As I write this it is raining and looks like it will do all day, such a contrast to yesterday morning when Twiggs and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll along Mile End Park and through the Cemetery Park it was chilly but the sun was shining and everywhere was alive with small birds and squirrels. There are small clusters of snowdrops and crocus already in bloom and countless green spears shooting up from the ground ready to burst into a riot of colour and the daffodils are not far behind in fact a few have opened in the Cemetery Park. The wet weather shows off the mosses and lichens beautifully enhancing all the shades of colour, it really was a very pretty morning.
          I do hope you will be able to join me for our next nature walk to enjoy these delights, we will meet at the top of the Green Bridge at Mile End at 12 o'clock on Saturday February the 8th, please bring a drink and snack we shall be walking towards Victoria Park sometimes beside the Regents Canal, so please keep any small children safe. Whatever the weather I will be there there's always something to see, so please dress accordingly and allow me to show you some of the wonders of our neighborhood.

Happy New Year everybody I wonder what gems nature has in store for us this year? As I write this the sun is out and there are lots of small birds about taking advantage of the sunshine and the daffodils I have in pots on my patio are starting to sprout, but we haven't really had winter yet! It's a fine day for taking a stroll in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, it's full of the sound of robins and other small birds right now and a wonderful place to relax and forget about things for a while, I shall be going there this afternoon with my dog to soak up some of the atmosphere.
I hope you will be joining me next month for our walk to Victoria Park on the 8th, I shall be posting full details soon, meanwhile enjoy the nature and green spaces around us there is plenty to be spotted.

OOPS! I nearly forgot to thank Suke who has designed all of our flyers and taken many beautiful photographs for the club, sorry Suke. Look out for her next flyer some time in January with details of our February walk.

          Thankyou to everyone that came to celebrate the Poplar Naturewatch Club's first birthday yesterday, we spent a very pleasant couple of hours getting to know each other and planning the future of the Club, there was an eye catching display of photos of some of our adventures so far some taken by the children that have attended previous walks and some of the new equipment we have was on display too. We watched an inspirational dvd kindly lent to us for the occasion by Kenneth Greenaway from Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, we enjoyed food cooked for us by Nazma one of the ladies from the Burdett Centre and our birthday cake was a wonderful creation lovingly crafted by a lady named Val, it was almost too pretty to eat. A huge thankyou to those people for their contributions to making our birthday happen and of course the staff at Poplar HARCA for supplying the venue and man/woman power.
          The group decided that because of the coming holiday season and impending winter that we would meet for our first walk of the year on Saturday the 8th of February, we shall meet at the top of the Green Bridge that crosses Mile End Road at 12 pm and walk through Mile End Park along the Regents Canal into Victoria Park armed with monoculars, magnifying lenses and cameras, I will of course be reminding everybody nearer the time. It will be good especially for new nature watchers to get a look at the contrast of winter before everything bursts into new life in the spring, please join us even if you weren't able to make it before, next year holds lots of new discoveries for us, nature is never the same twice. Meanwhile I will still be out there with my dog Twiggs as often as possible and I'll let you know of my chance sightings and observations.

Birthday Celebration.

Well the countdown is on for our birthday celebration, I do hope you can join us this Saturday the 30th of November, 12 o'clock at the St Paul's Way Community Centre, come and see what we have been doing this past year and help to plan the year ahead. There will be photo displays of our adventures with nature, a hot drink and pasty and of course no birthday is complete without cake.

Join our 1st birthday Celebrations!

Where have all my intrepid nature watchers disappeared to? The last two walks have been very disappointing as nobody joined me! The Poplar Naturewatch Club is one year old next month and I can't celebrate alone, we will be holding an indoor event at St Paul's Way Centre at the end of next month to mark this milestone with a walk in the Cemetery Park after weather permitting, details will be posted shortly. Meanwhile there is still so much to see out there on any given day, the fungi are coming into there own right now and with less leaves on the trees our resident birds are getting easier to spot. Millwall Dock has a good amount of tufted ducks right now I spent a while feeding stale crumpets to them the other evening, unlike the coots and mallards these little ducks dive for their food the water is so clear there at the moment that it's easy to watch them, there is also an abundance of small fish and quite large pale crabs to watch out for.