A Winter's Day

Yesterday was clear skies from sunrise to moonrise. I walked up to Hardwick Wood to help with the annual coppicing (something I have taken part in for more than 60 years in West Cambridgeshire! The ground was still very frosted but out of the wind pleasant in the sunshine. Lots of tiny leaf fungi around but no larger ones. The Spurge Laurel, a local wildflower special, is coming into flower. The walk back into the wind was not so good! 

It was a supermoon last night - known as the Cold Moon, a good description so it was a brief walk round the village to view it.

Paxton Pits NewYear Birds

Spent an enjoyable couple of hours  yesterday afternoon in the Cobham Hide just watching the birds - the light was very poor but managed a few images of the action including this Long-tailed Tit, one of a party of 4 or 5 who landed in the bush in front of the hide. The Marsh Harrier paid 'its' (female or juvenile) usual visit. The Cormorants are coming into breeding plumage as their nesting season can start early January.

New Year Day Flower Hunt in Toft Village and Paxton Pits

The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland runs a New Year Flower Hunt each year asking participants to record all the flowers in bloom. As previous years, I did a hunt at Paxton Pits this morning (11 species, Annual Poa, Red Dead Nettle, Shepherd's Purse, Common Field Speedwell, Garlic Mustard, Dandelion, Nipplewort, White Nettle, Daisy, Hazel, Common Chickweed) and a circuit round Toft village (15 species). These are the species in bloom in Toft.

Commercial Road London

  We mainly used the buses to travel in and out of central London from Beckton as our Cambridgeshire bus passes give us free travel. The route included driving along Commercial Road with its mix of different era architecture and cultures. We spent yesterday walking and exploring its many interesting buildings etc. Commercial Road starts at Whitechapel High Street, heads east, crossing the Limehouse Basin, the Regents Canal and the Limehouse Cut and ends in the East India Dock Road continuing to the left and West India Dock Road to the right. It was constructed in 1802–1806 to link the West India and East India Docks to the City of London. It was fully populated with houses at this time (some still stand) but with the arrival of the railway, factories also sprung up and the area became overcrowded and polluted. WWII bombing destroyed a lot of buildings, replaced by community housing in the City of London plan.