I have been in love with nature as long as I can remember. Nature photography, birdwatching, lichens, fossils, orchids, mountains, insects, everything else. Conservation, gardening at home, community gardening. I've loved it all.
Balm to the urban soul … Cherhill Down and monument, taken from the edge of the Iron Age Hill Fort (the White Horse just out of shot, to the right). A view that must stretch for 50 miles. Silence. Space. Sky.
The goose is swimming in the road; the camera position is the pavement which stretches away on the right, though the road junction in the middle distance is flooded. The opposite side of the road is marked by the fence which runs from image centre to upper right. This happens at high spring tides, at least when the Thames Barrier is not operated to prevent damaging flooding.
A sunny day … quiet, calm, the Chiffchaff, Blackcap, and Song Thrushes all singing, the Pussy Willow in glorious fluffy flower by the lake … and we’re allowed out for a proper walk. Another world.
After a dull grey week, suddenly glorious sunshine for a morning’s exercise. Looking from Chiswick Mall along Corney Reach; the tip of Chiswick Eyot, a nature reserve inaccessible at high tide, is on the left.
Yes, I live within easy reach of Kew Gardens, and after weeks of grey winter and grim news, it was a lovely moment in the sunshine among the fabulous variety of Pine trees – dozens of species – in the arboretum.
The gloriously abstract painterly bark of the Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana). It’s more reminiscent of laurels or the London Plane than of the craggy bark of many Pine species. It’s a graceful tree, too.The tightly packed structure of the cone of the Atlas Cedar, a magnificent and elegant tree from the Maghreb hills of Algeria and MoroccoFlowers in January! Yes, it’s a member of the Hamamelidaceae, the Witch-Hazel family, but not one of the usual suspects. This is the Persian Ironwood, Parrotia persica, from Iran and the Caucasus.
The raked gravel “sea”, hand-picked rocks, tiny bridges, marvellously-pruned trees and bushes, and subtle choices of colours and textures (not to mention the monumental gateway) all go to make up the Japanese ideal of garden landscape beauty.
My daily lockdown walk was today in Richmond Park. I was delighted to see a harem group bathing in one of the ponds – the male is lying down centre left, with the females around him. I suppose this must happen most days, but I never saw it before. The scene has a peaceful domesticity about it, as well as being quite wild and free.
The English seem unemotional … except for their passion for nature
