Dinton Dreams

Since moving back south of the border, I've rediscovered the simple, innocent joys of birding!

It's something that I used to do as a student at the University of Aberdeen, once upon a long time ago and is something that I gave up when I left there... much to my own regret and shame! But now I'm back down south and mistress of my own time again, it's something that I can now start again, proudly and with head held high, instead of hiding it as a guilty pleasure!

I've always been a bit of a geek, but where once that was a problem, now I'm free and proud and will say it clear and loud... I'M GEEKY & I'M REALLY HAPPY WITH THAT!!! So, there we are, I'm back into the birding at very long last!

Dinton Pastures, halfway between Reading and Wokingham, is a good spot for learning the joys of birding again.



It's local, it's lovely, it's diverse and can be really quite exciting at times! The biggest draw for me at the moment is the lure of Bittern. There are 3 reported to be overwintering here and I've never seen one in my life! How much would I love to see one? Oh, I'd love to see one lots!!! I've been along so many times now, at various times, and still I haven't seen one!

I'm really not a very lucky person in any way, shape or form, but even my friends struggle to believe that I can be so blooming unlucky!!! I am, of course, used to it by now, and that's why I keep perservering. Persistence pays, isn't that right? We all get what we deserve in the end don't we? I really, really hope so!!!



So, here we are then, another few hours at Dinton, dreaming and hoping and wishing and praying... and going home disappointed yet again! Still, it's a nice enough place to sit and watch the sun go down. And there's always next winter. Or the winter after that. Ho hum. Again.

Rebecca, x

rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
www.rtphotographics.co.uk

WYSI Winter up the Coombes!

Coombes Lane in Barkham (just outside Wokingham in Berkshire) is the way to Wonderland for me!



I love it here!!

Peace, woodland wildlife, gentle walks and, top of the list... cake!!! Yum! What's not to love? It's fabulous!

The Coombes is a deciduous woodland that sits neatly between the golf course at Bearwood and the village of Barkham. It covers quite a few acres (no idea how many, but it is quite a few!), has many veteran trees and is home to deer, foxes and all sorts of birds... and pigs!

The pigs actually belong to the Wysipigs farm (What You See Is Pig), but they are often allowed to wander about, rooting around amongst the bracken and snuffling round the yard by the farm shop.

A walk through the woods is most delightfully broken up by a steaming mug of coffee and a huge slab of cake at Wysipigs, served by the very funny and entertaining Mr Kevin!

In fact, it has to be said, it is so good up at the farm shop and so entertaining, that it is actually pretty difficult to muster up the motivation to leave!! Sitting out on the terrace with the dogs and watching the easy pace of the farm, sipping coffee, munching cake, chatting to my best pal, it's easy to imagine staying there for the rest of my life!!!

The walk back, once recommenced, however, is always a delight though.



I love the woods and the peace that trees always fill me with. I don't know if it's the roots that bind to the soil and hold life so safe and solid, or the fact that the branches seem to reach up to the sky and the air and space and breath beyond, but, whatever it is, trees calm me, restore my energy, strengthen me to carry on and to forget the nonsense, regrets, and disappointments of every day life!



Strange but true! Whenever I am away and feel homesick, I go and find a forest!

I heard only today that the government are looking to sell off 15% of Forestry Commission land to raise revenues. We must not allow that to happen! It'll be the death knell for the woods and the forests and, for me, I truly believe it will be the beginning of the end!

That may sound dramatic, but I live in an area that was once supposedly protected as Green Belt land. It didn't work. As soon as one development was allowed, that was it, the beginning of the end for the green belt. We cannot allow that to happen again!



I can't make anyone do anything, but together we have a voice.

If you believe in the power of the woods and you want to help, have a look at the Woodland Trust website and sign their petition. http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/Pages/default.aspx

In Scotland, there's a website that has links to all kinds of information and resources http://www.reforestingscotland.org/links.php

and in Wales, the Woodland Trust have a great information and resource site that may be very useful http://www.treeforall.org.uk/Wales/Facts/CampaigntoprotectWalestrees.htm

If you are in Northern Ireland, there is a website that not only supports the woodlands and forests, but also talks of protection for archaeological sites within the forests! Fantastic!! http://www.dardni.gov.uk/forestservice/index/environment/archaeological-features-in-the-forest.htm

Let's do what we can, as a nation, to come together and preserve our natural heritage. Our woodlands are so important, let's not lose them for the sake of a momentary monetary gain.

If we look after them properly, our woodlands will not only provide infinite monetary gain, but also spiritual and physical enrichment, for us and for our children and grandchildren and beyond! How can we do anything less?

On a final note, I'd like to applaud Wokingham Borough Council for the work that they do locally to protect and maintain our green spaces... but I must also say how much this sign makes me smile!!



It prohibits motor vehicles and horses and other nuisance from this 'open space' but, I have to say, that is the most densely planted open space I think I've ever seen!!! I heartily agree with the prohibitions, but still chuckle at the positioning! Hee hee!!

Rebecca, X

www.rtphotographics.co.uk
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk

Viking Mist Trees!

Waking up just before dawn a few days ago (or was it last week? I'm getting on a bit now you know, the memory's not what it was!)...

So, er, waking up one morning early in October (oh crikey, I suppose it could have still been September then?)...

Right, waking up early one autumnal morning of recent days (yes!), I peered out of the window to see that it was really misty but that it looked like the sun might be able penetrate through the murk to cast some nice eerie light around nearby Viking Field.



Now used by the dog walkers of Wokingham, and of course by early bird photographers, (who still haven't (well, I haven't) managed to capture any early bird photos of any particularly interesting early birds over there!), Viking Field is exactly what it says it is on the display board.

