London street walks and parks for birds. Bird Place of the Month

From May 1st until now I have been down memory lane. One was a walk through Southall, West London to an Ealing Borough school I once taught at. It is still a vibrant and mainly Indian area with many Sikh Gurdwaras, mosques and temples. You may wonder how these streets of London can connect to bird habitats but not far away from these busy streets is one of my favourite bird places Minet Country Park. West London has many more and these places do feature in the journey of the bee- eater and bumble-bee in my first novel Navaselva. All are so important to wildlife and biodiversity thriving.

I started out from some familiar roads near the Grand Union Canal.

I was surprised to find the florist still there and delivering to the school and the White Swan Garage where my old car was often ‘sorted’. It seems the tyre fitting place opposite, a small but efficient one man business had only recently closed. Small family shops were the norm not many years ago and thrived in this area .

I walk further along King Street and it is as ever busy and the Delhi Wala restaurant is still making vegetarian food and delicious Indian sweets.

Passing the Dominion Centre I look back to my first walk down these Southall high streets with a Parsi friend from university days. Then this was a cinema but was rebuilt into a community centre and library. There are remnants of old Southall with the Manor House, a Tudor building from 1587 and some green space for the park.

Nearer the train station the new building fever is clearer. Cranes and high rise flats near the railway which now has the advantage of the Elizabeth Line to take you quickly into central London and beyond.

There is also the view of Glassy Junction which once was a pub and then a popular Indian drinking place. One of my former students was nicknamed Glassy for various reasons! One topic for GCSE would always be to write about place and be descriptive. He wrote a brilliant description of Southall Park. Others wrote more direct accounts. For me it was always important to value the places around us but also to express our ideas truthfully in our own voice. Food writing is a new genre too and now at the Glassy Junction you can get a wonderful mix of world food and really good South Indian Dosa. I find it hard to describe food but love describing the natural world.

Further along is the Liberty building, once an old cinema too and now an emporium. I remember Southall being the place to buy gold and now there are many wedding fashion shops too. And always lots of fresh vegetables and fruit.

On the other side of the road, opposite the station is the Green Quarter. Am not sure how upmarket this development is and how many truly affordable homes for locals but it is where the old gas works were adjacent to the canal and Yeading brook.

View from Southall Station to old water tower and new housing development called Green Quarter. Beyond is Minet.

Minet Country Park – Bird Place of the Month

On the other side of these waterways is Minet Country Park. I am not sure whether you can walk to Minet from Southall Station yet but certainly you can from the next stop Hayes Station. The organisation A Rocha had their headquarters in Southall near Southall station and were instrumental in ensuring the variety of birds at Minet were protected. A Rocha moved not long ago to Brentford but have also invested in Wolf Fields not far from the canal. I should also mention their beginnings in Portugal along the Alvor estuary. Again steadfastly campaigning against insensitive development in another very biodiverse area.

A Rocha UK’s new home

Minet Country Park was for a while a bit of a wasteland. From the other school I worked at I looked out onto it from my classroom and saw it change from being full of rubbish after week end car boot sales to becoming a Green flag country park. Dave Bookless * and others were really important in identifying the importance of this place and at least 100 different bird species have been seen in this area.

Minet is back fully under the supervision of Hillingdon as an open space while A Rocha have transformed another area.

https://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/minet-country-park

Wolf Fields

We used to organise walks around Minet park with A Rocha and I think it is from these that I began to learn about the biodiversity and the journeys of some extraordinary small birds, the white throat warblers and the larks.

While trying to find out if the larks still visit I came across two interesting local blogs with posts on Minet. I can offer their walks around the park as I will not make it back there for a while.

A Walk Through Minet Country Park, London

https://winowendyswildlifeworld.blogspot.com/2015/04/my-first-but-certainly-not-my-last.html

Some larks would nest in a fenced off central part with a cycle track around it. Larks are ground nesting birds and can live with the bike track but not interfering dogs and people. This was a good compromise. The whitethroats prefer bushes and hedgerows.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/whitethroat

Minet is one of the important green spaces in London but also under threat from the new developments. Already a road has been built on its southern border for access to the new housing. It is in many ways surrounded and it is only the birds and maybe bats which can find their ways to other green spaces safely. The pond was renovated with a grant when a major gas main was laid through part of the park. From one high point in the park you can see the arch of Wembley Stadium and I believe old Wembley turf was placed here. I may have stood on the grass Bobby Moore and the England team of 1966 were on when they won the World Cup.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minet_Country_Park

Our walks with students round the park created a lot of cross curricular activities with science and biodiversity square measuring, maths and symmetry of flowers, history and of course creative writing, poetry and drama.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lark

The other stars of Minet are the larks. And we would see these flying high above the nests and singing. One student described the male as showing off being a ‘fit’ bird which indeed is what the display of hovering and singing is all about. And yes the music department contributed with listening to the Lark Ascending, Vaughan Williams and creating their own responses.

