Farlington Marsh Salty Circle Path with Kids

 (Published a little late )We have one week before half term and last Sunday decided to drop everything (in case half term doesn't happen as we know it) and have a lovely walk around Farlington Marshes which is little more than twenty minutes drive from our house. The last time we went to Farlington was a freezing day before in the run-up to last Christmas. We hadn't planned lunch and snack that time and under-estimated the walk for smallest boy who had to by piggy-backed for a few km at end. It had ended happily with a family pub stop at the Churchillian pub on Portsdown hill and was like an early Christmas gift. This time, however our children were several months older and more able to walk and, in the middle of a pandemic and confusion over whether "Test-and-Trace" actually works we decided (drum-roll) to be organised and had sandwiches, snacks and SLR camera all ready long before missing any lunchtime.We also decided to avoid a) people and close quarters b) cafes and c) pub temptations.

High tide walk. High time to write and reflect...

 My youngest child has properly started school. It is so quiet now and there is so much to catch up on. There haven't been too many tears between the three of my children returning to school after so many months at home as they are all social beings and have different interests and friends. I haven't had time to miss them as keenly as I thought I would. Suddenly, adult friends and interests that had been put on hold for child needs instantly re-appeared. It still feels ethereal, fragile and uncertain how long they will have this "new normal" at school as some school "bubbles" close down and children with coughs are left in limbo waiting to be Covid tested. We have so far not had to do this in our immediate family bubble of 5. It seems only a matter of time though. At the weekend we headed out to Bosham. It was a last, sunny Sunday before the changing autumn weather that has set in as I write.  It was very hard with the high tide to social distance on the harbour wall but it was exciting for the kids to be wading on the road edges to get icecreams. There are a great many intriguing buildings and gardens to be seen and  on the day we went there were children happily sailing optimist dinghies in the light breeze. My older children climbed a tree near the church on a green area to gain a better view. It was like a blast from a pre-pandemic past. 

Lockdown Eased. Taking things each day.

 These are pictures taken at Solent business park in Whiteley last week after we managed to take all three children to the barbers for haircuts before school resumes. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Sometimes, right on our doorstep there are many things in nature we  drive or walk past but don't stop to appreciate. Lockdown has made my children experts at noticing these things now. They were delighted with the ducks in the water features around the park. We also noticed a cormorant that we have never seen before at Whiteley and would usually consider to be a coastal bird. It was diving then shaking water off it's wings very happily right in front of the office buildings. The children were most happy playing with Reed Mace and playing with the seeds in the wind.

Early Ventures Out in Lockdown: Memorable Adventure Number 1: Isaac's 7th Birthday Cycle Ride to Wickham and Back through 100 acre woods.

It was like entering a strange new shaky world where everything had closed. Only one week since school had been closed and Isaac's birthday party cancelled. We were allowed to exercise once a day but should we? Who might we meet? How many hundreds of times would we need to wash our hands afterwards. We had a pleading request from one of the children to cycle to the sweet shop. The weather was still quite brisk but off we headed.

It was not the village we were used to! Imagine in all the times since it was 13th century market place that trading has taken place and now most things were closed and locked down. The Pages' Sweetie Shop was closed. As it was Isaac's special day I took him as my one partner into the Co-op and chose some sweets for the others with him. 

We joined the railway line at Wickham and made our way onwards to cross over to Hundred Acre wood. It was a really long journey to our 3 kids. Isaac decided he didn't really want to go cycling on his birthday again! His bike is just a starter bike and has no gears. I was very proud that he kept going though.

After cycling through hundred acres (lifting bikes over gates etc to get there from railway line) We took a new way back to our home in North Boarhunt along the Old Oak Trail. It was lined with gorse and sandy heathland on the entrance. This was a little too exotic for our cold, tired children who were now desperate to be home eating birthday cake. We made it though. And luckily the vast quantities of chocolate robot cake that had been planned for a party that restored the tired 3 children. This will be memorable as our first lockdown bike ride where we met no-one in the first wood and spring was still in winter's grasp.

COOMBE ABBEY

It has been weeks now since we made last family day outing by car. Weeks. This was the day after my younger brother's wedding when we were staying at Brownsover Hall. A couple of weeks later the country was in lockdown from Coronavirus. How lucky we were to visit this haunt of my childhood before this happened! I mainly visited Coombe Abbey with my Dad and another of my brothers on weekend visits. We loved the birdwatching hide (which still exists). I also loved the tall Redwood trees and the exploration walks. The site has been developed to include a cafe, visitor centre and Go Ape Adventure but otherwise remains the Coombe Abbey of my childhood with all its amazing wild birds. The most important bird to see here is the Grey Heron. There is a wonderful Heronry and we took great pleasure in finding their nests dotted about in trees.What a beautiful part of Coventry and Warwickshire!

