Reliving my childhood by the river Teign

Not a great night sleepwise .. I woke at 3.10 could hear an owl calling not far away .. then I started thinking about today's Wide Wednesday water themed blip set by RockArea. That did'nt help me get back off to sleep so i read a chapter of my current book 'The Truest Pleasure' - Robert Morgan. An interesting read, just two chapters to go. Got back to sleep eventually. I think it might have been the slice of Swedish sticky chocolate cake & cream - ate it too late perhaps in the evening.
Lola, Bob & I did a lap of Knighton heath in glorious sunshine. A pocket of sliced carrot was all I needed to keep Bob motivated.
With the dogs back home and settled I grabbed two books I'd read & wanted to swap at the village library, plus my camera and headed off.
Had a lovely walk along the river bank, bumped into a few folks that I knew who walk the river everyday. They told me where the kingfishers were, but i was heading in the opposite direction to the weir which I thought would make a good blip. The wild daffodils & snowdrops looked a picture, just as I remember from my childhood. I disturbed a kingfisher ... damn! I walked on quietly so as not to disturb any other birds that might be around. As I was taking my blip I heard the shrill call of the kingfisher, looked up and two went whizzing past & up the river. I went to investigate, did'nt spot them perched anywhere but two flew back down the river individually a little later. The rubbish that I collected & left in a pile about 3-4 months ago was still there. I thought the river authority might have been along and picked it up but no. I'll take a bag next time i walk. Went back to the Clam. As children we would spend lots of time on the sandy beach around the Clam, swimming in the river. Nowadays the area is all overgrown, an ideal spot for rubbish to gather, getting snagged in the fallen trees, metal, 2 broken tangled patio chairs, beer cans, a large plastic bucket. Too much for me to carry on this occasion as I already had an animal feed sack full. I stacked it all together, bar the double bed mattress. There is no way that would have been washed down the river so it must have been lugged down from the village. I shall be getting in touch with the local councillor about getting it removed or at least find out who is responsible for removing the rubbish. It certainly does not belong on the river bank. It's already been there awhile as there is plant life growing from it.
Popped into the library found 3 books. There is a lot of chic lit, but it's all a bit samey. I picked up 'The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte' - Daphne Du Maurier, 'When God Was A Rabbit' - Sarah Winman,  & 'The Blood Spilt' - Åsa Larsson. I can't get rid of the dark font .. Grhhh!


Made a sort of provencale sauce & added my homegrown borlotti to it .. Went well with the lamb chops. :- )


I took lots of pics of the weir but liked the reflections and angle looking back up towards the weir.



2, possibly 4 kingfishers
long tail tits
2 buzzards
Scarlet elf cup - Sarcoscypha austriaca
Single snowdrops
Double snowdrops
Native daffodils - Narcissus pseudonarcissus
I'm sure the daffodils are early. I thought I used to pick a bunch of daffodils for Mothering Sunday when I was a child, that's mid March.



Thanks to RockArea for hosting this weeks Wide Wednesday challenge 'Water'