Past and Present

Another of my posts from my weekend away below, but first a few of the things that I have been writing in my notebook.

The weather has been lovely these past few days, sunny and bright. Friday was quite warm as well, the nip in the wind seemed to have gone. It was warm enough that I opened the window in my office. I sat there and decided that the only way that I miss New Milton ( MultiMap map with New Milton ) since having come to York via Southampton is the summers, in particular the New Forest and the beach. As much as the Forest is gorgeous, Yorkshire has its charms as well, so that just leaves the English Channel.

I have now started drinking tea in the office. Which I suppose is quite uninteresting, but marks some changes. I have also recently acquired some Darjeeling, I had forgotten how lovely it is. The description of the champagne of tea is really justified. Barring the minor detail that I don't like champagne that much.

Whoops, I almost forgot. When I had my window open at work, a male house sparrow landed on the windowsill, hopped along and peeped through the open window. Unfortunately, he didn't want to come and do my work for me.

As we are on the subject of birds, old post time.

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I visited my Grandmother on Saturday with my Mother and we walked from Brockenhurst to New Milton through the New Forest.

The Forest is lovely even in its flatness and lack of Yorkshire bleakness. There were no foals, but lots of bunnies and many birds. Birds spotted and heard included:

Peewits, Swallows, Martins, Thrushes, Blackbirds, Great and Blue Tits, Chaffinches, Stone Chats, Magpies, Crows, a Lark, suspected to be a Wood Lark rather than a sky Lark, Gulls, Robins, an unidentified wader, unidentified finches, Sparrows, Buzzards, Wood Pigeons and Doves.

On Sunday morning we walked down to Weston Shore through the woods and saw several more birds, several pretty flowers and Mr Fishy. Birds included a Plover, Oystercathchers, a Spotted Woodpecker and Chiff-Chaffs as well as others already mentioned. All of they in the middle of a big city with a major port. The modern city isn't just a wasteland of roads and buildings and noise and smells. Nature hangs on and keeps bits beautiful, you just have to know where to look amongst the ugliness of most of man's work.

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