Bowers Yard

Read this post in the main blog by clicking on the Bowers Yard heading above or here and enhance your experience!

It's that 'limbo' time of year when the Christmas festivities, family gatherings and parties are making way for New Year celebrations.

The Wrekin Forest Volunteers celebrated Christmas in the time-honoured way by working! Meeting at Bowers Yard with 3 other volunteer groups totalling around 50 souls we were set the task of coppicing, building fires and cooking over nearly 100 sausages, burgers and spuds for the hungry throng!

AND...

Bowers Yard as the name implies was a site of much activity a century or two ago as the area would have been used by the many barges and boats that made their endless trips up and down the River Severn. It was a mooring and a boat repair yard. Here the barge men would rest a while, quite often overnight in the many Brewhouses, squatters cottages and inns that abounded at the time.

Most of these establishments are now no more but the few that remain in the area are fine examples of Georgian rural architecture.

In the 18th and 19th centuries apart from boat building and boat repair work other industries thrived by the water's edge with Bowers Yard in fact having no less than 5 flourishing lime kilns the remains of some, with a little scrambling, are still to be seen. Part of our task today in fact was to remove unwanted scrub and trees not only allowing more light into this naturally dark and wooded area but to also make some of these industrial relics viewable to walkers on the footpath running alongside the river.

And so it was on a cold but otherwise dry day that we set to...

I'm indebted to Nigel this week for supplying some of the pics and most of the captions.

But not all of them...

Or maybe it was some other spirit vapour?!

It was Nige who supplied this pic of... of... well, what is it?


Actually, Nigel thinks he's cracked this; with due diligence he has discovered that it could well be our old favourite Purple Jellydisc (Ascocoryne sarcoides). Personally, I'm not sure - I still think it's a slightly decomposed bilberry butty!

Les also contributed with a few pics so many thanks go to both!

Sorry, that seemed to imply that the above is a pic of Les.
Clearly it isn't!
Or is it?

Talking of hats:- It's difficult to believe that out of around 50 people attending a celebration of Christmas with all its festivities and happy smiling people all entering into the spirit (or spirits) of the event that I was the only one wearing a silly hat! Actually, someone was said to have quipped 'If anyone was going to wear a silly hat today it'd be Paul!'
Howler Competition
It's back. And don't forget it's open to anyone reading this blog - it's not just for the WuFuV's! Be the first to spot the obvious mistake (not a typo or grammatical) and win yet another fabulous prize from my 'little box of give-aways'. Just click on 'Comments' at the bottom of this post just under the collage and type in your answer.

Lis was over the moon to win the last howler - no she was, honestly! She was beside herself with joy at hearing she was the first to spot that reference to the website 'Wild About Shropshire' should have been 'Wild About Britain' - the link for which could be seen in the sidebar of the main blog

So take a close look and try to find this week's howler to win a worthy something-or-other! The prize is often appropriate to the winner as it was with Nigel and the Jungle Sounds CD (well he's into spiders and there are loads of those in the jungle!) and Olly of course who won the Pete Docherty book (one of just 2 Baby Shambles fans - me being the other!) and then there was Lis who won the bottle of Mulled Wine - enough said!

Back to the plot
Spuds cooked in an open fire are just the most blissful and satisfying food available. I'd give up my portion of caviar and truffles for one anytime! As would many others it seems...

As for Pete - I don't think I've ever seen him eat anything but cake!

The annual tree-dressing tradition was upheld with some very creative exhibits from many volunteers. The very fine Fly Eratic was from Les, I think the snowman from Nigel and the 'Popcorn on Coat Hanger' - I'm not sure - who was that?

Anyway, my offering was somewhat more basic as being a newcomer to this auspicious event I hadn't fully grasped the concept that the offerings should be wildlife-edible or at least bio-degradable. Oh well, at least my tinsel bauble will still be there next year!

A cold day but I think we all managed to keep warm one way or another.

Catch you all soon and don't forget to use comments below for your howler entry. As comments are moderated it won't appear in the blog straightaway but each entry is logged with exact time and date. I will hold on to all howler entries this time so no-one can see who's won and it could be that the funniest entry actually beats the first entry for the prize!

Don't forget the comments facility is not just for the howler - use it for anything else you'd like to say; comments on pics, history of the area, famous people associated with the site, silly stuff, anything - just do it!

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Click on the collage to view more pics of Bowers Yard