Millyford Bridge

Friday 19th July 2013

It's still very hot and muggy but despite this we had a walk of nearly four miles this morning at Millyford Bridge near Lyndhurst.  There isn't much to report on, the forest was really quiet, even the birds were silent - too hot for everyone and everything I reckon.  The River Blackwater was at the lowest I think I have ever seen it.  At Christmas we had a family Christmas picnic and duck race at the same point, and the water level has significantly gone down.

The River Blackwater December 2012.......

....... and the same spot today.

Taken looking back to where the last photo was taken - mid morning.

This dead tree looked quite epic against the blue sky.

We came across a man bird watching, apparently he thought he might have heard a wood warbler but I couldn't hear anything and neither could he once he had spoken to us and no doubt we had scared it right off!  Shortly after this we came across this young adder on the gravel path, well to be honest we didn't find it, a couple of walkers were taking photos of it as we passed them.  When we first saw the snake it was in a strike type pose with it's head up and very alert - I think this was possibly because the other walkers had two dogs that were keen to take a look (they did put the dogs back on leads).  By the time we had the camera out the adder was on the move into the undergrowth.

A young adder.

The only other animals we saw were ponies, all keeping cool under the trees, I can't say I blame them, as out in the open in the sunshine it was sweltering, luckily there was a fair bit of shade along the route we took.

We had a previous walk at Millyford Bridge that I blogged about on 9th February 2013, when it was snowy and freezing, a bit different to today!

Go! Rhinos - Southampton City Centre

Wednesday 17th July 2013

Today in the incredible heat my daughter and I went to see about a third of the rhinos that are currently dotted around Southampton.  Marwell Wildlife has brought Go! Rhinos, a world class, community based, mass public art event to the streets of Southampton.  From 13 July to 22 September, the city is being invaded by a herd of rhinos, charging through it's streets and parks.  Raising the profile of rhinos and the conservation work that Marwell carry out has been a key part of the project.

I realise this may be stretching the nature notes and observations a bit, but it was well worth a decent walk in the heat and they are observations!

West Quay Shopping Centre

Bargate Northside

Bargate Southside

Holy Rood Church

St Michaels Church (painted by mouth & foot artist Tom Yelland)

Western Esplanade by the Old Walls

Westgate Hall by the Old Walls

Western Esplanade Corner (with epic rhinos hanging off of cranes)

Mayflower Memorial

The Wool House (with the Red Funnel Terminal and Town Quay behind)

Town Quay (with the docks in the background)

Town Quay Park

High Street

Houndwell Park

At this point I realised our parking ticket was about to run out so we had to leave the trail for today.  More to follow some time between now and September!

Goodworth Clatford - Near Andover

Tuesday 16th July 2013

For the past two weeks it has been far too hot for walking - at least for me it has.  Today however we decided to get on with it and get out despite the heat.  Back eighteen months ago we visited this area to do part of a circuit of geo-caches and today we came back to finish off the circuit.  We managed to successfully find seven and didn't find one (it was too hot to spend too long searching high and low!!!) on a four mile walk.  We found the first few caches in the village itself, a lovely quiet pretty place.  We then walked through farmland, alongside rivers and back to the village.

A field of wheat coming along nicely.

Wheat close up.

Through a tree lined archway to the heat haze.

 It's funny but very often if we are walking alongside a river there are weeds floating down it, well today we found a man at work actually clearing the weeds in the River Anton.

The next good looking crop we came across was barley.

Lunch at the Royal Oak in Goodworth Clatford was absolutely delicious!

A perfect seed head.

We headed for close to the village church to find a geocache and as it was so hot we popped into the church for a cool off.  The stained glass windows were amazing in the sunlight.

Late Sunday Evening Walk

Sunday 7th July 2013 - 100th Post

It was so so hot today we couldn't face a walk during the day, it was more than enough to just sit in the garden and swelter (even in the shade).  I did however come across this funky frog whilst watering the poor dried out garden.  We have had a frog in the garden for quite a few years, I have no idea how long they live but maybe it's the same one?  We don't have a pond, so it's a wonder he or she is happy here.