It's a field and the Vikings were there once upon a time!

An archeological dig at the site a few years ago revealed a few signs of ancient habitation; Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and, of course, Viking.

There have been countless other folks using the field over the centuries I'm sure, but we're inundated with Roman place names and references round here, and 'Modern Field' doesn't have quite the same ring to it does it? ('Iron Field' is little better, and 'Bronze Age Field', though quite attractive still doesn't have the same excitement and mystery as 'Viking Field'). There is a long barrow separating Viking Field from the playing field behind it, but it's origins are, I believe, pre-Viking.

Anyway, it's a very old field and has that mysterious quality of a very old field, and so seemed the perfect place to go on a misty, autumnal morning. The sun did try quite hard to burn through, but only really managed to lend an atmospheric air to the ancient field. It was almost liquid in some magical kind of way. The air glowed and the misty vapour sparkled with colour as it enveloped me and engulfed the trees.



It was a joy to be there that morning and, despite the obviously new planting, there was something ancient and eternal about it too.

The field was bequeathed to the town by a Mrs Henagulph in 1997; I hope her vision remains and this field maintains it's air of mystery for centuries more to come. Please, please, please don't ever let it be developed!!!!

Rebecca, x

www.rtphotographics.co.uk

Watch Out, Lou's Loose!!

And weighing in at 75kg, this is one Great Dane you don't want on your tootsies!!!



Actually, I didn't want her anywhere near my tootsies, lovely as she is, because I'd broken one of them the day before! Walking about in flip flops and crashing toe-first into a wooden post.

OWWWWW!!!!

Unfortunately, as they don't make flip flops with steel toe caps, my wee tootsie bore the brunt of the collision and fractured as a result. Oops!

So, as you may imagine, it was with some trepidation and a very pronounced hobble that I set out the next day for my big date with a very big dog! Lou is gorgeous though!



She's a Harlequin Great Dane, and has one blue and one brown eye, and the biggest tongue you've ever seen!! She unfortunately has a problem with her cruciate ligaments, so she's not the most agile of creatures... though I don't think Great Danes are really all that well known for agility anyway! She sort of ambles along in her own lolloping way and very much in her own time. The fastest we saw her move was when she spotted a couple of horses coming from about a quarter of a mile away!! She hot-pawed it off in the opposite direction and stood quivering beside Helen, her walker, until the great beasts had trotted past.

She's actually afraid of most things by the looks of it... rather like her well-known ancestor, the quivering Scooby Doo!! Thankfully she never tried to leap into our arms Scooby-style, 'cos I think we'd have been in very big trouble otherwise! Lou is lovely, but by 'eck, she's big!!!

I sat away from her and used my 70-300mm lens, for two reasons really - firstly, she looks better from further away as the narrower angle doesn't distort her beautiful big features, and secondly... and probably more on my mind than the first... she's a very slobbery dog!!



If you've seen the film 'Turner & Hooch' you may remember a very slobbery dog that could fling slavers from it's mouth like sparks off a Catherine Wheel. Lou would definitely have been a very worthy understudy!!! Bless 'er! Cute, if you don't mind that sort of thing, but not what you want on the end of your lens when you're trying to focus on a nice portrait... there's close-ups and there's waaaaay too close-up!

The 70-300mm lens was fine lol, more than happy with that!!



So that's Lou, gorgeous, funny, quirky and very definitely a very great Dane!

Rebecca, x
www.rtphotographics.co.uk
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk

Viking Field

So now that I'm down in England again, my furry friend needs to find new places for his walkies. There is a lovely spot not far from where I'm staying known locally as Viking Field.



I have no idea where the Viking connection comes from... I wasn't aware that Berkshire ever really had a Viking connection. Plenty of Romans wandered about these parts, but I would have thought it a bit too far inland for the Vikings. I suppose the Thames would provide a convenient route through the land, but here in Wokingham we are still quite a distance from the river. I shall endeavour to find out for you... and for me. I am intrigued as to how Viking Field became Viking Field and so I shall do my utmost to find out.

My four-legged furry friend is very fond of the field already. It was bequeathed to the people of Wokingham in 1997 by Mrs N. Henagulph. A wonderful gesture and one that is very much appreciated by a lot of people here. There are 2 parts to the fields, the dog walking circuit and the children's area and playing fields across the gate. Divided by a very old mixed hedgerow and a high deciduous-wooded ridge (now also clothed in beautiful swathes of bluebells)



the dog walkers can do the rounds and the children can safely play apart, each in comfort and truly lovely surroundings. Hogan (the pooch) has met many new acquaintances, from the smallest Jack Russells to a Harlequin Great Dane. There is always a new rear to sniff, a new pup to chase, and a new human to fuss him and tell him he's gorgeous.



What a life!

From the human perspective, the field offers not only exercise and sociable exchanges, but is also an excellent wildlife spot. The birdlife is fantastic. Jays, Red Kites, Long-tailed Tits, all varieties of Woodpecker, and a myriad other feathery delights. If you go early enough there are deer,



and if you go at the right time, there are several varieties of owl too. There are so many different butterflies, wildflowers, bees, and goodness knows what else

.

I saw some kind of fly that I've never seen before yesterday... quite a few of them in fact. They seemed friendly though, not pesky at all, so they were just as welcome as everything else.

Berkshire is certainly not deficient in beautiful spots, far from it, but Viking Field, just because of it's proximity, it's name and the fact that Mrs Henagulph left it for us to enjoy, is a place that I shall enjoy very much! Thank you Mrs Henagulph on behalf of all of us!!

Rebecca, x
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
www.rtphotographics.co.uk