30 Days Wild: Day 20 - Mankind's future depends on this blog

Right, for once I'm going to put my slightly more serious head on.  This story caught my eye in the news this morning - according to scientists earth has entered a new mass extinction phase.  Now I'm not one for hysteria - my background is in geology so I'm well aware that there have been various mass extinctions throughout the history of the earth most famously, of course, the dinosaurs.

There's no reason for mass panic either, these things take many hundreds of years to happen so if you're reading this you're probably quite safe.  There are a couple of things that make this one unique though, firstly, while mass extinctions have happened before, this one has most likely been triggered by the way we're shamelessly abusing the planet and secondly, even if you don't subscribe to the whole "man is destroying the planet/ global warming thing", now we know it's happening we're smart enough to do something about it, if we choose to.

If you've been following this blog you'll know that for the past week I've been in London desperately seeking out greenery, and it's not easy.  Yes there are a few parks in the centre of town, but not a lot else.  Front gardens all over the city have been paved over to provide parking spaces and other gardens are manicured to within an inch of their life - very pretty but not that great for wildlife.

On our final morning we took a stroll along the Regent Canal and found some folks really trying hard to bring greenery and wildlife to the centre of the city.  We saw narrow boats finely festooned with colourful plants, though there was the odd bit of astroturf and a fake owl.

Flowery loveliness

Astroturf - but at least it's green.

Gratuitous photo of a book shop

Encouraging folks outdoors

It works - people enjoying the sunshine & limited greenery

Fake fish? :-)

Wise but probably plastic.

We desperately need to find a way to help people connect with the natural world.  If thousands of kids are growing up in cities devoid of wildlife, why would they learn to care about it?  It's not important to them because it's not something that surrounds them on a daily basis.  

I grew up in an urban area (Walsall) and it's only over the past 10 years or so that I've really begun to understand more about the nature, trees, birds, plants, wildlife, oceans etc.  The #30DaysWild initiative is a fantastic starting point for helping people understand our role in protecting our environments, as are programmes like SpringWatch, but we need to be doing so much more - seriously, the future of civilization really does depend on it.

Even this small oasis is clearly under threat from yet more concrete...

30 Days Wild: Day 17 - Parking space in London

I found it! A great big lump of greenery in London - this lunchtime I took a walk around Regents Park.  True, the only wildlife was a ferral pigeon and a grey squirrel,  but there was lots and lots of green.

I got chatting to one of the park keepers  - .apparently there's 35 of them keeping this enormous park looking gorgeous - and he was telling me that like so many other government departments,  they're facing cuts.  Such a shame! 

Apart from looking lovely they're free to use - free for kids to run around & enjoy - so important in the middle of a city where opportunities to connect with nature are so few & far between - which I guess is what #30DaysWild is really all about.

30 Days Wild: Day 16 - Blooming London

I've never made any secret of the fact that I'm not a city girl so doing something wild in central London was always going to be a challenge for me - but life would be dull if everything was easy wouldn't it?

Today I needed to visit St Pauls Cathedral to verify that the bollards surrounding it are made of Shap granite - and I'm happy to report that they are.

While I was there & pondering my "something wild" I noticed the rather lovely gardens around the cathedral and decided to explore those.  As I snapped a few pics of the lovely blossoms I spotted a grey squirrel, listened to a blackbird doing his best to be heard over the rush hour traffic and watched the ever present pigeons...

I know it's not the best wild experience ever but I promise I'll try & do better tomorrow. 

30 Days Wild: Day 15 - the air that I breathe

My life is nothing if not varied and after 4 days cycling around Morecambe Bay, today I find myself in a hotel room in a particularly busy part of London.  "London is a city of parks" they tell you - well that may be true but I managed to find a corner with very little green in it.

There may not be much in the way of parks here but there are at least trees, London Plane trees to be precise.  Not only are these trees particularly fine at providing shady cover they're also one of the best trees around when it comes to hoovering Carbon Dioxide out of the air - pretty handy on busy London streets.

I've always loved the way the bark flakes away in patches - I've heard that's something to do with it ridding itself of impurities,  so pretty and functional. I'm sorry there are no pretty or impressive views  of Cumbria or Lancashire today but there are some views of a pretty impressive tree.

2014 A Year of Adventures - Part 2

One of the reasons I love doing these end of year round ups is because I forget quite how much stuff we did - the big things stay in my mind, but a lot of the other stuff slips between the cracks.  We're lucky to have been able to do so much stuff in the first 6 months of the year - the second half was a little but quieter, but only a little bit...

July

July started with us swinging through the trees in Grizedale Forest with those lovely folks from Go Ape.  A lot of zipwires and a lot of Tarzan impressions...

The rest of July was then taken up with rehearsals for my role in the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony.  At the time I couldn't say a lot about what we were rehearsing, but I could say a lot about Glasgow - a spectacular city that we took the time to explore and fall in love with.  The utterly tragic news from just before Christmas really affected me but the folks of that fair city are truly amazing and I know they'll pull together to get through it all.  These are just a few photos which bring back some very happy memories - if you haven't already been, make 2015 the year you visit.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

George Square

Wellington

Glasgow University

Carpet factory modelled on the Doges Palace

Footpath of album covers

Being an "athlete" at the final dress rehearsals for openning ceremony

August

After all that rehearsing came the performance - I will never forget being out on the field with all of the athletes and a packed Hampden Park.  It truly was a "once in a lifetime" experience and I loved every single second of it.

