Weekend in London, March 2022

Last weekend was wonderful :) I spent it in London with my friend, on a weekend away we were originally meant to go on two years ago. On Friday evening I enjoyed a catch-up over pizza with my oldest friend - we've known each other since we were 5, and will both be turning 30 in the next few days! And then I spent Saturday and Sunday with another friend on this little trip, enjoying the sunny spring equinox weekend in a couple of the city's large green parks, and some great food, before a breathtaking concert on Sunday afternoon.

First - the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew!

Neither of us had been to Kew Gardens before so we were very excited! London traffic meant we arrived an hour later than planned but thankfully there were still parking spaces (just), and we got inside the gates quickly. And yaaay we're in a lovely green park full of grass and trees and flowers! Of course the trees are still mostly bare, but there were daffodils, and glorious pink magnolia, and marvellous cherry trees just bursting with beautiful blossom. It'd be a wonderful place to have on your doorstep as a local, somewhere to go and while away a few hours or a whole day, with a book and a picnic in good weather.

One of the first things we came to was The Hive, an interactive art installation that represented a beehive. From the outside it looked like an enormous roll of wire mesh, but from it emanated a low vibrating hum and orchestral music. Inside, a thousand LED lights flickered in time with the music and humming, which were created to mirror the fluctuating intensity of vibrations produced by bees communicating with each other, as recorded in one of Kew's own beehives. It was a bright sunny day so the lights weren't particularly obvious, but standing in the middle of the installation and being surrounded by that loud vibrating hum was quite impressive. It was a cool example of environmental interpretation, which we've been covering at college this year, something interactive and immersive that engages different senses. The Hive itself it was surrounded by a wildflower meadow (which obviously doesn't look like a wildflower meadow at the moment, but will be a visual and olfactory feast in a few months time) and little boards giving information on bees and the importance of wildflowers.

Wonderful big old trees. Victorian glasshouses full of exotic plants. (Both of us smiled as we entered the tropical section of the Princess of Wales Conservatory - the heat, humidity, plants, and smell of it all reminded my friend of home in India and me of visiting my aunt in tropical Queensland.) Carpets of daffodils and little purpley-blue flowers that weren't bluebells. A pagoda built in the 1760s. A treetop walkway with views over the park and all the way to the City. A lake. Woodland walks and open parkland. Ring-necked parakeets. Cherry blossom! Oh and a tasty lunch - I had a quiche made with mushrooms, spring onion, and nettle. (I must go forage some nettles and make something.)

I had a mooch around the gift shop, hoping to find a hand lens - small little things that anyone can use to look at plants and insects in greater detail (or rocks, or jewellery, or archaeological artefacts, etc.). But to my astonishment they didn't have any!? I thought that Kew Gardens, which must want to encourage people to have an interest in plants and studying botany, would sell the simple accessible tool that is the hand lens. They didn't even have magnifying glasses. Tut tut.

By 4pm we were pretty tired from all the walking around, so just sat on a bench for a while looking at the trees and daffodils in the sinking sunlight, and we left around 5pm. It was a really lovely day, and we only saw half the park. Definitely a place to go back to, especially at a slightly later time of year when the trees are in leaf and there's more growing.

Cherry blossom and the Palm House at Kew

For dinner, we went decidedly out of our way to Southall, to an authentic Punjabi restaurant called Raunka Punjab Diyan. There was an Indian sweets shop next door so we went in there first and my friend bought a selection. The restaurant was busy, and loud, and I was the only non-Indian person in there; my friend asked if I was happy to stay or if I wanted to go to the quieter Turkish place next door. Had I been on my own I probably wouldn't have been quite comfortable, but an Indian restaurant full of Indian people is a sign that it's good! As a food lover, going to a local, family-run restaurant where they serve authentic and delicious dishes, which you don't get in typical Indian (or any other) restaurants that cater to British/tourist tastes, is one of the best experiences.

