Yesterday was a beautiful day! I loved walking and carefully plotting a new route for the second time. I'm confident his will become a favourite. I loved finding a beautiful pub just 1km from the end! I'll publish this one in the next 10 days, it's roughly 11 miles long, it has a lot of fairly steep hills up and down so is a test for the stronger walkers. I first walked it with a friend with an old dog and she carried him over half of it! Fortunately for her and the dog, she's quite a bit younger than me but they made it! Enjoy the pictures, just a chance to catch the last sun of the summer perhaps before autumn changes all the colours and makes the views even more impressive.

I did a couple of days on the South Downs Way supporting a friend. My first day, her third day, was a 19 mile hike from Washington to Cocking. The day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze following two stifling early October days I was glad to have avoided. Anyone knowing the South Downs Way will know there are lots of very big hills. The compensation is wonderful views and, for me, lots of birdlife and nature to enjoy. The second day, 15 miles,  brought a misty start with the need to be patient until early afternoon for brighter skies and strong winds. This day we walked from Pyecombe and the Jack and Jill windmills back to Washington. Had the day been brighter, views would have been spectacular but there was a certain eeriness in the gloom early on. As for birds, my favourite nature subject, we saw many wheatears, stonechats, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers, kestrels, raven and goldfinches enjoying the seeds and berries. The number of red admirals was amazing and speckled wood butterflies were also numerous in the wooded areas. The last landmark I saw from my two days was the Chanctonbury Ring standing in a high wind, where in the Great Storm of 1987, the historic original beechwood circle was razed to the ground by the cyclone Michael Fish famously told us would not happen! I've walked the whole of this trail before many years ago. Now I'm tempted to do it again!

You cannot have missed the start of the chestnut season. Whether it's excitement at finding some huge shiny conkers or the prickly appearance of sweet chestnuts, already being plundered by squirrels! I'm often amazed by the sheer number of sweet chestnut trees in my local area. While some say they were brought by the Romans that's in doubt but they are native to Southern Europe, so maybe with the effects of climate change they are in the right place here and now?

I stepped outside the back door at the weekend and heard a consistent humming. It could have been a distant electrical or mechanical sound but it was coming from the trees. We have sweet chestnut trees covered in ivy. The bees and flies were having a great time, almost every ivy flower had insects feeding. Contrary to common thinking ivy doesn't kill trees, it will bring down dead trees eventually but it simply climbs up the bark to seek light. It cleans the air by capturing air pollutants and provides valuable nectar for insects, especially in autumn. After the flowers come the berries that feed birds through the winter. 

On a walk in the Chilterns the nectar and pollen from many ivy flowers were attracting flying insects, bees mainly but also another insect. I discovered this was a bristle fly called Tachina fera. It's reminiscent of a bee, due to its colour but definitely a fly! Unlike parasitic wasps this fly doesn't lay its eggs inside the caterpillar, it lays them on the food plants and after hatching, they enter the caterpillar eating it from the inside! Yuk! They're very common across Europe. We found them alongside Grim's Ditch, part of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. I'll be looking more closely at Ivy now, while it's flowering, to find more.

I walk alone or with friends, walking alone enables me to look much more closely at the nature I find and I have to admit every walk shows me something new. That includes history as well as nature!

I visited friends, Simon and Jan, in Somerset who happen to live on a small hill in a small village overlooking the huge Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. Simon was my ringing trainer and we catch moths, listen for bats and ring together when I'm there. This time we visited another ringer, Brian, in the hills south of Porlock, a very lucky man with 40 acres of farmland and a wonderful old farmhouse and cottage facing south. On his doorstep are moors and forests. I'll be going back there!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! I loved walking and carefully plotting a new route for the second time. I'm confident his will become a favourite. I loved finding a beautiful pub just 1km from the end! I'll publish this one in the next 10 days, it's roughly 11 miles long, it has a lot of fairly steep hills up and down so is a test for the stronger walkers. I first walked it with a friend with an old dog and she carried him over half of it! Fortunately for her and the dog, she's quite a bit younger than me but they made it! Enjoy the pictures, just a chance to catch the last sun of the summer perhaps before autumn changes all the colours and makes the views even more impressive.

I did a couple of days on the South Downs Way supporting a friend. My first day, her third day, was a 19 mile hike from Washington to Cocking. The day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze following two stifling early October days I was glad to have avoided. Anyone knowing the South Downs Way will know there are lots of very big hills. The compensation is wonderful views and, for me, lots of birdlife and nature to enjoy. The second day, 15 miles,  brought a misty start with the need to be patient until early afternoon for brighter skies and strong winds. This day we walked from Pyecombe and the Jack and Jill windmills back to Washington. Had the day been brighter, views would have been spectacular but there was a certain eeriness in the gloom early on. As for birds, my favourite nature subject, we saw many wheatears, stonechats, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers, kestrels, raven and goldfinches enjoying the seeds and berries. The number of red admirals was amazing and speckled wood butterflies were also numerous in the wooded areas. The last landmark I saw from my two days was the Chanctonbury Ring standing in a high wind, where in the Great Storm of 1987, the historic original beechwood circle was razed to the ground by the cyclone Michael Fish famously told us would not happen! I've walked the whole of this trail before many years ago. Now I'm tempted to do it again!

