On My Way Home from Chatteris in the Fenland

The weather has been very sunny and warm with clear blue skies. I've been working in the village of Chatteris, Fenland. It's a small sleepy little hamlet nestled in the middle of farmlands. In every direction, there is nothing but beautiful fields. In some ways, I feel as though I have stepped back into a retro 1960s England. Many of the hamlets have that old English feel to them. Also, many people seem to have a joyous spring in their step knowing we are to leave the EU. People far and wide talk about it with huge smiles on their faces. I believe the little village got a visit from Ian Duncan Smith during the EU referendum campaign. He was a Brexit politician and I would imagine he received a very warm welcome from most people in Chatteris.

I do my bin emptying rounds about the town centre every morning and everyone says, "Good Morning," as they go about their business. I did the same thing this morning and was on my way back to the Council yard in March, Fenland. The town where I live. As I took the road towards Doddington, I saw a couple of old Romany caravans and could not help stopping to grab a snapshot on the mobile phone camera. We have a lot of Romany and other Travellers that live about the Fenland.

    

A Cup of Tea and Watching the Houseboats in Benwick of the Fenland.

Most of my job involves me driving to and from various locations in Chatteris, Fenland, Cambridgeshire. It is a very pleasant job in a wonderful little rural English hamlet. There are two other smaller villages that I must go to, outside of Chatteris. They are a few miles away and across the Fenland and its waterways.

One of them is Manea, where the bird hides are. I often go birdwatching here. The other is Benwick, a small village nestled amid fields and a small river that runs through it. Because it was a rather nice day, I decided to have my tea break by the river bank near the graveyard.

I was looking down at the old dilapidated mooring platform while munching on a sandwich. I then heard a houseboat chugging along the waterway and went to the bridge to get a photo.

A man and a lady were steering the rudder as the houseboat chugged along. I got a friendly wave from the man when he saw me photographing his boat. As he went under the bridge, I was standing on, I got a back shot too. 

Then moments later another houseboat chugged along from the other direction. Again, I got a shot of this boat too.

My wife and I often talk about buying such a boat. One can travel the length and breadth of Britain via the canals and waterways. The Fenlands, where we live and work is crisscrossed with these wonderful waterways.

Wonderful Birds of Prey Gathering Cause Welcome and Instant Karma

Carole and I were getting very stressed out in the car. We were driving from the port of Southampton in England to our home in March Cambridgeshire in the Fenland. It is usually about a three-hour drive. However, it took almost an hour and a half just getting out of Southampton. Then on the M1, we hit another traffic jam. We turned off on the A461 in the vain hope of getting onto the A1 to Peterborough. Usually, not a bad idea at all. However, we hit another jam at the roundabout going from the A461 to the A1. Our three-hour journey had become a five-hour stress out. We had been on a wonderful two-week cruise to the Canary Islands and totally unwound. In five hours the whole thing had been turned around with this nightmare journey home.

I thought the last straw had come when I missed the small country road turnoff to Ramsey – a small town close to our home of March. Carole told me I had driven straight passed the country lane leading to it.

By this time, I’m spitting razor blades and other colourful metaphors at God. You know what I mean. I’ve suddenly turned into John Cleese as Basil Fawlty.

“Why me?” I’m ranting. “I’ve got off of the ship and in no time, I’m totally stressed out.”

Carole is trying to calm me down. “Don’t worry there is a lane that you can turn around up ahead where those crows are flying about.”

“Yes,” I agreed, looking at the strange way the birds were circling about. “They are turning like birds of prey, but there are too many of them.”

“They don’t look like crows replied Carole. They turn and glide like raptors.”

All the stress was blown away in an instant as Carole swore in delight. She let rip with a colourful swear word that rhymed with clucking bell.

“They are red kites,” I said with delight. All the stress dropped away with excitement. My camera was in the back and I parked the car on the grass verge.

The next moment I was clicking away as Carole caught them on her iPad too.

“There are fifteen of them,” she said. “I never knew they gathered in large numbers.”