My friend recommended several dishes, and ordered for us (the staff interacted with her as she speaks the language). To start we shared paneer shashlik - marinated paneer cheese chargrilled with green peppers, onion, and tomatoes. Then we shared two mains and sides: sarson da saag with makki di roti (cornbread roti), and daal makhani with garlic naan. All was delicious! Sarson de saag is a mixture of mustard leaves, spinach, and other greens, cooked down with spices then pureed and traditionally served with a makki di roti. Daal makhani - black lentils and kidney beans slow-cooked with tomatoes, butter, and spices - is one of my favourites anyway... but oh my goodness this one was incredible! In contrast to the chili heat of the saag, and other daal makhani's I've had, the daal was mild and had a lovely sweetness to it, and it just tasted wonderful. Yummmm :)

The sweets aka desserts sounded amazing, so of course we got some. I ordered ras malai, a chilled dish of a soft cheese dumpling in saffron milk, and my friend had dudh jalebi, coils of syrupy deep-fried batter served in a bowl of hot saffron milk. Both were utterly delicious! Mine was lovely and light and refreshing, the milk ever so subtly fragrant. We also ordered some aloo tikki chaat - potato patties with chickpeas in a spicy sauce, chutneys, and yoghurt - from the 'snack' part of the menu to take away with us in case I got hungry later in the evening... which of course I did not after the filling meal. We left it in the cold car overnight, and ended up having it for lunch the next day. And, for a change, I was enjoying myself so much that after the starter I forgot to take photos of the food! Haha.

It's sad we can't really get anything like that closer to home. In Southampton, my friend says Sanjha in Shirley is good, more authentic than most Indian restaurants, and there's an Indian sweets shop in St Mary's, but neither are as good as ones in London. I wondered if I would be able to try and make ras malai at home but my friend said Indian sweets all take a lot of time and effort to prepare. But I might still try and make something similar, perhaps with ricotta. And the sarson da saag has given me an idea of what to do with those big bags of spinach that I usually end up wasting half of because I can't use it all in time - I'll try cooking it down with onion, garlic, ginger, and spices, blend it to a coarse puree, and serve with a flatbread. Decent healthy snack or lunch :) 

Holm oak in Greenwich Park

We stayed in a Holiday Inn Express in Limehouse. Parking was £20 so the man at reception suggested parking in a nearby residential street instead - but after driving around my friend couldn't find such a place, at least that felt safe, so pay £20 we did. In the morning, breakfast was included so I enjoyed some scrambled eggs, baked beans, and a Cumberland sausage, plus a yoghurt and a croissant, though I was feeling quite dehydrated from not drinking enough the day before (there weren't any water refill stations at Kew that we could see), so was disappointed to find no bowls of fresh juicy fruit, or even canned fruit salad, to rehydrate with, though I had a few glasses of water of course.

Our plan for the morning was to go to Greenwich Park. Wandering down the avenue of trees towards the Royal Observatory I was very happy to see a magnificent holm oak - an evergreen species from the Mediterranean - its limbs spreading out in a wide circle around it, a real parkland oak. (Parkland trees grow outward as well as up because they are surrounded by open space, whereas the growth of trees in woodland is more upright. This can give you a clue as to the history of a place, e.g. if you see a parkland tree in a wood, or an upward-reaching tree in an open park.) 

The Royal Observatory, which has the Prime Meridian marker, was closed, but we could see the line through the gates and I noticed it went down a wall and onto another footpath - so we got to see and stand on it anyway :) One foot in the eastern hemisphere, one foot in the western hemisphere. We continued down the hill and went to see Cutty Sark - the world's last surviving tea clipper and one of the fastest ships of its time, built for the China tea trade and launched in 1870 - which was impressive to look at from the outside. I do admire the sailors, who had to clamber up the rigging in the middle of the deep dark ocean as the ship rolled about in the waves. Ambling back through the streets I was tempted by food several times - at the stalls in Greenwich Market (a cute little covered market), at a gelato shop, and at a bakery that filled the street with the scent of baking cinnamon buns. Alas the latter had only just come out the oven and weren't ready for sale yet, and the staff couldn't tell us how long it would be, so we didn't wait, and made our way back to the park. 

The reason for going to London in the first place was to see the matinee of 'Planet Earth II Live in Concert' at The O2 on Sunday afternoon. I had been given tickets as a birthday or Christmas gift in 2019, and the show was originally booked for March 2020, then for obvious reasons rescheduled twice. So it was great to finally go! I should have done some research beforehand and pre-booked parking, as we ended up paying an absurd £36 to park for the afternoon. We ate the aloo tikki chaat for lunch, which was of course very tasty, and had some of the Indian sweets my friend had bought, which were really nice. After the ridiculous stressful faff that was collecting the tickets and getting in, we could just sit back, relax, and enjoy the concert.

