Nature Diary #1

My walk to the lake 

Dear Friends & Family

Since my last blog, our worlds have been turned upside down and we are now in a lockdown situation, isolated from our nearest and dearest and virtually unable to leave our homes, except for essential reasons.

I am very lucky in that I can get into the country from where I live, for my one allowed walk a day, so I have decided to keep a Nature Notebook of all the things I spot as I walk, to share with you. At the end of the day, Nature still does what it does, in its appointed season, despite what is going on in the human world, and it might help you to focus on something other than the doom and gloom surrounding us.

I will try to write a blog more frequently at this time, so that you can follow the progress of the seasons with me.

My daily walk takes me along a track, skirting several fields with patchy hedgerows, to a flooded disused railway cutting that is (rarely now) used as a fishing lake. There is a path all around the lake, although almost impassable on one side when the growth gets lush. On this side of the lake is an enormous badger sett, that extends into the field beyond. I have tried going at a different time each day, to see if there is a variation in what I see.

The fishing lake from the western end

21^st March 8.30am.

The morning is bright and sunny with a cold east wind and, as I turn the corner on to the track, the low sun and bitterly cold wind make my eyes water so much that it is impossible to look up and see around me, but I hear a skylark trilling away high up somewhere and the distinctive call of chaffinches in the nearby trees. A couple of blackbirds burst from the hedge and fly off calling out the alarm. As I get to the lake I disturb a heron fishing for its breakfast and it flies off on lazy wings to land by the stream a field away. As I walk along the lake path I hear a commotion on the water and turn in time to see a cormorant, feet flailing on the surface, as it tries to lift itself up and away – another breakfast disturbed! On the far side of the lake the bank is a mass of primroses and there are the first few flowers of blackthorn emerging in the more sheltered parts of the hedge. In the hedge bases are the new leaves of ‘Lords & Ladies’ and Dog’s Mercury, as well as the ubiquitous Stinging Nettle. I see no animals today, but there is an old maize cob outside the badger sett (badgers do love maize!) and fresh deer footprints in the soft mud.

The bank of primroses by the lake

22^nd March 12.30pm

Today is bright and sunny again with a more gentle, but still easterly, breeze.

Today I actually see the skylark, fluttering high up over the stubble field and singing its heart out – such a joyous sound! On the far side of the next stubble field I can make out three roe deer, grazing on the grassy field margin, and the local buzzard mews plaintively as he takes to the air from his perch in an alder tree by the stream. As I approach the lake I disturb the heron again – he’s going to get very fed up with me! There are a couple of mallard drakes on the water that take off, quacking indignantly, when they spot me. I think there are more blackthorn blossoms out today and the elder trees are coming into leaf. When I get back to my own domain I notice that the greengage and peach tree, that I am growing in pots, are in flower and the two young apple trees that I brought back from Oswestry are bursting into leaf! I’m sure this is all far too early and they are going to regret it!

23^rd March 9.00am

Today is warm and sunny and I go off to, what turns out to be, my last gardening job – so no walk today. The garden where I am working  has masses of daffodils and cultivated primroses which attract some large bumble bees and a Peacock Butterfly. These are probably over-wintered individuals making the most of the early nectar and unseasonable warmth. In fact the weather is not really that unseasonable – we quite often get a week in late March that is warm and sunny and fools us into thinking that the good weather has arrived. A few years ago, when I still had the smallholding, we were expecting our sheep flock to start lambing in late March, so I took a week’s holiday to be around. The weather was gorgeous and I spent the entire week up in our field watching the sheep and enjoying the warmth and sunshine – needless to say, not a single ewe lambed until I went back to work the following week!

24^th March – this is a complete blank – I know I went for a walk to the lake, but failed to make any notes! I can only assume that nothing of particular note was seen!

25^th March 6pm

The weather today was again warm and sunny with very little breeze. I decided to try and conduct a badger watch this evening, so waited until the sun was low in the sky before setting off – my shadow was really long and thin, dancing along in front of me! As I came to the first stubble field, I startled a hare that shot off across the field in a loping run. My presence also spooked Mr Buzzard who took off and flew across the field to his preferred perch in the alder trees by the stream. When I got to the lake I quietly sat down on the ground close to the water and prepared for a long wait. I’d put on my tweed jacket and my brown work trousers so that I blended into the background a bit and pulled a green beanie low down on my head. There were moorhens pootling about in the reeds to my left and the two mallard drakes were swimming about to my right, so I didn’t dare move a muscle. Magpies and wood pigeons were flying about, preparing to roost for the night and, as the sun went down the bird sounds gradually stilled. Eventually, all that could be heard was the occasional call of a moorhen and the splash of fish jumping. I was sitting opposite the main badger earth works and slightly below the far hedge line where there is a well-defined badger path, so I was hopeful that I would see something. Gradually the light leached out of the sky and I could just make out a few rabbits on the hedge path silhouetted against the lighter sky. Suddenly I became aware of movement just below the badger sett, but it didn’t look like a badger, so I kept really still and waited. After a short time an adult roe deer emerged and walked casually along the far bank, completely oblivious to my presence – it must have only been 30 yards away – beautiful!. I had now been sitting still for nearly 2 hours on chilly ground with the temperature plummeting and darkness closing in, so I decided that no badgers were going to present themselves this evening and stiffly got up and made my way home. I may try this again at some point.