You cannot have missed the start of the chestnut season. Whether it's excitement at finding some huge shiny conkers or the prickly appearance of sweet chestnuts, already being plundered by squirrels! I'm often amazed by the sheer number of sweet chestnut trees in my local area. While some say they were brought by the Romans that's in doubt but they are native to Southern Europe, so maybe with the effects of climate change they are in the right place here and now?

I stepped outside the back door at the weekend and heard a consistent humming. It could have been a distant electrical or mechanical sound but it was coming from the trees. We have sweet chestnut trees covered in ivy. The bees and flies were having a great time, almost every ivy flower had insects feeding. Contrary to common thinking ivy doesn't kill trees, it will bring down dead trees eventually but it simply climbs up the bark to seek light. It cleans the air by capturing air pollutants and provides valuable nectar for insects, especially in autumn. After the flowers come the berries that feed birds through the winter. 

On a walk in the Chilterns the nectar and pollen from many ivy flowers were attracting flying insects, bees mainly but also another insect. I discovered this was a bristle fly called Tachina fera. It's reminiscent of a bee, due to its colour but definitely a fly! Unlike parasitic wasps this fly doesn't lay its eggs inside the caterpillar, it lays them on the food plants and after hatching, they enter the caterpillar eating it from the inside! Yuk! They're very common across Europe. We found them alongside Grim's Ditch, part of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. I'll be looking more closely at Ivy now, while it's flowering, to find more.

I walk alone or with friends, walking alone enables me to look much more closely at the nature I find and I have to admit every walk shows me something new. That includes history as well as nature!

I visited friends, Simon and Jan, in Somerset who happen to live on a small hill in a small village overlooking the huge Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. Simon was my ringing trainer and we catch moths, listen for bats and ring together when I'm there. This time we visited another ringer, Brian, in the hills south of Porlock, a very lucky man with 40 acres of farmland and a wonderful old farmhouse and cottage facing south. On his doorstep are moors and forests. I'll be going back there!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! I loved walking and carefully plotting a new route for the second time. I'm confident his will become a favourite. I loved finding a beautiful pub just 1km from the end! I'll publish this one in the next 10 days, it's roughly 11 miles long, it has a lot of fairly steep hills up and down so is a test for the stronger walkers. I first walked it with a friend with an old dog and she carried him over half of it! Fortunately for her and the dog, she's quite a bit younger than me but they made it! Enjoy the pictures, just a chance to catch the last sun of the summer perhaps before autumn changes all the colours and makes the views even more impressive.

I did a couple of days on the South Downs Way supporting a friend. My first day, her third day, was a 19 mile hike from Washington to Cocking. The day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze following two stifling early October days I was glad to have avoided. Anyone knowing the South Downs Way will know there are lots of very big hills. The compensation is wonderful views and, for me, lots of birdlife and nature to enjoy. The second day, 15 miles,  brought a misty start with the need to be patient until early afternoon for brighter skies and strong winds. This day we walked from Pyecombe and the Jack and Jill windmills back to Washington. Had the day been brighter, views would have been spectacular but there was a certain eeriness in the gloom early on. As for birds, my favourite nature subject, we saw many wheatears, stonechats, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers, kestrels, raven and goldfinches enjoying the seeds and berries. The number of red admirals was amazing and speckled wood butterflies were also numerous in the wooded areas. The last landmark I saw from my two days was the Chanctonbury Ring standing in a high wind, where in the Great Storm of 1987, the historic original beechwood circle was razed to the ground by the cyclone Michael Fish famously told us would not happen! I've walked the whole of this trail before many years ago. Now I'm tempted to do it again!

You cannot have missed the start of the chestnut season. Whether it's excitement at finding some huge shiny conkers or the prickly appearance of sweet chestnuts, already being plundered by squirrels! I'm often amazed by the sheer number of sweet chestnut trees in my local area. While some say they were brought by the Romans that's in doubt but they are native to Southern Europe, so maybe with the effects of climate change they are in the right place here and now?

I stepped outside the back door at the weekend and heard a consistent humming. It could have been a distant electrical or mechanical sound but it was coming from the trees. We have sweet chestnut trees covered in ivy. The bees and flies were having a great time, almost every ivy flower had insects feeding. Contrary to common thinking ivy doesn't kill trees, it will bring down dead trees eventually but it simply climbs up the bark to seek light. It cleans the air by capturing air pollutants and provides valuable nectar for insects, especially in autumn. After the flowers come the berries that feed birds through the winter. 