Planet Earth II, the TV series, was of course stunning. I think it was the first Attenborough series that I watched in full, so it's stayed with me and remains my favourite, though of course they're all amazing. I especially love the soundtrack - composed by Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea, and Jasha Klebe - and the main theme is one of my favourite pieces of orchestral music, probably in part because of its association with the spectacular cinematography of the series; it always sends a shiver down my spine and brings a smile to my face. The concert was basically screenings of some of the more well-known clips from the series, on the big screen, without Attenborough's narration but with the soundtrack being played by a live orchestra. It was spine-tingling, breathtaking, and we both sat there in awe, absolutely loving it. Science presenter Liz Bonnin hosted, coming on stage in between clips and talking about them (and of course the importance of protecting the natural world), with the series' Executive Producer, Mike Gunton, who could tell us about how they made it, which was cool. While Sir David Attenborough is brilliant, the actual production teams are the ones who envision and create these spectacular documentaries. Each clip is a mammoth task and the teams do astonishing work.

After that fantastic concert, we went to find the gelato place within the O2 - I had been wanting some ever since passing the shop in Greenwich. It was of course going to be stupidly expensive, but oh well. I chose a scoop of hazelnut, and my friend got white chocolate-pistachio; we each tried a small spoonful of the other's and her's was amazing, I should have chosen that instead haha. Afterwards we got an early dinner in the Design Quarter's street food hub just outside the O2; I got an Indian naan wrap with minced lamb and salad, but sadly it was very spicy so I regretted my choice a bit. But once back at the car I thoroughly enjoyed finishing off the two Indian sweets I'd had half of at lunchtime. My favourite was a bright orange cardamon-flavoured syrup-drenched ball called a ladoo. 

And that was it, homeward we went. This weekend in London, enjoying so many great things with my friend, was just so lovely, really special, and was a great way to have an early birthday celebration :) I know this has been a long post, but it's more for my memories than for an entertaining read, haha. But thanks for reading if you have.

Piecaramba!

Had a lovely dinner out this evening with my family. We went to a little independent place in Winchester called Piecaramba! (The exclamation mark is part of the name.) 

It opened four years ago, in October 2016, and it's been far too long since I've been there, a couple of years at least. I love it partly because the food is amazing, but also because it's associated with some relatively early social times, when I was living and working in Winchester and starting to be a bit more social and make friends. I went there a number of times with my housemates and their wider circle of friends, and my work colleagues from my first full-time job. I was pleased to see it's still the same, casual and quirky, the walls covered in nerdy stuff like comic book images and film posters. It's small, with four tables in at the moment, but even before Covid there were only seven or so. It's been popular from the start, and does well, but it's nice that the owners haven't started a big chain or gone to larger premises or sold themselves to a larger company, they've kept their vibe and ethos and have for now chosen to just keep doing what they do well. They opened one in Southampton in late 2017 and then a third one in Brighton in late 2019, both still small, and have food stalls at festivals and cater for weddings. The Brighton one fell victim to Covid-caused loss of footfall in August, but happily they partnered with a local pub and have based themselves there since, so people can still get their pies.

I also love that they specialise in just one type of food - pie and mash. There's a wide variety of choices on the menu and they're all amazing. (Not that I've tried more than a few - I'm the sort of person who tends to go for dishes I know I love and have an opportunity to enjoy, rather than trying something new, unless it sounds amazing). It's all sooo tasty and great quality. I usually go for either the Sweetie Pie (used to be called the Heidi Pie - sweet potato, roasted garlic, and goat's cheese), or the Woolverine (lamb in redcurrant & red wine gravy with garlic and rosemary). But tonight I opted for one of their Christmas specials, the Hogmanay - hog roast, spiced apple sauce, and sage & onion stuffing! With cheesy mash, chilli-mint mushy peas, and onion gravy. Oh and it came with crispy crackling on top! Yum, all delicious! As always, it was super filling, and I had to leave some of the mash and pastry, haha. And I even had a cider too, instead of just water! :) (For those who don't know, I very rarely drink.) I did get a cherry pie to take away, though, to have for dessert after tomorrow's roast. Looking forward to that!

