woodland meditation

(Went for a wintry woodland walk over Christmas. Thought would post some photos to share with you.)

Love and faithfulness meet together;

righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,

and righteousness looks down from heaven.

Psalm 85: 10-11

Teach me your way, O LORD,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
Psalm 86:11

My heart is steadfast, O God;
I will sing and make music with all my soul.
Awake harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.

I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, higher than the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Psalm 108: 1-4

Yesterday: 4/10, medium Today: 4/10, medium

oh look, it's me

How to have a scheduled rest in the middle of a windy, cold, and extremely muddy coastal / cliff walk:

I look like a corpse, or maybe a crash test dummy, but never mind.

Have had a nice couple of weeks break - both home and away.

Stats: average, perhaps headache a little better.

the water garden

On Sunday afternoon we took a trip out to Longstock Park Water Garden, which is only open a few times a year. I didn't immediately get round to uploading the photos, but thought I would post them here:

It's only open a few times a year, and was quite crowded, so I had to be quite creative with my shots as I don't like lots of people in them unless I want them to be!

Today: 4-5/10, high

Yesterday: 4/10, high

Tuesday: 5/10, medium high

Pagham Harbour

Yesterday was Andy's day off, so we took a trip to Pagham Harbour. The weather was a little wild - the wind very high. We stopped at one place and walked a little way, then decided to go a little further down the harbour as the tide was out and this was not the best place to see birds in that instance. So we headed back to the car, where we were hit with a short sharp squall of rain. It took half a minute, with the wind blowing it straight towards us, and the front of my jeans were drenched from top to bottom, utterly soaked. The back was completely dry, which was a somewhat surreal sensation. It was as if the rain had said 'aha! Look what I can do in a mere 30 seconds!'
Well, whoop-de-doo for you mate. Trudged soggily back to the car.

Drove down to another vantage point. Got out of the car where the wind hit my soggy legs. Ugh. Trooped down a short path to the water side, where there was lots to see. Kept saying things like 'why isn't there a hide here? It's such a good vantage point!' Were standing there sometime gazing at the water and the birds on the mud flats when I glanced round and coughed sheepishly and pointed. There was a hide, hidden back in the bushes. 'They're probably watching us.' I said.So we got into the hide out of the rain and Andy went back to fetch his spotterscope - it would have been no good without shelter since we were afraid the rain would blow the tripod over.

Really good place for sightings. We saw: turnstones, curlews, little egrets, a common sandpiper, little ringed plovers (hilarious - running around getting all bolshy with the other birds despite their diminutive size), redshanks, oystercatchers, cormorants (& juveniles), a Great Crested Grebe further out in the water, a wheatear(pointed out by a fellow birdwatcher, although too far to identify with mere binoculars), swallows, house martins, grey heron sweeping in majestically, terns, black headed gulls, lesser black backed gulls, herring gulls. It was great watching them all so intent on finding food in the sand and mud. The little egrets were having some trouble in the wind with their long legs and kept stumbling about in the wind - on young one nearly toppled over completely. Another was practically blown along the shore, side stepping hurriedly as if to say 'I intend to do this, really.' I drank earl grey from my flask and felt content. My legs were drying out.

We were just packing up when a flock of redshanks took off. 'Lovely,' I said, gazing at them. 'Look to the sky!' Said Andy quickly, and I saw what he meant. All the smaller birds had taken off.'There! Flying low and fast!' he said, just as one of the others said 'there's a bird of prey.'Fastened my binoculars on it and we all identified it simultaneously. 'Peregrine..'So we watched the peregrine falcon zipping over the sands before walking back to the car.There was a little chapel next to the car park so we decided to take a peek. Quite a small, simple building but with amazing stained glass windows.

There were the more traditional sort, then one depicting nurses of World War II, and then one gorgeous one displaying the wildlife of the area (this was the most recent).

and closer up...

We drove on to Selsey and went up to park near the Bill. Hilarious as we parked facing out to see. The wind was coming straight off the sea towards and the car wobbled back and forth as we sat on it. In the end we braved it, but as we neared the edge we began to stagger with the force of the wind. Our coats and jeans inflated with the force of it. Trying to take photographs and remain upright was something of a challenge. You can't really tell how windy it was from the photo. Ohh... an inflatable man! Or is it Andy battling the wind??

On way home we were listening to Classic FM and the weather came on. 'Sunny spells with heavy showers,' they reported. 'Gales on the South Coast'.
'No kidding,' I commented, just as Andy said 'Really?!'

Today: 4-5/10, medium high

Day 12 - Kielder

Drove to Kielder Forest and Water. Buzzards and kestrel spied on journey. Drove around Water stopping at various places. Lots of chaffinches, heard and caught glimpse of tiny goldcrests in the treetops - and another baby rabbit! Alas no red squirrel sightings.

