I look up at the sound of a Jay chucketing. In an Ash tree on the edge of a sky pond, a well-grown fledgling is insisting it’s still hungry and its parent delivers. Raindrops hurtle down to me. It’s disorientating but astonishing. We take drops of water falling out of the sky for granted. Knowing […]
And an account of another wonderful visit here
I’m really pleased with the look of my article in Devon Life published today… This was a difficult commission to meet because my plan to visit the reserve was scuppered by lock-down… Luckily I managed to find some incredibly generous local resident experts, Martin Batt, Mary Breeds and Paul Madgett, who know the site very […]
I’ve been incredibly lucky with the weather for my 29 visits so far. So it’s ironic that for today, the 30th one, it’s drizzling. That suits me fine for what I’m hoping to see today at this site which is a combination of chalk grassland and woodland. As I pick my way through the wet […]
At the far end of Hutchinson’s Bank is a triangular chalky woodland. I walk over moss and into a clearing where White Bryony and Wild Strawberry scramble through the Dog’s Mercury across the mossy floor.
So a small number of the green spaces I’ve visited have been closed. There’s a different challenge with Farm Bog on Wimbledon Common – it’s very difficult to find. I resort to trying out a number of small paths which go south from Robin Hood ride and seem to be going in the direction of […]
Hillcrest Wood is on the other side of Sydenham Hill ridge from Sydenham Hill Wood and is where the the old rail line to the Crystal Palace emerges from the tunnel. This small but precious green space narrowly escaped development in 2018 when Lewisham Council in the from of Lewisham Homes withdrew a planning application […]
Delighted that LWT have accepted my guest blog and, even better, have turned me into an Ox-eye daisy. https://www.wildlondon.org.uk/blog/amanda-tuke/30-green-places-30-days-wild
I’m back to my local patch for number 26 and it’s the perfect time to enjoy the deep pink spikes of Rosebay Willowherb flowering alongside the old railway bed. This feels appropriate as I see it so often growing along rail tracks in this part of London. A nickname for this flower is Bombweed as […]
I’ve been down to the church tower a few times over the last week, but didn’t get a glimpse of the kestrels nesting there until Friday when I was without binoculars and camera. I thought I could just make out an adult and two young ones. This morning I set off down Cox’s Walk to […]
