River Teme – Walking round Britain’s Coast Paths; England and Wales complete; Scotland walk in progress.

Many happy returns and we’ll make up for it as soon as we can!

Spring Bank Holiday, Monday, 24th May 2020 was the start of our fight back against our Self imposed Home Isolation at The Mill in Landlocked Shropshire. We are alongside the English/Welsh Border which is defined by the River Teme our only contact with the sea many miles downstream.

We hadn’t forgotten, and only just forgiven, The River for flooding in February – the highest levels ever recorded. The main damage was most of the garden shifted about twenty metres to the left. The flood barriers overtopped by inches and internal damage was minimal. Now, bordering on drought, there is barely enough water to call it a border any more, let alone a River. Even the molehills have set hard as concrete and now the moles burrow at surface level. I follow them around with a wheelbarrow and collect copious amounts of topsoil for our recently adopted seedling nursery, to combat food shortages and supplement grocery deliveries by Tesco and Donald. We’ve been very lucky really; the summer’s task though, is now Well defined ; raise the barriers to the new record high and take heed of King Canute.

The River at low ebb somewhere in there amongst the foliage, above

The most recent excitement along our lane, sorry – highway, involved a one vehicle pile up outside our gates when after many weeks of not driving I forgot The Car ZUD was an electric hybrid and stopped dead trying to change non existent gears!

I left quite an impression on the inside of the windscreen!

Rush hour on our highway – setting off from The Mill on the first walk around the block. First outing in eight weeks. Spooky! Left- right- left – right- left etc….

…….. past the mill pond

Even the millpond on the left is drying up leaving the water lillies high and dry

The Mill from above, centre mesh above….if you don’t get too close you’ll see we’ve also had a big tidy up in isolation. Currently we’re in the middle of exterior decoration – creosote and bitumen paint.

A continuous uphill climb for the first mile or so passing the farm and farm cottages with a sneak view through the fence back towards The Mill.

The farm straddles the Highway. Many years ago I had cause to ‘discuss’ the state of our lane with The Council, The County Surveyor attended and kept referring to “The Highway”. It took me a while to recognise he was talking about our lane!
Anyway, nowadays thanks to the Farmer tidying up his farmyard and resurfacing right up to the lane/highway our immediate surroundings are excellent.
But not for long…..

A mystery diversion, not sure why? maybe they’ve been filling potholes? The road surface is now pretty dreadful. We turned right anyway still gaining altitude.