Wednesday 11 May 2011

My World - A Walk In Muted Colours












Few people, even in the UK,  know about the beauties of the English Border County of Shropshire; I feel privileged to live here and  have decided to sing its praises in these pages. South Shropshire is a particularly quiet, very rural part of the world,  far from busy crowds and the hustle and bustle of modern cities. The Shropshire Hills have been granted the status of AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) as well as Area of Tranquility.





Today I shall take you on a walk starting from my doorstep, it doesn't take me two minutes to get out into the fields.  Although this is mainly sheep farming country there are also a few arable fields. 






At this time of year hedgerows, meadows and pastures are bursting with wild flowers, there isn't a path or lane whose edges are not embroidered with frothy Queen Anne's Lace, also known as cow parsley; 






Here and there patches of stitchwort insist on putting the cow parsley in its place and show off their white stars.

  



White and yellow are the dominant colours at the moment. A field of buttercups is a wondrous sight, particularly when interspersed with the red seedheads of grasses.






At this time of year rape fields predominate, the colour is almost fluorescent seen from a distance.. On a sunny day the smell is quite overpowering, not very pleasant.




Even our narrow tarmac-ed lanes are edged with flowers. Here we have golden spurge, Welsh poppies and wallflowers. There are also ladies' mantle and purple columbines, all of them self-sown. Once you have them, they will quickly spread


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Whenever I leave the house or return to it, this is the first sight I see: the castle ruins. We have a gate leading directly into the castle meadow and Benno regards the castle grounds as an extension to his garden.






Hawthorn, or thorn apple, is used extensively as a hedging shrub or tree round here; the flowers are fully out now, framing fields and country roads in  billowing white clouds. I like the sweet smell of hawthorn,
so I snapped off a few twigs to take home and put them in a vase. They won't last long, but I find them no less beautiful for being ephemeral.







My walk today says hello to the people at That's My World who all show off places and photos they are particularly proud of and which they want to share with others.

48 comments:

  1. Love taking walks with you Friko. The greens and yellows are just beautiful. You are very blessed to live in such pastoral surroundings.

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  2. Your photographs, as well as your surroundings, simply take my breath away, Friko.

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  3. Hello:
    Having lived and gardened in Herefordshire for some 25 years, the Welsh March and Shropshire hold a very dear place in our hearts.

    Your walk in the most glorious countryside reminded us fondly of times spent exploring places off the beaten track around Church Stretton and of lunches in Ludlow and of charming Stokesay,so beloved of Vita Sackville West.

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  4. Ah Friko, you live in an area of such beauty. I can't imagine walking out a few steps into all of that. I was pleased to see that Cow Parsley is also called Queen Ann's Lace, which is what we call it here. I'd recently read an article that referred to Cow Parsley and I was stumped.
    I too love Hawthorn - for the flowers and then for the berries.

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  5. dear lucky friko,

    that was a glorious walk and i thoroughly enjoyed it! i can see why it was awarded Area of Tranquility. my favourite picture must however be the dirty sheep bum :) xox

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  6. This beauty that surrounds you must seep into your soul. I love the tranquility of these photos and am comparing them in my mind to ones you shared awhile ago which were moodier in tone. It all depends on the weather, doesn't it?

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  7. Fabulous, Friko. Definitely an area of tranquility and natural beauty. I must see it some day!
    — K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  8. You live amongst incredible beauty and your photos illustrate that perfectly. I am as green as that grass. I want to have a castle right outside my door. I would love to walk that path "embroidered with frothy Queen Anne's Lace," and I've always found apple tree stems make exquisite arrangements. Love your photograph of them. What a gorgeous walk. Thank you.

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  9. I love your cyber-walking tours. Your lovely descriptions and photographs and bring back to me so many nice memories of the English countryside. Thank you.

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  10. Such beautiful country and photos. HH's ancestors are from Wales and I need to check out which part. I am having trouble getting back that far on Ancestry.com. Jones is such a common name it is hard to find clues to follow.
    QMM

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  11. Gorgeous! How close are you able to get to the castles? Are you able to go in them?

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  12. these pictures are amazing friko...the castle one in particular...would so love to visit and explore!!!

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  13. This was lovely Friko! I was there a few years ago to visit my youngest grandson when he was just a few months old. His mum gave me a copy of "A Shropshire Lad" as a memento and her mum introduced me to Mary Webb's books. The countryside around Shrewsbury is beautiful, but my favourite was Wales with those narrow little lanes! Every turn in the road was a new delight! You are so lucky to live in such peaceful surroundings. Your photos are a treat.

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  14. What beautiful pictures. Aren't we blessed to live where we live? :-) I love it.
    A x

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  15. friko these are such sweet and magical echoes of an area of the world i have passed through many times but never really visited. steven

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  16. ...looks like a DREAM of country fields!
    There ought to be the sound of a flute from the far distance...

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  17. Thank you for the beautiful journey in your lovely colourful world Friko. Delicious!

