Visiting Aunts in Birmingham: Saturday, 6th August, 2016.

It's been an epic today.

Junction 6 of the M6 is closed and will remain so at the weekends for the next 7 weeks.

So we have had to use the M42 to J5 M6 and then use the Chester Road and College Road to get to Witton Cemetery to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of Vicky's Dad's passing.

From there we go to Beeches Estate to visit Vicky's Dad's surviving sisters.

Aunt Jeanne (l) is 80 this year, Aunt Dorene (r) is 83 this year.

Both are still bright as buttons and enjoy a good old reminisce with Vicky over a cuppa tea made with Birmingham water - the best water in the world 

(it comes from the Elan Valley in Wales, by the way).

From there it is another convoluted route to the M5 at West Brom and then home 

via Droitwich for the 'big shop'.

All-in-all we are out for 5 hours.

That's the most driving David has done for ages.

Quite a shock to the system.

Heron, River Severn, Pitchcroft, Wednesday, 3rd August, 2016.

The narrow boat in the distance spooked a heron on the far bank as it passed by.

I watched where the heron settled back down and have crept up as quietly as poss to try to get a photo.

It's already spotted me so I'm gonna have to use the zoom.

Never a good idea with the compact-jobbie, but we'll give it a go.

That's a bit better.

I'm gonna try to get closer still.

I'm sure it's gonna fly off any sec.

Yep, thought so.

It flew low down the river a few metres then went between the trees, right across the racecourse, and disappeared from view over the allotments.

Heading towards Brittania Square where the posh-gits and their large gardens with ponds and plenty of gold fish are, I expect.

Much quieter than along the river with its narrow boats, dog walkers, cyclists, and folk out on a constitutional and what-not.

Herons on this part of The Severn aren't all that rare.

Kingfishers? That's a whole different story.

8 sightings in eleven years and two of those sightings were a pair fishing on the same branch on the same day on the far side of the river.

It's usually in the late-summer that they're to be seen.

Don't worry, we've got 'em peeled.

Gheluvelt Park, Tuesday, 2nd August, 2016.

Horrible walk today.

Very warm, very drizzly, and incredibly humid.

Unsurprisingly, this means that there are no families taking advantage of The Splash Pad and it's recuperative properties as yet.

Gives us a chance to sit down and rest for a moment or two before heading home for lunch having completing a 3-and-a-bit mile plod.

We may have said this before but…..September can't come quickly enough.

Branches tidied up, Pitchcroft, Tuesday, 26th July, 2016.

This photo is not so much to illustrate that they (whoever 'they' are) have been out to clear up the fallen branches but more to prove that Vicky has more than one 'blog outfit'.

David, on the other hand, has zillions of outfits. Albeit, ones that are all very similar.

Bit like his collection of rawk albums then.

Branching out: Pitchcroft, Sunday, 24th July, 2016.

This tree lost three branches on Thursday night and I took a couple of photos on my Friday walk to record the fact. Unfortunately, there was nothing around to provide a sense of scale.

So, here we are on our Sunday evening walk and the problem's solved!

One of the branches fell into the fork of another tree's branch (thinking about it, I should have taken a photo of that) and so it will be interesting to see how long the one can support the other.

The whole thing shows how dry and brittle the trees are in this age of global warning, and that's despite the river flooding every now and again and the resultant high water table under the racecourse.

We spend the rest of our relaxing walk nervously glancing up into every other tree we pass to try to discern whether any other dry and brittle branches might fall upon our fragile bonces.

Beautiful evening, by the way. 19c, sunny, with a lovely fresh breeze.

Rock Choir, Worcester Racecourse, Sunday, 17th July, 2016.

Walked to Homebase this morning and are now on the way back home.

Pitchcroft is home to a Race For Life today and Rock Choir are providing some light relief for participants and folk walking home from Homebase.

Not sure how 'Rock' they are but we'll let that one slip.

View of proceedings from The Grandstand.

We liked Rock Choir's version of Stevie Winwood's Higher Love 

which was about as 'rocky' as it got.

International Caterpillar Rescue: Pitchcroft, Saturday, 16th July, 2016.

Evening walk along Pitchroft and there's several of these little fellas wot have fallen out of the trees.

This one, being right in the middle of the path, is particularly vulnerable 

to the vagaries of walkers and cyclists.

Vicky moves in with the old 'flick it with a leaf' trick and it is soon out of harm's way.

Now it's only got non-human predators to worry about.