The Midday Dash: Rain, Rooks, and Rebels

   With the air at 19°C but feeling a breezier 21°C, I set out under a bright sun, firmly clutching a defensive umbrella against the morning’s lingering showers. The pavement to the recreation ground was alive with bees raiding the purple Hebe shrubs. Nearby, six corvids held the grass, while a vibrant clump of comfrey burst forth in a sea of purple blooms. Near the cemetery road, a massive white Campion plant begged for a photograph, right before two goldfinches and a dunnock rocketed out of a nettle patch into the safety of the brambles.

   Inside the cemetery grounds, a pair of magpies were having a proper, wing-flapping row in the distance, settling their differences with large beaks. On the lawns, a massive gathering of rooks and jackdaws were busy feeding. From a row of pines, a glorious chorus echoed; my new phone app flagged it as a blackbird, though a song thrush and a background rook were clearly trying to steal the credits. At the top field, rooks and wood pigeons dined in numbers, but they spotted me and scattered the moment my camera came out.

   The homeward stretch delivered the visual prizes: brilliant wild red poppies framed against a crisp blue sky, a tiny oasis of colourful wild flowers along the main road, and a lone feral pigeon keeping watch from the leisure centre roof. Evening primroses had exploded into yellow blooms almost overnight, but the real showstopper was a massive New Zealand Flax plant in a private garden, flaunting impressive, newly erupted spiky floral shoots.

Walk Summary
Route: 2.45 miles
Time: 53 minutes
Fitness: 21 Google Fit Heart Points

Copyright ©️ Text, photographs and videos Written by John Yeo – All rights reserved.