Author Topic: TR: A short Tier 4 amble, Sunday 27 Dec 2020  (Read 570 times)

fernman

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TR: A short Tier 4 amble, Sunday 27 Dec 2020
« on: 14:56:10, 28/12/20 »
 Desperate to get a bit of exercise after three days spent indoors at Christmas, and at the same time sensing that my wife deserved a break from me, I ventured out into the suburbs on a sunny but 6 degrees C morning. My thought was to walk through the nearby Newton Ecology Park, a little bit of greenery whose eastern entrance is   not much more than 10 minutes from my home. I hadn't been there for some years, put off by memories of flytipping and numbers of empty beer cans.
Created in the 80s, the park was intended as a floodwater storage area, dreamed up by an enthusiastic chap in the council in the days when they   used to employ enthusiastic chaps and had a bit of cash to spare. A sign gives the site's history as a former council storage area; they clearly felt this was better than saying it was actually a Victorian sewage farm and later a refuse depot.



 The litter problem was now gone, unless a tidy-up had just been completed. A number of sapling trees were planted in the creation of park more than 30 years ago, when    my young sons and I made regular visits to replant ones that had been uprooted by vandals. Both the trees and my sons have grown somewhat since then.


 

 The Roxbourne runs along the south edge of the site and Yeading Brook along the north side, where I was delighted to see ferns (called harts-tongue, for Ridge's benefit). While they are nothing to get excited about for those living in fern-rich parts of the country, any at all are a welcome sight in my area, where this particular species has shown an increase in the last 20 years due greatly to a reduction in atmospheric SO2 to which its broad wintergreen fronds made it more vulnerable.
 


 Lack of management has allowed common reeds to entirely take over what was originally created as a small lake in which rudd used to swim.

 



 Leaving the ecology park's western end at a gap between blocks of flats, I crossed a busy main road (where were all these people going in Tier 4?) and I set off along a side turning of semi-detatched houses in search of a way into Newton Park West which I had never visited before. Little did I know that the nearest entrance was in fact right opposite   me but hidden behind a wall fronting a service road.



 This area is open grassland, part recreational and part informal, with the conjoined stream running through it, bordered by bare willow trees that glowed in the winter sunshine. On the far side to me a good-sized pond contained a raft of hungry mallards which zoomed in expectation of food towards a woman and girl who approached it.


 







Returning by my outward route through the Ecology Park, the dog walkers I passed included a young P  olish male with a ferret on a lead. All in all, I spent an hour and a half walking and I reached home with high spirits plus a big appetite for the cold turkey and bubble-and-squeak my dear wife was about to dish up.

 

Dodgylegs

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Re: TR: A short Tier 4 amble, Sunday 27 Dec 2020
« Reply #1 on: 15:16:23, 28/12/20 »
Little gem on your doorstep.  O0


When I was returning home from yesterdays walk a male Alpaca and a Horse (Stallion), who share a field, were having a fight, horse kicked Alpaca in head, loads of squealing, Alpaca kept attacking horse to bite it... not pleasant to see.
« Last Edit: 00:07:48, 29/12/20 by Dodgylegs »

GnP

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Re: TR: A short Tier 4 amble, Sunday 27 Dec 2020
« Reply #2 on: 17:27:41, 28/12/20 »
Oh its so good to get out...  it raises the spirits.

Great Willow trees , glowing in that sunshine , even bare...! O0
A night under silnylon. Doesn't have the same ring to it.

Jac

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Re: TR: A short Tier 4 amble, Sunday 27 Dec 2020
« Reply #3 on: 18:27:19, 28/12/20 »
Beautiful golden willows.


Mmm bubble and squeak :)
So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

Mel

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Re: TR: A short Tier 4 amble, Sunday 27 Dec 2020
« Reply #4 on: 21:33:57, 28/12/20 »
Smashing TR and pics fernman  :)


Another vote for the sunlit willows  O0    

Ridge

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Re: TR: A short Tier 4 amble, Sunday 27 Dec 2020
« Reply #5 on: 21:36:03, 28/12/20 »
Harts tongue, just what I was about to say  ;D


It's good to have a bit of green close to home to escape to at the moment.
« Last Edit: 21:40:38, 28/12/20 by Ridge »

Dovegirl

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Re: TR: A short Tier 4 amble, Sunday 27 Dec 2020
« Reply #6 on: 22:42:00, 28/12/20 »
Very nice photos     :)    The golden willows are lovely

fernman

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Re: TR: A short Tier 4 amble, Sunday 27 Dec 2020
« Reply #7 on: 20:25:31, 30/12/20 »
Thank you to everyone for their comments.

And Ridge, next time we start on the difficult ones that all look like bracken  :)

 

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