Wildlife Circus

Note: Zuihitsu is a Japanese style of literature that can drift like a cloud or read like a song. It comprises a number of loosely connected themes, often featuring poetry inserts, expressing typical Japanese themes, such as nature and the changing seasons. Here 'Tolworth Day' (29.7.19) and  Tolworth Court Farm, are connected to lines found in John Clare's poems.  1. The trickling brook veins sparkling to the sun J.C. Actually there are two rivers here: the Hogsmill rising east to west from its spring ponds, boldly crosses the county boundary from Surrey into London at Tolworth; and the Bonesgate rising unseen, with two sediment laden arms, somewhere between  Chessington's farms and roads, only traced in places by  power and tree lines. A Guardian article (2015) attests that its  named from the resting place of London's  plague victims, but it seems only part of the story, due to its inaccessible location. Bonesgate sediment     2. The bla...

  Oaks and maples Cambridge Gardens 2019   Street trees can often be the most beautiful objects in our streets. They are important to their communities as well as having environmental benefits. They are a living history in our landscape and can have particular connections. They may be fragments of a previous landscape incorporated into a modern street scene, such as the oaks at Cambridge Gardens once  part of the Duke of Cambridge's estate.  A great read with information on how to research street trees is a  History of Street Trees by Dr. M. Johnston.  London plane trees CRE 1976 Beech tree, Chesterton Terrace 1976 Studies show that the difference in local tree cover can reflect the various socio-economic groups. In Victorian times middle class areas were planted with many street trees or had higher quality front gardens than working class districts; now referred to as 'green equity'. It can be demonstrated by looking at old photos of the seven...

water vole holes with lawns   Does the topic of fossorial or - subterranean living - grassland water voles (GWV's) have any bearing for us in south-west London, or is this just a phenomenon of north-east Glasgow?  I went there to seek out this nationally significant population, after finding my own fossorial animals in west London (as well as seeing the One Show segment).  It was thrilling to see such abundance and listen to the work of  Robyn Stewart on behalf of the Mammal Society at  a course in Easterhouse, Glasgow. Useful facts: fossorial animals are deemed those living >500m from a watercourse. Animals more than 150m are considered a 'transitional' population, the rest are water voles. 80% of the grasslands containing Holcus lanata (Yorkshire fog) in the north east Glasgow, contain water voles; 56% of these areas will be lost to development or infrastructure projects over the next five years. Development site within a few metres of GWV's...

  Viaduct Pond    Starting at the Hampstead ponds - a group, convened by David Fathers and the London National Park City - began to walk the course of the 'lost' Fleet river. There are at least two arms arising from the spring ponds in Hampstead and at Kenwood House; where the river arises from gravelly scars across the lawn,  especially in winter months. The Westbourne, Tyburn and river Brent also rise hereabouts.We left the Heath and followed Flask Road named after the bottled spring water industry, which was popular in the 19th century.   Following Fleet Road we walked into Kentish Town (Ken is the old English for Oak); at Talacre Gardens there is  signage detailing the industrial rise of the area at the expense of the river. Then to Chalk Farm and Camden. The etymology of Chalk Farm is an abridgement of Chalcot Farm, and has nothing  to do with geology) .   Georgiana Street      Through Kings Cross -St. Pancras Old C...

Citizens Assemblies are used worldwide as a mode of 'deliberative democracy' where a problem is debated without the outcome being predetermined beforehand. One organisation, 'Involve', brings people together, usually with facilitators and expert leads over 2 - 4 weekends, to understand and arrive at a consensus over complex issues such as road pricing. The 'gold' standard would be an assembly at national level known as sortition; such a  formula was used in Ireland to decide  what should be the country's position on gay marriage and abortion. This is the type of deliberative forum preferred by Extinction Rebellion for discussing climate change; further information, including a podcast can be found on their website. Citizens Assemblies can also compliment representative democracy, especially at a time when our representatives spend more time resolving conflicts within their own parties, ignoring those who elected them. If we are serious about the climate ...