As ever my novel being so much a part of my nature journey also centres around Minet but in the closing chapters. The whitethroats want a really special story to share as usually the swifts and swallow stories dominated the gatherings of messenger birds at the Meetings of the Many.

From Navaselva, The Call of the Wild Valley: ‘The whitethroats were in a frenzy of fluttering. The story they had to tell was to have a happy ending. But they lost the bee-ester by the river as he had dived low down towards the vast flowering tree palace. On catching up with him they saw him being chased by a large group of angry buzzing bees. Not long after, they saw his flashing blue and rainbow colours winging low down by the caged forest. And then he appeared to disappear inside.’

‘When dusk fell the whitethroats returned to Minet. Here berated by the larks and the swifts for losing the bee-eater, all seemed a lost cause and story.

Minet was their special place, nestled between the many stacked rocks of Long-Done. Millennia ago, it had been home to myriads of giant beasts but nowadays it was a welcome respite from the growing rocks of the Outsiders. There were several oaks that had seen many changes and their deep rooted knowledge helped create a complex ecosystem of animals, plants, fungi.

Minet farm once had abundant hedgerows of hawthorn and maple. These sheltered the growing plants and prevented the kept ones from running wild. This had been a great place for birds and also the meadows, some always left wild for a while where many different kinds of flowers would sway. Ox eye daisies, poppies, cornflowers. White red and blue drew many insects to them. Peacock, admiral, marbled white, speckled wood, were the different kinds of butterflies and the burnet moth which would fly in the day. At night there were many different kinds of moth. The larks loved these wild meadows and hedges. But there were fewer and fewer places like this now.’

Red Admiral

Thanks for reading . The last week has been diffficult as one of the matriarchs of the family aged 98 passed away. Memories of those times involve more London Bird Places which I will come back to.

Thanks to all those who have been contributing to Bird Place of the Month. Please leave your links and I will be collating for a 6th monthly review. Apologies too one of my key emails needs to be sorted too so can not easily respond except through JetPack which I find cumbersome.

Here are the links to my novel and to Dave Bookless’ writings.

*https://arocha.org/en/about/people/dave-bookless/

Bird Place of the Month – March Madness

March has been a mad month, mad weather and mad plans. We hoped to go and see the cranes but the weather was so rainy and such poor visibility. But do check out at the end of this some of the links for the February Bird Place of the Month and you will see cranes galore.

The madness is now I am at my photo limit for WP even though I pay for a plan. So lets see if we can get our March Bird Place published. And any thoughts on what to do next with WordPress?

So where shall I go? Well, we ended up back at Cabanas for a rainy few days but on a Tuesday went to spot birds and for me there were two firsts at the Salinas salt pans. Some avocets and then thanks to Bird Watcher Bill we saw a stone curlew in an orange grove. In fact perhaps that orange grove was the bird place as when a car passed so many birds flew into the air, including that elusive stone curlew. Bill spotted it but I was just focused on some plovers. It was hard to see but there was a snipe, thrush, green woodpecker, blackbirds, lots of song birds. I was just about to give up when Bill saw the stone curlew and I got some photos this time.

Rather prehistoric looking Stone Curlew

Avocet with scoop beak and blue legs.

Back to the salt pans where we met Bill and all wondered whether these little birds were dunlin or knot. I believe dunlin now but there is also a greenshank and those other sandpiper types called sanderlings.

The avocets are truly distinctive but in the UK these have always been at quite a distance along the Humber shore line.

Dunlin probably and not knot!

And along the Cabanas shore line there are sanderlings, plovers which I am sure are grey now not golden,

turnstones helping turn the mud or taking the advantage

gulls in flight

And the whimbrel – not a curlew as note the marking on head and eye and the way the beak curves at the end, and I guess slightly smaller than a curlew.

Whimbrel with crown and eye marking

Sandpipers is the get out of jail identity card!

Please join us with your own bird place, place is important not the photos.

Little egret

February Round Up of the Cranes in Spain stay mainly on the Plain and in the USA on the Sandhills.

Annie has given us a bird place full of cranes and on the other side of that big pond Usfman tells us about the Sandhill cranes and if you check out Cindy Knoke she has some recent posts on the Sandhill cranes too. It does seem an amazing place.

