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Category: nature

Up the Aynho

Up the Aynho

Used to be the last stop on my journey down southwards.

Now, it’s not. CRT have told me I need to go further in a year.

It’s probably no more than 1/2 way of the distance I need to cover.

Located

By the pub. Aynho has all the amenities. Shop/chandlers (expensive), coffee shop, pub. Boatyard.

Banbury locks have been broken for 10 days+ meaning that there weren’t any hire, or travelling boats as passage was blocked for 2 weeks plus.

I had a look around the locks last Monday, whilst I was in town. No-one was there and there was nothing going on. No plant. No nothing. Just a cordon around the lock.

Fairly pathetic considering a lot of people’s wellbeing and businesses depend on the traffic coming through Banbury.

Better for us boaters, marginally. Live-aboards anyhow.

After two weeks plus, the lock eventually got fixed and as I write this, the traffic is now flowing.

Boat painting

I’ve been touching up the side of the narrowboat. Something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. Particularly on this side of the boat. It’s been neglected for a long time. More as a victim of circumstance. More often when I’ve moored up, it’s the other side which is against the bank.

Here in Aynho, I’m in a space where the bank is low enough, and the recent trimming of the wildlife has left me in a position where I can access the sides and paint them up.

5 coats

Is a standard level of coverage. 1 Primer if needed, 2 undercoat, sand down, apply topcoat x2.

I’m currently up to the final topcoat and the weather has changed.

The last 2 days it’s been raining.

Rain and paint don’t mix. Today I’m having to leave it.

Here’s a picture of Bonnie with the undercoat applied.

Boat painting. Painting my narrowboat.
Boat painting. Painting my narrowboat.
5 coats. This is the undercoat on the patches that have been damaged.
5 coats. This is the undercoat on the patches that have been damaged.

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My first victim

My first victim

For those familiar with the matter…..

I’m a bit of a hunter gatherer type. I like the appeal of free fayre springing up round and about in the countryside, the fresh fruit and vegatables that any tom, dick or harry can pick up for free. Left to grow, cultivate themselves and continue the Saṃsāra of life.

It’s natures way….
Previous posts:
https://www.michaeltyler.co.uk/can-you-eat-fairy-ring-mushrooms/

Wood Pigeon

Imagine my delight when I saw this sight above Bonnie Lady at 7am this morning.

Wood pigeon on wire

Now I know woodpigeon is very tasty with new potatos, fresh vegatables, maybe a little gravy and beans.

Like all the other things in nature this one was free, fresh and organic.

Unlike meats we buy in the supermarket, this one had had a free and gainful life around the countryside; flying, mating, eating the farmers crops, just doing the general things that pigeons do.

A gainful existance.

Free.

Bird on a wire

I am the owner of an S410, which for those who don’t know, is an air rifle.

It’s quite a good air rifle. Probably the best air rifle, certainly at one point in time.

It’s a PCP, which means compressed air fueled. Like a bullet rifle, there is no cocking of barrels and compressing of springs as with a traditional air rifle.

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Things I’ve seen around Oxfordshire 🧐😲😍

Things I’ve seen around Oxfordshire 🧐😲😍

Yeah bouy.

There’s so much to live for around here, at least that’s what the animals believe, as there seems to be rather a lot of them. Flying insects and birds…… birds on the water, animals that crawl and creep, hop and swim. There are a great diversity of the critters here. There is no doubt….

What I’d put this down to I don’t know. I can only guess that the local wild spaces by way of the country park and the Cotswold AONB has let some of those that would otherwise have perished, survive.

Time spent – time wasted

Seeing as I have so much time on my hands at the moment, I’ve taken some and committed it to a little fishing.

I’ve been a few times, 4 to be exact, with varying results. 2 times I caught these.

Bream from Cropredy Marina
Bream from Cropredy Marina
A 2lb roach from Oxford Canal
A 2lb roach from Oxford Canal

They are biggies….. especially the second one.

The other 2 times I caught nothing, or very little, just sat in the sunshine drank and listened to Youtube music streaming on my bluetooth speaker until it got dark, or I got bored. Whichever came first.

These two grand specimens more than make up for it.

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Tiffield Pocket Park

Tiffield Pocket Park

Seeing as the weather was so unseasonably warm, I decided to spend a little of my time investigating this local feature.