On a walk in the Chilterns the nectar and pollen from many ivy flowers were attracting flying insects, bees mainly but also another insect. I discovered this was a bristle fly called Tachina fera. It's reminiscent of a bee, due to its colour but definitely a fly! Unlike parasitic wasps this fly doesn't lay its eggs inside the caterpillar, it lays them on the food plants and after hatching, they enter the caterpillar eating it from the inside! Yuk! They're very common across Europe. We found them alongside Grim's Ditch, part of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. I'll be looking more closely at Ivy now, while it's flowering, to find more.

I walk alone or with friends, walking alone enables me to look much more closely at the nature I find and I have to admit every walk shows me something new. That includes history as well as nature!

I visited friends, Simon and Jan, in Somerset who happen to live on a small hill in a small village overlooking the huge Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. Simon was my ringing trainer and we catch moths, listen for bats and ring together when I'm there. This time we visited another ringer, Brian, in the hills south of Porlock, a very lucky man with 40 acres of farmland and a wonderful old farmhouse and cottage facing south. On his doorstep are moors and forests. I'll be going back there!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! I loved walking and carefully plotting a new route for the second time. I'm confident his will become a favourite. I loved finding a beautiful pub just 1km from the end! I'll publish this one in the next 10 days, it's roughly 11 miles long, it has a lot of fairly steep hills up and down so is a test for the stronger walkers. I first walked it with a friend with an old dog and she carried him over half of it! Fortunately for her and the dog, she's quite a bit younger than me but they made it! Enjoy the pictures, just a chance to catch the last sun of the summer perhaps before autumn changes all the colours and makes the views even more impressive.

I did a couple of days on the South Downs Way supporting a friend. My first day, her third day, was a 19 mile hike from Washington to Cocking. The day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze following two stifling early October days I was glad to have avoided. Anyone knowing the South Downs Way will know there are lots of very big hills. The compensation is wonderful views and, for me, lots of birdlife and nature to enjoy. The second day, 15 miles,  brought a misty start with the need to be patient until early afternoon for brighter skies and strong winds. This day we walked from Pyecombe and the Jack and Jill windmills back to Washington. Had the day been brighter, views would have been spectacular but there was a certain eeriness in the gloom early on. As for birds, my favourite nature subject, we saw many wheatears, stonechats, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers, kestrels, raven and goldfinches enjoying the seeds and berries. The number of red admirals was amazing and speckled wood butterflies were also numerous in the wooded areas. The last landmark I saw from my two days was the Chanctonbury Ring standing in a high wind, where in the Great Storm of 1987, the historic original beechwood circle was razed to the ground by the cyclone Michael Fish famously told us would not happen! I've walked the whole of this trail before many years ago. Now I'm tempted to do it again!

You cannot have missed the start of the chestnut season. Whether it's excitement at finding some huge shiny conkers or the prickly appearance of sweet chestnuts, already being plundered by squirrels! I'm often amazed by the sheer number of sweet chestnut trees in my local area. While some say they were brought by the Romans that's in doubt but they are native to Southern Europe, so maybe with the effects of climate change they are in the right place here and now?

I stepped outside the back door at the weekend and heard a consistent humming. It could have been a distant electrical or mechanical sound but it was coming from the trees. We have sweet chestnut trees covered in ivy. The bees and flies were having a great time, almost every ivy flower had insects feeding. Contrary to common thinking ivy doesn't kill trees, it will bring down dead trees eventually but it simply climbs up the bark to seek light. It cleans the air by capturing air pollutants and provides valuable nectar for insects, especially in autumn. After the flowers come the berries that feed birds through the winter. 

On a walk in the Chilterns the nectar and pollen from many ivy flowers were attracting flying insects, bees mainly but also another insect. I discovered this was a bristle fly called Tachina fera. It's reminiscent of a bee, due to its colour but definitely a fly! Unlike parasitic wasps this fly doesn't lay its eggs inside the caterpillar, it lays them on the food plants and after hatching, they enter the caterpillar eating it from the inside! Yuk! They're very common across Europe. We found them alongside Grim's Ditch, part of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. I'll be looking more closely at Ivy now, while it's flowering, to find more.

I walk alone or with friends, walking alone enables me to look much more closely at the nature I find and I have to admit every walk shows me something new. That includes history as well as nature!

I visited friends, Simon and Jan, in Somerset who happen to live on a small hill in a small village overlooking the huge Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. Simon was my ringing trainer and we catch moths, listen for bats and ring together when I'm there. This time we visited another ringer, Brian, in the hills south of Porlock, a very lucky man with 40 acres of farmland and a wonderful old farmhouse and cottage facing south. On his doorstep are moors and forests. I'll be going back there!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! I loved walking and carefully plotting a new route for the second time. I'm confident his will become a favourite. I loved finding a beautiful pub just 1km from the end! I'll publish this one in the next 10 days, it's roughly 11 miles long, it has a lot of fairly steep hills up and down so is a test for the stronger walkers. I first walked it with a friend with an old dog and she carried him over half of it! Fortunately for her and the dog, she's quite a bit younger than me but they made it! Enjoy the pictures, just a chance to catch the last sun of the summer perhaps before autumn changes all the colours and makes the views even more impressive.

