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On the weekend of 16/17 May I was involved in two local nature walks. The first - on Saturday 16th was organised by the Friends of Queen Mary’s Park as part of the 100th birthday celebrations for Sir David Attenborough, and was led by David Warburton, Senior Biodiversity Officer for the London Borough of Sutton. Following It made a nice change to be there purely as a participant - no…
Spring butterflies haven't been showing up for me much lately in my local park. After an early March flurry, things have slowed down, maybe its the weather? It’s certainly been a bit more overcast and windier lately. As I walked around the park today - things were quiet again - and tucked away in the silence I spied a Song Thrush, watching over the park. Noiselessly hidden among the branches, so…
March 31st 2026. Here we stand on the precipice of April, and I find myself, for the first time in my 60 years, having walked in excess of 400km in a single calendar month. I enjoy my walking, to knock on the door of 300km in any month is not uncommon, but March 2026 has seen me cover some distance. Why? I expect it may have something to do with my recent decision to stand as a Green Party…
Notes from a walk along a section of The Wandle Trail, from Carshalton, to Morden Hall Park.
The farm tracks are wet from last night’s rain Fallen leaves wearing their raindrop glossy coats It’s gloomy – mild for the time of year The clouds push in, and I see Autumn shades smudging into the grey landscape Aside from an occasional whirr and chat from the hedgerow sparrows And the high distant silhouette of a gull and a pigeon, the birds are absent I pass two people talking, one out walking…
The weather is currently playing with us. Much missed downpours interspersed with long periods of warm sun. Is Autumn here yet? It’s certainly knocking on the door, and before we let it in - there’s some field work wrapped in an adventure that we need to undertake. And so it was that last Friday, Carole and I took a pair of binoculars, a camera, a packed lunch and headed to Barnes to spend much of…
‘Alhalker Country’
I’ve just completed a 21.5km out and back walk from home to Morden Hall Park. The ‘purpose’ of the walk - other than to spend time in nature, was to gather materials for a one-off artists book I’m making, using found materials to describe the route from Oaks Park to Morden Hall via The River Wandle. My time on the trail was a mix of birdsong, butterflies, damselflies, dragonflies, unexpectedly…
After a couple of days of meetings and research up in Manchester, I returned home on Sunday afternoon and took advantage of the fine weather in our neighbourhood to take a slow wander and record a few more butterfly sightings on the last day of The Big Butterfly Count. It was a truly lovely walk through Queen Mary’s Park and beyond, with several highlights, including this Small Copper taking a…
It’s 8am, the sun is pushing weakly through cloud cover. All is quiet at Hutchinson's Bank, a nature reserve situated on the Croydon/Kent borders, about 8 miles from where I live. I don’t typically travel far to get my nature fix - preferring to walk in and around my immediate neighbourhood, but this is a special place, worth jumping in the car for. I begin my walk, making my way into the reserve,…