Annie at the Laguna Gallocanta near Zaragoza. https://naturewatchingineurope.com/2022/10/30/eurasian-cranes-at-gallocanta

Usfman tells us to check out this amazing spot https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/38000-sandhill-cranes-flock-to-nebraska-in-a-record-breaking-start-to-spring-migration-180983833

If you want close ups of those Sandhill cranes just visit Cindy Knoke as ever with great camera work. https://cindyknoke.com/tag/sandhill-cranes-at-the-salton-sea/

Toon Sarah is off to Mexico but gave us the bird watching at Mandina Lodge. https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/gallery-bird-watching-at-mandina-lodge/

And lets not forget the birds in my book where the story revolves around the sanctuary of the imagined wild valley of Navaselva and their journey north.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Navaselva-Call-Valley-Georgina-Wright/dp/1914199529

Sunday Musings on Moss, Meetings and Weasels.

The weasel is alive and well and busy hunting for food on the rocks outside our window. For those who know about my novel, the weasel Comadrito is one of the key characters and is based on my own encounters with a weasel by these rocks over 5 years ago.

Mossy rocks so different from when I was last here in the summer.

Mossy rocks outside window

But I was beginning to wonder whether there were any weasels and mice still around. Touching wood or a tree we have not had any in house visitors of the wood mouse kind either for quite a while. And on cleaning up the wood shed there was little evidence of mice too.

Well, on one of our quiet meditative Sundays my husband sees one outside on the mossy rock. I had my eyes closed. And I wonder about this. I had been enjoying the sun on the moss and thinking of the beauty of the world we can see, touch, hear. I also love the inner silence when eyes closes and attention goes inwards. But this time I felt a bit cheated but was glad to know there are still weasels about. So I guess there must be sufficient mice and voles too.

Imagine the weasel on this mossy rock!

Sunday for us is often a time for some silent space and reflection. We have both been practicing Transcendental Meditation for years and value the inner silence. We also like the community of Quaker Meetings and would often have our own Meeting for Worship at the same time as Quaker Meetings in the UK.*

Since zoom and when the pandemic both disrupted and connected up our lives we have been able to join our Marple Quaker meeting. As I was talking to people all those miles away I suddenly yelled out. The weasel was back racing over the mossy rock. So I was privileged to see this little creature and the inspiration for my book. I was also able to share this experience with one of the younger members of the meeting. Talking weasels over the zoom miles!

It is so difficult to know how the wild creatures are faring through all these long droughts and then crazy windy weather which is really bashing down so many branches of the old chestnuts, even an olive tree lost some branches and they usually fare better in drought and then strong winds.

I also love serendipity and by some chance on the same Sunday came across an article in some online Nature pamphlets after looking at the American Eco Lit web pages of Ashland Creek Publishing. Two books I have read that they have published have been really good. Their aim with Ecolit is to create writing FOR animals and not about. The aim is to be an advocate for nature and the animal world.

https://ashlandcreekpress.com

‘Suppose the whole of creation began to speak to us in the silent language of a deeply submerged kinship. …Suppose we even felt urged to reply courteously to this address of the environment and to join in open conversation.’ Theodore Roszack

As I read this I can only say I was ‘knocked out’ as this was almost how I try to present the ‘Meetings of the Many’ in my novel where so many of the diverse wild species come together in the Navaselva valley and communicate their lives and stories so all can learn better ways to adapt and survive. Both elements of Quaker practice and TM have also inspired me to write in this way. What if this amazing biodiversity of life communicated in a very deep way? Theodore Roszack sums up this idea for me and ‘the silent language of deeply merged kinship’. All of nature is deeply connected and we as modern humans become the outsiders as we lose this closeness and understanding of other species. The article looked at the experiences of early and indigenous people and their ways of relating to the natural world.

Here are the two books I read published by Ashland Creek and also the link to my novel. As ever and for so many books published by small presses reviews are very important particularly on Amazon.

I will be putting together pages for my novel and more on writing and reading with a nature focus. The zoom book launch went well and hopefully this is the link to the recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8aE4zgWKTU

Bird Place for the Month of March will be coming soon too.