I did a couple of days on the South Downs Way supporting a friend. My first day, her third day, was a 19 mile hike from Washington to Cocking. The day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze following two stifling early October days I was glad to have avoided. Anyone knowing the South Downs Way will know there are lots of very big hills. The compensation is wonderful views and, for me, lots of birdlife and nature to enjoy. The second day, 15 miles,  brought a misty start with the need to be patient until early afternoon for brighter skies and strong winds. This day we walked from Pyecombe and the Jack and Jill windmills back to Washington. Had the day been brighter, views would have been spectacular but there was a certain eeriness in the gloom early on. As for birds, my favourite nature subject, we saw many wheatears, stonechats, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers, kestrels, raven and goldfinches enjoying the seeds and berries. The number of red admirals was amazing and speckled wood butterflies were also numerous in the wooded areas. The last landmark I saw from my two days was the Chanctonbury Ring standing in a high wind, where in the Great Storm of 1987, the historic original beechwood circle was razed to the ground by the cyclone Michael Fish famously told us would not happen! I've walked the whole of this trail before many years ago. Now I'm tempted to do it again!

You cannot have missed the start of the chestnut season. Whether it's excitement at finding some huge shiny conkers or the prickly appearance of sweet chestnuts, already being plundered by squirrels! I'm often amazed by the sheer number of sweet chestnut trees in my local area. While some say they were brought by the Romans that's in doubt but they are native to Southern Europe, so maybe with the effects of climate change they are in the right place here and now?

I stepped outside the back door at the weekend and heard a consistent humming. It could have been a distant electrical or mechanical sound but it was coming from the trees. We have sweet chestnut trees covered in ivy. The bees and flies were having a great time, almost every ivy flower had insects feeding. Contrary to common thinking ivy doesn't kill trees, it will bring down dead trees eventually but it simply climbs up the bark to seek light. It cleans the air by capturing air pollutants and provides valuable nectar for insects, especially in autumn. After the flowers come the berries that feed birds through the winter. 

On a walk in the Chilterns the nectar and pollen from many ivy flowers were attracting flying insects, bees mainly but also another insect. I discovered this was a bristle fly called Tachina fera. It's reminiscent of a bee, due to its colour but definitely a fly! Unlike parasitic wasps this fly doesn't lay its eggs inside the caterpillar, it lays them on the food plants and after hatching, they enter the caterpillar eating it from the inside! Yuk! They're very common across Europe. We found them alongside Grim's Ditch, part of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. I'll be looking more closely at Ivy now, while it's flowering, to find more.

I walk alone or with friends, walking alone enables me to look much more closely at the nature I find and I have to admit every walk shows me something new. That includes history as well as nature!

I visited friends, Simon and Jan, in Somerset who happen to live on a small hill in a small village overlooking the huge Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. Simon was my ringing trainer and we catch moths, listen for bats and ring together when I'm there. This time we visited another ringer, Brian, in the hills south of Porlock, a very lucky man with 40 acres of farmland and a wonderful old farmhouse and cottage facing south. On his doorstep are moors and forests. I'll be going back there!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! I loved walking and carefully plotting a new route for the second time. I'm confident his will become a favourite. I loved finding a beautiful pub just 1km from the end! I'll publish this one in the next 10 days, it's roughly 11 miles long, it has a lot of fairly steep hills up and down so is a test for the stronger walkers. I first walked it with a friend with an old dog and she carried him over half of it! Fortunately for her and the dog, she's quite a bit younger than me but they made it! Enjoy the pictures, just a chance to catch the last sun of the summer perhaps before autumn changes all the colours and makes the views even more impressive.

I did a couple of days on the South Downs Way supporting a friend. My first day, her third day, was a 19 mile hike from Washington to Cocking. The day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze following two stifling early October days I was glad to have avoided. Anyone knowing the South Downs Way will know there are lots of very big hills. The compensation is wonderful views and, for me, lots of birdlife and nature to enjoy. The second day, 15 miles,  brought a misty start with the need to be patient until early afternoon for brighter skies and strong winds. This day we walked from Pyecombe and the Jack and Jill windmills back to Washington. Had the day been brighter, views would have been spectacular but there was a certain eeriness in the gloom early on. As for birds, my favourite nature subject, we saw many wheatears, stonechats, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers, kestrels, raven and goldfinches enjoying the seeds and berries. The number of red admirals was amazing and speckled wood butterflies were also numerous in the wooded areas. The last landmark I saw from my two days was the Chanctonbury Ring standing in a high wind, where in the Great Storm of 1987, the historic original beechwood circle was razed to the ground by the cyclone Michael Fish famously told us would not happen! I've walked the whole of this trail before many years ago. Now I'm tempted to do it again!

You cannot have missed the start of the chestnut season. Whether it's excitement at finding some huge shiny conkers or the prickly appearance of sweet chestnuts, already being plundered by squirrels! I'm often amazed by the sheer number of sweet chestnut trees in my local area. While some say they were brought by the Romans that's in doubt but they are native to Southern Europe, so maybe with the effects of climate change they are in the right place here and now?

