Newent Woods and May Hill

It was whilst walking The Malvens that we paused to gaze southward. "That must be May Hill," remarked my son and S- in unison.  "May what?" says I, thus displaying my ignorance of a prominent tree-topped hill that's only a few miles from my home. I resolved to correct this deficiency in my local knowledge at the earliest opportunity.

The walk started at the quaintly names hamlet of Glasshouse, where not all the houses are made of glass – or even of stone or brick.

In the middle of Newent Woods there are a couple of lakes. One of them is private, but the other is accessible via a footpath on the right (east) side. However, a couple of workmen who were attempting (with little apparent success) to fell a tree, assured us that there was also a good footpath around the west side, so that's the one we took.

The lakeside turned out to be a good place to stop and eat our picnic lunch.  Carelessly, I threw a few crumbs of Ryvita into the water, whereupon it burst into frenzied activity, alive with small fish.  They were black on top, with whiteish underbellies and striking pink fins. A fish expert I am definitely not, but perhaps they were perch, like this...

On returning home I searched in vain for the name of the lake, so until I know better it will be Newent Woods Lake to me. What I did discover was that it's a relatively modern creation, not shown on the OS 7th Series maps of 1955-61.

Leaving the woods, we skirted around Cliffords Mesne and soon regretted it, as part of the footpath was overgrown with brambles and nettles. Next time (we tell ourselves that there will be a 'next time') we'll explore the village, though we won't be stopping for a tipple. Sadly the pub, so clearly shown on our map, has closed.

From Cliffords Mesne it was up... up... up... to May Hill.  One website calls it a 'gentle climb', but by the time I reached the summit I was ready for a rest.

May Hill is rather flat-topped, making it hard to photograph the lovely views. As we approached the summit, Ross-on-Wye was clearly visible to the west. This first photo is taken looking north, back towards the Malverns.

And this one, from the opposite side of the hill, looks south over the River Severn.

One distinctive feature of May Hill is a clump of trees on its summit. They were originally planted to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, then added to at the time of Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee.  I wonder why they didn't plant a few more for the Diamond Jubilee in 2002?

Perhaps this was the reason for calling a halt to the tree planting – a distinct ditch that, according to Wikipedia, is said to be an Iron Age earthwork. I would have said that it's definitely the remains of an Iron Age enclosure, but the experts may know enough to doubt it

Finally, I'm sure we've all heard of Swiss cow bells, so how nice it was to see that a little bit of Switzerland has come to May Hill.

In truth, this docile monster has closer connexions with Scotland than Switzerland as it's a Belted Galloway cow. The National Trust introduced her, together with several of her sisters, to chomp the grass and encourage the growth of wild flowers. Happy chomping, Bluebell!

COVID-19 Negative

A couple of weeks ago a letter landed on my doormat from Imperial College London and Ipsos MORI, inviting me to take a COVID-19 test.  It informed me that I'd been randomly selected and that taking part was purely voluntary.  My little brother thought I should decline as a false positive result would lock me down for a week and my partner for a fortnight. However, I took no persuasion to be public-spirited and accept the invitation.

The swab test pack duly arrived, together with a clearly illustrated instruction leaflet.  My first task was to book a courier collection of the test kit, then do the test before 8am on the morning of collection.  That was simple – they would collect it on the following day, so I set my alarm for 7am.

Taking a throat sample looked simple on paper: 

"Holding the swab in your hand, open your mouth and gently rub the swab over both tonsils and the back of the throat five times, for about 10 seconds... IMPORTANT: this may be uncomfortable and you may feel like gagging.

It was anything but simple in practice and, as the instructions warned, I retched as soon as the swab touched the back of my mouth.  Whether I managed 10 seconds I know not, but somehow I did succeed in gently wiping the swab five times (I think).

After that, taking a nasal swab was relatively easy. I sealed the sample in its biohazard bag and return box, then popped it into the fridge to await the arrival of the courier. The whole process had left me feeling nauseous and not really ready for breakfast, but thankfully the smell of fresh coffee quickly revived me.

The email, when it arrived, came as a relief, but not a surprise.  Indeed, I'd have been gobsmacked to have tested COVID-19 positive as prevalence of the virus is low in my area, and I'm always very careful when I leave home. 

If invited, would I do it again? Without doubt, YES – regardless of the discomfort. Having spent much of my working life in Research & Development, I'm strongly supportive of all efforts to monitor and understand this ghastly virus. Consequently, I also had no hesitation in enrolling in another interesting and valuable research project – the King's College London COVID Symptom Study.

Every morning, 6 days a week, I answer two simple questions:

1) Is my list of COVID tests still correct (or have I ever had one)?  If it's not correct, I'm asked to enter the results of a new test.

2) Do I feel physically normal?

On the 7th day there are a few extra questions:

3) How many times have I been out of my house, having little contact with others?

4) How many times have I been out of my house, in close proximity to other people – in shops, supermarkets, etc?

5) How many times have I visited a hospital or doctor's surgery?

From the screen shots above you'll see that over 4 million of us are currently contributing data, including 1403 in the Forest of Dean, where the prevalence of COVID is currently 391 per million (0.039%). Other data, freely shared on the Zoe app, make fascinating reading and are frequently at variance with the government's figures (doubtless because the daily sample is so much greater).  Here's a snippet from the report for 30th July:

According to the latest COVID Symptoms Study app figures, there are currently 2,110 daily cases of COVID in the UK... The latest figures were based on the data from 13,063 swab tests.

The latest figures suggest that the number of new cases in the UK population is currently stable, as the number has remained at around the 2000 mark for the past few weeks.  The data also highlights that the surge in numbers that was seen in the North of England has now stopped.

That last sentence is especially interesting, given the latest government data from the Northwest. I await the next Zoe update with interest.