Duck - Bottoms Up!

Friday 30th August 2013

We stood on a bridge over the River Test in Romsey this morning watching the antics of the ducks and swans.  This duck made us laugh as it did it's thing over and over again - his little legs waggled and waggled each time.  Bottoms up!

I have never seen eels in the river before but today we saw two quite long ones squirming around on the bottom of the river.

This is just a quick post as not much else happened, but I had to blog about the duck.

Crawley and Littleton

Bank Holiday Monday 26th August 2013

On a very warm and humid Bank Holiday Monday afternoon we chose an area to cache in where we thought there would be no people and we were right, we only saw two cyclists in just over three miles. We successfully found five geocaches that were very well hidden in amongst bushes and stinging nettles and failed to find one that must have been very well covered in undergrowth. We started out in full sunshine with no shade then went into a wooded shady area where there were lots of these plants glowing brightly amongst the ivy. 

Lords and Ladies - apparently this plant has more folk names than any other British plant. Lords and Ladies refers to the black spots on many of it's leaves recalling the days when the rich wore black beauty spots to cover pimples.  Cuckoo Pint is another of it's names.

Some fields of wheat have been harvested already and some are still looking epic.

Oh right - you'd have a bit of a job on!

The fields of maize are growing nicely.

Next we saw a large group of guinea fowl on the footpath but they soon scattered when they saw or heard us.

Straw bales ready to be transferred to the barn.

Shortly after I had taken this photo a small lizard ran very speedily across the road in front of us and my could it move, it certainly wasn't hanging around for us to admire it.  

Then it was back to a very hot car that was in direct sun - phew, sweltering!!!

Baby Robin

Monday 26th August 2013

We have had robins in the garden on and off for years, but they have never been particularly friendly despite my best efforts to make friends.  However, we are hoping this may have changed as there has been a baby robin around for a few weeks (not the one I blogged about earlier in the summer, that one seems to have gone off elsewhere) who doesn't appear to be bothered by us in the garden.  This morning - we forgot the dreaded watering again last night - whilst watering some young plants the baby robin came within feet of us in search of insects on the wet soil.  He looked so light and agile and very very cute!  He/she didn't go a bundle on the click of the camera so we only took one photo, we didn't want to push our new found friendship! He/she looks a bit tatty but that's just where new feathers are coming through and the distinctive red breast is on it's way. 

Just the best!

Winchester

Sunday 25th August 2013

We had an earlier start today for a walk around Winchester, avoiding the hustle and bustle of the city centre for the backstreets.  We managed to take in ten geocaches, most of which required a certain amount of STEALTH - the usual distractions we use whilst looking for a cache are, looking at bus timetables, pretending to be on the phone, tying up shoelaces etc, we are experts at it!  We came across fascinating little nooks and crannies and some very old buildings that I would have liked to photograph but there were always people around (maybe it would be quieter to go on a weekday). 

The River Itchen

More ducks - standing around.

We then had to find a geocache six feet up in a tree trunk, this was easier said than done as there were plenty of trees to choose from, having narrowed it down to two, we pretended to be inspecting it's bark as another stealth move.  We found that the sycamore tree's bark was covered in ladybirds of all types.

I particularly liked this black ladybird

Harlequin Ladybird larvae

The larvae have almost finished their transformation into harlequin ladybirds.

I have another couple of things I wanted to mention today. On the way to Winchester on a country lane a couple of miles from home I spotted a white peacock sitting on a five bar gate, it was definitely a peacock as it had that distinctive feathery bit on it's head - I was amazed.  This morning on the bird feeder we had a short visit from a nuthatch, this is a bird we see very rarely but it's good to see it when it does pop in.

I have just had a look at today's blog photos and don't they look dull and uninteresting?  Never mind it was raining to start with and the sun never did come through, that's my excuse.

Swans & Ducklings - Guess Where We've Been Again?

Friday 23rd August 2013

Having no imagination today we went for another two and a half mile walk on Southampton Common.  I was expecting it to be busy as it's the school summer holidays but there were less people than usual.  We had a stop to check out the swan family who were all present and correct, in fact they were all chilled out and relaxed with lots of preening and stretching going on.

Just floating around.

There was a fair bit of this leg in the air carry on!

I then noticed another family on the other side of the lake so we went to take a look and look what we found.........

Sitting on a little ledge on the edge of the lake was a family of mallards.  I'm not so sure that the far one was very happy with us!  There were three other ducklings spread out on the ledge and mum was keeping an eye on them all from above.

They are just the cutest things.

The common is a very relaxing place and we spent a pleasant hour there, although it could all get a bit busier and noisier later on as the fair is set up and ready to go.

Beaulieu Road Station

Monday 19th August 2013

Despite it being the school holidays and the height of the tourist season it is still possible to get away from people in the New Forest.  This morning we walked from Beaulieu Road Station and only passed a few people - a few miles away in Lyndhurst it was probably very busy!  Beaulieu Road Station is where regular pony sales take place and it looks like a smart new building is being built to house the sales? http://inewforest.co.uk/beaulieu-road-pony-sales/

We went to find a new geocache that was only published yesterday - we have done most of the caches in the New Forest so it is always good to have a new one to visit. 

