How do you see nature close up?

[burnhal]

Not really a question but a comment on the weekend trip. Yesterday was the first outing for the canadian canoe this year. Me and the missus did three miles on the Ivel from Biggleswade to Sandy and three miles back (a lot harder coming back against the current. A very clean river- clear, lots of streamer weed. Not big enough for motorized boats and fishing closed season so really quiet. You get a different perspective from the surface of the river- you see all the fish- some huge chub in particular. Kingfishers galore- at least ten. Common terns dropping into the water around you, herons stalking the shallows, And all the reed and sedge warblers that normally lurk amongst the bottom of the reed are at your eye level and dont run and hide.

[burnhal]

Awww- is that so? Poor you..I have every sympathy

[lankeela]

Sounds wonderful, so peaceful. I walk my dogs on a disused airfield, and on an evening just before the sun goes down there are often deer, hares and sometimes a barn owl, quartering the ground for its supper. We don't have a river within close promixity, well not one thats not full of shopping trolleys(!) you are very lucky.

[Cetti]

It does sound wonderful. There's nothing better than messing about on the water on a summer evening, is there? Are the otters coming back in your rivers, burnhal, down here in Dorset they are gradually increasing their numbers, which is very good news.

If I didn't know that lankeela lives in East Anglia, I would think we walked the very same airfield!

[raysparx1]

Sounds brilliant burnhal, I have a favourite spot by the river near me and whenever I go fishing for trout I sit in a little hollow, surrounded by beauty, the shallow waters gushing over slightly protruding rocks, herons wading and ignoring me as if they are saying we will catch more fish than you, kingfishers flashing past, so busy with that beautiful flash of blue as they disappear, then return just as fast, fish jumping and teasing me as if to say come on you got to do better than that matey. the cuckoo in the background along with the woodpecker hammering away aimlessly at a hollow tree, so lucky aren't we to live in peace and at peace with the beauty that surrounds us, and as the sun goes down, the rabbits appear as if they want five minutes play before bedtime, buzzards squaking and arguing the angry crows that think they can drive him away, he ignores them and carrys on gliding round and round in ever increasing circles untill he goes from view, and then goodnight from all, the nightshift now take over.

[lankeela]

How poetic raysparx1. I can almost picture the scene.

[wolf63]

I love just sitting the world go by - maybe watching baby ducks or swans.

However usually nature close up usually means a tom cat ar&e in my face first thing in the morning or, if I am luckier, being kissed awake by the same starving cat.

Even in the city you can see the magic of nature - I have a lovely park down the road from my flat. Maybe me and Frankie could go for a walk. :-)