Pie, mash, and mushy peas, with a little glass of cider

It was also nice to get dressed up a little. It's a casual place, but it still felt like a bit of a special occasion, I was looking forward to it and wanted to feel good, so I put on my favourite jumper (which I haven't worn since last winter because I live in my hoody at home and have barely been anywhere else this year), my favourite ring (I very rarely wear jewellery), a bobble hat (obviously only for walking to and from the car), and a long thick cardigan/light jacket thing I got back in August but couldn't find anything it looked okay with (glad I have now!). Plus black skinny jeans and my lovely comfy winter boots. It was still a fairly casual look, but I liked it :) 

Selfie

I must go to Piecaramba and Winchester more often. And I need to go to Tom's Deli, a just-as-small Italian deli and restaurant that I've been to only once. 

...I can't believe I've written so much just about a restaurant, haha.

Garden diary, one November weekend

Thursday 19th - I go out into the garden first thing to feed the birds, even before I've fed myself for some reason. It's sunny but cold. Wonderfully, a robin comes and lands on the bird feeder hook right next to me as I'm putting feed on the bird table. I freeze and smile and say hello, and it stares at me for a few moments before flying up onto the fence behind it, still only a foot or so away. It flies down to the bird table a few times while I'm still there, hovering for a moment before landing, to snatch one of the little pink fat pellets I've noticed it prefers. So cute!

I hear the contact calls of long-tailed tits and turn towards the trees, and happily manage to catch a glimpse of them flitting along. Long-tailed tits are one of my favourite birds, simply because they are ever so cute. They're absolutely tiny, fluffy and round like those little craft pom-poms, with a pinkish colour, and a long tail which makes them look like flying spoons. They're very social birds and hang around in groups, huddling together for warmth at night, and their nests are amazing, made of moss and spiderwebs so that it expands as the chicks grow. I see them flying around sometimes - they tend to flit along from one tree to another quite quickly - but sadly for some reason they don't come into the garden to feed.

Once back inside I get my breakfast and sit at the dining room table, next to the door to the garden so I can look out. It always takes the birds a little while to come once the food's out, but Ms House Mouse is out from under the deck straightaway. For some reason she always jumps up onto the feed bowl rather than running up one of the short legs of the stand it sits on.

House mouse taking some bird food

The squirrels monopolise most of it, of course, sitting on the bird table and just staying there, eating their fill even before the poor birds get a look in. As I type there are currently four of them on the various feeders. The poor collared doves sit on the fence next to the bird table, wanting their breakfast but not brave enough to go for it with the squirrel there. It takes them maybe five minutes to cotton onto the fact that they could just fly across the garden to the dish by the deck. Alas they're only there for a moment before a pigeon arrives, puffing himself up and jostling them off the dish. A few times the doves have stood up to his kind, raising themselves up and spreading their wings in an aggressive posture, which is great to see. I find myself scolding the squirrels and pigeons through the window for being such pigs, as if they could understand me, hahaha.

(By the way, although I'm using "he" and "she" for these creatures, I have no idea of their sex, except the sparrows.)

Last to arrive are the starlings and sparrows. Starlings just make me think of lanky, squabbling teenagers, haha. They look funny running across the lawn on their lanky legs (even lankier when they were juveniles/fledglings back in the summer), and are noisy and boisterous, shouting at each other to go away. Sparrows are noisy too but in a nicer, less intrusive way, it's a sweeter sound. They hang around in groups so there are always lots of them, and when they're in the trees it's just such a lovely sound, so much birdsong!

But we have a little mystery - one of the bird feeders, which hangs on the hook by the bird table, is missing. It's not in the little hebe shrub underneath, as it usually is if it's not on the hook, so goodness knows what happened to it.

A magpie turns up later in the morning for a short time. The starlings eat all the mealworms within just two hours. I spot a great tit on one of the feeders by the back fence, and a blue tit later on, and a dunnock hopping around on the ground under the shrubs. We occasionally get a jackdaw or two visiting. 

This is a typical day.

Saturday 21st - Long tailed tits!!! A few of them flit down to the feeders for a few moments, never staying still, but alas they're all off again, out of the garden within 30 seconds. Maybe they come down to feed more often than we think, but it happens to be when we're not looking. 