And another yell when I was on a zoom meeting as a small mousy creature ran alongside the pipes not too far from my feet. The wood or house mouse is back inside. Oh no! But at least all have survived the long droughts of summer and the lack of food in winter and are ready to reproduce. Oh no! Not in the house…

• QUOTE ON BEING A QUAKER ‘For a Quaker, religion is not an external activity, concerning a special ‘holy’ part of the self. It is an openness to the world in the here and now with the whole of the self. If this is not simply a pious commonplace, it must take into account the whole of our humanity: our attitudes to other human beings in our most intimate as well as social and political relationships. It must also take account of our life in the world around us, the way we live, the way we treat animals and the environment. In short, to put it in traditional language, there is no part of ourselves and of our relationships where God is not present.’ Harvey Gillman, 1988

Bee Eater and Book Launch

The zoom launch of my book is looming. So a reminder for Thursday 22nd of February at 7 pm UK time. There will be an interview with me, a slide show of some photos, readings, followed by questions that I will try and answer. It would be lovely to see you if time and time zone allows.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/navaselva-an-evening-with-georgina-wright-tickets-804907218157

A bee-eater was chosen for the cover of my book as Abe Mero, a European bee-eater is one of the main wild characters who leaves the sanctuary of Navaselva, the wild but safe valley with the aim of helping a queen bumble bee get to a cooler climate. Co-operation and co-existence are key themes and crucial to not only their survival but ours too.

Bee-Eater by window in UK!

My novel explores through fiction many aspects of the places and species of Western Europe, the challenges faced, and the links through migration to Africa. The human narrative links to this too and helps us understand more about our need for better relationships with each other and the natural world. This book was inspired by living here and writing my blog about nature.

Here are some of the European bee-eaters seen outside our house in September. As I describe in my novel. This is the time many flock together again, young and old together. They need to refuel before the long journey across the Sahara to places in Africa where there will be a different cycle of insects and bees available.

Bee- eaters by house in Sierra Aracena in early September

Note for bee lovers and the bee crisis. For thousands of years these birds and bees have been interdependent within balanced ecosystems. Many bees come to the natural end of their life at the end of the summer season. This links well with the European bee-eaters journey back to Africa. A decline in bee population may help the remaining bees when flower sources are also scarce. More knowledge about interdependence is needed but certainly stopping key insecticides and creating wider ranges of safer unpolluted habitats helps restore complex ecosystems.

Bee-eater nesting holes

There are many other types of African bee-eater with different blends of colours and size. Some of these may be resident or just migrate shorter distances.

From WordPress stock photos. Any ideas about this one?

All bee/eaters will eat a variety of insects but are especially adapted to eating bees. These birds have developed a technique of avoiding the sting. All the different species have evolved a distinctive but different rainbow display of colours. Perhaps suited to tropical climes and the summer in the Mediterranean with the background of bright blue skies. However, there are a few bee-eaters reaching the UK and a pair have returned twice now to Norfolk where there colours are quite bright.

Thanks to I J Khanewala and their Bird of the Week you can also see two varieties of Indian, sub continent bee-eaters.

Blue-bearded bee-eater + Birds of the Week Invitation LI

Do take a look.

Hope to see you the book launch. If not the book is available from different online sources and as ever Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Navaselva-Call-Valley-Georgina-Wright/dp/1914199529

Blog Anniversary – 10 years of Navasola nature on WordPress

I am planning to choose a key post from each year for each month of 2024. For today I have chosen some photos from each January since 2014 and with the link to my very first blog post. I had no idea what connections and inspirations would come from this. My nature writing started with this first blog and has finally come to fruition with my publication of my attempt at nature fiction and having such wonderful connections with people and wildlife in so many places.

Latest news for my novel Navaselva below.

Coming soon for February 23rd evening a zoom launch with readings and Q and As. Will post with further details soon,

My very first blog post and I was so surprised by the viburnum berries taken with my phone getting my first like by a really good photographer’s blog. January 2014

Autumn and Spring in January: Mushrooms, berries, blossom and birdsong.

Viburnum Tinus with the first flower seen January 28th:some berries can still be seen behind flower. January 2014

January 2015

Winter scene on our normal walk with Lotti , and Ruth in 2015. Taken on the Fuenteheridos to Galaroza track where this deserted inn or Bodega can be seen from the times when the tracks were the highways about 300 years ago.

January 2016

Saving a bumblebee January 2016

Holy boat not at sea onT’s 70th birthday trip to the Azores 2016

January 2017

Halimium on the yellow hillside 2017

Lotti, Ruth’s Tibetan friend with her special lashes under the fringe.

January 2018

The nativity display at the Bomberos/fire service station in Tavira – Early January 2018

And below the desperate attempts on the beach at Monte Gordo , on the Algarve, to save this whale. Most heartening was how so many people were concerned about the fate of this most magnificent and suffering soul.

The stranded sperm whale

Sperm whale moving its tail and those trying to keep whale in enough water.

