A walk at Paper Mill Lock

Have not been here for ages, it was a treat for me, get tired of pubs and want a cup of tea in a proper tea place, and the tea shop by the river fulfils this wish. People gather here and either eat the delicious cakes or have a ploughman's lunch, whilst looking out over the many barges clustered here.

The swallows build their nests under the road bridge, and swoop back and forth over the river, plenty this year as there were of everything else.  The farmer was gathering in the hay from the large field next to the river, piling those great rounded bales onto a truck, as we have had rain over night I expect he must have worked late into the evening to get it safely under cover.  The fields are a beautiful golden colour, the wheat seems ripe and ready for harvest, and the hay has almost been gathered in, rape is turning to seed, and the fresh green of the sugar beet can be seen elsewhere.  When they gather the beets late in Autumn, enormous hills of the beet stand by the roadside, waiting for heavy lorries to take them to the factory.

Hemp agrimony, always loved this tall plant, loved by bees and butterflies; Grigson does not think much of this flower, though it is called raspberries and cream locally in Dorset.

Burdock (Articum Lappa) of course, favourite 'pop' of children in my day, sticky flower buds, and great leaves

Meadowsweet  (filipendula ulmaria) or 'Queen of the meadow'.  Sweet smelling but Grigson reckons the word meadow has more to with mead  and using the flower to flavour the drink.

not sure

Demoiselles, not a very good photo but there dozens of them alongside the blue damselflies and dragonflies flying everywhere up and down the river, with the occasional splash of a fish coming to the surface.