We're out of bird seed so I put some peanuts in the dish by the deck. There's some in one of the hanging feeders but for some reason nobody is interested, only the squirrels and the nocturnal wood mice eat them. I watch at the window for a little while but not even the house mouse comes out for the easy calorie-rich meal which is literally right on her doorstep.

The missing bird feeder has been found. Under the hebe. We obviously just hadn't looked hard enough haha. 

A dove seems to be taking sanctuary in the garden. It flew in looking much bedraggled, with most of its tail feathers missing, and just sat itself down inside one of the pots on the deck, sheltered a little by the other potted plants. It's been there for about 45 minutes now. I've not seen such behaviour before, all the birds are constantly on the move. It must have been attacked, poor thing. 

I feel bad now, I scared it away, going out to put a handful of oats down. It flew off, to the shed roof where it's sitting now. A red kite just flew over, low and slowly, but the dove is hidden from above by the hazel tree overhanging the shed. 

An hour later...

There's a flippin' sparrowhawk in the garden!!!! :D :D :D I've only ever glimpsed one before; soooo excited! It came for the dove. The dove had flown back down to the deck pots and sat there for a little while again, eventually working up the courage and/or energy to hop onto the bird food dish, but it was only there for half a minute before it started to fly up again and another bird slammed into it. I thought it was another dove or a pigeon, but when neither bird flew up again I went outside to have a look, and saw these yellow eyes staring back at me! My mouth dropped open as far as it could go, haha. Wow!!!!!!! 

It stayed in the garden for a while, plucking its meal. It was constantly looking up and around, and moving around the border from shrub to shrub, wanting to hide, not wanting anything else to take its prize. What a privilege to be able to see it so close and for so long, and to get some photos too!

Sparrowhawk in the garden

Sunday 22nd - So the sparrowhawk (which was a female, I looked it up online) did not have a meal in our garden yesterday... for some reason she plucked the feathers from its chest but didn't actually eat any of the meat, or at least hardly any of it. Bizarre. I wonder if she was scared off by next door's dog; she ended up dragging the dove around the garden to a sheltered spot between the fence and the hebe, where she and her catch were well hidden, but that fence gets a dog or two running close to it numerous times a day. Will never know. The dove was dragged back out onto the patio by something overnight, so I've thrown it over the back fence into the woods.

Monday 23rd - The bird seed order hasn't arrived yet, so I chopped up some peanuts, instead of leaving them whole, to put out. Much more appealing to our garden friends! Yay I get to watch the house mouse, so cute :) The birds seem more active in the early afternoon than in the morning.

The hedgehog food is still being eaten each night. I only put a little bit out now. The hedgehogs are probably hibernating, but they can wake up once a week or so to go find a bit of food or move nest, so I don't want to stop putting food and water out over the winter. I've seen next door's cat eating the food a few times, so even if the hedgehog isn't eating it all at least it's not going to waste. I just hope the cat doesn't put on too much weight, haha.

Just opened a letter from the Woodland Trust, and it has a photo of a long-tailed tit on it, hehe. Big silly smile. Gorgeous little floofs. I'll cut it out and stick it in my "pretty things" scrapbook. 

Edit Tuesday 24th - Err so apparently the house mouse is a brown rat, haha. Even if it was a house mouse, I realise we should take steps to discourage them. It's still cute, but don't want them to become a problem so might have to stop feeding the birds and hedgehog for a while... 

130 days of daily walks

Thursday 30th July was the 130th day in a row that I went for my daily walk! Yay!

I started counting on Monday 23rd March - the day when lockdown was announced in the evening. I know that 130 days - 18 and a half weeks, just over four months - is nothing for people who have dogs, or who are already in the habit of going for a walk every single day. But it's something of an achievement for me, and I'm quite proud of myself for keeping at it.

Working office jobs over the last four and a half years got me going out for walks at lunchtime to stretch my legs, get some fresh air, and get my eyes away from walls and a computer screen, but sometimes that was only 20 minutes, and it was very easy to just say "Eh, I won't go out today" because it was too rainy or too cold or too hot or I just didn't feel like it. I love walking, but unless I'm meeting friends it's always been very hard to motivate myself to catch a bus and train to get myself out to the countryside at weekends, so taking long leisurely walks or hikes has generally only been something I've done on a few trips, or the odd occasion with family or friends. But, as we in the UK were allowed to go outside for one form of exercise each day during lockdown, I've had the opportunity over the last four months to intentionally go for a walk every day, and in nature instead of along concrete streets.