Birds at Dehesa de Abajo, near the Donana wetlands, in January 2019 on our first trip and where we felt so ‘filled up’ with the joy of seeing so many birds in one day.

Storks making love?

Linnet

Spoonbills flying overhead

And below the innocence of January 2020. Buff and all the wild animal characters in Navaselva were waiting for the arrival of Jay Ro’s human part of the story. Tortoiseshells and bumble bees can be seen in January. Buff is in Ruth’s garden where there are always some early flowers and rosemary flowering also keeps the bumblebees busy.

Buff tailed bumblebee

But January 2021 we were stuck in the UK with the Pandemic and another long UK lockdown and full travel restrictions while waiting for vaccines.

These were phone pictures sent to us from Fuenteheridos and Ruth’s garden. Yes, It can snow here, especially in January but we have never seen the snow ourselves and missed this downfall.

For January 2022 there was the aftermath of Ruth’s wonderful bird paintings and exhibition. She completed so many in the pandemic lockdowns We were thinking about going to visit the cranes overwintering in Extremadura for January but reports were of very little water in some key crane places. But we could enjoy Ruth’s paintings of the European cranes.

Back in January 2023 and there is a roaring wood fire as we have so much wood from Storm Barbara with so many of the old chestnut trees fallen branches. I also have my first short story published in the annual anthology of Bridge House Publishing with the theme of Evergreen. It is about a fir tree and as I love to do , from the perspective of the tree as it survives for much longer than just a tree for Christmas.

So we return to January 2024 and with much gratitude to the blogging community over these years and a little reflection on ways forward. There will be more on my book and some pages on the characters and places. Maybe some walks and introductions to the villages of the Sierra Aracena too.

And of course Bird Place of the Month. Thanks for the contributions so far. Just descriptions or observations from your own backyard will be great too. Here we have just seen a crested tit close to the house very clearly but it was too difficult to get a photo and I just looked out and enjoyed seeing this new and delightful character explore the olive and hawthorn tree.

Memory Museums in London and Christmas is coming.

The Natural History Museum was one of my favourite haunts as a child. And a group of us would go there on our own from age 9 or 10 . Those were the days when youngsters could do this and were welcome. All the museums in South Kensington, London were free admission then and are now. However when my children were young there was quite a high entrance fee so I missed exploring this amazing museum with them.

December 2023 and the queues to get were long but I sat on the tube and managed to book a ticket online free. This meant I did not have to join the queue. The building is beautiful outside and in. I love some of the well placed blue bricks and lots of stonework sculpture. I missed the opportunity to do some close ups and it got dark quite quickly.

The great blue whale and the crowds inside the great entrance hall.

As a child this hall would have a great dinosaur skeleton. It really did fill the space. Now it is as if the whale is flying above you.

As a child the great blue whale was in the mammal hall. And was always worth a wander. Yet again this is an area being refurbished. With my children we enjoyed the interactive being human part of the mammal area.

With the light failing on a short December day at times it seemed dark and quite different to the memories of light pouring into this hall and its galleries of bones and so many stuffed animals.

As a mad dog lover I always used to go and find the famous stuffed greyhound Mick the Millar. Now he did not look that great to be honest and it was intriguing seeing a lifeless but real animal. And there were plenty. This time I found a few albatrosses and shearwaters. It is hard to show their wingspan but it was impressive.

Stuffing birds like these must be quite an art.

I found myself intrigued by the displays of some of the early naturalists and collectors. Some stories to be told here and a reminder of ‘ The Signature of All Things’ set first about Joseph Banks and Cook’s time and then a story of a woman who almost understands how evolution works through her study of mosses.

Below early fossil hunting and other discoverers.

I must write the poem about the day I touched the Iguanodon’s teeth. And then had to queue to wash my hands. Memories of covid! And no gel on me anymore. I wonder how many touched the teeth and it was great to be invited to do so.

There is so much to take in and see here and I have no doubt my love of animals and nature was fostered here in my childhood. Now we have so many more documentaries and photographs to help but also less biodiversity. The Natural History Museum did ensure comment was made on this. In the mineral section there was this kind of information about the amount of mining needed to create ‘greener’ cars and electricity. How sustainable will this be?

8 tonnes of copper needed for each megawatt of electricity

Recycling minerals to reduce mining

it will taked double the amount of yearly global mined cobalt to replace all of UK cars with electric ones and 75% plus global lithium

And the beauty of shining rocks

Of course the museum has quite a collection of already extinct animals and dinosaur bones.

I think the Great Auk

Some treasures from the sea and the dinosaur bird – archaeoptrix

My time in London was well spent with friends, family and the annual Bridge House Publishing event for their seasonal anthology of short stories. It was a chance to meet up with my writing mentor Debz Hobbs Wyatt. She too can hold the book for the first time. Christmas magic!

