Berkshire Poppies

In addition to being the name of a great track by Traffic, Berkshire Poppies seemed to fit the title of today's post quite well, as the photos below will show. As I hadn't managed to get out at all during the week, I forced myself to do two mountain bike rides this weekend. Yesterday's took me up to Ashmansworth, down then up again into Faccombe, and looping back home via West Woodhay. A pleasant 17 miles despite the greyness and slight rain, and the bonus was coming across this beautiful roadside scene.

Berkshire Poppies

The weather for today's ride however was much better. After having watched The Truth About Widlife last week, it was pleasing to come across a farm which was making use of the financial incentives to devote parts of its farmland to wildlife. The photo below was taken near Hoe Benham and shows the scale of this farm's efforts, but what it doesn't show is the actual wildlife - it was however teeming with butterflies, bees and birds, so seems like the scheme is working.

    

An evening stroll

Just about managed an evening stroll tonight before Springwatch. Lots of wildlife around but the majority was out of sight or moving too fast to identify. We did see a couple of deer though, grazing in the evening sun. No deer in this shot however, this is instead one of the magnificent footpaths we are fortunate enough to have within walking distance of our house.

Other wildlife news from my study window was that today saw the return of the greenfinches to the bird feeders in the front garden. Inspired by a neighbour who has managed to attract goldfinches I swapped over the nyger seed from the back garden to the front garden, but no luck yet. The greenfinches and sparrows both seem to be very messy eaters, and for each seed they eat seem to drop ten on the ground, which unfortunately encourages the pigeons. I'm sure the neighbours think I'm a bit strange when I rush outside and shout at them.

  

It's Been a Good Year for the Roses

Whilst the rain on Sunday made me a bit miserable, it did wonders for the garden ...

Single clematis flower

A good year for the roses

Geranium flowers

First courgette flower of the year - hopefully lots more to come

We did also manage to get out to a local garden show where we bought loads more plants but because of the weather these are still in pots by the back door. These include lupins which although a favourite, we've never had much luck with so far. Fingers crossed this time.

    

Poppies

Working at home today I managed to find a few moments in amongst the countless emails, phone calls and spreadsheets to have a cuppa in the garden amongst the birds, the bees and the flowers. Loved these poppies.

Back to the grind stone now.

Peacock Butterfly

While it seems like everyone in the UK is tweeting the Springwatch team asking when this year's series will start, here's a bit of nature from my own garden ... well actually from the wood pile. Pretty sure it's a Peacock Butterfly.

Peacock Butterfly

A Week in the Peaks

We have just returned from a great week in the Peak District. Having been as far as Nottingham many times before, we somehow had never seemed to make it as far as the Peaks. We rented a lovely cottage in the village of Baslow which we used as our base for the week. Although the weather was grim at the beginning of the week, including some snow, we still managed to get out on some great walks. The highlight of the week however was the Thursday when the rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun shone. Having attempted to do the Tissington Trail earlier in the week only to find it was snowing, we made the most of the break in the weather.

The Tissington Trail is a purpose made cycle track and footpath on what used to be the Buxton to Ashbourne railway line. What surprised me however was that it has been open for recreational purposes since the early 1970's. We cycled up hill, climbing something like 700 metres over the 13.5 miles from Ashbourne to Parsley Hay where we stopped for lunch. The track does continue a bit further from there, and also joins the High Peak Trail, but we'll have to leave that for another day.

Road bridge crossing the Tissington Trail

Road bridge crossing the Tissington Trail

Tissington Trail, just north of Tissington station

Tissington Trail, Hartington signal box

Back home now it's back to business as usual. We've just about unpacked everything and I even managed a short 10 mile bike ride today, albeit in the rain. This is part of my attempt to be able to get into a suit that I need to wear to a family wedding at the end of March. I fear however that my wife and one of the kids is at this very moment at the village market buying cakes.

And probably the most exciting news since being home is that I finally attracted a Goldfinch to my bird feeder. I did try and get a photo but managed to scare it off in the process.