Stopped off at Bakethin Reservoir to go to a bird hide. Tide was up so not as much to see as might have done, but saw a heron, several mallards, some tufted ducks, a little grebe, lots of fish jumping and one startled moorhen....startled because of the otter! Great views as it swam across the deep, still waters from one of the islands, effortlessly diving down and back up again, totally streamlined and delightful to watch.
'Have you ever seen an otter in the wild?' Andy mouthed at me (we weren't alone in the hide at the time). I shook my head gleefully. I'd been reading the leaflet which said otters might be spotted at dawn and dusk. It was 2.30 in the afternoon.
'You don't get to see otters very often,' the man next to us explained to his two young sons, all dressed up in their camouflage gear and carrying fantastic cameras(!!)

Stopped at Kielder Castle and went to tea room where we had warm bakewell tart with custard! Walked around grounds in one last ditch attempt to see red squirrel...nope. Still, we'd seen an otter!

Drove across dam but couldn't see over wall! Oystercatcher on the side of the road. Drove back to cottage and went down the road to eat at the Lodge bar and restaurant.

Day 9: Craster to Dunstanburgh

Walked to Dunstanburgh Castle from Craster. House sparrows, linnets, eiders and ducklings, fulmars, kittiwakes and young nesting on cliffs in castle grounds, swallows, kestrel.

Walked around the castle, largely ruined. Mainly sunny. Climbed the spiral stairway in the tower. Am not very good at that these days; I get wobbly and fear I'll lose my footing. It's not simply vertigo; it seems I am afraid of falling down steps. How odd (and annoying - I even feel nervous on escalators these days).

Bought some famous Craster kippers. Lazy evening - watched Lost in Translation.

Day 5: Holy Island

Lazy morning. Afternoon on Holy Island - walked the dunes and shoreline of the north coast. Saw swallow fledglings - sweet! Linnets, pipits, grey and pied wagtails. Eiders on sea, gannets flying across. Stonechats, skylarks, reed bunting.

Gorgeous poppies in fields - took pictures on my SLR (not digital I'm afraid!) High brown frittilary butterflies. Moths - lots of burnets (not sure of type) emerging from pupae on grasses and drying off their wings.

Day 3: St Cuthbert's Cave

Went for a drive and followed signs to St Cuthbert's Cave, which we'd seen on our main road map and pondered over. Seeing the signs made us investigate! Initially, not being sure of the exact location of the cave, we walked up to St Cuthbert's Way, where we looked down from the hills right over to the coast and Holy Island, above and beside St Cuthbert's Wood. We'd come prepared for rain - but the sun decided it was time to come out and blazed down merrily. Skylarks rising frequently into the air as we walked, and at one point we were surrounded by fearless stonechats, 'chat-ting' away cheerfully around us - lovely. Lots of pipits also about. Suddenly saw a hare on the slopes below - and then another and another - at least half a dozen of them skipping around. Brilliant view through binoculars.

We then went down into the (coniferous) wood, where we discovered the cave itself. Since we came from the top of the wood, we actually walked over it before we saw it - I did say 'do you get the feeling it's underneath us?' The cave was inscribed with names and dates - graffiti, I suppose. But along with 'Ed, 1999,' was a set of initials and the date 1752 chiseled into the stone. Lots of 1800s, too.

Saw treecreeper, chaffinch feeding young, willow warblers, robin. Beautiful sunshine despite forecast. Wonderful view of yellowhammer in gorse on the walk back - singing 'a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-chee-eese!' - head stretched back as it sang, beak wide and throat trembling with the different notes. Swallows and house martins down near car park (Holburn Grange). Another possible willow warbler.

Buzzards in sky as we drove. Stopped in Chatton, sat on bench in Village Green then walked round churchyard (feeling rather weary now). Drove down through Wooler and then back to cottage. Planning to go to Edinburgh tomorrow.

Day 2: St Abb's Head

Lazy morning. Went up to the Scottish Borders and to St Abb's head - walked a little way, not too far as Andy gave his ankle a bit of a twist. Had lunch in car before walking on. Still a fair distance considering Andy's ankle! Every now and then a vole dashed across the path in front. Saw guillemots, razorbills, gannets, cormorants, kestrels, terns, chaffinches, fulmars, other gulls, linnet, & skylarks.

Heaven's opened for walk back - absolutely drenched. Kept muttering about the sogginess of jeans and the need to get myself some waterproof (or at least fast drying) trousers.

Checked location of Berwick train station for future reference, stopped at Morrisons, where we got some 'Mackies of Scotland' honeycomb ice cream - oh my word is it gorgeous. Back to cottage.

Evening - short wander around the area of Holy Island Causeway (under water at the time). Curlews, herons, mysterious bird with very bizarre twisting and tumbling flight - possibly a curlew sandpiper from flight description?!