Bluebells in the wood

I'm very fortunate that I live on the edge of the city and am a five-minute walk away from a mile-long shingle beach. Despite having lived here since August 2018, until this last February I'd only been there a handful of times and only once or twice gone beyond the far end of the beach, where the coast path continues on towards Royal Victoria Country Park. Behind the promenade is a mown-grass field where people can walk their dogs, kick a ball around, have picnics, sunbathe etc.; a bit further along is another grassy area left to go wilder, trodden paths winding through long grasses; and at the far end of that, behind the road behind the beach, is a 150-acre nature reserve with woodland and grasslands. So, having discovered the latter only a few months ago, I've been able to get out into open spaces with water, birds and other wildlife, grass, trees, flowers, and lots of plants and greenery.

I've really loved being able to get out and spend an hour and a half or more outside in the fresh air every day. Nature has always been one of my greatest loves, and for the first time in my life I've been able to let that come to the surface and be part of my daily life. I go slowly, looking, noticing, observing. I don't take a notebook, but take lots of photos and use those as memory prompts, visual notes rather than written, and occasionally make a note on my phone if a picture won't do. I've taken hundreds of photos, uploading some to Facebook to share with family and friends. (And Instagram - the link to that is on the right-hand side of this page.) I kind of wish, though, that I had created a habit of taking a notebook and making notes every day as well, just a short summary and key points, a daily log; they'd be interesting to look back on.

The beach at low tide

On the beach I watch and listen to the waves, and gaze out at the light glinting on the water, glittery and pretty. I watch the swells and how the surface shifts, smooth and glossy like silk or rippling and shivering, rolling and undulating, the waves meeting the shore gently lapping, or stretching up, or crashing with a rush and roar and a tumble of pebbles as they fall back. When the sun's low and the sky blue, the water looks like satin and the softly-breaking waves like molten silver. I've gone paddling in the water several times, which is good fun and helps me to focus on where I am and tune out my thoughts for a while so I'm in the present moment. The beach is prettier when the tide's in, but when the tide's out there are wading birds on the mud flats; gulls and oyster-catchers mainly, plus the occasional egret and some smallish brown birds that were too far away to identify. There was a great crested grebe or two that liked to hang around sometimes when the tide was in, but I haven't seen them for a couple of months, and the swans which made an appearance every now and then in the first few weeks have now reappeared with six fluffy cygnets in tow!

One of my favourite days was 30th April because it was really stormy, with heavy dark clouds and pelting rain. I ventured out that afternoon during a break in the rain, dressed in wellies and waterproof trousers as well as a raincoat. I just reached the shore when it started raining again and lightning flashed a few miles away on the other side of Southampton Water, so I hid against the wall under a balcony at the sailing clubhouse until I was sure that wasn't heading my way. It moved on quickly and some sunlight broke through to shine on the beach and the water, creating an awesome contrast with the slate-dark clouds. I decided it would be fun to walk in the rain, so carried on, and sure enough ten minutes later the water darkened further and the rain moved towards me in sheets. For a minute I didn't put my hood up, just stood there giggling with joy, letting the raindrops land on me and listening to them hit the water and the pebbles and the tarmac and the trees on the path behind. Everything was quiet except for the rain, the wind, the waves, and the birds. It was awesome, so much fun!

Stormy skies

In the woods, I'll stop and watch a bee buzz around, look up and around at the canopy and how the sunlight plays on everything, the contrast with the shadows, or sit on one of the old building foundations for a while and listen to the birds singing, the squirrels scuttling about, and the wind in the leaves. If I catch a nice scent then I take deep breaths, trying to smell as much of it as I can for as long as I can. I've started to learn to identify birds by sight and sound, and flowers and trees. I've seen song thrushes, nuthatches, tree-creepers, and great spotted woodpeckers all for the first time, and jay fledglings. I often hear small creatures squeak and scurry about unseen in the undergrowth, saw a couple of rats once scampering back into the nettles, and two little mice or voles once crossed the path just a few feet in front of me. I was excited to see a kestrel one day, hovering over the little grassland between the road and the tower blocks, and buzzards gliding over the nature reserve.