A heron in Hyde Park

The mixed weather this week has meant that getting out and about and finding some space has been more of a challenge. So far this week I've only managed one brief escape which was to Hyde Park during my lunch break. The weather was awful but I was rewarded with this magnificent Heron.

Heron, Hyde Park

I'm sorry to report that the new bird feeders in the front garden do not seem to have attracted any birds whatsoever, but the established one in the back garden is still going strong and I saw my first starling for ages - I remember as a kid we always had loads in the garden but it's been a while since I've seen one.

Making the most of the weather

I'm really glad that I managed to fit in both a bike ride and a walk yesterday while the weather was good, as today it's really horrible. The bike ride was a pleasant 24 miler across West Berkshire, with a few small hills but nothing too torturous ... although I do ache this morning, but that's probably more to do with my overall lack of fitness rather than over doing it yesterday. The birds were responding well to the change in weather and my favourite sighting of the day was a couple of nuthatches searching for insects on a tree trunk. Once again I seemed to have many of the roads and tracks to myself, which was surprising given the glorious day. Below are a few snaps I took on the ride ...

Lone wood

To road to somewhere

Silhouette of bare trees against winter sky

I have now installed a bird feeder in my front garden, which has cover provided by the buddleia, so hopefully the same goldfinches that are always feeding in the garden a few houses along the road will also visit mine.

Clear blue skies and goldfinches

What a marvellous day today - crisp and frosty to start with, then warming gently throughout the day but still with a nip in the air. I managed to find some 'space' today when I squeezed in a short lunchtime bike ride. A shame my time was limited as I'd have loved to have gone further. With the weather improving and the evenings becoming lighter, it will soon be time to get out in the garden and do the tidying that we never did in December because of the snow. I still have loads of twiggy dead-heads to remove but thought I'd take a quick picture of the one below before I did. We're not sure what this plant is, other than it's a bit like a cross between a teazel and a doc leaf, with yellow flowers. The birds love the seeds in the autumn/winter, and groups of ladybirds seem to hibernate amongst the seed heads in the winter.

Having spotted some Goldfinches in a neighbour's garden I am determined to get some in mine. My plan of attack is to place as additional bird feeder in the front garden, near the Buddlleia to give the birds some cover as they flit to and from the feeder, as I think the feeders in the back garden are too exposed ... watch this space.

Snowdrops and punctures

The newly purchased bird food has had some success. A pair of Robins are now frequent visitors, along with Blue Tits, Coal Tits and Long Tailed Tits. The nyger seed however does not seem to have attracted any newcomers whatsoever. The special nyger seed dispenser is quite shiny and catches the light as it blows in the wind, which I'm wondering if it's scaring the birds?

The weather is none too inspiring at the moment but I have managed to force myself to leave the house and get some exercise. Did a great 5 mile walk yesterday after work, and a 12 mile bike ride today. Bike ride was great, even with a puncture, which fortunately I had close enough to home so as not to have to mend it on the roadside. There was plenty of wildlife about during the ride, but of course none of it sat around long enough for a panting cyclist to dismount and get the camera out. However, these snowdrops were not going to get up and run off, so I made myself content with these instead.

Snowdrops on the roadside

Since my last post I have managed to pick up even more CDs inspired by Rob Young's 'Electric Eden' book, including 5000 Spirits by The Incredible String Band, which is a current favourite on the iPod. I'm hoping to be able to track down a few more next week and once again I'm working up in London for 2-3 days.

Being the world's slowest reader, I am struggling to conquer my book mountain. I am still reading 'News From Nowhere' by William Morris, along side 'Electric Eden'. Even reading on the early train into London has become a struggle and I am dozing off more frequently than usual.

Big Garden Birdwatch

It's that time of year again and I'm very much looking forward to this weekend's Big Garden Birdwatch. The kids are now at an age where they can resist running around shouting (although sometimes even at 15 this proves a challenge sometimes). However the biggest challenge for me is to keep the cats inside so they don't scare off the birds.I've printed off the scoresheet so am all ready to go ...

