Last week I chanced to look out into our garden and saw this wonderful jay. I was taken a bit by surprise as we’ve never had one in the garden before but it was lovely to see it hopping around the trees and even taking a big chunk out of the fat balls!
I visit Stonebridge City Farm fairly regularly and, when it’s been allowed to open during the pandemic, it’s always a lovely (and safe) place to visit for a change of scene during various lockdowns. Here are a few photos from my most recent visit.
We’ve had foxes in our garden before but during lockdown we had a more frequent visitor than usual in the case of this lovely fox with an injured back leg. At first I assumed he (he’s rolled over onto his back so I’m fairly certain it’s a male) had hurt his leg in an accident but doing some research it actually seems likely this has been caused by mange – other symptoms he has are constant scratching, slitted eyes, being out during the day and a noticeable lack of fear around humans. He seems pretty healthy otherwise and is certainly moving about fine (at one point he jumped right over our pond) and I found a charity (Wildlife Aid) where I could buy some mange treatment and add it to some food for him – though keeping very much in mind to be careful he doesn’t become reliant on me/humans as a source of food. I’ll keep you posted about how this works out, but for now some of my favourite shots of our photogenic visitor.
Provand’s Lordship was built in 1471 and is one of Glasgow’s few surviving medieval buildings located not far from the Cathedral. It was built by Andrew Muirhead, the Bishop of Glasgow, as part of the then St Nicholas’ Hospital.
Treasurer’s House in York is a National Trust property in the shadow of York Minster. The treasurer was controller of the Minster’s finances and entertained important guests until 1547 when the job of treasurer came to an end. The current building’s design is due to the work of Thomas Young, Archbishop of York between 1561 and 1568 who almost entirely rebuilt the house.
Paycocke’s House and Garden is a National Trust property in Coggeshall, Essex. The house was built in 1509 by Thomas Paycocke, a wealthy cloth merchant, one of the richest men in Coggeshall. The wool Paycocke produced, known as Coggeshall white, was said to be one of the best cloths in the country.
Charlecote Park is an impressive 16th century National Trust property on the banks of the River Avon in Warwickshire. Not only are the interiors beautifully decorated, but it is surrounded by a deer park where we were fortunate to get quite close to the deer, and the River Avon is literally on its door step.
Not far from St Paul’s Cathedral is Christchurch Greyfriars Church Garden. It is the impressive ruins of one of Christopher Wren’s churches that was heavily damaged in the Blitz on 29 December 1940.
The last place I visited in September as part of Open Heritage Day was Brackenhurst Hall in Southwell, part of Nottingham Trent University that isn’t normally open to the public. I arrived just as they opened so I got to go on the first of the tours that day, which is just as well as there was a fairly constant stream of people arriving throughout my visit.
Avebury Manor is a National Trust property in Wiltshire, right next to Avebury Stone Circle (the subject of my next post). Built in the 1550s the BBC used it in a TV project where they redecorated and refurnished the rooms so that each one reflects a different time period, from the Tudors to the 1930s.
Louise Jayne's Blog 