You can tell where the county line is, put it that way! Our local blackberries aren't doing much yet, but we're a bit higher up and it has been SO DRY.
DeleteOh, to see the beautiful flowers of chalk downland again - have a wonderful picture of a teenage Tam reclining on a flower-strewn bank at Avebury. Magical. Glad you found the Knight Crusader in the church - we have an Elizabethan knightly figure down in the church in town, but all but a knee-piece of his metalling has been taken off. (Sir John Lloyd of Towy).