So many mere’s here; the highlight though was the marsh. A raised platform to walk on, just a couple of feet wide, no fencing. Step off and the solid ground sloshes away, the water not even calf deep but fetid, covered in greenery, teeming with life.

Your wet foot wouldn’t be the problem. Escaping the greedy mud below the water would, home to countless lifeforms, all feeding the ducks and geese.

I saw such marsh today, walked on that platform, saw ducks. Saw geese, heard geese, dodged geese overhead and wished for ranged weaponry to silence the floating geese. Oh, and there were ruff and a harrier and lapwing and a green woodpecker, which wasn’t green. It was bright glorious red but I still couldn’t see it until someone pointed it out to me. I guess I’m not cut out to be a twitcher.

Today’s entertainment was full of them.

Other highlights of the day include conquering a fort (actually depicted in that map – it was indistinguishable from a copse with no people in sight but I was very definitely King of the Hill until I got bored and walked back down), getting frustrated by a closed motorway (adding half an hour to my return to the hotel after dinner) and invading another country. By accident. I think I got away with it; no angry Welshmen have laid siege to the Manor.

I’m back in the same manor house as last night. Hoping to sleep tonight, last night’s coffee with dinner kept me up until well gone 6am. Dinner tonight had less coffee, more friends: Meeting them for dinner was the entire point of heading up North, turning it into a three day mini-break was so I could spread the journey a little.

That lack of sleep is also why I did so little today. Just too tired. Not even any photographs to share. Not yet, until I process the 600 photographs of birds, of which 597 will be deleted. I’m happy with the photograph of a fly though, I’ll share that once it’s online.

But that’ll be another day.