I stepped outside the back door at the weekend and heard a consistent humming. It could have been a distant electrical or mechanical sound but it was coming from the trees. We have sweet chestnut trees covered in ivy. The bees and flies were having a great time, almost every ivy flower had insects feeding. Contrary to common thinking ivy doesn't kill trees, it will bring down dead trees eventually but it simply climbs up the bark to seek light. It cleans the air by capturing air pollutants and provides valuable nectar for insects, especially in autumn. After the flowers come the berries that feed birds through the winter. 

On a walk in the Chilterns the nectar and pollen from many ivy flowers were attracting flying insects, bees mainly but also another insect. I discovered this was a bristle fly called Tachina fera. It's reminiscent of a bee, due to its colour but definitely a fly! Unlike parasitic wasps this fly doesn't lay its eggs inside the caterpillar, it lays them on the food plants and after hatching, they enter the caterpillar eating it from the inside! Yuk! They're very common across Europe. We found them alongside Grim's Ditch, part of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. I'll be looking more closely at Ivy now, while it's flowering, to find more.

I walk alone or with friends, walking alone enables me to look much more closely at the nature I find and I have to admit every walk shows me something new. That includes history as well as nature!

I visited friends, Simon and Jan, in Somerset who happen to live on a small hill in a small village overlooking the huge Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. Simon was my ringing trainer and we catch moths, listen for bats and ring together when I'm there. This time we visited another ringer, Brian, in the hills south of Porlock, a very lucky man with 40 acres of farmland and a wonderful old farmhouse and cottage facing south. On his doorstep are moors and forests. I'll be going back there!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! I loved walking and carefully plotting a new route for the second time. I'm confident his will become a favourite. I loved finding a beautiful pub just 1km from the end! I'll publish this one in the next 10 days, it's roughly 11 miles long, it has a lot of fairly steep hills up and down so is a test for the stronger walkers. I first walked it with a friend with an old dog and she carried him over half of it! Fortunately for her and the dog, she's quite a bit younger than me but they made it! Enjoy the pictures, just a chance to catch the last sun of the summer perhaps before autumn changes all the colours and makes the views even more impressive.

I did a couple of days on the South Downs Way supporting a friend. My first day, her third day, was a 19 mile hike from Washington to Cocking. The day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze following two stifling early October days I was glad to have avoided. Anyone knowing the South Downs Way will know there are lots of very big hills. The compensation is wonderful views and, for me, lots of birdlife and nature to enjoy. The second day, 15 miles,  brought a misty start with the need to be patient until early afternoon for brighter skies and strong winds. This day we walked from Pyecombe and the Jack and Jill windmills back to Washington. Had the day been brighter, views would have been spectacular but there was a certain eeriness in the gloom early on. As for birds, my favourite nature subject, we saw many wheatears, stonechats, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers, kestrels, raven and goldfinches enjoying the seeds and berries. The number of red admirals was amazing and speckled wood butterflies were also numerous in the wooded areas. The last landmark I saw from my two days was the Chanctonbury Ring standing in a high wind, where in the Great Storm of 1987, the historic original beechwood circle was razed to the ground by the cyclone Michael Fish famously told us would not happen! I've walked the whole of this trail before many years ago. Now I'm tempted to do it again!

You cannot have missed the start of the chestnut season. Whether it's excitement at finding some huge shiny conkers or the prickly appearance of sweet chestnuts, already being plundered by squirrels! I'm often amazed by the sheer number of sweet chestnut trees in my local area. While some say they were brought by the Romans that's in doubt but they are native to Southern Europe, so maybe with the effects of climate change they are in the right place here and now?

I stepped outside the back door at the weekend and heard a consistent humming. It could have been a distant electrical or mechanical sound but it was coming from the trees. We have sweet chestnut trees covered in ivy. The bees and flies were having a great time, almost every ivy flower had insects feeding. Contrary to common thinking ivy doesn't kill trees, it will bring down dead trees eventually but it simply climbs up the bark to seek light. It cleans the air by capturing air pollutants and provides valuable nectar for insects, especially in autumn. After the flowers come the berries that feed birds through the winter. 

On a walk in the Chilterns the nectar and pollen from many ivy flowers were attracting flying insects, bees mainly but also another insect. I discovered this was a bristle fly called Tachina fera. It's reminiscent of a bee, due to its colour but definitely a fly! Unlike parasitic wasps this fly doesn't lay its eggs inside the caterpillar, it lays them on the food plants and after hatching, they enter the caterpillar eating it from the inside! Yuk! They're very common across Europe. We found them alongside Grim's Ditch, part of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. I'll be looking more closely at Ivy now, while it's flowering, to find more.

I walk alone or with friends, walking alone enables me to look much more closely at the nature I find and I have to admit every walk shows me something new. That includes history as well as nature!

