When the car set off, it was 10.53am, 18°C, and with bright sun out; due to having my phone next to me while on the move – I noticed The College Of Policing just off Leamington Road; Allotment Drive was somewhere I forgot; St. Margarets church in Wolston had cows grazing around it; and at Brandon Marsh (it’s a Site of Special Scientific Interest and nature reserve) at 11.13am the car park was stuffed. We parked next to a couple of overflowing rubbish bins (I only just squidged through the thin gap left between the car door and the bins); in the reception area – things called duck callers…

…and jigsaws titled ‘Who did this poo?’, toys called ‘Woody the Worm’, 4 kg bags of bird food, and bat houses were for sale; and hummus chips were amongst the stuff in the cafe.

Uncle peered at the map of the place and ate a cookie; what might be termed pond dredging was being done outside the window by a girl with a small net on a long pole; a very tall man (early 70s) thinner than a stick (who also had a very pointy nose) was at another table; then Uncle pointed out ‘diced potatoes’ on the kids bit of the menu (and I later learnt that there’s differences between diced potatoes and cubed potatoes…).

Just before 12pm we went outside – and Uncle and Mum decided to disregard the map and head off into the unknown, a sign I forgot was the one followed, and there was a marquee on that path – that had a few people doing a singsong under it; and then lots of blackberries and a couple of lumps of poo (which Google Lens thought were hedgehog poo and rabbit poo) were passed; and at 12.15pm they were sat on a bench peering at the map and finding it unfathomable – and it took 7 minutes to do some fathoming.

What may’ve been HS2 building work was audible in the distance; we passed a massive reed bed; Oak trees with lots of still green acorns on, what may’ve been crab apples, mostly decomposed blackberries, and little red buds of some sort (which PlantNet later identified as hawthorn) were amongst the foliage, the sky was getting greyer, and I thought I’d felt a few spots of rain.

A big polytunnel and a disintegrated metal barn were by a field of some sort of farm crop, and next to a bungalow with washing blowing around on a garden washing line; another reed bed sort of area was partially circled round – and lots of acorns were on the opposite side of the path, and I photographed what may’ve been a grasshopper (and Google Lens later agreed).

Uncle insisted we took a turning to the right to avoid death and destruction; and we walked along a path through a mass of blackberry bushes…

Mum thought something was hogwood, a couple of slightly decomposed wooden animal statues were at the end of the path; and once stood on a sort of road at 1.10pm they peered at the map again and tried to work out where we were by then, I was holding too much (clutching my notepad, camera and water bottle) to tie up my shoelaces; and we emerged from the wood several minutes later…

…and I spotted this on the concrete:

Rain hadn’t started, the 2 of them wanted food – and so in the cafe sort of area, I observed several types of water in boxes, odd packetted things called Relle Molas (strawberry sweets in the forms of brains), and jelly squeeze sachets; I ended up with a sandwich, and there was a coffee machine behind the counter making intermittent loud noises. Google Maps told me Breedon Coventry Concrete Plant wasn’t far away, Uncle mentioned an ancestor of his who went round selling biscuits (he’s not sure what type), a tiny little girl missing several teeth was chewing a sandwich, Mum stuck the end of her glasses up my nose; and some singing and guitar playing was being done outside by 2.05pm. A tree had lots and lots and lots of apples dangling off it (so I nicked a few)(and PlantNet later thought those were crab-apples), a sign post was briefly looked at, and at 2.13pm a small metal wind turbine was making creaking noises by a lake, and a disintegrating metal pipe (and a barely visible ‘Danger Deep Water’ sign) was at the bottom of some concrete steps mostly overgrown by brambles, lillypads were drifting around on the water, Mum and Uncle sat on a bench to relax, and look at the lake and the wildfowl that were enjoying the peace and quiet.

The Oak trees were overwhelmed with acorns, I photographed a sunflower…

…then we passed The Badgers Kitchen again, and 4 kg sacks of bird food were what I had time to observe in the shop. The car thought it was 18°C when it moved at 2.50pm, the air conditioning was blasting, a herd of cows was grazing in a field in Wolston; and the driveway was reversed into at 3.08pm (when the warmth in the car meant I was struggling to stay conscious).