    Anna :o]

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  18. These are absolutely beautiful. Spring is such a pretty, green time of year, and green is my favorite color. Thanks for sharing.

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  19. I can only imagine the joy you must feel to step outside of your home to see those amazing castle ruins and the incredible surrounding hillside in all its colourful glory. You have the best of nature, history and beauty right at your doorstep. You have every reason to be proud.

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  20. You are so lucky to live in such a beautiful peaceful place. such magic with the fields lined with hedgerows. it all seems very quaint to me here in brash America.

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  21. Birdman or blossom, your stories are always worth a read! :)

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  22. Hello, Friko
    Thank you for sharing with us the amazing journey in your beautiful and colourful world. Love it!
    Great shots :)

    Warmly
    Marinela
    Short Poems

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  23. I just love your photos here! Simply wonderful!

    I sure would miss if the curlews should disappearing from my meadows by the river.
    First sign of Spring here in northen Sweden is when I hear the sound from them.

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  24. I so enjoyed my walk with you. What beautiful scenery you have introduced me too!! I loved it and you photos!!
    Hugs
    SueAnn

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  25. Thanks for taking me on the walk in such beautiful countryside. The colours contrast so well with the many greens...... and best of all you have blue sky. Not such fun in Scotland this week!

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  26. Most of the sites around me are monuments, many to fallen heroes. Something spectacular about your world. I would love to visit it sometime. I got close to it once but not close enough. Dianne

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  27. All the gently curving fields and lanes look beautiful at any time of the year . But now , in every shade of green , they're stunning !

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  28. Your pictures, and my surroundings, remind me that I wouldn't want to live anywhere but the countryside. Lovely shots in this post, Friko.

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  29. Those greens are to die for, especially for mermaid lost in the high desert. Such lushness is what my dreams are made of. Thanks for sharing.

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  30. This showed up in my reader again, thanks to Blogger's glitch over the past 36 or so hours. I could drink in the view everyday - such a wide vista full of peace and beauty that satisfies the soul.

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  31. Darn that blogger. It ate my comments. I absolutely love all of these photos. But, I am green with envy. I want a castle right outside my door, too. Thank you for these. I would love to walk that path embroidered with Queen Anne's Lace....

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  32. Lovely pictures, Friko! Amazing, the way city graffiti artists have reached even the sheep.

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  33. What a beautiful place to call home! I'm envious of the green beauty. My home is also beautiful, but in oh so different ways. Don't you love that we can "travel" and share our homes and lives? :)

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  34. Thank you for sharing your countryside. It is splendid, indeed.

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  35. Friko, I have not seen the other participants of "That's My World," and I'm sure their environs are special, but you live in absolute heaven. Seriously, you see those ruins outside your gate?? People travel thousands of miles and spend the same amount of dollars just to spend a week in a place like that. I am so happy for you. Looking at your photos, it's hard to imagine there is anything wrong in the world.

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  36. How gracious of you to share the beauty that surrounds you. Your choice of descriptive words echos your sentiment of that beauty as do the photos. What a magnificent countryside!

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  37. I loved the English countryside when I visited. When I go back, I must check this place out! Gorgeous pictures.

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  38. This is glorious English countryside at its very best . . . or is it Welsh?

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  39. Such beautiful countryside. I once traveled through Sprohshire in the late 80's on my way to Wales, and I just loved your part of the world. Your photos are amazing - simply beautiful.

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  40. Ein traumhaft schöner Maispaziergang, auf den du uns durch deine wundervollen, ausdrucksstarken Bilder mitgenommen hast. Ja, es schaut wirklich aus, wie das Paradies !!! So recht eine Gegend nach meinem Herzen.

    liebe maisinnige Grüße
    isabella

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  41. no wonder you write so beautifully - you are surrounded by beauty!

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  42. A nice walk, Friko. Loved the ruined castle and the green fields behind.

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  43. I wish I lived in a cottage lost in such green vastness. I simply love this post <3

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  44. Your surroundings are absolutely beautiful. Are you always inspired, refreshed, and uplifted after walking is pastoral beauty? Thanks for view into your world.

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  45. Well, if this isn't outstanding natural beauty, I don't know what is. What stunning pictures. The sheep! You live in a fantastic area.

    Castle ruins always have a feeling of being haunted and when I look at them I really cannot imagine the lives lived within those fortress walls. It gives me the chills.

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  46. Such beautiful, rich greens coupled with the ruins of the castle make a sight almost too generous for my eyes to take in... but take it in, they do, and hungrily!

    I regret that I only had 3 days to spend in England, and all of them were spent in London (except, of course, driving to and from Dover where we had crossed over).
    The plan had been to stay 6 months longer in Germany; my mother was to come for a visit and the 2 of us would travel in England and Scotland together. Sadly, my stepfather's illness and my husband's job made it impossible for both of us, and now my mother's own health is failing.
    If I were to have such a thing as a bucket list, visiting here would certainly be on it.

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  47. Beautiful photography. Looks a bit like the Bluegrass of my native Kentucky. Jim

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