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Navaselva, The Call of the Wild Valley is now available on Amazon within a day in the UK and also Waterstones, Barnes and Noble and from the publishers.

Wishing everyone a very festive season.

Botany and Black in Nature – Denzil’s Nature Challenge

Walking around Navasola this morning as the heat rises from 21 degrees to 28 by 11.am I am struck more by the incredible greenness of so much around me. Thankfully this year there has been rain in the spring and a last late shower in June.

Navasola from the bent over pine at 28 degrees July 19 th 2023

For Denzil’s nature challenge I look for the black berries of viburnum tinus but these are still grey. The brambles may provide blackberries by early Autumn. I try and check the wild peony seeds but these are mainly still encased in their moist green seed pods.

I overlook the wild carrot because it is everywhere and gleaming white lace like flowers. I marvel at its ability to be the main flowering plant of the drought times and heat of July and August. And then I notice the tiny blackness in the middle. So for Denzil’s black nature challenge I give you Ms Daucus Carota the wild carrot.

Daucus carota with black or purple black centre July 19 th 2023

This black centre has made us ponder but I can not find a labelled botanical drawing. From the Kew website there is a lot of information. Daucus carota comes from the middle lands of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq. And is referred to in the gardens of Babylon. Brought over to Spain in the 12 th century and finally developed into the cultivated orange carrots we know in the Netherlands. And so it seems nowadays the world produces megatons of carrots.

This flower also supports the life cycle of the swallowtail butterfly who indeed has black markings. But have not seen one today.

swallowtail at Navasola

Daucus carota seen July 19 th 2023. Some are in full bloom like the one with the black centre. The early smaller flowers do not as yet have a dark centre. Others have transformed into the amazing nest that will stick to animals and be moved far and near!

But what about this colour concept of blackness? Kew references the centre as a purple flower. We think this one here looks quite black.

What else is black or shows some black at Navasola. There is the black carpenter bee but not seen today. It maybe too hot for them and for the bumble bees with their black stripes. So many birds here have black markings, eye strikes or caps. There should also be black kites around and rare black vultures near Aroche. But maybe the blackest are the male blackbirds and the ravens that fly overhead to a big roosting place near Cortegana castle.

Carpenter bee on viburnum flowers February

Carpenter bee on Rosemary, early April

This all leads me back to my novel The Call of the Wild Valley whose key female non human protagonists are the black kite, Milvana and Buff the buff tailed bumble bee.

Buff tailed bumblebee

Saving a bumblebee January 2016

Black cap by quince tree in Castaño Del Robledo

Blackbird by Ruth Koenigsberger *

I also have the links to Africa as all the messenger birds have homes there too. Nana G used to work in Africa and I think we should honour Africa as our first motherland. In some of my research the Congo basin in the heart of Africa contains incredible diversity of species. And even though homo sapiens is one species there is the richest genetic diversity there among all the different human groups. This and other evidence shows how we and maybe most species we know today emerged and migrated out of Africa.

High wire young ones getting ready to fly from the Algarve to somewhere in Africa.

Young house martins ready to leave Cabanas for Africa September 2015.

We have just about finished the serialisation of Part 0ne and it will stay on the google blogger website for a while. The whole novel is due to be published in November.

This has the last two episodes showing. But you can get back to the beginning or where you left off.

http://www.navaselvathecallofthewildvalley.com/?m=1

For the beginning of all the episodes

http://www.navaselvathecallofthewildvalley.com/2023/05/introduction-and-episode-1.html?m=1#comment-form

Do take a peek preview and Bridge House Publishing welcomes reviews so far and comments. I too would love to hear from you and do comment on my blog too. Or email.

Bridge House Publishing

https://www.bridgehousepublishing.co.uk/

* Ruth Koenigsberger, artist who has drawn some of the characters and places in Call of the Wild Valley, and I have shown her work in various blog posts.

Denzil’s Nature Challenge

https://denzilnature.com/

Navaselva Meets Navasola – The Call of the Wild Valley

The serialisation of Part 1 of The Call of the Wild Valley continues. There will be an episode every Sunday until the end of June.

This week the story focusses on the journey of the bee- eater and buff-tailed bumble bee to the north to find a cooler climate.

