I can't really tell you what it's like to think like a pigeon. Or even what it's like to think with a pigeon, as no pigeon has ever sat with me long enough for my thinking to feel pigeoned. But what I might suggest is that when I saw this pigeon just sitting there and not doing much I thought about how my mind can suddenly just, as it were, switch off. Imagine that I have been busily looking at things in shops, perhaps handmade wands, tumbled crystals, pottery mugs, deer hide

On the ancient beech, these rather resplendent fruiting bodies. This fungus gets its name because you can write on it. I had rather hoped I had found hoof fungus. This is one that can be used to start a fire. I believe the man they found in a glacier had this with him. It turns out this fungus had many uses! Artist's bracket is used in Chinese medicine to reduce inflammation, but seems less thrilling than the tinder one.

When I visited my father, he showed me his cyclamens. I can't say I was hugely excited, though it was nice to see that he was happy about them. A few days later, I saw these by a fallen down wall next to an old beech that is one of my Sentinel Trees. Nice to see some colour at this point in the year... of course, the reds are starting to be out in force - what with the hips and the haws. I like that second picture where the camera would not focus on the berries, but allowed t

A brief visit to the Reserve, as I was checking a couple of horse chestnuts. I thought that the heron was a tree stump until I saw him stalking along in the shallows. I didn't want to disturb him so I didn't go any closer. To get this close to the swans, I did scare off a small group of ducks. There were a pair of wagtails flittering around near them. They like being close to water. A chiffchaff was calling from the hawthorns. I went on to check a beech near the ruined church

A trip to visit trees. It was very quiet. I did see a hare and an adult muntjac. Many squirrels. And a raptor - it looked like a kestrel but was in a place where I would have expected a sparrowhawk. The fungi are out and that made me think about decay and decomposition, the cycles of life, and death. The death theme enhanced by a singe bone. A pair of trees I had previously reported due to their bleeds, have many more bleeds, though right now they are not bleeding and the rup

No excitement of foxes or lightning on this occasion. I chose to sit under the ancient and hollowed out lime tree. It was cooler and the sheep had been moved. I heard rooks and pheasants settling in for the night and then saw the bats. I wondered if they had been holed up inside the lime. A distinct possibility. It was peaceful and I just sat. Not thinking about anything in particular. The depth of the night.

Yes, I know: the front step-thing is a disgrace. But what I wanted you to see, which you no doubt didn't, was a small white dot positioned at about 3 o'clock on the tyre. Go on, have a look. So what? You may be asking. And this picture doesn't really answer that question. The blur, now positioned on the wheel, is a spider, who had made an elaborate and vast web across the front door. It did cross my mind that I could just stay inside until she'd finished with it... but I had

Now, you may well be thinking, "Is that a 'before' image?" NO, it's not. That is post-dramatic and labour-intensive cutting. I swear that there is 70% more light in the conservatory! The shade was good in the heat of the summer, but as winter comes, it feels like I live in a hobbit hole. Again, it may not look like the hedge of some Tudor manor house, but, believe me, it's worlds better than it was. I left the ivy at the end as it's covered in flowers and I was removing so ma

And not just for me! Three or four days of intense chopping had left me exhausted and the garden creatures VERY irritated. To add grist to the mill of their discontent, the presence, I assume, of the hawk, which led to considerable alarms from the great tit and the robin. As you can see, once the hawk had flown, the robin could take a chill pill. I think this is Falco. There is rather less thick shrub now, but I think there is enough and as soon as the spring growth comes, th

A trip to the new offices on the third day of the Notting Hill Carnival. I was travelling largely by tube. I had to change lines at Bond Street. On the platform, it was a mini carnival - music playing and crowds of people dressed up for the day of dance and music, drinking and celebrating. Many Jamaica flags, some for other West Indian nations. The train was rammed. And it was interesting as the vast majority of the people were Black British and I thought, how wonderful! Thes

More storms. So far, rather little rain. Enough that I thought it might encourage the badgers out to seek worms. So I positioned myself near the mammal track by the Five Sisters. I arrived about fifteen minutes before sunset. I could hear the pheasants going to roost and a family of buzzards. Occasional crows and flocks of jackdaws. Robins sang around me and pigeons called. After a while, I realised there were bats flittering around me. Pipistrelles, I thought, though later I

A later than usual run and the light was beautiful. When the sun shines in a stormy sky there is this extra vibrancy. Also, of course, that's impacted by the time of day and the time of year... and the latitude. All combining into light that's liquid. Watercolour light. And there was thunder rolling, like the boulder of Sisyphus.

While I was in Oxford, Clare put her camera out in my garden! A very foxy fox, and I love it when the badger jumps back!

I'd been on a long run and sat with these five oaks, whose crowns are shaped such that the wind treats them as one large oak. For some reason, the name "The Five Sisters" came to me. Well, the five is obvious enough. And there is some serendipity: The Five Sisters of the Welsh / Celtic landscape There are various Celtic and British folkloric traditions in which groups of sisters become landscape features — hills, stones, springs, trees, stars. “Five Sisters” survives particul

Well, it was unknown at the time but I have subsequently discovered that this is the caterpillar of the vapourer moth. As the attached link says, these caterpillars will eat oak leaves - and this one was very determined to climb up Kairos! I was impressed that it navigated itself to the tree and them, despite the challenges, climbed. Only the males fly, apparently. They find the females by their vapours, or pheromones. I'd walked down to the wood after boxing. So dry down the

I've felt a little short of tree-time as my runs no longer involve a lot of sitting around. So, having done my weight training session, I embarked on a stroll. Not kites this time, but buzzards circling above me. In this video, you'll see some more of the walk... the light and the thistledown. My focus, though, was a visit to Majesty. Again, I climbed up to have my coffee and feel arboreal. It is always a wonderful experience. The size of the limbs. The sense of being held. T

Tane is granted a little more time in the garden now that nesting is over. It also seems that he has finished molting. He does not speak on this now alien territory, but we share some knowing glances and fond regard. Or, at least, I like to think so. This video is significantly better than the last one, you'll be pleased to know. Now for a rather poor video that offers more questions than answers!

Yes, well... I met up with four other women - three fellow students and one of our tutors for something of a reunion. We went to an exhibition, The Wonder of Birds, where many Jackie Morris works were on display and texts written by Robert Macfarlane. The pair have written a book, which looks fabulous... but at £35 I thought I'd have to resist. There is also an audio version, apparently, which features the calls of the birds. But, obviously, no Jackie Morris. The photographs

You will have noticed that there's been very little mention of the blackbirds. I have heard them a few times, and seen blackbird-shaped darkness in the honeysuckle, but here was an actual sighting. At first I thought this was a youngster, but then I believed it was Mrs B part way through her molt. After that, I went back to the fledgling idea... as Mrs B surely had a fully yellow beak? I think adult beaks are fully yellow. I met an avid birder the other day and she confirmed

This was inspired both by the Anish Kapoor exhibition and by that message, "Don't try to be a saint; instead, feel like a heart." I took photographs throughout as I expected that I would do something that would make me hate it. There's a bit of light blue in the lower left hand side that I don't like, but, apart from that, I am happy with this.