I visited friends, Simon and Jan, in Somerset who happen to live on a small hill in a small village overlooking the huge Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. Simon was my ringing trainer and we catch moths, listen for bats and ring together when I'm there. This time we visited another ringer, Brian, in the hills south of Porlock, a very lucky man with 40 acres of farmland and a wonderful old farmhouse and cottage facing south. On his doorstep are moors and forests. I'll be going back there!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! I loved walking and carefully plotting a new route for the second time. I'm confident his will become a favourite. I loved finding a beautiful pub just 1km from the end! I'll publish this one in the next 10 days, it's roughly 11 miles long, it has a lot of fairly steep hills up and down so is a test for the stronger walkers. I first walked it with a friend with an old dog and she carried him over half of it! Fortunately for her and the dog, she's quite a bit younger than me but they made it! Enjoy the pictures, just a chance to catch the last sun of the summer perhaps before autumn changes all the colours and makes the views even more impressive.

I did a couple of days on the South Downs Way supporting a friend. My first day, her third day, was a 19 mile hike from Washington to Cocking. The day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze following two stifling early October days I was glad to have avoided. Anyone knowing the South Downs Way will know there are lots of very big hills. The compensation is wonderful views and, for me, lots of birdlife and nature to enjoy. The second day, 15 miles,  brought a misty start with the need to be patient until early afternoon for brighter skies and strong winds. This day we walked from Pyecombe and the Jack and Jill windmills back to Washington. Had the day been brighter, views would have been spectacular but there was a certain eeriness in the gloom early on. As for birds, my favourite nature subject, we saw many wheatears, stonechats, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers, kestrels, raven and goldfinches enjoying the seeds and berries. The number of red admirals was amazing and speckled wood butterflies were also numerous in the wooded areas. The last landmark I saw from my two days was the Chanctonbury Ring standing in a high wind, where in the Great Storm of 1987, the historic original beechwood circle was razed to the ground by the cyclone Michael Fish famously told us would not happen! I've walked the whole of this trail before many years ago. Now I'm tempted to do it again!

You cannot have missed the start of the chestnut season. Whether it's excitement at finding some huge shiny conkers or the prickly appearance of sweet chestnuts, already being plundered by squirrels! I'm often amazed by the sheer number of sweet chestnut trees in my local area. While some say they were brought by the Romans that's in doubt but they are native to Southern Europe, so maybe with the effects of climate change they are in the right place here and now?

I stepped outside the back door at the weekend and heard a consistent humming. It could have been a distant electrical or mechanical sound but it was coming from the trees. We have sweet chestnut trees covered in ivy. The bees and flies were having a great time, almost every ivy flower had insects feeding. Contrary to common thinking ivy doesn't kill trees, it will bring down dead trees eventually but it simply climbs up the bark to seek light. It cleans the air by capturing air pollutants and provides valuable nectar for insects, especially in autumn. After the flowers come the berries that feed birds through the winter. 

On a walk in the Chilterns the nectar and pollen from many ivy flowers were attracting flying insects, bees mainly but also another insect. I discovered this was a bristle fly called Tachina fera. It's reminiscent of a bee, due to its colour but definitely a fly! Unlike parasitic wasps this fly doesn't lay its eggs inside the caterpillar, it lays them on the food plants and after hatching, they enter the caterpillar eating it from the inside! Yuk! They're very common across Europe. We found them alongside Grim's Ditch, part of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. I'll be looking more closely at Ivy now, while it's flowering, to find more.

I walk alone or with friends, walking alone enables me to look much more closely at the nature I find and I have to admit every walk shows me something new. That includes history as well as nature!

I visited friends, Simon and Jan, in Somerset who happen to live on a small hill in a small village overlooking the huge Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. Simon was my ringing trainer and we catch moths, listen for bats and ring together when I'm there. This time we visited another ringer, Brian, in the hills south of Porlock, a very lucky man with 40 acres of farmland and a wonderful old farmhouse and cottage facing south. On his doorstep are moors and forests. I'll be going back there!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! I loved walking and carefully plotting a new route for the second time. I'm confident his will become a favourite. I loved finding a beautiful pub just 1km from the end! I'll publish this one in the next 10 days, it's roughly 11 miles long, it has a lot of fairly steep hills up and down so is a test for the stronger walkers. I first walked it with a friend with an old dog and she carried him over half of it! Fortunately for her and the dog, she's quite a bit younger than me but they made it! Enjoy the pictures, just a chance to catch the last sun of the summer perhaps before autumn changes all the colours and makes the views even more impressive.

