Showing posts with label Marylebone Birdwatching Society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marylebone Birdwatching Society. Show all posts

Friday, June 13

In the Pawprints of Pooh!

I have always been a lover of Winnie the Pooh. I think they were some of the very first stories I ever read. (My mum told me that I had cloth books with the characters on before I could even walk).

Tomorrow should be a very enjoyable day. The Marylebone Birdwatching Society will be visiting Ashdown Forest for a birding trip. It was in this area of woodlands and heath that Christopher Robin played with his teddy bear Pooh, and where his father A A Milne wrote the Pooh stories.

The area should be a great place for birds, as well as being an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and an SSSI. Mind you,  I do hope we will find the time to visit Eeyore's Gloomy Place and  100 Aker Wood....

Original Illustration by E. H. Shephard. Image credits here.


Tuesday, February 8

Spring on Hampstead Heath

Most Tuesdays I join the Marylebone Birdwatching Society for their birding walk over the Heath.

The weather forecast was good, so I arrived early on Hampstead Heath this morning. The mist was burning off in the heat from the sun. I only had my phone to take these pictures, but they came out pretty well I think.

There's something apocalyptic about the images.





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Wednesday, January 6

MMX - So soon?

Anyone holding their breath for Phantom posts in 2009 would be in dire need of medical assistance by now. I apologise. Three posts in one year is not poor, it is disgraceful. Mea culpa.

Things are a little different here at Phantom Towers. Angela's mum died in December 2008 after a long illness. My mum died in November just gone, so Christmas was a little bit strange this year. The Guardian published a nice piece in their Other Lives slot, click here to see it.

Just over a year ago, our dear visiting cats Tigger and Bernard moved house. They are residing with their "owner" in a large house in Ealing with a huge garden for them to explore. By all accounts they are loving the place and are very well.

Tigger and Bernard's departures left a pair of huge cat-shaped holes in our lives. We waited a few months before getting cats of our own. Their were three young foxes in our back gardens all of last spring and summer and we didn't want any confrontations.

At the end of August last year we saw an advert online, and two days later we had two adorable kittens in residence.

The Phantom is proud to introduce Tigger



And his brother Fluffy



The photo's above were taken on their first day with us. Their first photo shoot was a bit tiring, as Fluffy demonstrated...



Another first during last year was the first two walks I led for the Hampstead Ramblers. You can find blog entries here and here. I have been busy keeping the HR blog going, and at present I have a slight backlog of posts to be written; more distractions!

I have also joined the Marylebone Birdwatching Society, a group of Hampstead-centred birders, many of whom are also Ramblers. So far I have avoided being co-opted onto any committees, and I am absolutely not going to set up another blog!

I have had the opportunity to write this post thanks to the snow in London closing my college two hours early. I hope my reader Amalee is enjoying the snow too. I still owe you a blog post! Hello to Welsh Dog too.

More Soon!!