Part of the badger earthworks facing the lake

26^th March 2.30pm

Another warm and sunny day, with not a cloud in the sky – without all the con trails, the sky seems a deeper blue than usual. There was hardly any bird song as I walked along – I’ve noticed this before, that birds seem to take a bit of a siesta for a couple of hours in early afternoon! I spotted two roe deer lying in the shade of the hedge on the far side of the second stubble field, but there was little else out and about. I saw Peacock and Red Admiral Butterflies doing their courtship dances above the field and, on my return from the lake, the skylark was up and singing. I did, however meet 3 humans out for their exercise, so have decided not to walk at this time again!

Preparations for the bonfire

27^thMarch

I didn’t go out for a walk today as I was mainly having a bonfire and planting vegetable seeds!

After the bonfire! 

28^th March 7.00am

Another bright and sunny day, but with a vicious north-easterly wind.

I looked like Nanook of the North when I went out today, as I could tell that the wind was stronger than yesterday and coming from a very cold direction. Obviously, most of the wildlife had decided to stay in bed for a bit longer today, as I didn’t see much on my walk to the lake. I realise that there are at least two skylarks in the area as they were both up and singing at the tops of their voices – I even managed to spot them silhouetted against the blue sky. I heard a chaffinch and several cock pheasants and there were lots of wood pigeons out and about. When I got to the lake I could hear the distinctive song of a chiff chaff but, as it is a small, shy brown bird, I had no luck spotting it. I thought the lake was pretty much deserted until I got to the more reedy, far end when there was an sudden eruption of frantic splashing and Mr Heron shot into the air in a total panic! Because of the direction of the wind he hadn’t heard me approaching until I was nearly upon him – another disturbed breakfast! Apart from that and a few windswept crows I didn’t see anything else.

The path on the south side of the lake

Stormy February

February has sloshed its soggy way into history and here we are in March!

I spent most of February in Cheltenham with Mum, but managed a day’s catch-up with my old school friend, Madeleine, who lives at Royal Wootton Bassett. We had not been in touch at all until a few years ago when we both attended a school reunion, here in Cheltenham, and then became friends on Facebook. I think it surprised both of us how quickly we fell back into friendship and Facebook has enabled us to keep in contact, even though we have only met up twice in the intervening years. I got there at about coffee time and we were still nattering at about 7pm, with hardly a pause for breath! Even then we hadn’t exhausted our topics of conversation – to be continued soon, I hope.

School Reunion 2015

Cheekily, I also contacted my first boyfriend, who still lives in the Cheltenham area, and we met up for lunch. We’d met up for coffee about four years ago but before that we hadn’t seen each other since my sister’s wedding back in 1978! It was good fun reminiscing about our teenage years and trying to fill in all the gaps since – an impossible task in one lunchtime, but we gave it our best shot!

In the middle of February I had arranged to return home for a long weekend to run my stall at the Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival, but Storm Dennis had other ideas and, for safety reasons, the market part of the Festival was cancelled, but I’d already made plans for the days either side of the weekend, so came back anyway. My route across the Cotswolds bore sad marks of the storm’s destruction, with many large branches lying at the side of the road and, in places, huge trees hastily cut into piles of logs.

Tiny dormouse in a wooden pot

I had made a few snowdrop sculptures specifically for the market and had resigned myself to putting them into stock until next year but, when I gave my second talk to Mum’s Luncheon Club, I took some of my sculptures with me as part of a display of woollen items (my talk was all about wool and its varied uses), and was very gratified to sell some items, including my prize-winning kingfisher and a tiny dormouse in a wooden box, plus two of the snowdrops. I must look into getting on the speaker circuit in my neck of the woods, as it could prove quite profitable, and I really enjoy doing it.

Snowdrops at Rendcomb

Mum has always loved snowdrops and the first signs of Spring and, when she was still driving, would make a point of taking a friend or two to see the streamside snowdrops in a garden at Rendcomb near Cirencester so, one afternoon, when it was (amazingly) dry and bright, we drove over to see them. They are an absolute delight and, although they are in a private garden, you get a wonderful view of them from the little bridge over the River Churn. We didn’t think we would get another chance to see drifts of snowdrops as the wet, windy weather continued to pound the countryside but right at the end of February, when a lot of the snowdrops were over, we finally got a clear, bright afternoon and drove over to North Cerney House (again near Cirencester) where we wandered through the Snowdrop Walk, beneath the trees, and saw Hellebores, Snowdrops and tiny yellow Daffodils before going into the Walled Garden where there was lots of work going on, pruning the fruit trees and roses.

On exiting the grounds I asked Mum what would happen if we turned right at the end of the driveway, instead of going left and back onto the main road. ‘We get lost’ she said, so we did! Mum had actually been that way before, so we weren’t truly lost, but we were well off the beaten track as we went up hill and down dale on narrow Cotswold lanes. As we drove along we spotted a kestrel, a pair of buzzards, a red kite, pheasants, partridges and a cheeky squirrel with a huge maize cob in his mouth, so it pays to go ‘off piste’ sometimes!

We finally managed to tie the plumber down to a date when he will come and start the shower room but, unfortunately, it will not be until the last week in March when I will be back in Somerset trying to get back on track with my gardening jobs and regular markets. I think we now have everything bought to enable him to do the job, but time will tell.

Needle-felted Kingfisher sculpture