Saturday – Home – I try to dig out some of the rampant Ground Elder that is growing in the raspberry canes on the edge of the orchard. It proves virtually impossible, the roots are a vile, knotted mass. So I compromised by tearing out what I can. Annoyingly there is also a thick mat of Ivy here, which is also torn out. The canes have multiplied in recent weeks and may even crowd out the Ground Elder, hopefully. The brambles in the bottom corner are flowering profusely but also spreading all over the place. So they are trimmed. The lettuces in a bed have netting put over them and the wire netting cloche is moved to protect some callaloo seedlings. Some of the red onions are bolting and sending up flower spikes which are cut off. A pair of Stock Doves are on the lawn, not common visitors.
Sunday – Leominster – The atmospheric pressure has risen and the sky is cloudless. The sun is already rising high and blazing down. Jackdaws chack from the top of the chimney pots along the street. A Jackdaw stands on the top of the lift tower on the station 
calling and opening its wings. It flies off unsteadily, clearly a young bird. Magpies fly out of the riverside woods. Red Campion has grown high and is flowering profusely by the path. A Chiffchaff still calls. The water level in the River Lugg continues to fall, the water becoming clearer by the week.
Grass is growing higher and higher in Easters Meadow, but the Hogweed is higher still. Bees and flies feed on the umbellifers. A green damselfly, a female Beautiful Demoiselle, flits past. A green Thick Thighed Beetle is on another umbellifer. More damselflies are over the grasses.
The market is busy with a good number of vendors. One had some purple sprouting for 50p, which will fill in the gaps in the bed. There are still no Pond Skaters under Ridgemoor Bridge.
Home – Young plants from the greenhouse, beetroot and climbing beans and the purple sprouting from the market are planted out in the beds. Several cucumber plants are put into larger pots, the others will probably be all right in their current pots, and they are placed on the greenhouse floor next to hazel poles. By mid-afternoon, the sun has heated up everything and the greenhouse needs a good watering.
Wednesday – Leominster – The temperature has dropped considerably as the jet stream is being funnelled between high pressure over the Atlantic and a low to the east of Iceland bringing cold arctic air across the country. A slight shower of rain gives way to sunshine, although dark clouds still threaten. A Manchester bound train growls out of the station. A pair of Jackdaws stand on a pollard tree and telegraph pole. Onto the path to Butts 
Bridge. Wild Arums have lost their hoods and are now stalks with a club head of green berries. A pair of Common Buzzards circle over Lammas meadow. Little has changed on the River Lugg since the weekend. Wrens are noisy and a Blackbird sings brief phrases. Hedge Woundwort is coming into flower.
Back to the White Lion. The hedge has Dog Rose, Bramble, Snowberry and Privet in flower. Into Pinsley Mill. A Chiffchaff calls from across the railway. Carrion Crows and Jackdaws 
caw. A good number of Jackdaws fly in from every direction and circle over the waste ground beyond the railway making a considerable amount from noise before departing back towards the town centre.
Into the Millennium Orchard where Meadow Cranesbill is coming into flower. Hogweed is entangled with Cleavers. A small moth is on a Hogweed flower head. It seems to be a Feathered Leaf-cutter, Incurvaria masculella or Purple-tinged Cutter, Incurvaria oehlmanniella. Most of the tree that fell in the winter by the Millennium stones has now been cleared away. Elder bushes are covered in large creamy white cushions of blossom. A Chaffinch sings. The River Kenwater flows steadily. Its banks are swathes of Stinging Nettles and Hemlock Water Dropwort. Magpies chatter in the trees overhead. The Minster bells toll the hour. A Wren and a Blackbird are both calling alarms in the graveyard.
Home – Weeding around the broad beans and peas is difficult but necessary as there are so many weeds! The mange tout are very straggly and sticks are put in to encourage them. More stakes are needed for the broad beans, one of which already has bad blackfly. More broad bean seedlings are planted out along with the sole runner bean that germinated.
