Full Metal Wheelbarrow

If you were wondering what happened to my Saturday walk report, it was rained off - the forecast was so rubbish that we stayed at home this week - but fear not, for here's a Sunday walk report instead :-)

Our destination this time was the teeming metropolis of Weston on Trent. It was much more of an out and back walk than we really like - we prefer a circular route if at all possible - but it does take in some nice scenery down by the canal.

There's a fairly lengthy trundle down through Melbourne and King's Newton to start with (I really don't know why anyone differentiates between the two - they're effectively the same village) and then on to the old railway path.

This leads eventually along to the River Trent, which was looking very full after the recent rain.

Just after the bridge over the Trent, we left the railway path and joined the canal for a while. Here, the rain had done rather more than just top up the water levels - this tree had obviously fallen right across the canal at some point and brought a large section of the bank down with it - must have been quite a shock for the first boat to come along after it happened.

We carried on down the canal path to Weston Lock, where we saw a couple of boats coming up.

Then we went on away from the canal into the village of Weston, where we realised it was only half past ten and the pub wouldn't be open yet.

So we went on, past the lake, dodging the ridiculously long fishing rods (if you want to fish that far out, wouldn't it be easier to use a boat?) and into a lovely meadow filled with clover and butterflies. They didn't keep still long enough to take pictures of them, alas, but there was at least one Peacock butterfly and several that I've tentatively identified as Small Coppers.

We stopped and made coffee there and Rob acquired a new hat ornament...

Then it was back to the canal via the grounds of the Ukrainian Youth Centre (no, I have no clue :-)) and retracing our route to the village. Crossing the canal on the way back, we saw the Tinest Frog In the World, but it hopped away too fast for me to get a picture of it. As Rob rightly pointed out, when you're a tiny frog, you have to be good at running away or you never get to be a less tiny frog :-(

I did find a slight variation to the route though which led us past these delightfully dilapidated greenhouses.

Rob had kindly bought me some new socks for this walk, but while they were nice and soft and squidgy, they were perhaps a tad too warm for a nice summer day like today.