Weather for Newts!

After many days of warm, sunny weather we have rainfall today and a good chance to reflect on the lockdown wildlife in my blog. The robin's have left the nest and probably the fledglings are sheltering in the shadows somewhere. I have my suspicions the robins are starting a second brood with one of my neighbours (or maybe it's even another pair!). We have been in lockdown for 6 weeks but to me it has actually gone quickly and we've not been bored with cycling, gardening, art, music, trying to do "school" and increase online social skills. I was very happy on Sunday to discover that my husband had found tiny newts sheltering under bricks in our garden. I have been wondering why we didn't have many return frogs after all the froglets released two years ago and this kind of makes up for it. We only have a tiny plastic half barrel pond in a wild corner of our garden so this was an amazing surprise. On a grand cycle to Creech Woods a couple of weeks ago we discovered many adult newts catching thousands of little tadpoles in a drainage ditch. 

Happy Easter! New adventures into garden wildlife exploration. We set up a trail camera to watch a robin nesting at close quarters. It was already quite happy nesting with all the family noise around and has chosen a nice dark rafter in my shed. If I manage to upload this video it will beat decades of inertia to film wildlife which is really what I love doing. This film is showing the males passing food to the female which is a critical part of robin nesting behaviour. A robin often hatches a second brood while the male feeds the first fledglings I was interested to read in the "Birdfeeder Handbook".

Unprecedented Times

"We are living in unprecedented times" is an expression I hear a lot. On the news mainly. On emails from our now "so-near-yet-so-far" schools for the three children. My stumbling block to writing anything is sitting down at a computer and actually doing it. Great essays, poems, novels are shelved at the back of my mind. Diary entries, things I meant to tell someone... beautiful, funny observations of my children at play...they get left aside for action, the action of keeping my 3 children involved and active and the mundane tasks that keep us afloat as a family. It is Good Friday. But it isn't Easter as we know it. The business, the expense, the stress but then the great joy of going to see family by land or sea has evaporated with the word "Coronavirus." A month ago I don't think we truly had any idea how our life would be affected by this bug that seemed so sad but far away like other mystery illnesses that never touched our lives. I truly believe good will come out of keeping this blog a bit more often and share my nature observations and learning. The habitats we are observing are microhabitats in the garden and the familiar landscapes we cycle or jog through on our daily exercise. On the 19th March school was about to close and friends and acquaintances were hastily adding each other to WhatsApp groups. Friends that had shunned home learning for being "anti-social" were thrown into it and other friends who were already home learning were about to face a "lock-down" preventing them from their social groups and organised museum visits etc. I always fell between both camps. We decided not to home educate but there's more to life than school and now we were about to discover what we have on our doorstep to offer our children. On the 19th March a warbler, oblivious to these great, human changes decided to hop into my garden. I think it is a Chiffchaff and shared it on I-spot. Whether someone will confirm this I don't know. Either way it came so close to my kitchen window I took this photograph. Birds don't have boundaries during human lockdown. They face great challenges on migration and yet an innate urge to move pushes them forwards. The national symbol of a rainbow is used to promote hope in this time. My symbol will always have a bird flying over it!

I hadn't meant to be prophetic at New Year about it being "sink or swim" time for the human species but as I write today we are experiencing a global pandemic called Covid-19 novel virus. I have many emotions about effectively being now quarantined (without being sick) to protect our older generation. In February we had the chance to visit a wonderful houseplant exhibition in Wisley and it set myself and husband off into a wonder-world of designing our house deco with more greenery inside. It gave me a focus, a route out of feeling pessimistic. Now I will be looking at the plants we chose with each other and brought home for many a long hour until a vaccine is developed our the societal systems adjust. This blog was meant to be about all the environments I've lived or worked in on my great adventure in life. Now at this reflective rather than "haven't got time to write this" stage I looked back on my life as truly blessed, as a brief rainbow flashing through a dark, stormy sky then disappearing and not knowing how it will be re-formed. I, myself say prayers for my family, my extended family amongst whom some were already grieving for loved ones before the coronavirus hit. I try not to dwell on "when will I see them again now? Will I travel like I did before again?" and see that being here in my rambling, gardened house is great fortune and the time I will have with my children an un-forseen blessing. For six months we have been trying to reduce our single use plastic use and created a few good habits such as making bread, yoghurt and careful recycling that have made us a lot better prepared for this than we would have been last year.

It is my first post for this year, this decade 2020. It seems to be "Sink or Swim" time for the human species. We will sink into the abyss covered over by the roaring inferno of human-accelerated climate change unless drastic action is taken.