Thursday – Berrington Hall – This National Trust house is a couple of miles north of Leominster. It was the last landscape to be designed by Lancelot “Capability” Brown before his death in 1783. We have visited the house a number of times, but this visit we cross the parkland to a large lake which Brown had dug. Trees have been deliberately placed in the landscape although I must admit I cannot see any reasoning behind their placement, but then I am not looking at it through Brown’s eyes. Large rafts of white water lilies are on the water. Mallard and a couple of Grey Herons are on a patch of mud. A Reed Warbler sings, jug jug, from a large reed bed. A path runs along the eastern edge of the lake. Ragged Robin flowers and Meadow Sweet has tight buds. A Coot dives. Swallows sweep low over the water. Common Blue Damselflies hover and dart over the plants. Access to the island is closed as there is a heronry there. Along the southern edge to a boat house. A Mute Swan has grey cygnets. Woody Nightshade flowers purple and yellow. Back over sheep pastures to the house. It is noticeable how few flies there are on the sheep dung.
Past a couple of very impressive Cornus ssp. covered in flowers. After a break in the café, we visit the walled garden where the vegetables are impressive!
Friday – Kingswinford – Both of us are having mobility issues today so we take a trip out to this Staffordshire town for just the gentlest of strolls. The town is in the Dudley district to the north of Stourbridge. Kingswinford is recorded in the Domesday Book. Its 
name relates to a ford for the King’s swine. King John gave the manor to Ralph de Somery, Baron Dudley in the early 13th century. There is a record of coal being mined in 1291 and more of coal and ironstone in the 16th century. The settlement retained its industry of supplying materials to the local agricultural concerns. The town expanded considerably in the 1950s and 60s.
More by luck than judgement, we arrive at St Mary’s church. The original church was probably 12th century, but the body of 
the church was entirely rebuilt in the 1830s-40s due to subsidence caused by mining and re-opened in 1846. The tower is partly original with 19th century additions. The church is locked. The graveyard is extensive and still in use. Near the southern side is a tall churchyard cross with a much-weathered stone shaft and gabled lantern-shaped head. The base is stone. There are some old gravestones, unfortunately almost all too worn to read. One appears to be from 1677, another sunk into the ground at an angle starts, “Heere lieth the body…” A large monument covers the family vault of the Firmstones. They were involved in a court case relating to a bull and the GWR!
To the south of the church is a small area called The Village. There is a short row of late 18th century dwellings with round-headed Gothic windows. Next to them is the former vicarage, dating from same period. It is in poor decorative condition. Across the main road is the former Court House, lately a pub but now closed and boarded up.
We take a short walk into King George VI Park. We only get a glimpse of the lake before heading back. There appears to be an abundance of Grey Squirrels.
Sunday – Leominster – The sun is shining but clouds are threatening. There is a cool breeze. Swifts scythe through the air over the roof tops. Rabbits are below the railway bridge on the route of the old track. A Chiffchaff still calls from the woodland. On the bridge the breeze is rather more of a stiff wind. The harsh squawk of a Jay comes from the trees by Butts Bridge. The water level in the River Lugg continues to fall and the gravel banks are beginning to emerge. The 
umbellifers on Easters Meadow continue to rise, some over six feet tall now. The stem of a Dock is coated in Blackfly. There is a mix of grasses – as any meadow should be – Yorkshire Fog, Cocksfoot, Common Bent, Meadow Foxtail and Fescue. Burdock are growing large. Song Thrush and Wren sing. The water level in both Cheaton and Ridgemore Brooks has fallen.
The market is busy but as usual I find nothing I want to buy. Several vendors are overheard bemoaning the lack of trade.
Into Paradise Walk. A Chiffchaff is loud and persistent. Bell practice begins. The water level in the River Kenwater continues to fall. The sky is now covered in grey cloud and the sun is gone. A number of Swifts sweep around large circles over Bridge Street car park. On Church Street, a “ghost” sign has appeared. This former façade has been uncovered as repairs are undertaken. The Olive Branch was a popular cafe many years ago. Recently it was Nori’s café and is now an architectural practice.
Friday – Leominster – My annoying legs continue to keep me from walking any distance. This time it is a knee that has flared up painfully. This evening we attend a concert about the work of folklorist Ella Mary Leather and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Leather collected stories and the songs of Herefordshire and this brought her into contact with Vaughan Williams. Together with Cecil Sharp, they recorded many songs, some of which are being played tonight by a violinist, organist and two folk singers. At times it is particularly atmospheric in the Priory as the music is accompanied by a thunderstorm and heavy rain.
