Tag: local
-
07/10/23 – October Egrets
I follow the tow path down, past the boats and the houses, to where the canal widens, stone sides dropping away into open banks and keep walking, greenery either side of me. I catch a glimpse of something white in the shrubbery, turn and see a little egret perched on a branch. There is a…
-
22/09/23 – A big cygnet and a windy canal
Went for a windy walk before work. The canal has changed since I was last here, when it was still early summer and the brambles were full of fat ripe blackberries. Now the few berries left are mostly shriveled, but there are still a few pink flowers of Himalayan balsam tangled on the banks. I…
-
24/07/23 – Late sun, long grass and an alarmed wren
It was the end of the day, the end of the weekend and I was exhausted by life admin when I dragged myself out for a walk. I walked past the patch of heathland where cars always linger, past the tangled bracken and high nettles. I slipped through a break in the woods, off the…
-
16/07/23 – Strong winds beside the sea
Yesterday it was so windy it was an effort to walk into the face of it, but we pushed on. We were on the edge of the ocean, a raised path between the fields and the heaving blue sea. The long grass, the green leaved crops, the yellowed fields all whipped in the wind, constantly…
-
27/05 – Low tide sand shapes
I waited till the evening, when the sands were quieter. I walked away from the main bay, from the beach swings and trampolines, the bodies stretched over the sand. I walk away, across the sand. The sand was high, reminding me that the beach is an ever shifting place, an edge but also a moving…
-
02/04/23 – Mermaid’s purses and egg sacs on the shore
Yesterday I went to the tide pool. It was windy and I wobbled as I walked out to the first ladder. Great swathes of seaweed had spread since I’d last been and they were spread-eagled beneath the surface, black through milky grey. I climbed down the ladder into chest clenching cold, swam across with the…
-
03/03/23 – Turkey tail mushrooms and budded daffodils
I went for a lunchtime walk by the river. At first I noticed only cyclists and joggers, bits of rubbish among the leaf litter. Then I watched a dog charge into the water. Chasing a gull, it launched itself, paws paddling furiously, a triangle of wake lanes rippling behind it. The bird planed low over…
-
21/01/23 – Frozen sunset in the woods
On the way to the woods I spotted the furry buds of a magnolia. The end of one branch had snapped, leaving a silky prong on the pavement. I picked it up and carried it with me. The birds were loud as I went through the gate and up the mulchy path. I don’t know…
-
11/01/23 – A falling down fort and an early moon
Yesterday I went to the end of the road and down the back lane to where a small track runs off into the undergrowth. The path was sticky after so much rain, but solid still, bouncy underfoot. I walked along the back of the houses until I came to the woods, then turned down the…
Bonnie Radcliffe 