We usually get our fair share of Robins, Long Tailed Tits, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Blackbirds, the occasional Woodpecker and loads of pigeons (the cats can chase off the latter as far as I'm concerned). As well as making sure my feeder was full and cleaned out of all the old mouldy bits, I've also splashed out on some new treats ... let's see what tomorrow brings.

Finally the birds came

After my initial disappointment at, having cleaned and re-fitted the feeds, I can now happily report that the birds have come. Below are a Blue Tit on the fat balls and young Great Tit on the seed cake. I've also spotted a couple of Robins and 4 Long Tailed Tits.

Admittedly not quite Springwatch quality, but I was indoors with a fairly basic camera.

Getting back to the garden

During a recent weekend visit to Wimpole House, we stopped off at the National Trust shop and picked up a couple of books. One is a coffee table bird identification book, the other is Chris Packahm's "Nature Handbook". The kids have yet to pick up either of these books and despite my best intentions to guide them away from their electronic toys I'm losing the battle (having said that they are all at least out doing sport this morning). I've thumbed through both books and the first thing that caught my eye was the commentary about cleanliness and location of bird feeders. After taking a quick look at my feeder I decided it was time for a pre-Spring clean. I scooped away all the remnants of the Christmas stuffing which the birds had not eaten, completely replaced the mould-ridden nuts, and topped up the seeds. What birds could not be attracted by these tempting treats ...

... all of them it would seem at the moment! Hopefully I'll be able to report back with better news later.

In Search of Space - a new blog by dakotaboo

I have been wrestling with the idea of creating a new blog for some months now. I already have 3 reasonably active blogs which cover my interests in music, vintage postcards and vintage books and magazines, but none of these really seem to serve the purpose of my more random/spontaneous/mundane/ordinary (delete as appropriate) musings. So, what you can expect to see in this blog are thoughts and observations based on the other aspects of my life such as mountain biking, travelling, exploring, walking, and general day-to-day life. I've decided to start the blog in a fairly 'raw' state, and add the bells and whistles in later, otherwise I wouldn't be able to lauch it on the first day of the New Year.

I've called it 'In Search of Space' as it fits nicely into my current state of mind. That's not to say I want to get away from everything, I'm treating 'space' here as anywhere new, whether it be a genuine space out in the countryside, or a new part of London that I've only just discovered. Also, it's the name of a pretty darned fine record by Hawkwind.

The New Year has started well with friends over last night to see in the New Year with us. I did catch a few people drinking tea prior to midnight but am finding myself inclining towards that as well these days ... in fact I think that with the various bottles people brought with them we possibly ended up with more alcohol than we started the evening with. We had Jools Holland on the TV to make sure we didn't miss the countdown and I was really pleased to have caught Toot singing 'Monkey Man'. I'd only ever heard the version that the Specials did in the late 1970's so this was a real treat and has now made it on to my ever lengthening wants list.

I managed my first mountain bike ride of the New Year today with an 18 miler over to Kingsclere and back, mainly on the roads as opposed to deeply muddy tracks, but I did manage to cover some new territory, which fits in with my unofficial New Year's resolution - to do something different every day, whether that be as exciting as visiting a new place, or something more sedate like hearing a new song or reading. Also it was really good to see plenty of people out and about ... quite often when I'm out on my bike I'm amazed at how few people I see. I also managed to spot some wildlife ... Red Kites, Buzzards, a lone Kestrel, and various smaller birds too far away to identify.

So that's it for my first blog entry, in this blog anyway. I'm off to watch a couple of episodes of the Goodies that we recorded over the last week or so. I have very fond memories of it as a kid so am hoping it still hits the spot. I wonder what the kids will make of it though, they only know Bill Oddie from Springwatch and the Jeremy Clarkson's Bill Odie speed camera mask on Top Gear.