Tiffield Pocket Park

Was set up by a local philanthropist who wanted to provide a space for nature, etc.

John Mawby bought the land from the railroad when in became derelict in the 1960’s for the purpose of providing a place for nature to flourish etc etc.

Here’s a picture of the sign for the park where I joined the trail.

As you can see, it illustrates the flora and fauna, birds and animals to titillate the whims of potential visitors.

Unfortunately, I can’t attest to seeing any of these, especially not on the stretch toward Banbury and Tiffield.

All I saw was a badger set and a couple of jays, which I didn’t even see I heard.

Venturing in the northerly direction, I can attest there was a lot more nature, whether that was because the weather was better on the day that I visited I can’t say.

But heading North, there were pigeons, squirrels, blackbirds, and some more rare variety of bird I wasn’t familiar with, as well as the usual tree creepers, wrens, some horses in the fields.

Toward the canal, there is undoubtedly more.

Tiffield Pocket Park
Tiffield Pocket Park

Initially, I took the path toward Northampton in the north. Down toward the canal. The railway runs in a NW direction from Banbury in the South.

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To Ham

To Ham

Felt a bit bored. Took a walk to Ham and Ham Spray.

Again, walked up through the estates of Little Bedwyn, with the ‘beware u will be shot’ signs, on to somewhere called ‘Prospero’ estates, again with little ‘u will be shot’ signs, but better hidden.

Saw lots of little birds and beasties along the way, including a weasel and about 5 hares.

Savernake forest

The woods are near Savernake forest which is owned by the Earl of Cardigan and is some 4.500 acres. I visited Savernake forest on Sunday, it’s possible to drive through from to Marlborough almost.

A short-cut except that the road is not made up.

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Duck removal

Duck removal

Background

The background to this story is that this duck just wanders into my mom’s back garden every year to lay her eggs.

She’s not near the canal, it’s not near any water, but a female duck has decided to make my mums’ garden the home of it’s off-spring.

Last year, my mom had to carry the chicks down from the garden because they couldn’t find their way down to the canal.

Local celeb

This duck is now a local celebrity, and there are many people checking up on it’s progress.

I can’t say I’m sorry. It’s just part of nature.

Ducks can have up to three broods a year.

This one didn’t make it,

Read on….

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New Years Flooding 2016 in 34 pictures

New Years Flooding 2016 in 34 pictures

First post of the New Year.

Christmas was very quite.

I fell asleep before midnight on New Years Eve.

Flooding

Pressure_cooker_boxartStory of the moment seems to be the flooding which widespread parts of the world are experiencing.

It’s put down to the weather phenomenon known as ‘el nino’, which translates to ‘little boy’ in English.

I’ve been around for ‘el nino’s’ before. This one seems particularly bad, maybe the worst.

But, having said that, we are turning the planet into a giant pressure cooker, so what do you expect?

Economics

When I was camping in France, it rained for 3 days solid.

I expected there to be floods everywhere. The river on the campsite barely rose 3 inches. Why is this?

Urban run-off chart
Taken from http://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclerunoff.html

It’s called ‘run-off’ and the fact that most of the planet is being turned into a giant urban district, in order to make more money, support more people, make the rich richer, and the poor poorer.

The hydrological cycle

I contest climate change and increasingly changeable weather conditions are caused by the unobstructed progress of rainwater, from river to ocean to cloud without ever seeing grass or soil or trees.

Trees slow the flow and break the rain for the vegetation below, which slows it’s flow even further with its foliage. Water dispersed in this way runs off very slowly, contributing to the natural water table.

Water not slowed in this way flows right back into the sea, as fast as it can.

Here are some pictures to back it up.


Taken from IBT

Meteorologists predict a wild, wet winter for much of the world, thanks to this year’s El Niño, which ties with the 1997-1998 season as the strongest recorded. The weather phenomenon happens every few years when the Pacific Ocean warms up around the equator, changing weather worldwide.

This year’s powerful El Niño has already caused severe floods in many South American countries. More than 100,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in areas bordering Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina after floods due to heavy summer rains.

El Niño flooding 2016
A church is partially submerged in floodwater in Alberdi, Paraguay, on 5 January 2016 (Jorge Adorno/Reuters)
El Niño flooding 2016
A cat sits inside a flooded building in Asuncion, Paraguay, on 28 December 2015 (Jorge Adorno/Reuters)

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