Any of you Wind in the Willows fans? If so I am sure you will know that Ratty (seen here chortling away with Mole in Philip Mendoza’s delightful sketch) was a water vole, not really a rat at all although water voles were often called water rats – or water dogs! But Ratty’s descendants are …
Environmental Issues
Be nice to a wasp day…..
I sent Matthew the link to to yesterday’s post about the oak gall wasps to which he had introduced me – which I now learn, thanks to Tom Ogren, are a quite different type of wasp from the one I filmed totally failing to go anywhere near an acorn. (For more see the comments). Anyhow, …
Woodberry Wetlands – and more ducks…..
On Sunday I made an exciting expedition Woodberry Wetlands, one of two reservoirs to be found just north east of Finsbury Park and now a wildlife park managed by the London Wildlife Trust. Hampstead Heath is wonderful, but so nice to venture further afield just occasionally. The area was originally field and meadow land, running …
Around the World in 80 Trees
Yes, more trees – but this time not my trees but Jonathan Drori’s trees – or at least 80 of his favourites. A trustee or past trustee of the Eden Project, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the Woodland Trust and a documentary film maker, Jonathan Drori is above all a lover of trees. …
Hampstead Heath in the winter sun
One of the upper ponds yesterday afternoon on Hampstead Heath – the sunlit golden swathe of trees on the far side of the lake reflected in the pale cobalt blue of the lake – which in turn reflects the baby blue of the sky. In the foreground, a blackened and gnarled tree stump, a few …