One joy has been hearing and seeing a fox. There may be and probably is more than one in those woods, but I have no way of knowing. I've heard it twice - a single bark in the first week, and then a month ago I had the amazing experience of listening to it repeatedly barking like 10 metres away for a full 10 minutes. And I've caught a fleeting glimpse of it twice. One day in May I was just sat in my favoured spot as usual and was still and silent for long enough that it thought nobody was around and went wandering, and I caught the movement just in time to look and see its back and tail slip through a gap in the undergrowth five metres away. Then more recently I was walking along one of the paths and heard a sudden scurrying in the dry leaves of the area of wood to my left, looked and saw it bounding away! Amazing.

Magnificent beech trees

I've been able to see the seasons gradually shift from almost-spring to late summer. Wood anemone and lesser celandine gave way to bluebells and blackthorn blossom and dandelions, then to apple and hawthorn blossoms, buttercups, and the forget-me-nots and other wildflowers planted on the verge by the car park, then elderflower, dog roses, honeysuckle, foxglove, and all the wild carrot family. Now even lady's bedstraw, the pea family, and bright yellow ragwort are fading, and blackberries and hazelnuts are starting to ripen. Fuzzy buds on the trees turned into soft, tender, translucent leaves, which took on a glorious almost neon vibrancy for just a couple of days before maturing into thick, dark, heavy foliage. As the sunlight grew stronger and brighter, the woods darkened as the canopy thickened, providing a cool, shadowy refuge from the hot sun. Birdsong increased, then peaked, then lessened again as they found mates and started nesting, and now most of the birds are very quiet as they hide away for molting. A pair of great spotted woodpeckers made a nest in a dead tree right next to the path, so I got some great views of them and the chick. I've seen butterflies in the wood and in the grasslands - speckled wood, orange tip, small heath, marbled white, small white, red admirals, a comma, a small skipper, a gatekeeper, a white admiral, a pale blue/white one on the beach, and some yellowy ones. I've also seen a couple of damselflies by the stream in the woods, and an enormous beetle flying and land on a tree (likely a stag beetle, that's the largest one we have over here). (Did you know that ladybirds are a type of beetle? It hadn't occurred to me before, but of course they are.) I think my favourite types of tree in this wood are the ash and birch, purely because they make a particularly lovely rustle in the wind.

Germander speedwell

As lockdown restrictions eased and we were allowed to drive to different places and see family and friends again, some walks have been elsewhere. A couple, to be honest, weren't walks, but rather afternoons spent in gardens. I counted them because part of the purpose of going for a walk is to get out into nature, be surrounded by it, look at it, notice and observe, and I did those things on those days. I was surrounded by trees and flowers and birds, watched and listened to them, and went round looking closely at the flowers, and the bees and butterflies feeding on them.

I feel very lucky that over the last four months I've been able to spend more time outdoors in nature, delve into it more, learn a bit more about it, and encounter other people who love it too (albeit online, and being an observer rather than joining in by interacting through the comments etc.). It's spurred me to apply for a full-time college course covering ecology, conservation, habitat management, wildlife surveys, etc., something part of me wishes I'd done years ago, so fingers crossed I get accepted onto that. And so many other people have benefited from this opportunity to notice, experience, and connect to nature more, either in more depth, or in new ways, or even for the first time. Long-time nature lovers have been joined by new enthusiasts.

Great spotted woodpecker

The lessened presence, disturbance, and dominance of humans during full lockdown, before restrictions started to be eased, meant that Nature and wildlife had a chance to breathe and relax. For the first few weeks of lockdown the beach was almost empty, I'd pass only a handful of people there and in the woods. No litter. No dog poo. Roads were empty. The sky was empty of aircraft and their contrails. Air and noise pollution levels went right down. Birdsong was more audible. Ground-nesting birds and mammals in places usually only reachable by car were left undisturbed by dogs and walkers while we weren't allowed to drive to take exercise. Grass verges were left un-mown and roadside trees and shrubs un-strimmed (I hate seeing those splintered remains), providing fantastic habitats for wildlife. The building site opposite my flat was empty, and the harsh white safety lights not turned on at night, which was nice for me in that my room was much darker than usual, but it would have also been good for nocturnal flyers like bats and moths. Animals wandered around more, roamed further, felt safer: mountain goats in the streets of Llandudno, seabirds and dolphins in the Venetian canals, fallow deer grazing on the lawns of a London housing estate. The benefit of human lockdown to the natural environment and wildlife has been so obvious that, wonderfully, Thailand's government announced in May that they will be closing all of their national parks for two months every year from now on.

