Keeping it Wild - Oxford Version

I didn’t really have a plan for this week….

I was planning to turn out for a BBOWT work party at the Chilswell Valley on Monday morning, but when that was cancelled I decided that I might as well head round to Chilswell Valley for an early morning walk in the sunshine - and it would at least provide some pictures to add to my picture of the day collection.  I also took the opportunity to make some short videos while I was there - not with the intention of doing anything with the videos, but just so I could rip the audio track to give a richer sense of what it was like around the valley on a sunny Monday morning in May.

Monday - Looking to the city - from the Chilswell Valley

Monday - On the Chilswell Valley boardwalk

Monday - Into the Valley

Having enjoyed Happy Valley (the traditional local name for Chilswell Valley) I thought I should revisit another of my local nature reserves, Lye Valley, for my morning walk on Tuesday.  This time I took a rather better microphone to plug in to the camera (I bought the microphone about a year ago, with the - as yet uncompleted - plan to record wave sounds around Shetland). 

Tuesday - Lye Valley boardwalk 

Tuesday - Deep in the Lye Valley

In addition to being local reserves both Chilswell and Lye Valley are also part of the Wild Oxford project (being run by BBOWT), so since the weather still looked promising I decided that my Wednesday walk needed to be another Wild Oxford site - this time Rivermead Nature Park to the south of the city.

Wednesday - Rivermead Nature Park 

Wednesday - Pond life at Rivermead

And having visited three of the four Wild Oxford sites over the first three days of the week, I really didn’t have any option but to visit the fourth site, Raleigh Park, on Thursday.  The morning weather really wasn’t encouraging, but by lunchtime the rain had passed through and I got my pictures (and an audio recording) from Raleigh Park to add to the set. 

Thursday - Spires from the top of Raleigh Park

Thursday - Yellow Flag Irises at Raleigh Park

Thursday - Lost in Raleigh Park

I do like it when the week looks like there was a master plan - but I probably shouldn't have started getting quite so wild about Oxford this close to 30 Days Wild - but I guess all four of these places can expect a return visit next month.