Wednesday – Leominster – After a bright start with a blue sky and sunshine it soon clouds over. We have been kept at home for several days now with Covid. I head off down the street and onto the railway bridge. A Chiffchaff is in full flow still in the woodland. Onto the path to Butts Bridge. A bee is visiting the Red Campion flowers. Brambles are flowering profusely. The water level in the River Lugg continues to fall. A fly fisherman is casting upstream.
A Class 67 diesel pulls five carriages and driving trailer 82201 into the station. Onto Pinsley Mill. Meadow Sweet is coming into flower beside the railway track. Hogweed and Meadow Cranesbill flower under the cider apple trees in the Millennium Orchard.
Home – A bit of weeding is undertaken but I am soon exhausted. The first tiny courgettes and cucumbers are appearing. Tomatoes are on the vines in the greenhouse. The outdoor tomatoes are all flowering. Three new asparagus spears have emerged. Kay is now harvesting raspberries and strawberries. Peas and broad beans are also ready.
I have ordered some allegedly large bird and squirrel proof feeders. Jackdaws are emptying the current ones within a few hours not allowing smaller birds a look in. Blackbirds and House Sparrows are using the window feeder by the backdoor regularly and fat Wood Pigeons waddle around 
beneath picking up any spillage.
Sunday – Humber – Off to Humber for the second round of the BTO Breeding Bird Survey. It had been delayed by my dodgy knees and Covid. The hedges are smothered with Cleavers, Bryony, brambles and briars, both Field and Dog Roses. A Wren sings from within. Overhead a Skylark serenades the earth below. Further on Honeysuckle is in flower. The bird count is not great. Along to the Humber junction. By the farm, cattle and calves are resting peacefully in the field. Back to the junction and past the burial ground to the village. A dozen Jackdaws raise a cacophony around the church. House Martins fly around the farm beyond Humber village. Swallows are on wires in the stream valley. Humber Brook is murky and full of sediment. Back to the Roman road. A Common Buzzard stands upon a telegraph pole.
Home – I return to tearing out more Ground Elder and Ivy in the raspberries at the end of the garden. After filling a couple of sacks I am hot and tired. I then turn to the summer house. It is in a pretty messy state so everything is taken out onto the lawn and the floor swept and vacuumed. That finishes me off. The Squirrel-proof seed feeder is, of course, not squirrel proof. The miscreant simply shoves its head through the bars and guzzles down the seed. However, the Jackdaws seem deterred.
Monday – Leominster – Yellow warnings for heat have been issued by the Met Office but here the pewter grey clouds and slight breeze keep the temperature down. Swifts streak overhead. They are forming gangs which chase across the rooftops. I converse with a neighbour and we agree we have no idea where the Swifts are nesting. A machine is grinding bricks to dust in the yard beside the ginnel. A Caerfyrddin bound train pulls into the station. Onto Butts Bridge. More of the shingle is exposed as the water level in the River Lugg falls.
Down onto Easters Meadow. A Chiffchaff calls and a Blackbird sings. Along the path to Mosaic Bridge where the grasses and umbellifers are taller than me. Knocking some of the grasses releases a cloud of pollen. Three Long-tailed Tits chase along the hedge by the bypass. Under the noisy A49 and into Easter Wood. Huge Butterbur leaves line the path, but sadly Himalayan Balsam is taking hold. Above the path, hoverflies do what their name suggests. A Blackcap and Song Thrush sing in the woods. Over the little plank bridge and past the paddocks which are empty of 
horses. A Blue Tit seeks insects on a Willow. The air is getting very humid. A Pied Wagtail stands on an iron stock feeder. Rabbits scurry up the side of one of the paddocks. Goldfinches sing on the slopes of Eaton Hill.
The River Lugg is flowing sluggishly under Eaton Bridge. Along the road and up Widgeon Meadow. The new plantation is now well established. Selfheal and Germander Speedwell flowers in the long grass. Field Roses flower up the Hawthorns. The large stone slabs of the drovers steps take the path onto the hillside. Bunches of green Wild Arum berries stand on bare stalks, the leaves completely gone. A Magpie rattles on the hillside. A potato crop occupies the big field on the top of Eaton Hill. A large flat piece of St Maughans Formation sandstone laid down in the Devonian, the best part of a yard square in size, lays beside the path having been removed from the field. The fields hedge is tangled with long skeins of White Bryony with has cream and yellow flowers. Further along are more great slabs of sandstone.
