OK - I'm cheating today but that's because I'm in the throws of a nasty summer cold and still having to go into work - the joy of freelancing! (In truth I really have lost my voice & tomorrow's Interview Skills course looks likely to be delivered via the medium of interpretive dance.)
After a long and busy day there's nothing like the final stretch of my journey home to help me reconnect with nature. Morecambe Bay is spectacular - especially on an evening like this. From the train window I usually spot a variety of ducks and waders, little egrets, herons, bunnies, sheep and, as we arrive into Grange the house martins are zipping by overhead.
So, as I lie here coughing & spluttering, sit back and enjoy the ride from Arnside to Grange-over-Sands. :-)
I love to use public transport and walk to clients from the nearest station whenever I can, which often leads to some interesting conversations as I inevitably discover a park or a greenway which they were previously unaware of or had forgotten about.
Today was no exception as I escaped London for the day, headed to Cosham & took a lovely 20 minute stroll through the sunshine to a business meeting. There were some lovely stands of poplars along the way and a good assortment of other trees, including a very fluffy one that I couldn't identify but which was showering the park with a fine layer of soft white down that the black headed gulls were padding around in.
Though there were fewer hills than I'm used to there was a gorgeous chalk escarpment rising up to the north - the start of the South Downs?
Walking is such a great way to learn about places, discover nature and keep fit - and I always arrive at my business meetings in a better frame of mind if I've had a nice stroll beforehand, even if that does mean that some clients think I'm everso slightly bonkers.
I'm getting in early today & with a good deed too. I hate litter. I mean I *really* hate litter. It messes up the local area & has a massive impact on wildlife globally. Take a look here to see what I mean.
The top pic is the view from my training room window today. It looks lovely so I nipped out to commune with the ducks and but it was hard to get a clear photo at first due to all the litter - so I did my good deed & cleared it up.
It doesn't take much to just pick up a bit of litter instead of just moaning about it, and if we all did just a tiny bit each things will begin to look a whole lot better.
And nice that the ducks came over to say thank you. :-)
I said this would be a busy month & today I'm off on my travels. I'm heading down to Wokingham and won't be back until very late on Tuesday so before I headed off I took a wander around the garden.
If, like me, you're not what could be called a keen gardener then 2 things probably cross your mind as you wander along. "That's pretty, I wonder what it is" and "I really need to do some weeding. " (The 3rd thing is usually "one day I'll be really rich & be able to afford a gardener. ")
Anyway - here's a few pics of my backyard safari - if nothing else they remind me of home when I'm away. The first few are the wild & notso wildlife...
You know when you've been meaning to do something for ages and then finally get around to it? Well a year or so ago we paid a visit to Go Ape in Grizedale Forest to make like Tarzan and whiz along their 7 enormous zipwires (you can see what happened here) - at the time we swore we'd be back to give the Segways a go and it only took us a year to get around to it. (Which is pretty good for us, our vegetable patch has been in production for 2 years now and counting.)
Segways are unique contraptions that look like the sort of thing Harry Potter and Prof. Pat Pending* might have sketched on the back of a fag packet after one too many beers. Or the sort of thing you might idly make out of Lego when all you can find is one of those bricks with 2 wheels in it and a pipe cleaner. Either way they are strange and magical devices.
After putting the fear of god into us during the safety briefing the Go Ape guys let us loose on their training track. If you've never tried a Segway before it's a little unnerving at first but they honestly could not be simpler to ride - you move your weight to the balls of your feet to go forwards and shift it to your heels to go slow and stop; turning is done by a little leaning and the use of the handlebars. So long as you have the ability to stand upright & weigh over 7 stone (I was hurt they didn't check my weight...they could have at least pretended...) there is no reason at all you couldn't use one.
Gorgeous views over Grizedale Forest
Fully embracing our #30DaysWildchallenge we listened hard as we whizzed through the forest and picked out willow warblers and blackbirds singing in the nearby trees and spotted a number of swifts darting around the woodland edges. We also noticed a buzzard away in the distance which led me to my new wildlife fact of the day (ta daaa): the collective noun for a group of buzzards is a "wake" (and if you don't want to waste most of your afternoon looking up other strange and unusual collective nouns, don't click here.)
The road is looooong, with maaaaany a winding turn...
The great thing about this Segway experience is that it really makes the most of the fantastic woodlands and amazing views along the way. We weren't blessed with the best of weather and the views out across the forest were still spectacular.
I wonder why we didn't spot any red deer..? #stealthmode
I will give you a couple of words of warning though. Firstly wear something warm as you'll essentially be standing still for an hour- that little bit of tilting doesn't exactly get the blood pumping. And secondly, if you video yourselves, be prepared for disappointment - I swear we were going SO much faster than this video suggests (or maybe it just feels faster when you're clutching a thin metal stick attached to a Lego brick powered by magic).
The local cows were stunned by our break neck speed and mastery of the Segways...
As we made our way back down the hillside we got wild again and screeched to a halt (slowed to a gentle stop) to check out a waterfall which was in fine fettle following the torrential overnight rain.
Once safely back at base we were issued with our shiny certificates and headed off for a well earned hot chocolate and a bacon roll where we debated how long it would take us to come back and try out the Tree Top Adventure. My money is on a year at least - who knows, we might even have some home grown vegetables by then. Well, maybe...
(And if you want to follow in our sedate wheel tracks - or go a little speedier & show us how it's done you can book now atgoape.co.uk/forest-segwayor call 0845 643 9236.
#ShareAdventure)
* For those too young to know who Prof. Pat Pending is...
Today The Wildlife Trusts have launched their 30 Days Wild campaign with the aim of encouraging all of us to do something wild every single day throughout June. Not wild in a "I got legless drunk and threw a TV set threw a window" way, more in a "I'm connecting with the wild things in nature" way
I'll be honest, so far as I'm concerned they could have picked a better month. This June is possibly the busiest month I have ever had and over the course of the next 30 days I'll be visiting Grizedale, Kendal, Leyland, Alston Hall, Wokingham, Leighton Moss, London (for a week), Portsmouth, Penrith and Wigan for work purposes and the occasional bit of enjoyment. We'll also be spending 4 days cycling the entire route around Morecambe Bay for the launch of the new Morecambe Bay Cycle Way. Oh, and the deadline for our book is 30th June plus it's my birthday on the 18th June so there'll be at least one day with a hangover.
View from the scopes at Foulshaw Moss
I'll be blogging every day for the entire month to chart our wild encounters - some large, some small - to prove that whatever you're doing and wherever you are, you can make time and space in your life for nature.
Today I'm starting small and simple with something you can do from your desk or sofa - Cumbria Wildlife Trust have set up an "Osprey Cam" on the osprey nest in Foulshaw Moss. Most days you can visit the reserve to get a view through the manned scopes on the viewing platforms, but right now, wherever you are, you can click on this link to see live footage streamed directly from the nest. It's well worth watching too, in the past 24 hours 2 chicks have hatched from the 3 eggs laid and while mum is busy protecting them from the wind and rain dad goes out hunting for food and occasionally hides out in his roosting tree ("man shed") nearby.
If you're new to osprey watching check out their handy "Know your osprey"blog and take a peek at the footage below to see the moment we discovered there were three eggs.
Tomorrow we'll be going wild on Segways with Go Ape in Grizedale Forest so watch this space for red squirrels, gorgeous views and possibly the occasional bruise...
OK - I'm cheating today but that's because I'm in the throws of a nasty summer cold and still having to go into work - the joy of freelancing! (In truth I really have lost my voice & tomorrow's Interview Skills course looks likely to be delivered via the medium of interpretive dance.)
