The book’s authors assembled to sign copies: (from left) Roger Tichborne (blogger), Lisa Woodward (manager of London Wetland Centre), Philip Briggs (runs National Bat Monitoring Programme), Gary Backler (chair of Friends of the River Crane), Ian Alexander (London Wildlife Trust volunteer, author of The English Love Affair with Nature), Susanne Masters (botanist of edible plants), and Wanda Bodnar (marine data scientist and paddleboarder)
Yes, a shepherd in London. Mid-March is lambing time, and she was out with her Land-Rover on the wide grassy banks of the reservoirs at Wraysbury, just beyond the end of the runways at Heathrow, checking that the new lambs were healthy. The ewe looks as though she’d like a rest, unsurprisingly. The grassy banks are quite steep, and mowing them would be costly and dangerous; how enlightened of Thames Water to use sheep instead. Genuinely “green”.
Also on the walk, several Brimstone butterflies, and a couple of Peacock butterflies (presumably overwintered in a hollow tree or some such place). Near the sheep were two Buzzards and a Red Kite, on the lookout for some carrion, I won’t mention what they were hoping to find. Also about was an early Chiffchaff singing its simple song (its name, over and over), a Cetti’s Warbler, and a Song Thrush. And a flock of Goldfinches finishing up the last of last year’s seeds in a big patch of thistles, burdocks, and teasels.
Turnham Green frosty in the low early morning light. E.M. Forster lived in the right-hand building of the two with the dutch gables. The tower of Chiswick Park station stands against the sky, and the Old Pack Horse pub is at the right.
Well, I haven’t lost my ‘at courting Mary Jane on Ilkla Moor, but here I am not wearing it, atop the Cow Rock, with the Cow and Calf inn behind me. Very happy to be able to get out of town, finally, for a holiday; to be in beautiful countryside; and (even though it’s October) to be in wonderful shirtsleeve weather at 21 Celsius. It doesn’t happen every day.
A very flowery Chiswick Police Station. Actually, it’s basically closed, at least as a real station for police and public, but the Hammersmith force camp out in it when they’re in the area. It’s going to be knocked down and redeveloped, but meanwhile, Karen Liebreich (left) of Abundance London (van, sign on the blue platform) has decorated it with a lot of army surplus camouflage scrim and a vast number of little flowers and butterflies … rather nice, I think. BTW the decorations were made by a lot of local artists, some of them presumably famous … if you’re quick you can bid for any of them!
I cycled to Kew, showed my card at the gate, told the cashier how nice it was to be able to arrive without booking (the lockdown booking requirement having finally been dropped), and sauntered across the lawns and through the trees of the quiet autumnal gardens, trying to recall how to distinguish two magnificent ancient tree species, the swamp cypress and the dawn redwood ………
After a dull grey week, suddenly glorious sunshine for a morning’s exercise. Looking from Chiswick Mall along Corney Reach; the tip of Chiswick Eyot, a nature reserve inaccessible at high tide, is on the left.
Digging out wet woodland in Gunnersbury Triangle, seen from the boardwalk bridge. The “carr” steadily silts up with mud, leaves and roots. Here the team is carefully preserving the rushes and gypsywort, removing mud to a spade’s depth. The mud will be graded to form a gentle transition from the deeper areas, which only dry out in midsummer, to the dry bank that’s covered in holly.