The path continues past the solar farm. A small black and white kitten dashes off from the parking area. Down the track. St John’s Wort and Hedge Woundwort are in flower. A Grove or Brown-lipped Snail, Cepaea nemoralis is on a dead stalk. It has bright stripes of yellow, red-brown and black. The cereal crop, barley, at the foot of the hill is turning yellow. The next field, wheat is some way behind. Hemlock and Mallow flower by the side of the track hedgerow. At the end of the track where it joins the A49, there are stands of Ragwort, Burdock, Dock and Oxeye Daisies. Through Brightwells and over Cheaton Brook to Mill Street. The black wings of a Beautiful Demoiselle flutter across the River Lugg beneath Ridgemoor Bridge.
Wednesday – Ludlow – Onto Whitcliffe Common and down towards the River Teme. Blackcap, Wren, Blue Tit and a distant Blackbird are all in song. Sky is overcast and it is humid. Herb Robert, mosses and ferns 
grow out of the stone slabs forming tall cliffs. White Lichen is on the stone, a grey-green curling variety, possibly Common Greenshield, lower down. Water roars over the weir and down the relief channel below. A couple of Mallard at the top of the weir. Large stands of Hemlock rise high beside the water. A section of limestone has been carved probably millennia ago into rounded buttresses with small caves. Comfrey is in flower. A Sow Thistle has a bright yellow disk of a flower. Water drips down steps of limestone from the top of the common attracting a Robin who comes for a drink.
On along the riverside path, Bread Walk, so called because the workmen who laid it out in 1850 were paid in bread apparently to stop them spending their wages on drink. Green Alkanet flowers are brilliant blue jewels. Berries are ripening on feral raspberry canes. Cream Meadowsweet flowers rise above the Bracken. Tiny insect with antenna much longer than its body rests on a Meadowsweet leaf. It would appear its “antenna” are in fact legs and it is some kind of Daddy Longlegs spider. Over Dinham Bridge.
Past Dinham Mill and the miller’s house then up the path under the walls of the castle. Beside the path and up into the bushes are large pure white trumpets of Bindweed. Further up the path Ragwort, St John’s Wort, Dog Roses, Red Campion and Brambles are in flower. A Magpie and Chiffchaff call from the trees.
A monk, a helmeted soldier and nobleman stand at the gates of the castle challenging crocodiles of school children with “Halt who goes there”. Into the market place. Down the hill and through the Broad Gate. Onto Ludford Bridge. The water level in the River Teme is low. The junction between the road from the bridge and that up into the Mortimer Forest is called Ludford Corner. A plaque records this is locality of the Ludlow Bone Bed which contains numerous fish fossils. It marks the beginning of a change in this region around 425 million years ago from open seas to extensive land areas with large rivers. Sir Roderick Murchison in 1839 placed the Fish Bed near the upper limit of his Silurian System. Onto Whitcliffe Common again. Several Spotted Orchids flower in a small area of grass.
Friday – Kington – A dull overcast morning with grey clouds sweeping in from the west on a brisk wind. The temperature is far below the last few days’ heat. Through Sunset industrial estate. A White Bottomed Bee feeds on Dark Mullein. Past old railway buildings and the former forge. There is drizzle in the air. Behind a hedge is the sound of running water, Back Brook. A short path rises to a bridge over the brook on the Presteigne road.
Across the A44. On the far side is the old foundry, now housing various businesses. Into Victoria Road. “Fred Jones, The Olde Tavern”, was formerly The Railway Inn; Fred Jones started brewing here in 1884. House Sparrows chatter all around. A health centre stands on the site of the old gas works. Housing ranges from late Victorian to modern. One large house is now the Youth Hostel. After a very large modern nursing home, the houses become older, 15th through to 19th century. The main building of The Oxford Arms is closed but part is open as a community pub with renovation being undertaken. It has previously been the Earl of Oxford’s hunting lodge and a coaching inn, its 17th century timber construction now hidden behind a Victorian frontage.