I did a couple of days on the South Downs Way supporting a friend. My first day, her third day, was a 19 mile hike from Washington to Cocking. The day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze following two stifling early October days I was glad to have avoided. Anyone knowing the South Downs Way will know there are lots of very big hills. The compensation is wonderful views and, for me, lots of birdlife and nature to enjoy. The second day, 15 miles,  brought a misty start with the need to be patient until early afternoon for brighter skies and strong winds. This day we walked from Pyecombe and the Jack and Jill windmills back to Washington. Had the day been brighter, views would have been spectacular but there was a certain eeriness in the gloom early on. As for birds, my favourite nature subject, we saw many wheatears, stonechats, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers, kestrels, raven and goldfinches enjoying the seeds and berries. The number of red admirals was amazing and speckled wood butterflies were also numerous in the wooded areas. The last landmark I saw from my two days was the Chanctonbury Ring standing in a high wind, where in the Great Storm of 1987, the historic original beechwood circle was razed to the ground by the cyclone Michael Fish famously told us would not happen! I've walked the whole of this trail before many years ago. Now I'm tempted to do it again!

You cannot have missed the start of the chestnut season. Whether it's excitement at finding some huge shiny conkers or the prickly appearance of sweet chestnuts, already being plundered by squirrels! I'm often amazed by the sheer number of sweet chestnut trees in my local area. While some say they were brought by the Romans that's in doubt but they are native to Southern Europe, so maybe with the effects of climate change they are in the right place here and now?

I stepped outside the back door at the weekend and heard a consistent humming. It could have been a distant electrical or mechanical sound but it was coming from the trees. We have sweet chestnut trees covered in ivy. The bees and flies were having a great time, almost every ivy flower had insects feeding. Contrary to common thinking ivy doesn't kill trees, it will bring down dead trees eventually but it simply climbs up the bark to seek light. It cleans the air by capturing air pollutants and provides valuable nectar for insects, especially in autumn. After the flowers come the berries that feed birds through the winter. 

On a walk in the Chilterns the nectar and pollen from many ivy flowers were attracting flying insects, bees mainly but also another insect. I discovered this was a bristle fly called Tachina fera. It's reminiscent of a bee, due to its colour but definitely a fly! Unlike parasitic wasps this fly doesn't lay its eggs inside the caterpillar, it lays them on the food plants and after hatching, they enter the caterpillar eating it from the inside! Yuk! They're very common across Europe. We found them alongside Grim's Ditch, part of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. I'll be looking more closely at Ivy now, while it's flowering, to find more.

I walk alone or with friends, walking alone enables me to look much more closely at the nature I find and I have to admit every walk shows me something new. That includes history as well as nature!

I visited friends, Simon and Jan, in Somerset who happen to live on a small hill in a small village overlooking the huge Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. Simon was my ringing trainer and we catch moths, listen for bats and ring together when I'm there. This time we visited another ringer, Brian, in the hills south of Porlock, a very lucky man with 40 acres of farmland and a wonderful old farmhouse and cottage facing south. On his doorstep are moors and forests. I'll be going back there!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! I loved walking and carefully plotting a new route for the second time. I'm confident his will become a favourite. I loved finding a beautiful pub just 1km from the end! I'll publish this one in the next 10 days, it's roughly 11 miles long, it has a lot of fairly steep hills up and down so is a test for the stronger walkers. I first walked it with a friend with an old dog and she carried him over half of it! Fortunately for her and the dog, she's quite a bit younger than me but they made it! Enjoy the pictures, just a chance to catch the last sun of the summer perhaps before autumn changes all the colours and makes the views even more impressive.

I did a couple of days on the South Downs Way supporting a friend. My first day, her third day, was a 19 mile hike from Washington to Cocking. The day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze following two stifling early October days I was glad to have avoided. Anyone knowing the South Downs Way will know there are lots of very big hills. The compensation is wonderful views and, for me, lots of birdlife and nature to enjoy. The second day, 15 miles,  brought a misty start with the need to be patient until early afternoon for brighter skies and strong winds. This day we walked from Pyecombe and the Jack and Jill windmills back to Washington. Had the day been brighter, views would have been spectacular but there was a certain eeriness in the gloom early on. As for birds, my favourite nature subject, we saw many wheatears, stonechats, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers, kestrels, raven and goldfinches enjoying the seeds and berries. The number of red admirals was amazing and speckled wood butterflies were also numerous in the wooded areas. The last landmark I saw from my two days was the Chanctonbury Ring standing in a high wind, where in the Great Storm of 1987, the historic original beechwood circle was razed to the ground by the cyclone Michael Fish famously told us would not happen! I've walked the whole of this trail before many years ago. Now I'm tempted to do it again!

You cannot have missed the start of the chestnut season. Whether it's excitement at finding some huge shiny conkers or the prickly appearance of sweet chestnuts, already being plundered by squirrels! I'm often amazed by the sheer number of sweet chestnut trees in my local area. While some say they were brought by the Romans that's in doubt but they are native to Southern Europe, so maybe with the effects of climate change they are in the right place here and now?

I stepped outside the back door at the weekend and heard a consistent humming. It could have been a distant electrical or mechanical sound but it was coming from the trees. We have sweet chestnut trees covered in ivy. The bees and flies were having a great time, almost every ivy flower had insects feeding. Contrary to common thinking ivy doesn't kill trees, it will bring down dead trees eventually but it simply climbs up the bark to seek light. It cleans the air by capturing air pollutants and provides valuable nectar for insects, especially in autumn. After the flowers come the berries that feed birds through the winter. 