I laughed. “Some almighty all-knowing something allowed Karma to give us something back. I’m so pleased we missed that turning.”  

Walk with Us Along the River Nene into March Town

The autumn is coming and the leaves are falling down as we walk the river into town. Everyone likes to go to shops via the river bank because it takes you to the complete centre of the hamlet where the road bridge passes over the river. Suddenly there is the hustle and bustle of the town's traffic and then quite again, once we cross the road and carry on along the river and out of the other side of March town.

There are all sorts of quaint houses and houseboats along the river. Everything slows down and becomes carefree. I'm clicking away with the camera. Just for fun. Most of the snaps are of little use but some can give the reader an idea of the river walk to the town of March in Cambridgeshire.

The Sight and Sound of Ambient Things.

Our bedroom window overlooks the raised decking of our garden. My wife and I sit here. She likes doing her Sudoku book puzzles and I like reading and messing about with multimedia. Sometimes we talk about minor little things but we do enjoy the garden in the summer.

My wife Carole is always doing things to enhance the garden and she is keen on various types of plants from perennials to fruit trees and shrubs.

We bought a nice water feature earlier in the year and now we have it on all of the time. We put pot plants about it at the edge of the decking while the water gently trickles down the tipped old pots effect of the fountain and waterfall. It's a joy waking up in the morning because the water feature is usually gently trickling away amid the terracotta pots and the array of plants.

Carole is usually up before me when I have rest days from work. She turns on the water feature from the bedroom and then goes straight out into the garden and lets out the ducks and the chickens. I gradually wake up to these nice little sounds of nature and know I have a fine day ahead.

Bob - the wild furry Rag Doll cat comes bounding in and meowing for his first feed of the day, He is a great old lump and is probably one of the laziest cats in the world. He seems incredibly laid back too. He never goes far and wanders about among the ducks and chickens, usually giving them a little room as he goes about his business. He is disinterested in them and the ducks take no notice of him either.

Also, Dotty our highly strung and excitable dog comes bounding in for a fuss too. She is always happy and loves to be around people. The dog and cat take no notice of each other and Dotty, like Bob, gives the ducks their space when she goes out into the garden to check the perimeter. Carole and I call this Dotty patrol. 

She will kill any rat or mouse she comes across. The mice are attracted to the chicken and duck feed and come in from the farm fields across the road. Sometimes she catches them, but the little field mice are very quick. We've had two rats try to set up home by the shed near the chicken coop, but Dotty got both. She also manages to catch the odd mouse now and then.

Bob, the cat, catches voles and brings them to the garden door sometimes. We are always surprised by this because Bob is such a fat old lump and can hardly move. He has none of the gracious ways that one usually associates with a cat. When he scales the garden fence, which is six foot high all the way around, he always looks as though he just made the jump. When he drops from the fence top upon the decking, he has the finesse of a hippo trying to be a ballerina. He hits the floor with a splat and then just gets up and waddles off.

Carole planted some sunflowers seeds as we were both keen on getting some big sunflowers going. However, our ducks ate them. They wander the garden freely. We had them in the chicken coup but the matriarch chicken started pecking the drake. Once this started all the other hens ganged up on the drake. We decided to move him and the three girl ducks into the garden and put their duck house here too. 

We also had a smaller redundant chicken coup here. Since the duck move, there is also a solitary chicken wandering the garden too. This new addition is because Carole suspected the other chickens began to gang up on this single chicken too. I don't know, but this is what Carole is convinced of. 

Then there is her rabbit called Willow. He likes to bound about in his little garden space. His raised hutch has a ramp leading down into the enclosed bit of garden and there is also four guinea pigs too.

Because we only had one sunflower seed left, Carole put chicken wire mesh about it for protection from the ducks. I laughed at such antics at first. Then she showed me the shoots sprouting up. This was only a few months ago. Now the sunflower is taller than me. We are delighted with it.

Now the sunflowers are taller than me.

Ducks doing their duck things.