Out and about and at home ...

Walking up Rotten Row last Monday (20th April) our current daily exercise ...

we noticed these amazing roots on several huge trees up on the bank ... 

The ground has been eroded by the weather by at least 4-feet ...

exposing these dramatic structures ...

around which many stories could be written ... fairies and elves come to mind! 

Same walk but the 'other way' on the Tuesday ...

and we see that the Mallard family appear to be doing well ... I think she's still got all her chicks.

Walking down (thank goodness!) Rotten Row I realised from here we could see the Thames ... this view is just above Hambleden Lock.

We can also see the cluster of buildings that is Yewden Manor a Grade II listed building.  The oldest part of which was built late C16-C17 and is now four apartments.

Arriving at Mill End (a hamlet of just 32 houses) and Mill End Farm and the young calves ...

are so inquisitive and cute!

Back at Still Rockin' we spend another very warm day on the deck reading and just watching our small world go by ...

The female Mallard in these photos has been visiting the mill stream since we arrived in late October ... she is easily recognised by what looks like her tongue which hangs from her beak all the time ... so ...

it was lovely when she brought nine teeny, tiny chicks to see us!

More cuteness!

See her tongue?

The following day (Wednesday 23rd)  she was back again on the grass but it was difficult to see if she still had 9 chicks amongst the daisies!

She walked them for a while and then came back to behind us ...

where ...

she encouraged them to jump ... George was disappointed that he didn't manage to snap a photo of any of them in mid-flight!

Our daily walk that day was to Medmenham Meadow ... a flat walk  along the river as my calves were complaining about all the uphills that we've walked in the previous days!

Wow! That was a very lucky shot to get the Red Kite on the ground ...

and yet another lucky one as he flew towards us.

All in all a good day, lots of cuteness and nature, of another warm, sunny day and being safe and well ... as we hope all our readers are.

A different walk ... the other way ...

My last post (amongst other more important things) describes a walk we took on Tuesday (14th April).  Since then we've done that walk several times including today's (22nd April) ... but the 'other' way ... on another very warm day ...

Crossing Rotten Row we walk through the meadow towards Hambleden Village alongside the fast running ditch, turning up the lane to our right at the kissing gate

 This expanse of the ditch now holds a new family of mallards ... I can count 13 chicks here but they may have been more.

 We continue along the lane taking a right at the fork ... and start the climb up into the Chiltern hills

 through the gate (note the jumper goes into the wash as soon as we're home).

 The trees and hedges are coming into bud now but I don't recognise this one ... has anyone out there any idea please?

 Each day creates a different light as we walk through the bluebells

 Another plant I don't recognise ... it looks similar to lilac but smaller and doesn't smell like lilac ... any ideas?

After passing through the kissing gate we're out of the Hambleden Estate grounds onto Rotten Row ...  but what's that we can see up that tree up the bank?

 Chairs up a tree?  We think it's to watch or perhaps orchestrate pheasant shoots as we can see a high wire fence up the bank on the other side of the road and can hear pheasants there ... hopefully those birds will get a reprieve this year.

 The view down Rotten Row where the gradient is probably a 1 in 10 ... I'd much rather walk down this hill than up!  At the end of the lane by the houses we turn left back to the marina ...

where we met a much smaller mallard family in the mill stream.

A different walk ...

In the upside down world we're living in just now, today I'm thinking how trivial my blog is in the bigger picture of front line workers doing their best to keep us safe ... and all I'm doing is staying home in a lovely setting and writing the occasional blog.

I feel rather out of control, not in the usual sense of the phrase but that I can't control simple things that I usually take for granted, like ordering a big shopping delivery whenever I needed it, and receiving it with the majority of items in stock; like popping on the bus to the shops in Marlow or walking into Henley, a lovely walk of just over 2 miles which I can't do now because of my age and recommendations to stay at home. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining ... I (we) have our health and wish to keep it that way ... I feel 'in limbo'.

Beautiful spring blossom here at Hambleden Marina.

We all have worries and concerns about our family in these troubled times and for me that's lying heavily.  We have several close family members in frontline employment including the police and nursing.  

We took a different walk the other day ... passing the pregnant cows 

and turned up Rotten Row ... 

a very steep hill.

We eventual turned onto the Hambleden Estate ...

 and carpets of woodland bluebells

One of our granddaughters is a nurse and is currently working long hours on a covid ward.  She tells me of the difficulties she's experiencing, especially of low staffing levels.  On her current ward the recommended number of trained nurses is three, but even before the corona virus pandemic there were only two.  The staffing recommendation for the hospital she works in, for a covid ward is six trained nurses but ... yes, you've probably guessed ... there are still only two.

and the views as we leave the woods behind us ....

 are stunning as we look towards Hambleden Village

The NHS has been under-funded, under-staffed, under-paid and under-equipped  for more years than I can remember and this has to change.  The government are doing their best (?) to entice people into the medical profession but until they pay them the salary they deserve and provide the necessary wherewithal to do the job, why would people take up nursing or become doctors?  People who train for years and years are doing this not because it's a 'job', it's because it's a vocation.  It's what they passionately want to do. I know that's the case for our granddaughter who has wanted to be a nurse since she was three and has worked against all the odds to train to be the best nurse she can be and fulfil her dream.

We were lucky to be passing this field just a very few moment after these twin labs were born, We watched in awe as the first twin latched onto its mother's milk while she licked the birth fluid from her second one.

This is the fifth winter at Hambleden and never before have we seen the ditch in the meadows leading to the village running with water ...

 until this year .

When it reaches Rotten Row most of the water goes under the road through a culvert and carries on until it reaches the outlet into the mill stream immediately behind Still Rockin' and into the River Thames.

Being careful as we pass through the kissing gate without touching it with our hands ...

 we're home safe and sound ... just as I hope you are ... and wish that we all could be.

So, when this pandemic is over and the costs (in lives) are counted, will the government put in the money to make the NHS and Social Services fit for purpose? Will they recruit the right people?  Will they train them well?  Will they pay them what they're worth?  Will they provide whatever is needed to enable the staff to do a good job?  I really do hope so.  

If this unprecedented time doesn't right some wrongs, well, I don't know what will ... unless we all do any and everything we can to ensure that the current and future governments change their attitudes and put our taxes to use where it is needed most.

I would like to think that when all this is over, those frontline staff who have worked tirelessly to keep the rest of us safe and well will be rewarded.