On a walk in the Chilterns the nectar and pollen from many ivy flowers were attracting flying insects, bees mainly but also another insect. I discovered this was a bristle fly called Tachina fera. It's reminiscent of a bee, due to its colour but definitely a fly! Unlike parasitic wasps this fly doesn't lay its eggs inside the caterpillar, it lays them on the food plants and after hatching, they enter the caterpillar eating it from the inside! Yuk! They're very common across Europe. We found them alongside Grim's Ditch, part of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. I'll be looking more closely at Ivy now, while it's flowering, to find more.

I walk alone or with friends, walking alone enables me to look much more closely at the nature I find and I have to admit every walk shows me something new. That includes history as well as nature!

I visited friends, Simon and Jan, in Somerset who happen to live on a small hill in a small village overlooking the huge Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. Simon was my ringing trainer and we catch moths, listen for bats and ring together when I'm there. This time we visited another ringer, Brian, in the hills south of Porlock, a very lucky man with 40 acres of farmland and a wonderful old farmhouse and cottage facing south. On his doorstep are moors and forests. I'll be going back there!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! I loved walking and carefully plotting a new route for the second time. I'm confident his will become a favourite. I loved finding a beautiful pub just 1km from the end! I'll publish this one in the next 10 days, it's roughly 11 miles long, it has a lot of fairly steep hills up and down so is a test for the stronger walkers. I first walked it with a friend with an old dog and she carried him over half of it! Fortunately for her and the dog, she's quite a bit younger than me but they made it! Enjoy the pictures, just a chance to catch the last sun of the summer perhaps before autumn changes all the colours and makes the views even more impressive.

I did a couple of days on the South Downs Way supporting a friend. My first day, her third day, was a 19 mile hike from Washington to Cocking. The day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze following two stifling early October days I was glad to have avoided. Anyone knowing the South Downs Way will know there are lots of very big hills. The compensation is wonderful views and, for me, lots of birdlife and nature to enjoy. The second day, 15 miles,  brought a misty start with the need to be patient until early afternoon for brighter skies and strong winds. This day we walked from Pyecombe and the Jack and Jill windmills back to Washington. Had the day been brighter, views would have been spectacular but there was a certain eeriness in the gloom early on. As for birds, my favourite nature subject, we saw many wheatears, stonechats, meadow pipits, skylarks, linnets, yellowhammers, kestrels, raven and goldfinches enjoying the seeds and berries. The number of red admirals was amazing and speckled wood butterflies were also numerous in the wooded areas. The last landmark I saw from my two days was the Chanctonbury Ring standing in a high wind, where in the Great Storm of 1987, the historic original beechwood circle was razed to the ground by the cyclone Michael Fish famously told us would not happen! I've walked the whole of this trail before many years ago. Now I'm tempted to do it again!

You cannot have missed the start of the chestnut season. Whether it's excitement at finding some huge shiny conkers or the prickly appearance of sweet chestnuts, already being plundered by squirrels! I'm often amazed by the sheer number of sweet chestnut trees in my local area. While some say they were brought by the Romans that's in doubt but they are native to Southern Europe, so maybe with the effects of climate change they are in the right place here and now?

I stepped outside the back door at the weekend and heard a consistent humming. It could have been a distant electrical or mechanical sound but it was coming from the trees. We have sweet chestnut trees covered in ivy. The bees and flies were having a great time, almost every ivy flower had insects feeding. Contrary to common thinking ivy doesn't kill trees, it will bring down dead trees eventually but it simply climbs up the bark to seek light. It cleans the air by capturing air pollutants and provides valuable nectar for insects, especially in autumn. After the flowers come the berries that feed birds through the winter. 

On a walk in the Chilterns the nectar and pollen from many ivy flowers were attracting flying insects, bees mainly but also another insect. I discovered this was a bristle fly called Tachina fera. It's reminiscent of a bee, due to its colour but definitely a fly! Unlike parasitic wasps this fly doesn't lay its eggs inside the caterpillar, it lays them on the food plants and after hatching, they enter the caterpillar eating it from the inside! Yuk! They're very common across Europe. We found them alongside Grim's Ditch, part of the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. I'll be looking more closely at Ivy now, while it's flowering, to find more.

I walk alone or with friends, walking alone enables me to look much more closely at the nature I find and I have to admit every walk shows me something new. That includes history as well as nature!

I visited friends, Simon and Jan, in Somerset who happen to live on a small hill in a small village overlooking the huge Avalon Marshes, also known as the Somerset Levels. Simon was my ringing trainer and we catch moths, listen for bats and ring together when I'm there. This time we visited another ringer, Brian, in the hills south of Porlock, a very lucky man with 40 acres of farmland and a wonderful old farmhouse and cottage facing south. On his doorstep are moors and forests. I'll be going back there!