River Test and Broadlands Estate

Monday 21st July 2014

It was another scorcher of a day again and we chose to stay fairly local and have a wander from Lee (just south of Romsey) across the River Test through the Broadlands Estate.  The river was fast flowing, clear and deep but it still looked quite inviting in the heat.

The River Test.

There were masses of wild flowers along the edge of the lane and across the bridleway, most of which I didn't know the names of!  

However, this old favourite I remember from when I was young and we called the flowers 'granny pop out of bed' presumably because it looks like a bonnet and when pressed at the base it pops out.  I of course had to have a go for old times sake, one popped and one flopped!

Large rolls of hay.

There were a few blackberries ripe already, but most of the bushes were only just in flower.

I just managed to take a picture of this Peacock butterfly before it flitted off, I think the sun and the abundance of wild flowers brought the butterflies out in force today.

There were all sorts of crops in the fields, luckily this one had small labels in it to help me identify the veg, this field was crammed with dwarf beans, 

this one had row upon row of maize in perfectly straight lines,

and this one looked like it may have been marrow or pumpkin type things.

We found six geocaches along the walk, one of which was a bit of a puzzle to get in to and took a bit of brain power - which was difficult out in the heat of the sun with no shade but with a bit of perseverance and team work we got there eventually.

This beech tree is on the side of a cutting and many of it's amazing roots are exposed, there's also a rope swing attached to one of the branches, now that I would like to see, it's a long way up ........

This has to be one of the poshest barns ever, I don't recall seeing hanging baskets before on a barn - maybe it's the new thing!

I love these old farm buildings, they are falling apart a bit but it's ideal for swallow/house martin/swifts and white doves.

We walked just over four miles, saw masses of flowers and butterflies and I was very pleased to see a bullfinch fly by as we were trying to find our way in to the tricky sneaky geocache.  We saw trout of all different sizes in the river and dragonflies flying above it. A very hot day with lots of things of interest along the way.