Wild fowers? by the Exe Estuary Trail

What a lovely bike ride and photos Teds

Is that folding bikes you have?

Hi Scotkat, yes we have folding bikes that we can put in the car, it just means we can up and go when ever the fancy takes us. Mine is electric now (as my RA can be bad some times), but that way it lets us still go out cycling together. I do try and not use the power mode but it dose come in handy for the steep hills round here. My OH has a road bike as well, but he dose any thing between 20 and 80 miles.

Yes my hubby to enjoys his road bike and he to clocks up the miles.

That's good you can still cycle and great that you can use the power if needed.

Great idea for when you are struggling a bit Teds! Fabulous scenery and wildflowers too! :)

It does help a lot having the option Karen, it can go about 15 miles and hour, so sometimes on the flat I go whizzing past the OH who then has to peddle like mad to keep up LOL (he is 13 years younger than me after all) It was a lovely day out and made a change from the garden. I'm not sure what any of the plants are, I thought one looked like a wild geranium.

Lovely scenery Teds and I'm afraid the only plant I recognised was Loosestrife. I'm not so good on wild flowers either. What a lovely place you live in !

Thats a great place Teds and its so good that you can still cycle, my daughter thought about an electric bike but alas she hasn't the strength in her hands to use the brakes, she can now go to the gym again as long as she goes into the steamroom afterwards to ease her joints..
Lovely photo's...

Top one looks like persicaria above bindweed. Next Achillea, then symphytum (comfrey). Idon't know the yellow Daisy, sorry...or the next two. Then it's pink mallow, then persicaria again...not sure what the ghostly one is called, or the water plant. But there's a few for you. :))

Right - this is my childhood area again. The lock on the Exeter canal was the first one to be built in the country. At the time, Topsham and Exeter were vying to be the chief port on the river. The Countess of Topsham had a cunning plan to give her town the advantage, and had a weir built across the River Exe just upstream. The burghers of Exeter then built the canal to bypass the weir, and Exeter became the chief port. The weir is still called Countess Weir.

That's a lovely cycle track - what a great trip.

Flowers: I think the first one is purple Loosetrife and the second one Tansy. then comfrey, then Inula. Don't know the next one.
Then purple loosetrife again, then thistle, can't see what variety, then mallow.
I think the daisies are Common chamomile, mixed with persicaria. Then persicaria on its own, pass on the burry one then the little yellow flower in the water is lesser spearwort, and convolvuus is the last one.

We have walked up the other side of the estuary as far as Lympston and came back on the train, and also done the river trip to Topsham and saw some great bird life.
Its certainly a lovely part of the world.

Hi Teds We know it well. it is a beautiful place to go for a ride :0)

Thanks all for the information on the flowers and lock most interesting! I found a couple of flowers to day you may be able to help me with I will put up the pictures of them. Linclass sorry to here about your daughter, if she has a partner I think you can get electric tandems now.

Lovely blog, Teds. It is so lovely to se all those wild flowers. When I was young, I holidayed with my parents on the Norfolk Broads,and Dad And I rowed to a pub that was inaccessible by road. I think it was at Geldeston Lock, and was run by an old lady called Susan. I imagine it is a bit more user-friendly now. In those days, it was unlike any pub I had ever visited!

That sounds lovely Melchisedec just my sort of pub!

It was certainly one of a kind in the mid- sixties, Teds!