Lazy Sunday

December 7, 2014December 7, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

Sometimes I feel the day is going to be one of those days when it is good to just sit and relax, watch an old film (Scrooge, 1951 with Alastair Sim and a very young George Cole) and as it had started raining when I walked the dog this morning this seemed like a good plan after I had got some jobs done.

Sometimes it is the simple things that we take for granted that gives us the most pleasure, like a winter’s day when you can stay inside watching an old film in front of the fire, but when I took the dog out for her walk before the evening had set in I noticed how the bare trees silhouetted against the now clear sky gave me a feeling of warmth even as the tempreature was dropping fast.

Can there be no better picture of the Winter Landscape in East Anglia than the bare trees against a Winter sky.

The Trees silhouetted againt the sky

Somtimes the bare trees that we pass everyday look so different against a winter sky.

Silver Birch trees

Winter at last

December 6, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

I have to say I think after days like today the East Anglian landscape is at it’s best, fantastic Sunrise this Morning.

Sun rises over the East Anglian Landscape

Followed by a crisp clear day, apart from Summer I think East Anglia looks it’s best when we have days like this.

Ely seems to be gearing up for Christmas with Christmas tunes played in the Market Square by local brass band

Christmas tunes in Ely’s market square

To shoppers catching the Sunshine on a frosty walk past the cathedral.

Shoppers walking past Ely Cathedral

I think there are never any words to say about a day like today, when you can show images and enjoy our fantastic Landscape.

Sculpture outside WWT Welney, Norfolk

And finally the Fenland Sunset.

Sunset over the washes Dec 2014

The Sound of the East Anglian Landscape

December 3, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

I had been thinking today that if asked to describe the East Anglian Landscape I could perhaps describe the landscape to someone who had never visited here, from the Broads to Fens, the undulating fields of North Norfolk, vast beaches, heathlands, and the Brecklands and dominated by the Big Skies of East Anglia.

But then I wondered what would be the typical sound of East Anglia? as a child I would have said the constant cries of gulls, mainly Herring Gulls, growing up near Lowestoft there were always gulls, that and excited shouts in Summer of people on the beach.

A young and Adult Herring gull

But these would be just the sounds of the coast, not of the whole landscape East Anglia, but I think the one sound that for me reflects the East Anglian landscape is that of the Skylark, I have heard it on the coast, on heath and in land on agricultural land and pasture.

I have heard its song as early as February, I am sure most people can identify its song and I bet like me they always look up to see if they can spy this small brown bird as it ascends to a great height only to drop like a parachute back to earth, it reminds me of childhood years spent exploring the Suffolk fields near my home and the constant song of a skylark always seemed to be there in the background.

Poets like Shelly and the East Anglian poet John Clare were inspired by the skylark, I heard a poem this year read on Radio 2 by Issac Rosenberg who was killed in the Somme in 1918, he wrote a poem about a skylark after returning from a night patrol and hearing a skylark singing, it must have been a reminder of home amongst the horror he was enduring.

Skylark

Returning we hear the Larks

Sombre the night is.
And though we have our lives, we know
What sinister threat lies there.

Dragging these anguished limbs, we only know
This poison-blasted track opens on our camp –
On a little safe sleep.

But hark! joy – joy – strange joy.
Lo! heights of night ringing with unseen larks.
Music showering our upturned list’ning faces.

Death could drop from the dark
As easily as song –
But song only dropped,
Like a blind man’s dreams on the sand
By dangerous tides,
Like a girl’s dark hair for she dreams no ruin lies there,
Or her kisses where a serpent hides.

Issac Rosenberg

East Anglian Landscape by foot

November 27, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

I often think the best way to see the best of any landscape is by foot, how many times have you visited somewhere new, parked your car in a car park to find most people do not walk very far perhaps, no more than 1km from their car usually referred to as the ‘Honeypot’ area as this is where you will find most ice cream vans and gift shops.

But Still East Anglia is blessed with many footpaths most are on people’s doorsteps and they may never had ever set foot on them, but these are always worth exploring it is where you find hidden gems, for example when I lived in Lowestoft I used to walk around the village of Somerleyton just outside Lowestoft, this is where I discovered Memorials to US airmen where their aircraft had crashed in WWII, one was interesting as they had been in a british aircraft, lots of tales were circulated at the time, one was that they had stolen the plane and it was shot down to stop them flying to Germany, years later after the official secrets act was lifted, it turned out they were training to use radar in a RAF mosquito, they had seen a ‘doodlebug’ (flying bomb) over the North sea, they gave chase to try to shoot it down, the rule was if you had not shot it down within a mile of the coast you were to abort, unfortunately they carried on and were hit by the ack ack guns stationed at Hopton-on-sea who were also trying to hit the ‘doodlebug’.

