2021 - 'Lockdown' Walk.
12th January 2021
Well here we are in 2021 and we are still in ‘Lockdown’. What a dreadful situation this is, with the current ‘Wave’ of this pandemic, as they predicted, worse than the first. Susan and I will both be having the vaccinations, but when that will be goodness knows, as we are neither old nor vulnerable enough to be included in the first vaccination programmes. I’m not grumbling about that for obvious reasons, so we will abide by the rules and batten down the hatches until this is all over. In the meantime we have been going for local walks from home, but unlike the previous spring there is very little wildlife to see.
In particular walking locally exemplifies the barren nature of the surrounding countryside in winter, where fields are cropped short and there are just a few Corvid flocks and the odd Common Buzzard scavenging for food. There are far more birds seen in our garden than anywhere we are walking with Siskins now starting to visit the feeders – always welcome!
We have over the last year or so become interested in fungi and I wish we had done it earlier because it is a fascinating subject. You have to diversify your wildlife interests because birding can become difficult at certain times in this area and Butterflies and Dragonflies exist in a relatively short window and last year was dreadful for them. I don’t do much landscape work, just the odd scene if the fancy takes me, so you have to fill your time doing something.
Yesterday we were on one of our local walks and we were pleased to see some nice Fungi.
Velvet Shank
Hairy Curtain Crust
Smokey Bracket Species?
Turkey Tail
In particular though, Scarlet Elf Cup, a winter mushroom that is starting to show through the leaf litter, it can be seen in good numbers on woodland floors for the next few months and it’s worth seeking out because it’s really lovely.
Scarlet Elf Cup
Back home in an attempt to divorce myself form this current malaise I have been reading a series of books by an author named Elly Griffiths whose murder/mystery books are situated in North Norfolk - a place near to my heart as people will know who read this blog regularly. Her books are very good indeed, with a fast moving dynamic style of writing that never gets bogged down. I saw a real bargain on line with ten of her books for £22.50 - normally about £32.50, so I snapped them up, and what a bargain they are. The central characters in the series are Dr Ruth Galloway a forensic archaeologist living near the marshes on the North Norfolk coast and DCI Harry Nelson a hard bitten no nonsense detective. Her obvious academic view on life juxtaposed with Nelson’s ‘university of life’ attitude come together perfectly.
I can highly recommend these very well written books, great value.
In particular walking locally exemplifies the barren nature of the surrounding countryside in winter, where fields are cropped short and there are just a few Corvid flocks and the odd Common Buzzard scavenging for food. There are far more birds seen in our garden than anywhere we are walking with Siskins now starting to visit the feeders – always welcome!
We have over the last year or so become interested in fungi and I wish we had done it earlier because it is a fascinating subject. You have to diversify your wildlife interests because birding can become difficult at certain times in this area and Butterflies and Dragonflies exist in a relatively short window and last year was dreadful for them. I don’t do much landscape work, just the odd scene if the fancy takes me, so you have to fill your time doing something.
Yesterday we were on one of our local walks and we were pleased to see some nice Fungi.
Velvet Shank
Hairy Curtain Crust
Smokey Bracket Species?
Turkey Tail
In particular though, Scarlet Elf Cup, a winter mushroom that is starting to show through the leaf litter, it can be seen in good numbers on woodland floors for the next few months and it’s worth seeking out because it’s really lovely.
Scarlet Elf Cup
Back home in an attempt to divorce myself form this current malaise I have been reading a series of books by an author named Elly Griffiths whose murder/mystery books are situated in North Norfolk - a place near to my heart as people will know who read this blog regularly. Her books are very good indeed, with a fast moving dynamic style of writing that never gets bogged down. I saw a real bargain on line with ten of her books for £22.50 - normally about £32.50, so I snapped them up, and what a bargain they are. The central characters in the series are Dr Ruth Galloway a forensic archaeologist living near the marshes on the North Norfolk coast and DCI Harry Nelson a hard bitten no nonsense detective. Her obvious academic view on life juxtaposed with Nelson’s ‘university of life’ attitude come together perfectly.
I can highly recommend these very well written books, great value.