Saturday Weedwalk

The town side of Willow reach. It doesn't look like much, but the further in you go, the more magnificent it gets.

I love Saturdays. They are the only day of the week that we don't set an alarm. Waking up is something that happens rather than someing an alarm tells you to do. It feels nice, even though we usually wake up barely an hour after we would during a weekday, it still feels like a treat. It is a lie in. Followed by breakfast and whatever else we want to or have to do, but the mornings are always slow.

Last weekend my husband needed to work on a piano he is rebuilding, so I was at home on my own. After briefly considering going for a park run I eventually decided to go for a weed walk instead. What is a weed walk? Well, it's this thing that many tortoise owners do - going out and picking weeds to feed their tortoises.

There are many weeds in the UK that a mediterranean tortoise like our Hermann's tortoise can eat and I am learning how to recognise them one by one. One of them ribwort plantain can be fed to tortoises every day and is very easy to recognise.

And I knew just the place to find them. Willow reach, a new development quite close to where we live. It sits on the stream in the amazing Hoe Valley wetlands.

One of the ponds/wetlands. An amazing piece of nature and yet you are still within the dight of houses.

I have forgotten how nice it is to just go somewhere into the unknown with almost no people around and just discover the secret trails and little hiding places. I felt like being in the wild, yet always within sight of the buildings. The fresh air and playful wind, the smell of earth and water was gentle but somewhat overwhelming to the senses. Such a refreshing walk!

Rocket's daily meals were enriched by ribwort plantain and dandelion leaves for a whole week and I can't wait for the next opportunity to go and take the hubby round as well.

This bumblebee was just getting out of the wet grass
after a quick summer shower of rain.

I found myself a little place to sit down and eat my biscuit snack.
This duck couple was particularly friendly, maybe because I kept
"accidentally" dropping crumbs.