    This post is regarding Biodiversity loss and local extinctions in the borough. It was read at  the deputation at the full council meeting 24.4.19 and includes a litany of lost species. Every day I pass this building on Cambridge Road, which reminds me of the house martins that used to nest under the eaves of the previous building  - The Peel Pub. In early years the nests used to be poked out, but at least the birds kept coming. Then they stopped coming. Now they can never return as they have been designed out of the system. The urban gradient in parts of  Kingston has increased beyond the tolerance of many urban species, including house sparrows  - a UK Priority Species, included on the list of Section 41 under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 - due to its massive decline. This Act confers on the council - a legal duty to protect - and makes this species 'material' in any planning application. Kingston's own Good Practice Guide...

Cambridge Road Estate     Correspondents Lyse Doucet and Martha Kearney covering the Israeli elections  on this morning's 'Today' programme,  were surprised as listeners 'Twittered in'  comments  regarding the house sparrows chirruping in the background. It lifted spirits to hear happy chattering, a sound once common in all our gardens. We have lost 12 million house sparrows since the 1970's. Populations continue to be  fragile in some London boroughs, due to the fast pace of development and the amount of  Total Footprint developments council's have been prepared to accept, in order to achieve their housing targets. Some councils have taken their legal obligations more seriously see February's post -house-sparrows in Ilford but as  kingston-enters-anthropocene on many environmental fronts we need some assurances that there won't be any more losses of colonies, such as at the former gasholder site opposite Sainsbury's, and the Cam...

Lake in the Country Park If I had been keeping my blog in 2004-08, I might have written about Hainault Forest, one of my favourite open spaces in the LB of Redbridge. But I wasn't, so I didn't, but will make up for it now that I am revisiting the sites that I surveyed >ten years ago, to see how they have changed. Hainault Forest is one of the remaining sections of the former Forest of Essex.  In a survey made for Henry V111 in 1544 its extent was some 3,000 acres. The forest land was condemned as a waste in 1851, and deforested; the deer were removed, and 92% of the old growth forest cut down. Hornbeam and beech are it's characteristic tree species including pollards of the former. The land became marginal agricultural land and subsequently a significant proportion has been built on. Redbridge manage the country park and the Essex side is managed by the Woodland Trust who are in the business of reforesting .   This link to the website - written by local natural...

Tree felling Kingsmeadow S. Kay    Last year I sent a Christmas letter to 48 councillors - asking them to attend to the environmental destruction occurring in the borough - which you can see here biodiversity-air-and-water-letter-to-48. But unauthorised tree felling continued during January, captured so well by several witnesses attending Kingsmeadow in an attempt not only to halt the felling of a row of healthy Monterrey Pines - and other mature trees- but also the tipping of several cubic metres of contaminated soil down the riverbank in order to construct a new discus throwing area, without the necessary planning permission or ecological impact assessment reptiles-in-borough     One of the 28 policies in the Kingston Tree Strategy is that 'permission will not be given for healthy trees to be felled'. So I thought it prudent to remind councillors of their biodiversity duty under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act, 2006 at the Environment a...

 Since October Dr. Peter Coles - at times in conjunction with the Museum of Walking- has been  showing us London's mulberry trees. As we were standing looking at the pictures of the former site of the Lewisham silk mills, a by- passer remarked that her mother knew the mills in the 1930's - and they had coincidentally just planted a mulberry with Lewis from the  Orchard Project, just a 100m from where we were standing. The history of silk goes back some 5,000 years. Discovered in China the closely guarded secret of its manufacture found its way to this country via the Silk Road and the trade routes of the world. From the Inns of Court to Keats House Museum, to Victoria, St. James' and Green Park we have seen-on Peter's walks- white and black mulberry trees hailing from the time of King James when he tried to kick start a silk industry; or the remnants of a former silk industry brought over by the Huguenots; or the specimen trees, which were a must have for e...