We are often lucky with the weather on Monday afternoons but today was nothing short of miraculous, as we enjoyed a two-hour window of dry weather during a day of otherwise pretty much unrelenting rain. And that wasn't all - we were just a few yards out of the...
Before we could start this walk in one of my very favourite parts of Dorset we had to overcome a considerable obstacle - a locked gate. Possibly inspired by the nearby Olympic Games the group used a variety of vaults, somersaults and backflips to get to the other side...
Today we visited one of the top botanical sites in the county. Corfe Common has been grazed for hundreds of years and its hilly contours mean that it has never been practical to plough it. Consequently an enormous variety of plant species have flourished. Many of them, such...
We had already decided that we would chicken out of the walk up the ridiculously steep sides of Hod Hill and instead enjoy a leisurely stroll along the banks of the River Stour. This proved to be a wise decision with the grasses out in full flower on the...
After a series of preparatory visits to this beautiful site on the day of the actual walk it was, of course, raining. Not that we were put off, we just appreciated the effect the rain was having on the plantlife. I've never seen such luxuriant foliage. And of course...
Today's walk took us from the Mill, just east of Sturminster Newton along the River Stour, walking upstream. We had originally intended to walk as far as the outskirts of the town, returning along the old railway line. But in spite of the fact that we could hear a...
Just got back from the New Forest Bioblitz, where I was helping out with the forays and also showing visitors around the Open University's iSpot site, https://www.ispot.org.uk. A Bioblitz is like a 24-hour natural history marathon. All the wildlife experts in the region descend on a chosen area...