At around 7.30pm we felt more inclined to go out walking so we popped to the forest for a two mile brisk walk at Long Cross - a few miles from Brook.

We came across this great swathe of foxgloves, they looked very epic and unfortunately this photo doesn't do them justice.

Back at the car park the sun was going down, not something we tend to see on our walks normally!

Well, that's it, post 100 done,  I started this blog at the end of December last year so that I could compare things easily from one year to the next, and it's been easier than I thought and I have really enjoyed it.  It's certainly made me remember to take the camera everywhere I go if nothing else!

Anderwood and Ant Hills

Saturday 6th July 2013

This morning we actually managed to get moving early for once and left home at just gone 9am.  We  parked at Anderwood and had a three mile walk before it got too hot.  This afternoon has been really hot and I dropped our daughter at work just now (6pm) and the car thermometer reckons it's still 26C, it feels like it too.  Anyway back to this morning, we found a few clues to a multi-cache near here a few weeks ago so we came back to find the rest.  Well, the clue was something to do with the number of letters engraved on a gatepost and how many diagonals there were on the actual gate.  We could have answered this if the gate hadn't been completely destroyed during forestry operations over the last few months!!!  There was no chance of going any further with this cache so we gave up and carried on with our walk anyway, some you win, some you lose!  

There are no pictures of dead things today!  We didn't see much alive let alone dead!  I saw a vole scurrying off away from us at speed and a few birds and that was about it.

Taken from the car park at Anderwood.

A nice orderly line of ponies who were not bothered by us at all.

We had to cross this ford, fine on a day like today, not so sure what it would be like in wetter times!

Towards the end of our walk we saw about five or six quite big ant hills, it was a case of take the photo and get moving quick before the ants were on the move up your leg!  In fact, it's making me itch now just thinking about it.  These were the big wood ants.

There are still  plenty of foxgloves about providing a splash of colour here and there.  This foxglove was back at the car park, where it had started to get quite busy with what looked like a large family get together so it was time to get on home for lunch.  

Calshot Marshes

Wednesday 3rd July 2013

Today's walk destination was Calshot which is at the end of Southampton Water where it meets the Solent.  We walked through Calshot Marshes and were expecting to see lots of wading type birds but we didn't see much at all.  The footpath took us in front of Fawley Power Station which seemed a bit creepy, but I've no idea exactly why.  We did see oyster catchers a little egret and a  family of shelducks, the five babies looked very young and tiny especially out on the open water.

Fawley Power Station.

A bumble bee making the most of one of the thousands of wild roses growing just beyond the power station.

I realise my blog seems to contain a lot of dead animals but as I said last Friday sometimes it's the only way to see some little creatures!  This shrew looks quite large but in fact was probably only a couple of inches long.  

I haven't seen blue tugs before, there were three near Fawley Refinery, we wondered if they were to do with that?

Beach huts from Calshot Marshes.

Ever hopeful, black headed gulls.

We walked about three miles and found the one geo-cache we were hoping to find.  Then it was back to the beach for coffee and doughnuts (with the beach virtually to ourselves) yum!

Mansbridge - Itchen Navigation

Monday 1st July 2013

July already!  

The sun came out this morning and in an effort to keep our daughter's mind off of her driving test this afternoon we took her for a quick walk along the Itchen Navigation from Mansbridge.  Despite planes taking off from Eastleigh Airport and flying over quite low it was a very pleasant walk.  The Itchen Navigation was created in 1710 to transport barges of coal and timber from Southampton to Winchester.   The old tow path is now a public footpath.

Crossing the River Itchen we spotted this family of mallards, the ducklings were paddling like mad to keep up with mum. 

The River Itchen from near the old road bridge at Mansbridge (duck family on left side of photo).

There were a few fishermen ever hopeful a little further on up the river, other than that we only saw a couple of dog walkers and a friendly couple in a canoe (slightly alarming to the ducklings!).  We found one geocache, the other one we had in mind doing requires a boat or waders, neither of which we happened to have on us!

Bulrushes on the Itchen Navigation.

The planes overhead were much closer than this looks!  

PS  Our daughter passed her driving test first time this afternoon, maybe the fresh air this morning helped?!!