Please follow the link below for episode 4. A google search for Navaselva, Call of the Wild Valley should also get you to the Blogger site. All the episodes so far are available to read.

http://www.navaselvathecallofthewildvalley.com/2023/05/episode-4.html?m=1

A bee- eater at Navasola

Bee- eater numbers in our area seem to be lower now. It is hard to find out information and whether their journeys are changing but there are more sightings in the UK than ever before. Some bee- eaters like the character Abe Mero are trail blazers seeking out new places. Certainly their food sources may too be in decline and water sources along with changeable weather which can all impact on breeding success and survival.

The inspiration or information background for these characters in the novel came when I read an article about how difficult it is for bumble bees to adapt to rising temperatures and their range for moving is very short. But a bee- eater that needs bees can cover the distances needed to find more suitable places. The idea for this unlikely pairing grew.

We think a buff-tailed bumble bee but we get lots of white tailed bumble bees in the Sierra Aracena and it can be difficult to identify these similar looking types.

Bridge House publishing and myself would welcome more comments on the actual blogger blog site for Navaselva, Call of the Wild Valley. Please let us know on this site if you are having difficulties subscribing or commenting.

We will be halfway through next week. Please feel free to comment as this will help with our final revisions and marketing. Adults and young adults are the target audience.

What parts are you enjoying, been surprised by or have found difficult?

In what ways can this novel enhance ecological awareness and empathy for wild species?

Can fiction do this or does knowledge about nature have to be factual?

The Evergreen trees of Navasola and the Evergreen short story anthology.

My story recently published in the anthology Evergreen is partly from within the consciousness of a fir tree grown only for Christmas. But it survives beyond the festive season and connects and inspires a variety of local children until …..The story is called Until We are Ever Green. It contains quite a few ‘untils’!

A variety of christmassy trees in the Fir and Spruce section in Kew Gardens. We were in search of Abies alba but found so many other different kinds of fir.

It is late January and we are finally back at Navasola after dull but changeable temperatures for the UK in the winter. It was a rather frustrating time with so much illness from bad coughs/ colds/ sinus and the worst I have had since leaving the classroom. Here at Navasola it is very cold but the sun is high and bright with andalucian blue skies. We also have our supply of wood from when so many branches of trees came down in the bad storm of 2020.

So thanks to the trees we can keep warm at night when at present the temperatures are falling below zero.

There is also so much green thanks to our own evergreen trees in stark contrast to the denuded old chestnuts. However without the leaves there is much sunshine on the woodland floor. Their leaves will come back later than most in May.

Pollarded old chestnuts supply lots of fallen branches.

View walking down the hill from the gate. Chestnuts and pines on other side of the valley.

Many branches fell from these millennial chestnuts in ‘tormenta Barbara’.

Navasola’s Ever Greens

Olea europaea, Olive Olivo.

The olive trees’ grey green leaves keep dancing in the chilly skies. All the olives need to be picked by end of December but any left will make good food for birds or other animals when fallen to the ground.

Black olives high in tree against Andalusian blue sky

There should be some olives later

Quercus suber, alcornoques, cork oak

The cork oak leaves show different shades of pale grey green. The tree trunks are well insulated and fire resistent. Cork trees can only have their cork cut every 8 years or more.

Cork trees still green in Autumn near Castaño.

Newly corked cork tree on Galaroza path

Two cork trees growing by our house. The bigger one was like the thin one 15 years ago. Both self seeded!

The Holm oak, encina, Quercus ilex or known as the evergreen oak.

encinas or holm oaks are stretching higher to the sky in their self seeded grove. These are the trees of pasture land or dehesa and can be found across vast swathes of Spain evenly spaced out to provide shade for grazing animals. These trees are also excellent for wood burning too.

The common ivy or Hedera helix dresses up many a trunk and keeps its green even when the frost bites. The Mirbeck oak also hangs onto its glorious display of red orange leaves until the new arrive.

Winter trees by the ivy perimeter wall.
Quercus canariensis, mirbeck oak

Pyrenean oak now fully covered in ivy so green in winter and a haven for birds and other insects.

Arbutus unedo, madroño, strawberry tree.

The madroño tree or strawberry tree is very hardy in the frost or heat. And home to the caterpillar of the Two tailed Pasha.

Madrono flowers and fruit

Bullfinch on madrono through kitchen window

Arbutus unedo, madroño, strawberry tree.

Two tailed pasha hatches in July or August

Wild viburnum tinus does not grow into a tree but can grow very tall around the trees. It is usually in flower by the end of January as the bees wake up. But at the moment it is rather frost bitten with the colder icier winter we are having here.

There are many wild pines too. Mainly Pinus nigra or black pine. These grow very tall very quickly and thrive here on sandy soils. These are different to the cultivated umbrella pines found a bit further south towards Huelva. Stone pine, Pinus pinea.

wild viburnum tinus

Blue skies and tall pine for blue sky thinking!