Looking across the heather covered heath to Fawley Refinery and Power Station - Hi Adam!!

Near the cache was this apple tree absolutely loaded with apples

The sun had well and truly come out by now and it was getting quite hot but the ponies had the right idea, finding one of the only bits of shade to be had, under the railway bridge.

On the other side of this bridge there is a pen which is used when rounding up the New Forest ponies.

On this pen there are lots of examples of the different brands which are used for marking horses.

Not even the trains rushing by can really disturb the peace.

Taking a bit of a risk and living on the edge this caterpillar was slowly making it's way across the footpath.  I have tried to identify it but I can't find it in my books.

Edited on 20/08/13 The person with brains in this household looked the caterpillar up on the internet and told me it's a Fox Moth caterpillar which apparently feeds on brambles and heather and it was on a path on a heathland covered in heather.

Hockley Viaduct to St Cross (Winchester)

Sunday 18th August 2013

Today's three mile walk was from the disused Hockley Viaduct to St Cross in Winchester, along the River Itchen.  

The Hockley Viaduct (just before a heavy shower of rain).

Luckily we had taken our coats as shortly after taking this photo we had a short sharp shower of rain.  We sheltered for a while under an old tree, but even then the rain got through so we gave up and walked on.

Rain!!! (on a pond)

The Hospital of St Cross.

We walked past the Hospital of St Cross http://stcrosshospital.co.uk/ then came across a tree with very funky fruits - I think it's a lime tree of some sort.

Lime tree fruits.

The River Itchen.

We returned via a posh footpath (which follows the route of the old A33 before the M3 was built) alongside the Itchen Navigation in the shadow of St Catherine's Hill and back to the Hockley Viaduct.  We walked  up onto the viaduct which has recently been done up as a cycle friendly path with lowered walls tomake the most of the views.  http://www.railwayramblers.org.uk/news/13news/13hockley.htm

A bit of blue sky up on the viaduct where we found a sneaky small geocache.

Looking down from the viaduct onto the field in which we sheltered from the rain earlier.

 Back at the car we saw these lovely teasels alongside the footpath.

Fritham Plain, Heather and Bees

Friday 16th August 2013

We had a three mile walk this afternoon across Fritham Plain in the New Forest.  We haven't been out in the Forest for a couple of weeks and in the meantime the heather has well and truly come out. There was a carpet of pink across the plain and if we stood still the only sound we could hear was buzzing bees - I thought there was a bit of a shortage of bees at the moment, well there most certainly was no shortage here today!!!

Just imagine buzzing and you're there!

We took a short detour to have a look at Green Pond, I don't know about pond, it was more like Green Dried Up, even the animals looked a bit fed up, especially the black cow in the dried up mud.  Doesn't everything look dull and dry?

Green 'Pond'

Another thing I noticed today was the Rowan trees, (are also known as Mountain Ash) which are covered in bright orange berries.  I expect to see berries at the end of September and into October so it was a surprise to see these today - I don't suppose I have noticed how early they are before (another benefit of keeping a blog).

Rowan berries.

Southampton Common - Swan Family Update from 20/6/13

Thursday 15th August 2013

Back on June 20th we came across a family of swans on the Boating Lake on Southampton Common, this is the family back then.

Mum, Dad and five cygnets.

Since then we have been back to the Common a few times and have seen the cygnets gradually getting bigger.  This is the family today.

Still Mum, Dad and five cygnets!

How good is it that the whole family is still on the Common and doing so well?  Whenever we walk on the Common there are always people feeding them or taking photos of them.  I hope they continue to do as well.  Another thing that seems to be doing well is the horrible weed on the lake, it doesn't cover it, it's mainly around the edges, but the swans don't seem bothered by it.

Lepe Beach & Cowes Week 2013

Tuesday 6th August 2013

This week it's Cowes Week, the world's largest sailing regatta based at Cowes on the Isle of Wight.   http://www.cowes.co.uk  Races are held daily on the Solent (providing there is enough wind!) and there is plenty of entertainment on dry land too.  As today was forecast to be one of the best days of the week we headed to Lepe Beach overlooking the Solent, where in many previous years we have had an excellent view of the yachts racing.  Armed with a picnic and everything necessary for a beach day out we were hoping for some great photo opportunities, unfortunately the weather had other ideas and apparently racing was cancelled due to a lack of wind - hmmmmmml!!! One year when we were watching the yachts there were all manner of problems as they got into trouble and needed rescuing because it was too windy.  Hey ho, the good old unpredictable British summer weather. 

Never mind, it was a lovely hot day so we had a walk and then relaxed on the beach for a couple of hours.

There were quite a few yachts about, just not racing and only in the distance basically going no where fast!

  Lepe played an important part in the D-Day Landings and the wartime evidence can be seen on the beach and on the shoreline

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/countryside/lepe/lepe-history.htm

King John's House - Romsey

Monday 5th August 2013

After visiting the chiropractor and dodging a heavy  shower of rain I had a quick look around the garden of King John's House in Romsey.  It's another place with quiet nooks and crannies and it's very well kept and traditional.

With Romsey Abbey just visible in the background.

Perhaps I will come back again when the sun is shining.