It's hectic here

May is a beautiful month up our valley.  Tam is here for the week and so we took the opportunity to unwind and have a little walk further up the valley. Nothing strenuous, just enjoyment of the peaceful river and wildlife.

The steep slope up towards the old swinging bridge has been cleared in parts and new trees planted.  This is a mass of Foxgloves in summer.

Looking upstream from the swinging bridge.  Which actually doesn't swing any more, but it used to and the name has survived.

Looking downstream.

The path beckons . . .

View across the valley with a carpet of bluebells on the top slope.

The path ahead.  I wish you could hear the birdsong.

Time to count blessings, I think . . .

We had a REALLY hectic weekend, and are only just starting to recover from the early starts, standing, packing, unpacking, walking around.  We went to Malvern Fleamarket on Monday and were there over 7 hours, going round the stalls.  It was fun, brilliant, rewarding - and exhausting.  We had a brilliant bottle of wine from Ledbury, but unfortunately it was the last straw that broke the camel's back for my asthma and I spent the night wheezing and upping my medication.  The photos we took are on Tam's camera and I hope I can upload them whilst she's here but if she needs her connector-thingy, they will have to wait until next week when she is back at home.

Anyway, I have taken photos of some of my Malvern goodies, so will put those up tomorrow.

The February Malvern Fleamarket

Yesterday my beloved and I had a day out at Malvern Fleamarket.  Of the half a dozen photos I tried taking on the way from the car, this was the only one which turned out.  Excuse mucky windscreen!  I thought I had taken some good ones, but the delay on my camera (and the lack of brain present after yet another week without much sleep) meant that the "perfect picture" always, without fail, ended up with a speeding tree or a beautifully-positioned telegraph pole in the middle of it!

Outside were a reasonable number of stalls, though obviously nothing like the numbers you get on a sunny day in summer.  We had a good wander round before going inside.  This would be one of the Welsh stalls (hence the Welsh blankets on it!!)

I liked the smile on the Crocodile head!

This was obviously the Posh End of the proceedings, as they had HEATING in here!

There's always plenty of jewellery on offer.

A

A bushel measure.  Stamped with VR too.  Not something I have ever come across before.  This would have been used for measuring grain and held 8 (DRY) gallons of grain (which are 4 PECKS.)  Gosh, that takes me back to my school days, along with rods, poles and perches for linear measurement.  4 bushels made 1 coombe.  Basically, a bushel of corn would weigh roughly 56 lbs - half a hundredweight.

Who you looking at? !!

Sundry bits and bobs.

I think this is a Dik Dik.

Of course, the weather brought people out and if they weren't wandering round the Fleamarket, they were out walking the Malvern Hills, and who can blame them?  I'd have loved to be up there myself.

I persuaded my OH to stop so I could take some photos of the view across the Worcestershire fields.  Stunning.

I will add a P.S.  later with some photos of what we bought (Tana Lawn Libery fabric - it is SO PRETTY!)  Right now, my body is still trying to recover from thie virus and I have a shocking headache.  My mental capacity is on a par with a road-kill Frog right now . . .