Regulars

Beautiful and odd-shaped trees ignite my passion for the Chilterns

WE recently bought a coconut shell filled with suet from a local garden centre and hung it outside. Within a couple of days a pair of nuthatches (Sitta europaea) discovered this new food source and now come every day to eat. They are delightfully...

Some lovely (and scary) things to be seen on a walk along the Thames

LOOKING out of the rear window into the garden, I see a crowd of jackdaws descend on the seed that Rosemary has hung outside in a very large feeder. I had no inkling that they were as opportunistic as this as they proceed to consume Herculean...

All the signs of an early spring but not all the birds appear happy

SPRING has sprung early. Primrose-coloured catkins are already floating about in the breeze on hazel bushes. Daisies are proclaiming their presence, much to the delight of some nectar-starved and dozy-looking bumblebees. Nature is on the move. The...

I can see why the rich and famous liked this Thames-side rural idyll

THE night sky is startlingly clear as I step outside to feed the still active and perpetually hungry hedgehogs. As I stand and gaze to the east, the beautiful constellation of Orion is clear and resplendent. There is one glaring difference....

Walks by the river and in rural woodland... and more to come in 2020

ROSEMARY parks close to the entrance to some of the first big commercial gravel pits at Sonning Eye. The old road that leads to the narrow and “weak” bridge that still spans the River Thames from Oxfordshire to Berkshire once linked up directly with...

To the pub and back via glorious hillside and spooky woodland

IT’S early morning. I check on the state of my garden. All seems well. I throw out some grain for the birds. A male blackbird drops ...

Wildlife is loving Jubilee River diversion even if locals aren’t

MY friend Rosemary Henderson is driving the two of us east through and past Maidenhead. As we approach the outskirts of Slough, she ...

I love walking in woodland among those ever so important trees

IN the run-up to the general election, our major political parties suddenly pledged to plant millions of trees across the United ...

Good company and lovely sights amid the mud and autumnal gloom

WHAT a day it has turned out to be. The sky is blue and the vapour trails of transatlantic aeroplanes criss-cross the sky without a ...

Tales from the riverbank... how much there is to see by the Thames

A SONG thrush sings its repetitive, beautiful but rather mournful song early this morning. It started its solitary dawn chorus some ...

Estate which understands this precious and irreplaceable world

THE sun is out and I’ve many errands to run but then I get a phone call from my pal Dave Kenny, who has recently returned from an ...

I’ve always been inquistive... perhaps that’s why I love nature

I HAVE to make an early morning dash to one of the pharmacists in Caversham. On my way along Prospect Street, I notice that on the ...

Birds busy gorging on autumn berries but what’s happened to bats?

I AWOKE to near total darkness, incessant rain and gloom as we had changed back to Greenwich Mean Time during the night. Then suddenly ...

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Respect for earthworms and funghi as we can’t live without them

WORMS. Yes, I’ll say that again, worms, or more specifically, earthworms. Without these simple creatures we’d have no soil. Some ...

The days may be shorter and colder but nature still provides...

AUTUMN is well and truly here. We passed the autumnal equinox way back on September 23 and the days are now noticeably shorter and ...

What has happened to our natural springs, so important to wildlife?

I OFTEN dream of waking up in a sunlit glade with a gurgling brook as it trickles downhill. A place to relax, feel at home, soak up ...

Sun-filled woodland is stunning example of natural regeneration

AS I step out this morning a skein of maybe 30 Canadian geese are flying overhead in perfect formation and with such precision that ...

More News:

On Your Bike put back to next year

THIS year’s On Your Bike charity event in Sonning Common was cancelled. It was due to take place last Sunday, having been postponed from the original date of March 29 due to the ... [more]

Villagers back £60,000 road safety measures

MORE than half of Goring residents support measures to tackle speeding and congestion in the village. The parish council has agreed to part-fund the installion of a wide, ... [more]

Volunteer hub plan

A PERMANENT community volunteering hub could be set up in Goring. The team which ran the village’s telephone helpline during the coronavirus lockdown would like to know if there ... [more]

Pub chef cooked for the Queen... sort of

THE new chef at the John Barleycorn pub in Goring has cooked for the Queen... sort of. Jim Ayliffe, who learned his trade as a young man on cruise liners, was frequently drafted ... [more]