Fairy door

Of course, people have gradually returned. The beach and promenade are busy, with oyster-diggers, fishermen, kite-surfers, jet-skiers, the ice-cream and burger vans, runners, roller-skaters, dog-walkers, families, friends, and people having a nice time. The sounds and smells are just Summer all over so it's quite nice in a way. But with the positives have also returned the negatives. Cars. Pollution. Roadkill. Dog poo. Litter. Litter. Litter.

Nature has been here for many of us over the last few months. As we start to return to "normal", it is time for us to be there for nature, the natural world, the earth, our planet - to show up for it, fight for it. Create a new normal, a better one, not just in terms of our relationship with the natural world but with each other too.

Person sitting on the beach by an oak tree

I'm finishing this post off a week later. We moved over the weekend, out of the city to our mum and stepdad's place in a town more inland, so I'll be taking walks elsewhere from now on. While I'll miss the beach and the nature reserve, and how quick and easy it is to get to them, I'm looking forward to finding some new places and getting to know the countryside around here a bit.

Selfie in the woods

An afternoon in Winchester, 26th May 2019

I probably looked a bit odd this afternoon, dressed as I was in jeans with stretched and baggy knees, scruffy biker boots, a bright red raincoat, and a backpack... and carrying a pastel-coloured posy of sweet peas, probably the daintiest and most delicate flowers you can get. A bit of a mismatch. And a particularly unusual sight on the riverside path and St Catherine's Hill - I don't imagine many people wander the countryside carrying a bunch of flowers, haha. But oh well! I don't care, I have a wonderfully-scented posy of very pretty flowers! :D

I love Winchester but haven't been there properly in ages. I went today for something to do, to get out the flat and the city and treat myself a little bit. Bonus was that it was farmers market day - YAY!!!! :D

Pretty! The Ivy brasserie.

Farmers markets are wonderful. I absolutely love all that local, seasonal, good quality stuff, and wish I could both afford to buy produce there often and knew how to do the ingredients justice. I also wish I had an idea of a little business I could do, something I could produce and create using hands-on methods and be as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible, using quality local ingredients. Something where I could have a real in-depth knowledge of and love for what I spend my time doing and the end result. Ice cream, butter, honey, beeswax stuff, damson gin, elderflower cordial, jams and chutneys, pies, cakes, chocolates, bread, full meals, whatever! Or just, y'know, be a farmer.

Anyway, despite the fact that I've been worrying about money the last few days - actually, probably because of that - I let myself get a few treats. Life's all about those tiny moments that bring you joy, simple pleasures. You have to let yourself have those sometimes, even if it costs a little money. As well as the posy of sweet peas that will sit on top of my bookcase for the next few days or so, I bought some nice-smelling hand cream that will last a while, a cheese and local-tomato sourdough toastie that I ate sat on the lawn outside the cathedral, an almond macaroon and a slice of millionaire's shortbread, both of which I ate on my walk, and a lamb and redcurrant pie which will be my dinner later this week :)

Then, along the riverside path leading towards St Catherine's Hill, I saw the cutest little creature! A teeny tiny mouse-like thing, literally the size of my thumb, right on the edge of the path. Squeeee! I can't put emoticons in here - picture the huge-smile face with the love heart eyes, haha. I Googled it afterwards and reckon it was a bank vole. I think it was a youngster, as it was smaller than the internet said they grow to be and it was very unsteady on its feet, perhaps trying to run but not succeeding even to walk properly, eventually stopping and curling itself up a bit. It was probably scared so I left the poor thing to it, hoping it would move quickly to be out of the way of dogs and people not watching where their feet go.

So yes, very lovely afternoon, leaving me in good spirits! :) I'll have to make sure I go to Winchester occasionally, especially when the farmers market is on. There were some locally-made reusable (sustainable and biodegradable!) beeswax food wraps I'd really like to get, as well as a jar of the incredibly delicious local honey :)