Wanderings

Monthly Report, March 2022

Apologies for the delayed monthly report - I got distracted.

March was (almost) all about Oxfordshire again - but one of the bonuses on Oxford in March is that no two days are the same. There was plenty of weather around - from winter-gear days through to garden-furniture days - and there's the constant round of new emerging plants every day - from daffodils and snowdrops through to bluebells, snake's head fritillaries and (almost) orchids.

Reporting Days: 31

Location: Oxford (mostly)

Miles walked: 120

Miles driven: 600 (and half of that was on the last day of the month)

Gardens Tended: 2

Photographs taken: Hundreds (mostly emerging flowers)

Snow drops in Bury Knowle Park, Oxford

Storm Damage, Marston, Oxford

Green Lane, Shotover, Oxford

Frogs, Lye Valley, Oxford

By the River, Iffley, Oxford

Emerging Orchid, Sydlings Copse, Oxford

Bluebells, Headington, Oxford

Snake's Head Fritillaries, Binsey, Oxford

Dandelion & Tortoiseshell, Bury Knowle Park, Oxford

And finally, heading north on the last day of March

Annandale Water Services, Lockerbie, Scotland

Monthly Report, February 2022

Circumstances dictated that this should be an Oxford month - in many ways we were able to treat it as another LockDown month - returning to the routines and walks from the other LockDowns. The pictures of the day came from the C S Lewis Reserve, the Lye Valley, Shotover, Mesopotamia, Sydlings Copse and (most often) Bury Knowle Park.

There were lots of good sunrises to watch, emerging flowers to photograph and storm damage to mend (and photograph!).

Reporting Days: 28

Location: Oxford

Miles Walked: 104

Mile Driven: 9.7 (yes, really!)

Gardens Tended: 1 (including a little bit of fence mending)

Photographs taken: Hundreds - mostly trees (some broken)

Sunrises

Despite the challenges of not being able to see a horizon from the Oxford house (too many adjacent buildings) there are points in the year when I can see decent sunrises from my office window - February is one of those months.

Headington Sunrise #1

Headington Sunrise #2

Emerging Flowers

Early spring is a time of constant floral change as flowers appear overnight.

Crocuses

Snowdrops

Storm Damage

Having three named storms roll through in a few days - did take its toll in the local woodlands, but fortunately not too much domestically.

Storm Damage - C S Lewis Reserve

Storm Damage - Green Lane, Shotover

Walks

Dark Clouds over Bury Knowle Park

High Water at Parson's Pleasure, Mesopotamia

On the Lye Valley Boards

Blue Skies at Sydlings Copse

Monthly Report, January 2022

That was a long month.

The calendar insists that it was only 31 days - but my money is on there being more like 50-something days.

The month covered the tail end of a very relaxed Christmas time (I'm a firm believer in Christmas starting around Christmas Day and lasting at least until Twelfth Night), it's included a short (and stormy) period on Shetland and ended with spending several days hanging around hospitals back in Oxford.

Reporting Days: 31

Location: Mostly Oxford, with a few travelling days and Shetland days thrown in too

Miles Walked: 104

Miles Driven: 1426 (that's what a round trip to Shetland gets you)

Gardens Tended: 2 (assuming fence mending counts as gardening)

Photographs Taken: Thousands (a blend of sunrises, sunsets, trees and waves)

2nd January - Aston Rowant Nature Reserve, Oxfordshire

4th January - Sunset at White Horse Hill, Oxfordshire

9th January - Parson's Pleasure, Oxford

19th January - Waves, Scat Ness, Shetland

22nd January - Lighting Up, Sumburgh Head Lighthouse, Shetland

24th January - Sunrise, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

27th January - Sunset, Bury Knowle Park, Oxford

31st January - Snowdrops, Stoke Place, Oxford

12 Days Wild

The 12 Days Wild initiative from the Wildlife Trusts is always a good incentive to drag myself away from the cheeseboard for a few of the daylight hours each day over the Christmas & New Year break.

Each year we visit regular walks and try to add a very new walks into the collection too - even if on some days it's not much more than a scout round the garden to make sure that the feeders are full and that the pond hasn't frozen over.