I’ve been distracting myself from short gloomy days with trees. Today I go back to visit my favourite tree in Gipsy Hill, this Foxglove-tree, Paulownia tormentosa. Why do I care about this tree? Well, it’s next to an Indian Bean Tree, Catalpa bignonioides, and both the London Tree Map (https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/environment/parks-green-spaces-and-biodiversity/trees-and-woodlands/london-tree-map) and the Tree Talk map […]

Today I’ve treated myself to a visit to Kew Gardens and I’m exploring the plants and a variety of weeds round the evolution garden despite the unremitting drizzle. The delicate pale pink and crimson flower spike of a fumitory catches my eye in a corner of rough grass and I inwardly groan. The difficulties of […]

Breathe deeply, all quiet, big open space, sun-brushed reeds. Well almost quiet, if I ignore the high speed trains belting past and the clanging of a bulldozer echoing across the estuary. The volunteer on the gate of Rainham marshes reserve was apologetic about the one way system in operation but it means I barely see […]

It’s almost impossible to ignore trees at this time of year, not that you’d want to I imagine. But as well as enjoying the autumn colour, I’m taking time to notice the unfamiliar trees in the estate where I live and in our local park. I’ve walked past this one just behind our house almost […]

Maybe I’m obsessing a bit about sedges and rushes at the moment but I risk a trip in half-term to the London Wetland Centre to see what else I can find. I have to fight my way through families to escape into the quieter Wildside where I find what I think are the last few […]

I’m itching for a botanical adventure this morning and set off for Bushy Park in far distant west London. My mission is simple; to soak up some sun and look for rushes and sedges. Like Richmond Park, Bushy Park is home to free-roaming deer, but as soon as I’m through the entrance I sense they […]

A pal of mine Jane wrote a great piece recently in which she talks about the smell of ivy flowers making her think about ivy bees. I’m not sure if it’s good or bad that I haven’t yet seen ivy bees in Sydenham Hill Wood. The nature jury’s out on what this fairly new arrival […]

I’m hiding behind an ancient oak tree. It’s all gone very quiet. Then I hear a low grunt and when I peek round, five metres away on the other side of the trunk a red deer stag is carefully lowering himself into the bracken. He sits gasping for breath in the October sun. A few […]