Into the town centre. A long closed bank is council offices with a masonic hall above. Another was rebuilt by Leominster District Council in 
1977 but is now boarded up. There are a couple of butchers, a green grocers, a chemists and a mini-supermarket in the High Street but the majority of the shops are charity, antiques and “stuff” shops. A market is being held in the 1885 Market Hall. A statue of a dog, “Fly” stands outside the museum. A woman introduces herself as the sculptor. We discuss dogs, she has two with her. A volunteer at the museum tells me the background to the sculpture is the Black Dog of Hergest, a famous local tale of the evil black dog that belonged to Sir Thomas Vaughan who once resided at Hergest Court and was known as “Black Vaughan”. He was beheaded at Pontefract Castle by order of Richard, Duke of Gloucester on 25th June 1483. As his head toppled from his shoulders and hit the ground a blood curdling howling could be heard as his black bloodhound scooped up the head and set off back to Hergest Court. The ghost of the dog haunted the area until twelve priests exorcised it by reducing it to the size of a fly, forcing it into a silver snuff box and burying it under a great rock. Another version says that it was the ghost of Black Vaughan who was put in the box by thirteen priests at Presteigne, but the box was dug up and he still roams the hills as a black dog. The sculpture dog has a collar with a gold fly on it.
House Martins sweep around the road of the primary school, visiting nests under the low eaves. Into Churchill Road, through a 20th century housing estate and the fire and police stations. Along a public footpath, Stoney Lane which is rapidly being overgrown with Stinging Nettles and Brambles. Out onto Church Road opposite the church of St Mary the Virgin. Building works area being carried out in the church so I do not tarry, just visit the marble tomb of Sir Thomas Vaughan and his wife, Ellen Gethin, daughter of Dafydd ap Cadwgan ap Phylip Dorddu, known as Ellen the Terrible after she dressed up as a man to infiltrate an archery competition where she shot an arrow through the chest of the man she believed had killed her brother.
Campion Lane descends steeply to Castle Hill. Across from the junction is a wooded hill on which stood the castle. William II had granted to Adam Port, a younger sibling of the Ports of Hampshire, the royal estates in and around Kington in what was then known as “Herefordshire in Wales”. It is to be presumed that Adam built the first castle here. His grandson, also Adam, fell out with Henry II and lost the castle. In the 1180s it withstood attacks by Prince Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth. In 1201 King John granted Kington Castle and Barony to his favourite Marcher Baron, William Braose of Radnor, Abergavenny and Brecon. He fell out with John and in 1213 John granted the castle to his close supporter, Roger Clifford, and in May or June of 1215 the castle probably fell to Reginald Braose. In late July 1216 King John appeared at Hereford with an army and then marched on Hay on Wye. Here he called Reginald to him and offered him beneficial terms of peace. Reginald ignored the plea and John in vengeance burned the Braose town and castle of Hay on Wye. He then marched north through the Principality of Elfael to Kington and destroyed the castle and town on 4th August before continuing on his destructive path through the Braose Marcher territories. So ended the history of Kington Castle. Yellow Loosestrife flowers outside cottages. At the junction of Castle Hill and Church Street is a water tower, past of the first piped water supply to the town in 1831.
Back along the High Street and Victoria Street. A Red Kite circles overhead.
Sunday – Leominster – Much needed rain fell during the night. The morning is bright although the clouds sweep across the sky driven by a blustery breeze. Gulls have been getting noisier recently, flying low around the houses, yelping continuously. Jackdaws are on the chimney pots, some young waiting to be fed. Onto the railway bridge. Below Evening Primrose, Ragwort, Buddleia, St John’s Wort and Great Mullein are all in flower. Onto Butts Bridge. The water level in the River Lugg has fallen further and the shingle bank now reaches out towards midstream.
Along Easters Meadow. Many of the umbellifers are running to seed. Wet grass hangs over the path and my legs are soon saturated. Rosebay Willowherb and Creeping Thistles are coming into flower. A few Red Soldier beetles, commonly called Bloodsuckers, are on Hogweed flowers but I have yet to see any butterflies. Indeed there has been a worrying dearth of butterflies this year. An Amber Snail, Succinea putri, is on a dead Black Poplar leaf in the grass. The light drops as heavy dark clouds drift overhead. I emerge from the path by Cheaton Brook, wet to the waist.
The market is larger than I expected given the rather threatening weather. However, of course I buy nothing. The Pond Skaters have still not emerged beside Ridgemoor Bridge. A Chiffchaff calls continuously beside the river. Some vintage car enthusiasts are waiting for the gates to be open at Brightwells. Goldfinches sing beside the railway crossing. A Blackcap sings in Paradise Walk. The water level in the River Kenwater is low.