Despite being off work for half term, I've not actually had a great deal of time to myself so the weekdays have been pretty quiet on the wild front, with the exception of Wednesday when I did a day of Wildplay with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.
It was a rainy day, the path to the woods was thick with mud and we all went home filthy! We had a campfire, den building, slack line, clay, a trail, bug hunting... standard Wildplay activities.During my lunch break, I stood next to a tree and watched this goldcrest hopping around for a few minutes.
The ground at the edge of woods was covered in tiny sycamore shoots.
Thursday was a good day for staying indoors. The day Storm Doris passed over the UK. I had a lot to do at home anyway but in the afternoon, I was keen to get a bit of fresh air so headed out (not for long though!) and took a few photos. Luckily for me, my trip out coincided with a few calmer moments in the day. The lanes were littered with large branches than had been ripped from trees and a few trees were down too. There was a lorry blown over near Flash too, but then that happens quite often without stormy weather so wasn't really a surprise! This was the view over the reservoir towards the rocks.
On Friday the sun was shining but it was still rather windy. I went out in the afternoon for a mooch on the moors above Home. I didn't see any curlews but they'll soon be back, they start arriving at this time of year. The next day I saw it reported that first 1 on Wednesday, then 2, then 17 at the end of the week have been spotted at the reservoir.
I have a lot of favourite trees and these are two of them. I often think about starting a monthly tree series with these two!
Yesterday was damp and windy but I decided on a walk around Ilam. I knew the route I wanted to do and set off, through the churchyard...
Down past another favourite tree...
and over the bridge...
Only to discover that all the paths I wanted to walk were closed thanks to Doris and strong winds. Another path was blocked by a tree and deemed unsafe due to rocks potentially falling. It started to rain quite heavily at this point but I wandered a little more before giving up.
I didn't venture out at all on Sunday. I had a pyjama day as the weather was very windy and showery again and I fancied a quiet day at home before back to school day tomorrow!
How was your weekend?
The shots of the goldcrest and the sycamore shoots are just lovely! A really nice selection of wild moments here Louise. I haven't ventured out much this week so need to rectify this this week! Love those snowdrops too. Hope first week back at school goes OK for you too! - Tasha
ReplyDeleteGreat selection of photographs and I especially love those snowdrops.
ReplyDeleteStorm Doris wasn't too bad for us - but now they are talking about Storm Ewan.
Good wishes for the month of March
All the best Jan