Shelley and Wayne en route back to Canada. (Note newly painted shed and water feature!)

To Phil on Father's Day

You prayed for all our children in the womb
In hope, in welcome
Crooned over them in tongues new born
Fresh from heaven hearing familiar speech
Rocked and comforted they gazed at you

You built your prayers into play things
Sawed your blessings into an endless round of
camps and cabins, swings and horses,
boats and climbers, room dividers,
and all their beds

You prayed the angels for them in their journeys
Further and further their world expanding like a universe
To the corner shop, to school, across the world
Buses, bikes and cars and planes and trains
And journeys in their hearts
gone further still
Unknown uncharted countries -

And now they are grown and nearly flown
Fledged hawks testing the thermals
Venturing over heights and chasms
Nights and days
Watchman
You keep a light burning
Giving lift to their wings.

stickleback rescue

Off to French Tuesday evening through the park to discover that the same gigantic thunderstorm had caused a flash flood down in the Wash area, leaving two foot high banks of water weed in the woodland by the cascade. Stopped on the bridge to have a look and suddenly realised that there were dozens of sticklebacks on the ground all over the bridge where they'd been washed up by the flood and 2 huge goldfish that normally live in the pond by the road. I thought they were all dead then suddenly saw one flap and then another. Spent the next 10 minuntes searching and scooping up as many as I could that showed any sign of life and flinging them back. Must have got about 20 back in. The 2 goldfish were both injured but one was still breathing so I tossed that back too. I was amazed that so many were still alive - I suppose the dampness must have helped - but sad to think of all their nests that must have been destroyed.
Weds morning - the stream back to normal and plenty of sticklebacks in the water by the bridge, maybe they'll have another go. Trouble is now I'll feel obliged to go to the park and mount a fish rescue everytime there's a flood!

it's NOT a pond - well actually.....

it nearly is- Several days of stifling heat ended with a bang on Tuesday afternoon. Stupendous storm and rain like someone had emptied a giant bucket over us. We rushed around in the garden improvising rain catchers and downpipes from the shed to funnel all the rain into the new bog garden. Spectacularly successful - now have sea of mud plus more buckets of water than I know what to do with.

Royal Hunt of the Sun

Was rather disappointed by National's performance of The Voysey Inheritance (Any play where you actually don't know whether it's finished or not has to be lacking a certain something..) but Peter Shaeffer's Royal Hunt of the Sun on Saturday night more than made up for it. They played it on a completely bare round stage dominated by an enormous cut out sun on the backdrop with a movable strip that made it look like the sun was rising. It's about how the Spanish conquered the Inca empire in 1531 with less than 200 men, very damming of the church's role in it, and about the relationship that develops between the aging conquistador Pizzaro and Atuahalpa the Inca sun-king who he holds captive. The moment when the Inca is revealed standing in the sunrise in his fabulous gold and feather costume is one of those moments of theatre that stays with you for ever. Also the amazing haka -style war dance he persuades Pizzaro (Alun Armstrong - looking pretty fit for an old TV actor)to copy. Lots to think about too - from this distance of years it just seems impossible - how could the church encourage plunder and genocide in Jesus name? How could they possibly think it was right? More troubling what are we doing/ not doing now that Christians in 400 years (if we're still here) will be amazed at....?

Valentines Park is not dead

A few minor miracles of urban wildlife
1) This morning the sun was shining at just the right angle so you could see right into the water and down to the bottom of the lake. Not only is it actually quite clear in spite of all the disgusting bread and rubbish that gets thrown in- but it was a mass of life: great pink clouds of daphnia and lots of little bobbers and wrigglers. No fish though, suspect cormorants have got them but
2) Dozens of neon blue damselflies in nettles by old boathouse.
3) Green woodpecker feeding in grass about 2 yards from picnickers (who of course were oblivious)
4) Sticklebacks by the dozen spawning in a couple of cm of muddy stream in the Wash area- the males flashing their red tummies in mating displays and groups of browner females waiting in the deeper water under the bridge ready for a dash upstream, like little mini urban salmon.
5) A family of baby foxes playing in the waste ground opposite our office window, while dad snoozes on the garage roof in the sun and mum uses a thrown out sofa as a daybed.

London Wetland Centre

Had a free visit to the London Wetland Centre at Barnes this week, a thank you trip for Rainham Volunteers. This is an amazing place - ancient concrete reservoirs converted into state of the art wildlife refuge mostly through the vision of Sir Peter Scott. In some ways it reminds me of Rainham. Both seem to me to be quite miraculous. How is it that a building hungry city like London has managed to preserve these two huge sites for nature when all around is being gobbled up by bricks and concrete? There are avocets and sand martins nesting at Barnes under the Heathrow flight path, little egrets and bitterns at Rainham within sight of the M25....
Barnes was looking at it's summer best - the wildflower meadows, woodlands and ponds have all matured since I was last there. The site is a bit like the Enterprise holodeck - full of winding paths that make it look bigger even than it is, and I was surprised how easy it was to get away from the crowds.
Best time of the trip - setting my telescope up in the hide and showing the avocets and grebes to a couple of families and children. Oh and the sand martin cliff with about 50 martins coming and going.
Most of the time I get very dishearted about the mess humans are making of the world (esp after watching '5 natural disasters waiting to happen' on tv this week) Places like Barnes and Rainham just remind me to have hope.

London Wetland Centre

it's NOT a pond!

I've spent a couple of days this week digging the first new bed in the garden for a year or so, replacing some skimpy shaded grass with a new bog bed. This basically involved digging out about half a ton of soil, putting a liner and edging in and then putting all the soil back. Now all I have to do is wait for some rain to fill it up. I hope to plant lots of damp loving plants - just the thing now we've got a drought order. Plants are like food cravings - I just must have some astilbes! give me a bog primrose quick and a dozen meadowsweet...I blame Beth Chatto, it was her mouth watering descriptions of plants in her catalogue years ago that set me off.