I went for a lovely walk in the Forest with my daughter today. We had just finished filling our containers with about 3 lbs of blackberries when my daughter spotted, with her keen hunter’s ear, three Stags, really quite close by. The biggest stood it’s ground and watched us as I slowly got my phone out, switched it on, found the camera app, turned that on and waited for it to warm up and then zoomed in and finally took this picture. Then it decided it had had enough and ran off with the others. It was very dark compared to the one of the others, which was a normal fawn/red deer colour. Very exciting to be so close.
We had the sealed Knot marching through Coleford Town this morning, ready to re-enact the Battle of Coleford from the Civil War. At the time, Parliament was told that the Streets of Coleford ran with blood. Other say there was a bit of a skirmish around the pub!
I went on a lovely, sunny walk in the Forest with my daughter, this afternoon. We went off the beaten track, trying to find the other side of the lake, where my daughter imagines something special hides – we didn’t find it this time.
However we did find a burst balloon hanging from a tree. It’s a message from Katy to Jess who was a good friend who always made her laugh and cry. Unfortunately, I can’t make out any more as the message was written on a self-adhesive label that was wrapped around the string. The message was destroyed as I tried to open it up. I’ve tried photographing it from behind and blending two side of the message together on photoshop, but there is not enough to work on.
Probably a good thing too. It feels like a heartfelt message of loss.
Maybe such messages should be consumed by fire, which will take the meaning up into the heavens with it. Trusting it to a balloon is not safe. Anyone could find it and distort the meaning and sentiment of the message so that if it ever gets to where it was heading, the wrong impression will be given to whoever the message was meant for. Hmm! It there an idea for a story here?
It didn’t snow much this afternoon, but I think there’s more on the way. I went for a walk and found quite a bit of colour in the greyness of a November afternoon. Spindleberries, Crab apples and a snow dusted spider’s web.
We went up north last weekend, to visit Lyme Park, where Mr Darcy swam in the lake in the BBC series of Pride and Prejudice. It’s my daughter’s favourite thing ever, so we trod the ground that Mr Darcy trod, but the weather was terrible for video and it looks too dark.
We stayed over in Buxton, a spa town in the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District. It’s reminiscent of Bath and Cheltenham, but smaller and more compact. Famous for it’s water, Buxton is basically a tourist town. People have come to walk, admire the wild countryside, drink the water and explore it’s cave and geology. As far as I can tell that’s pretty much what still goes on today. Here’s a little video blog.
Well I’m having a lovely time in Guernsey. The sun is shining again today and got a break down by the seaside. I remember as a child reading Enid Blyton stories that always seemed to be set on the cliff-tops
She used to describe the grass as being, “springy turf.” Today, that’s just what I was walking on. She also wrote about pinks flattering on the cliff-tops and sure enough there were a few pinks still in flower today. Real Enid Blyton adventure country.
I had a great flight to Guernsey today, which was marred by the enormous queue at the airport because they only had one X-ray machine open. It was supposed to rain, but it was lovely and sunny when I landed with Paul Dowswell, who is also appearing in secondary schools here this week. It was great to see Simon James later on. He is seeing the KS1 children and I’m seeing all KS2. Off early in the morning to start a packed week. Here is a little bit of video I took on a walk to the harbour, this afternoon.
Yesterday I went for my usual walk in the Forest, but I noticed something different. All around me I heard the sound of acorns crashing through the leaves above me and landing on the ground around me.
I’ve been aware of Acorns falling for the last week or so. But I’ve only seen them lying on the ground. It occurred to me that acorns will fall according to a standard distribution curve. There will be one moment when it might be dangerous to enter an oak wood because the maximum amount of acorns will be falling. If you enter at that time you have the highest chance of being hit by falling acorns.
Some thing should be done! We should employ acorn fall supervisors who can re-route you down safer paths through groves of different trees, which drop their fruits at different times. I suppose I could wear a hard hat.
Walking along the River Wye, I saw this amazing tree that had grown all these roots into the water. It must be very thirsty!
I had a fabulous walk along the River Wye this afternoon. Shortly after diving into the hole in the hedge that denotes the start of the footpath in Lydbrook, we came across a mole scuttling about on the path. He was moving so fast and in such a wriggly fashion, it was hard to get a good picture of him. These pictures are the best I could do!
