Regulars

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 sound. Nothing else can be heard. The once incessant rain has stopped abruptly. Joy of joys for the limping walker. An...

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 days ago. I love this speckle-breasted bird but I have to admit that its tune always makes me feel just a little bit...

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 expedition to the far north of Scotland. He wants me to join him and take a look at one of our favourite woods as he’s...

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 corner with Oxford Street yellow corydalis (Pseudofumaria lutea) is still in flower and that ivy-leaved toadflax...

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 the weather brightened up. As I stepped outside, a flock of fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) flew by, heading westwards in...

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 ...

Too windy and wild for a river trip but there’s plenty to see on land

THE wind is blowing hard and there is more to come, maybe with greater ferocity. I don’t really mind as long as I do not fall victim ...

Ancient Chiltern landscape that inspired poets... and now me too

IPSDEN is a small, isolated village in a beautiful vale almost unparalleled in the South. The Ridgeway and Icknield Way both run ...

I recommend this exquisite riverside garden for a peaceful stroll

1911 was the year in which Caversham was ceded to the borough of Reading, having formerly been the southernmost outpost and village of ...

Graveyards providing refuge for wildlife among the dead

I HAVE long been worried about how our treasured wildlife will survive as the years roll by and have a particular concern about our ...

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Where have our once common native birds disappeared to?

SITTING in my garden a few mornings ago, I noticed a change in some of the birds’ behaviour. The once territorial instincts of the ...

From the survival of species to the destruction of others, that’s nature

IT is a wonder how varied the means our wild plants deploy to set seed for a new generation. In midsummer the foxglove relies on the ...

If only country litterbugs would disappear like the migrating birds

IT is early evening and looking up at the sky I notice that the swifts have gone, a kind of augury for the onset of autumn. I miss ...

Natural charms of this Chiltern escarpment are priceless

SHIRBURN HILL is located about a mile north of Christmas Common and a mile south of the M40. It is another glorious Site of Special ...

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Man’s model race track raising money for charity

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Firefighter who still loves the job after 25 years

THE watch manager at Goring fire station has been honoured for completing 25 years’ service. Sean Absolom joined Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service as an on-call firefighter in ... [more]

Residents protest at changes to plan

RESIDENTS have complained after learning that South Oxfordshire District Council amended the Goring neighbourhood plan at the request of two developers. They claim the single-word ... [more]

A policeman’s lot...

OUR police are often accused of not issuing enough parking tickets, which unusually in South Oxfordshire is their responsibility rather than the district council’s. But following ... [more]