I wonder how many people have never seen that memorial and that of another to a flying fortress crew that had also crashed near the church on the Somerleyton estate.

Gate on the footpath to Little Thetford from Ely.

There are lots of wildlife, history and fantastic views too be found by foot and there are websites like Adventures Close to Home that will inspire you to get out there and discover those gems.

Sometimes Wildlife can be right under your nose

November 26, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

Nan birdwatching with seagull behind him

You can wait for hours and not see anything

Wildlife watching can be fun, be it bird or animal, sometimes you can wait for hours and see nothing, sometimes you are lucky and see things you did not expect.

When I lived in Lowestoft we would quite often get rare birds fly in from the sea, once I saw a Woodchat Shrike and a Rose coloured starling in 2 minutes only about 800 metres apart and this was only after I overheard a man in shop say, ” there are a lot of Twitchers down at the Bird’s Eye factory looking at a pink bird “.

I have heard stories of a Puffin on the river Ouse in Cambridgeshire, and a pod of Porpoises that swim up the river Nene as far as Wisbech on a regular basis ( I have seen the photographs ), more a surprise perhaps would be in the 1800’s when Whittlesea mere in Cambridgeshire was drained the skull of a wolf and skeleton of a killer whale were found.

So As I always say it is worth keeping you eyes and ears open as you never know what will turn up.

East Anglian Skies

November 24, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

Fenland Sky

On of the things I like about living in East Anglia apart from the Wildlife and Landscape is the ‘Big’ skies, at this time of the year the we do seem to get some dramatic Sunsets.

The setting Sun in the East Anglian Landscape

All too quick the sky can change from moody to dramatic and some are there for a short while almost too much for words.

East Anglian sky that no words can describe

The Common Hare?

November 23, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

The Brown Hare (Also known as the Common Hare) is very much an animal of the East Anglian countryside preferring the agricultural landscape, living out in the open from the moment they are born.

Everyone knows the saying ‘as mad as a March hare’ the month when the hares courting instincts are much in evidence, but the female or ‘doe’ is pretty much ready to mate from January which they do through to September, mostof the time the boxing you see in March is not always two males or ‘jacks’ fighting but most likely than not a doe fighting off the advances of a jack.

Two hares face off

The young (leverets) are born covered completely in fur and fully mobile, unlike rabbits that are born, blind and naked in a burrow.

The Doe gives birth to the young in a group and then moves them one by one to a shallow depression or ‘form’ so they are split up, maybe to increase their chances of survival from predators such as foxes, stoats and now increasingly in East Anglia Buzzards.

Hares will keep low on the ground keeping their long ears down low over their backs and will use their great speed to run away at the last moment.

A disturbed hare taking flight

Because of its antics the hare has is steeped in folklore, with tales of witches turning themselves in to a hare to run away, and beliefs in parts of the country that a hare changing sex every month, even today we use expressions like ‘hare brained’ and ‘hopping mad’ so it is no surprise the name hare comes from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘hara’ which is to ‘jump’.

Dull Day with Nature’s colours

November 22, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

So today has been dull and overcast and the feeling of rain never far away, but nature has a way of brightening up even the dullest of days.

What leaves that are still hanging on the trees and differing shades of Yellow, Orange and Red.

And on closer inspection of birds feathers the patterns and colours are amazing, from the Blue on a Jay’s Wing

the wing feather of a Jay

Or that from a Green Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker feather

Or as what happened to me today at WWT Welney when a child ran up to me to say she could see a Water Vole and wanted me to see it and sure enough she was right, so seeing that Water Vole was brightened up her day and may other people who saw it.

The days are getting shorter

November 20, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

Yes the days are getting shorter as it now seems to be dark when I leave for work and getting dark when I get home. so what better way than sharing some images from Summer.

Early June morning and canal boats on the Ouse

I love the East Anglian Landscape in at any time of the year, but late Spring and early Summer is my favourite time, with the fields golden with crops and the flowers out in bloom makes early morning walks along the river special.

These early morning walks are made all the more special by the Summer Migrants that arrive and the still air is full of their song, like the Sedge warbler and the first Cuckoo calling.

Sedge Warbler finds a perch to sing from

Those days seem so far away now as we wake to the foggy damp mornings and everyone is rushing about in big coats, hats and gloves, but it will not be long until Spring and we wait for the first signs of longer days.

Until then I will look at and share my images that makes being an East Anglia a special place to be.