Evening in Godmanchester

An early start again, on the 7.12 train to Cambridge with Ben, for the first part of his maths GCSE. We've always driven down in the past, but the A14 is so unpredictable, and Cambridge city centre so grid-locked in the morning, that we decided the train would be less stressful. Everything went smoothly, and Ben was reasonably happy with his performance, though inevitably there were one or two questions where his mind just went blank.

We were back home by lunchtime, and then Pete, Chris, Alex and I set off for Godmanchester, leaving Ben enjoying the first really warm day for a while, stretched out on the lawn. I dropped Pete and Chris at the wildlife trust's reserve where they were working, and Alex and I headed back to Portholme. 

We usually park at the north end of the meadow, but it was chock-a-block, so we had to negotiate the Huntingdon ring-road to find an alternative parking spot in Godmanchester itself. We spent five hours on site and managed to finish the remaining twenty-four quadrats - the weather was perfect for once and although it was quite an effort keeping up our momentum, it was rather special being out on the meadow in the evening, accompanied by the song of skylarks, meadow pipits and corn buntings.

The route back to the car-park follows the backwaters of the River Ouse and is very attractive. Alex was particularly taken by the houses that backed onto the river, each with its own boathouse. While they look idyllic in the light of a summer evening , I think the prospect of winter flooding might put me off buying one, not to mention the likely price!!