Southstoke in the sun

A little to the south of Bath sits the pretty village of  South Stoke. 

It consists of a tumble of buildings on a hillside facing south, including many that are listed for protection.The buildings are mainly built of local cream-coloured limestone, which shines in the sunshine and, at the village centre, are an ancient pub, an old church, and a strong sense of community.

The Somerset Coal Canal used to run near by. Traces of it can be found in the adjacent woods and fields. 

During the lock-down, the pub, the Pack Horse – a community-run project – set itself up to provide a range of basic groceries to the local community (and some drinks) – handing them out on a trestle table outside the main door to help maintain social distancing. 

Elsewhere, in an old vault, a help-yourself village shop was established providing things like flour, which was very hard to find elsewhere.

Anyway, here are a few images of the village and the countryside around it in mid-summer.

The Priory - a touch of Gothic Tudor in the centre of the village.

A view along one of the streets.

A pretty gate-house (also with a touch of Gothic) - The Lodge (somewhere behind lurks a major manor).

The village shop (temporary)

Another view of The Rectory.

Here is the Packhorse. 

And some hollyhocks.

Wonderful adjacent countryside.

Another view of the the shop.

Door panel - The Priory

View toward the old barn.

St James the Great

And some dates:

The Priory was built around 1860

St James the Great dates back to the 14th century

The Pack Horse - largely rebuilt 1674 and became a pub in the mid 1800s.

Chatting about International Treaties and Whaling.

Sometimes I receive invitations for interviews and, increasingly, they have been for online blogs.

HERE is a link to one that I just did which focused on the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals - whose conference of parties I attended in February - and the International Whaling Commission. 

The host, Chris Parsons and I also discuss the current whaling situation towards the end of the piece - which is about thirty minutes long. 

Brown's Folly

To the east of the city of Bath on the far side of the deep Avon Rivervalley lies a woody plateau. Once an area of intense stone mining activity the rocky landscape is pitted with strange dips and bat-blessed caves. (Many of the UK's 18 bat species are found here.)

The view from the plateau is along the river taking in the eastern-edge of the city and, on the opposite side of the valley, sits the University of Bath mainly hidden in another woodland.

The view towards Bath city.

This area of ancient woodland is know after the tower that stands high on the plateau known as Brown's Folly.

Brown's Folly

One of many caves

The Silver-washed fritillary - a large orange butterfly species of mid-summer, which is recovering after a major decline in the last century.

Bumble bee on field scabious

Flowers and Deer

It's a big day! Huge! The first journey way from the immediate vicinity of my home for over 100 days.

The National Trust has kindly opened the grounds of Dyrham Park to the north of Bath and here there is lots of room, with a little care, to maintain sensible social distance. The grounds include a formal garden, an orchard come meadow area and extensive pasture and mature trees which host a herd of fallow dear. The day, as the photos show was somewhat dull but the rains held off until it was almost time to leave. 

The grand house at the centre of Dyrham.

Poppies in the orchard.

Crab apples. 

The chapel and view of the great mansion from the back.

And now some of the deer of Dyrham.

Nice 'velvet' on his new antlers.

And this is what deer do in the rain.... they hunker down in the long grass!

Badgers large and small.

It is difficult to tell badgers apart. However, the long days and well-lit visits of early summer have given a change to get a better look at them. 

Here are two young adults. They often seem to visit together and the first one pictured has a distinctive nick out of his/or her (another tricky judgement) right ear.

His friend is very similar. Both (despite May's drought) seem to be well-fed and in good shape. 

Here is 'friend' badger - very similar but lacking the nick and the scar on the first badger's nose.

And a couple of days later - here are both feeding together. 

Here is another badger - distinctive because of his 'big' face. He seems to be older and has been foraging with another mature animal - both looking rather boney during the drought. (This photos was a few weeks back,)

Now, young badgers out in the countryside are even more difficult to get good pictures of. Not only are they nervous (which is a good thing) but they are low in the grass, nose down.... looking for food, and you are probably looking at them as dusk, a challenge to any photographer. 

So many images look like this:

But if you try hard (and are very lucky) you may get this:

The badger cubs (probably born in February) are smaller than the adults - I think they are a different shape too - less lithe and more pudgy - and, as clear in the images here, lighter grey and rather fluffy! 

Here are the cubs again - a few days on from my last set of images and they look more like badgers with each passing day (rather than big grey guinea pigs with black and white faces).

This is not a great photo but I have added it here because it shows three of the four pups foraging together.

And here is one drinking from the bowl of water I provided. (The drought has now ended with bursts of heavy rain, which will have opened up the soil for them again to find their usual diet which is mainly earth worms.)

Finally, this photo shows that they are foraging with a young adult.... is this mum?

Badgerlands at twilight.

And finally here is a young lady badger foraging out in the countryside near where the cubs live. I wonder if this is their mum.

Meeting Young Badger Cubs

Sometimes natures comes to you!

So, I am minding my own business walking back towards my home after ranging out one evening and I pause because there is a unusual rusting behind me. I stay very still and then one, two, three badger cubs come towards me across the grass. The photos are not great as this is at dusk.

They notice me and speed across the path into the safety of the dense vegetation opposite, Then a minute or two later a fourth one - a brother or sister - also hurries by along the same route.

These little guys were about half the size of an adult (maybe the size of a small cat) and would probably have been born in February. There were no adults in sight and they are now semi-independent.

But this is not the end of the story.

I continue to stand still and a little badger head comes back out of the vegetation. He or she looks towards me and then slowly approaches until he or she is at my feet looking at me (as you can see in the last photo).

The cub stands there for a while and then, using my special animal voice (you know the one that we all have), I ask him or her what they want and note that I'm not their mum. The pup seems a little cross at this and bristles before turning around and quickly making an exit back into the vegetation bordering the path.

What was going on? Well it may be that my grey trousers and brown jacket made me look like an adult badger (or maybe I smell like an old badger) or perhaps the little one was just curious.

I guess I will never know but it was a special moment. 

Just some wonderful roe deer

Regrettably this one spotted me and he is barking an alarm,

 presumably to warn invisible others as he moves well away.

Two bucks seemingly just running for joy.