I think many readers of my blog will enjoy the stories under the theme of Evergreen in this Bridge House Publishing anthology. Apologies that it is only easily available on Amazon but we would love you to read, review and share the stories.

Bridge House Publishing’s launch of Evergreen and other Cafe Lit short stories. I finally meet my writing mentor too, author Debz Hobbs Wyatt.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Evergreen-Multiple-ebook/dp/B0BMW5K6GJ/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2JXZC9KIQI2SY&keywords=evergreen+anthology&qid=1674852585&sprefix=evergreen+anthology%2Caps%2C142&sr=8-1

https://www.bridgehousepublishing.co.uk/

https://debzhobbs-wyatt.co.uk/

November in Seville, the Hot, the Cold and the Butterflies

November has been a hard month. It is becoming a mix of dates of friends passing and friend’s birthdays, including my own. Like the seasons the end of the year is approaching and the years go by. But while we are here lets do our best to enjoy and sow seeds for the future.

Butterflies in November in Seville

The Alcazar

I am in Seville for two nights. Our favourite and local city. It is just over an hour away from the Sierra Aracena. Somos turistxs hoy! I am also reading an incredible novel called Sugar and Snails by Anne Goodwin.

Autumn in the Sierra Aracena about an hour from Sevilla but much higher up and colder. Our home.

We are staying in the Hotel Simon, once a casa grande of a rich Seville family, probably shipping or merchant wealth. But from the 1930s became a hotel. Today for a reasonable price you can enjoy its tiled splendours. And just walk out into the centre of Seville and come face to face with the giant Cathedral frontage.

The cathedral and Giralda

Patio of Hotel Simon

Our walk today!

First past the market selling all kinds of figures for the nativity story of Bethlehem or Belen. This is quite a collection that builds up for people here. Some villages do a ‘living Belen’ as in a village near us called Linares.

Artisan figures and models for the Nativity

We walk up to the university which was the old tobacco factory of the Carmen opera fame. Now you can walk in and possibly through and feel student life all around you.

University life and lectures. Resistance, repression and survival in Seville in the 40s and 50s

From the University we cross the road by the main theatre where renovation walk is ongoing and then into the Plaza de Espana park. There is fun with the rowing of boats and serious commitment to women’s rights with the poster display for International Woman’s day.

Plaza de Espana and Recognition of Women’s Rights

We watch an attempt at a wedding photo shoot and am glad we asked. We thought she was an Indian bride dressed in the traditional red with all the bead work. No, it was for a Gitano wedding. And of course the romany and Spanish gypsy links are from long ago in the north of India and Pakistan. And listen in to the stamping footwork of flamenco.

Wedding Scenes

From here we walk through the park and have tapas away from the central tourist part. Rested and full of garbanzos, cerveza and ensaladilla we walk through the Plaza de Americas. The archeology museum is closed but the Museo de arte y costumbres is open. We rest with the butterflies and orange lanterna. Painted Ladies. It could be summer. Pigeons abound in one place for food and parakeets squawk about in the trees. Eucalyptus and parakeets and sunshine warmth. We really could be in the southern hemisphere. But the plane trees are changing colour and there is a chill on the shade and at night

We walk back by the river where Seville is ready with an ice rink and fairground for Christmas fun. And a strange glass container for eating churros and chocolate with the Torre de Oro in the background

Along the Rio Guadalquivir

Saludos from Sevilla with all its history, art, culture and natural beauty built up around the grand river Guadalquivir. From the Moorish power base of the Alcazar and Islamic rule, through the colonial Spanish architecture and build to impress, to the more nuanced post Franco Spain, a modern democracy with rights, values and standards at its heart. Ready hopefully to tackle the next global problem of climate change. Drought is not new to Andalucia and water is a blessing. However, the drought and high temperatures are longer and the water levels lower.

The rivers flowing by Seville and into the Atlantic and the Donana wetlands

There is such beauty on this planet created by human hand and by nature. Let’s enjoy while we can and leave this world safer for those who come next. Lets watch our water consumption and keep the rivers flowing for wildlife too.

Notice in our hotel bathroom. But in the Sierra where the water comes from many village water supplies ran dry this summer.

Time to celebrate too. I am attending the book launch of an anthology of short stories this Saturday in London. Evergreen is the title. ‘Until we are Ever Green’ is my story about a neglected silver fir Christmas tree.

The fir tree section of Kew Gardens

Lets hope The Call of the Wild Valley gets published soon too. It’s on the list!