"Music festival" in full swing.

The end of the party - my new friends & a few athletes

Nabbed me a couple of gold medallists.

After all that excitement it was back to normality and a few lovely long walks around Lancashire to get my breath back.  The berries were already turning giving me the perfect excuse for a spot of jam and gin making.

Exploring Calder Vale

Anyone else see the toothy grin?

Sloes...

Damsons

Leck Beck

September

September started with the Vintage Fair in Morecambe - glorious weather and a fly past from Lancaster Bombers.

From there it was a swift trip down to London to see the moving display of poppies at the Tower before meeting Newton Falkner at an event for Gandy's flip flops - all recorded for history with one of the worst photos of me ever taken.

If you're not sure who he is click the pic for his video.

Then it was off to Yorkshire for a week of walking. The evening we arrived the weather was clear - then the fog moved in and refused to move out again for the entire week...

Last view before the fog rolled in.

Super close up of Scarborough Castle

Sheriff Hutton

Sheriff Hutton church - where Richard III's son
is buried.

And after such a long and dry (if everso slightly foggy in places) summer we just had time to pop to Haweswater Reservoir to take a peek at the old village of Mardale Green - flooded when they created the reservoir it appears every now and again when the water levels dropped.  Some of the newspapers at the time described it as an "Atlantis" - not quite, but it was eerie wandering along the long submerged streets and sitting on the ruins of an old farmhouse for lunch.

Oh - an there was Shap Abbey on the way home.

October

The big news in October, which I don't really have a photo for, is that we were approached by a publisher and asked to write a book about Cumbria.  There was a bit of too-ing and fro-ing on content, the upshot of which being that we have now been commissioned to write a book covering the recent, ancient and natural history of 10 sites in Cumbria.  It will be a balance of Steve's gorgeous pics and my mad ramblings and will be available in October 2015 - perfect for next year's Christmas lists!

The book will have lots of Steve's gorgeous pics!

In other news in October, we introduced some very dear friends to Cumbria, explored Stott Park Bobbin Mill, slummed it Hipping Hall for a night and attended our very first spoon club meeting.  Oh, and on 31st of October I stuffed my foot up, thus curtailing hiking activities for the rest of the year...

Gorgeous Cumbrian View

Stott Park Bobbin Mill

Stott Park Bobbin Mill

Spoon club - from this...

...to this.

Hipping Hall - hell - hell on earth I tell you...

Oooooppss!

November

So... things to do with a dodgy foot.  First of all there was Kendal Museum - fascinating and everso slightly brilliantly bonkers!

Kendal Museum

Then there was Kendal Mountain Festival where people with far worse injuries than mine explained how they shrugged them off before hopping up the north face of the Eiger, on stilts whilst juggling flaming torches... or something like that.

Next was a spot of Christmas Card making back at the glorious Quirky Cafe in Greystoke (well I made Christmas Cards, Steve was learning how to blacksmith) - we were even treated to an inversion along the way.

Taken from the M6.

Learning to paint Christmas cards

The Legend of Greystoke

But the MOST exciting thing in November was that Steve finished his challenge of 214 Wainwrights in 214 days in 2014.  We celebrated in style on top of Castle Crag.

A fantastic achievement!

December

And all of that goes some way to explaining how December seems to have come around way too soon again.  At the start of the month there was a quick visit to London where I finally managed a trip to the top of the Monument.- been meaning to do that for ages - there are a LOT of steps to climb but the views from the top are worth every step.  It was built to commemorate the Great Fire of London and is definitely worth a look - it's one of London's quirkier attractions plus you get a step class to boot!

Then on to Glasgow for a reunion with my Commonwealth Games friends and an excuse to explore the Botanical Gardens which we missed last time.  Not every country celebrates the gardens of the world in the same way we do - but where else can you wander around the tropical house in t-shirts in December while the hail pounds down outside?

Love how this captures the energy of the evening.

Back home and it was time to welcome an old friend back to Morecambe Prom - so great to see Eric back where he belongs, and lovely to meet his wife and daughter too.

From old friends to old adversaries and scores to settle.  For 4 years we've been trying to spot the bittern at Leighton Moss and finally we managed it - but was that enough for us?  Oh no - now Steve wants a pic of it in the snow.  Some folks are never satisfied!

Just time for a festive trip to Spoon Club where my hands fared rather better than last time and I managed to create a vaguely festive tree decoration - albeit one a little on the large side.

Christmas with the family meant lots of food, lots of fun and even a sighting of Santa on Christmas eve...

Christmas Eve sunset - complete with Santa zooming past

Of course we found time for a quick hike - at 7 miles it's the longest since I did my foot in, and I paid for it afterwards - but sometimes you just need to stretch your legs. The Chilterns are a little less lumpy than the fells we're used to, but it was a perfect crisp winters day and we definitely made the most of it.

St Giles Church, Chalfont St Giles

Our fabulous year was rounded off with lots of excitement when we found that we'd made the shortlist for the UK Blog Awards and got our pics in the local paper - not quite sure what it all means, but my mum's convinced I'm famous.  :-)

So that's it for 2014 - it's been a cracking year and 2015 has a tough act to follow (if you missed Part 1 it's here).  We have the small matter of writing a book and launching our walking guides to fit in around our adventures, but I'm sure we'll manage it somehow.  Thank you for taking the time to read the blog and may we both wish you a fabulous, fun and adventure filled new year.

Here's to 2015!