Got to Burn a Few Calories off!

Boxing day bright and crisp. After a late night sampling rum and listening to Test Match Special, it was good to be active again, atrocious weather having kept me inside on Christmas Day itself. That, and the fact I'd eaten so much I was left like a stranded seal.

So, I was slightly slow out of the blocks this morning, but I was out, chugging along, listening to the radio and taking in the sights as I visited Beacon Hill Park for the first time in a while, clambering through some quite muddy stretches of Clay Lane fields in order to do so.

I didn't really see very much nature wise, but it was enough to be outside and active on a lovely day, a nice two hour walking making me feel slightly better after all that eating, even though I feel I've been quite good this year.

Right, press ups time! Enjoy the time of year folks!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 26.12.17

Flowers by Evening

Had a very gentle run tonight to try and get some stiffness out of my legs ready for my match on Sunday. Apparently I'm now regarded as a frontline bowler by the club, and so need to look after myself.

Well, we'll see about that.

We are in a spell of warming weather at the moment, so I was content to go slowly anyway, look at the animals, take in the smell from the buddleias I passed, the sound of the gentle lapping of the water and the wind in the brambles. I tasted my first blackberry of the year, it was ripe and sweet.

THe sun began to set while I was out, and the sky darkened, bronzing the clouds.

It was beautiful.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 12.08.16

This is the dominant species along the cycle track at the moment. Can't remember what it is!

It is lining the path everywhere

The road to Newark pier

The birds foot trefoil is very tall here

Carder bee comes in for a drink

More pink flowers

The blackberry near the centre was lovely

Horse friends on the lane

"No mule type thing, you drink, I've had enough"

Balderton and Claypole

Sleepy bee on lavender

These tall yellow flowers are near the nature reserve buddleias

Mr Slug

Brazen sky

I've had the Builders in

For a man who considers himself sharply observant, I've missed a fairly blatant bit of construction that has been going on without planning permission.

I looked out my living room window this morning, down onto my little postage stamp garden, and saw that a bird's nest had been built smack in the middle of my low ivy bush.

Looking in, it seems blatant that this is a blackbird nest, and it has sadly been abandoned. One of the eggs appears to have a chick in it. I wonder if this nest, being very low down and very exposed by blackbird standards, was raided by a magpie or some other such predator.

After taking these photographs, got on with having a ten km run on what had by now turned into a lovely afternoon, with many holly blues, orange tips and small whites in flight. Clay Lane has largely dried out, and alongside it donkeys graze in fields of buttercups, and the oilseed rape is blooming.

I ran round to Beacon Hill Reserve, which is straggly and strangely devoid of butterflies and birds today. Still, I love the fact that so few people in my town know the reserve is there.

But I also hate it too!

Enjoy your weeks all!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 16.05.16

Spuggy Studies

Took these yesterday as well on Clay Lane park, but I thought I'd avoid overloading my previous post, and present them separately for you here.

They are only house sparrows, but I need to practice and these are my best songbird shots I've yet taken. No brilliant colours, and the song of an angry fishwife, but they still have character, and they are still worthy of showing to you!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 26.11.15

The Hells Angels of Clay Lane

I've overdone things this four-off.

Today's run started badly, and ended worse. Oh, not from any mental or aesthetic point of view, it is always worth being outside as you know. Rather, it was the fact that I couldn't run more than a couple of hundred metres at a time without having to pause to relieve some aching body part or other.

Or all of my body parts, more like.

I cancelled my plans to run the river trail, and instead headed off on the CLay Lane route, running the length of it. It's at its most overgrown at this time of year, its most mysterious. And it reminded me of a childhood where Clay Lane was much rougher and more unkempt than it is now, where we tried to play cricket in grass a foot long, and the conker tree named "King Kong" delivered a rich haul of conkers ripe for leaving in a plastic bag in the pantry and never ever using.

Most of the time we stuck to the main field for our adventures, but one time about 6 of us struck out along the Lane proper, swishing sticks around and generally being kids. Looking back, I find it hard to believe I ever did such normal kid things.

We had got about halfway along, when we heard the familiar bee in a biscuit tin sound of a moped being ridden across a field. Then two mopeds. Then three.

"Shit!" shouted one of our number. "It's the Hell's Angels!!! Run for your life!!!"

Even at ten years of age, you'd have thought we would have known that Hell's Angels were more renowned for riding huge Harley Davidson cruisers rather than Honda 50s with a top speed of twenty miles per hour, but we set off like scalded cats back along the path, running indeed for our lives.

"IF THEY CATCH US THEY'LL KILL US!" the same boy shouted again, probably rather irresponsibly, and we upped our pace like we were fleeing alien monsters in the dark. No-one wanted to be the fat kid left behind. Luckily, we already had one of those. Were they being captured and killed? No-one looked back.

"RUUUUUUNNN!!!" and we did and we emerged from the trees onto the field and were able to stop and catch our breath. The fat kid was still with us unmaimed, and we probably had a good laugh and (relieved) giggle, before heading off to get a 10p mix from the corner shop.

Think of this story when you look at the Clay Lane pictures below!

Si

All images and text copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.08.15

The bike track ditch is now choked with pink flowers - herb robert???

Entrance to the Clay Lane depths

Elderberries. Annoyed autumn is coming

Further in

Blackberries now starting to ripen

One of the few flowers in the lane

Childhood biker terrors

The end of Clay Lane is now blocked

Beacon Hill. Small skipper

A very orange bum

And another!

Small skipper, now moved to a different thistle

Wings open a little more

Butterfly Studies in Newark

Newark was alive with flutterers today, and as I trotted through town this morning, scanning the buddleias, or ran through Beacon Hill this afternoon, scanning more buddleias, I never had my eyes shut for even a second.

Summer buddleia, thistle and ragwort are so attractive to moths and butterflies, virtually wherever you see any growing, a closer look will probably reveal something of interest.

And that goes for anywhere, not just a nature reserve. Wasteground, brownfield sites, bushes next to busy roads.

Gatekeeper, Beacon Hill Park

Meadow brown, Beacon Hill Park

"The world looks better this way up!" - Peacock, Beacon Hill Park

On the edge, Millgate Bridge

Wings folded, Millgate Bridge

Peacock now gives a sneaky peak, Millgate Bridge

Fading but still pretty; small tortoiseshell, Clay Lane

Small tortoiseshell, Clay Lane