Blogspot - mel-talesofthecity.blogspot.com - Tales of the City
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Berries go round 24 Aug 2013 | 07:58 pm
Rumour has it it's going to be a good autumn for blackberries, and certainly they are beginning to ripen on Tooting Common. We walked the dog there in the rain today and saw one forager deep in the un...
August 5 Aug 2013 | 08:55 pm
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Because it was the only month of the year in which we never went to school, because it was when we usually went away ...
The Big Butterfly Count 28 Jul 2013 | 01:09 am
Two evenings ago, a male purple emperor butterfly flew into my living room in south-west London. Although he was gone in less than a minute, it was still an absolutely magical encounter, and one I'll ...
Island nation 21 Jul 2013 | 08:16 pm
Today we went for a nose around a local garden, open as part of the NGS scheme. Just a few streets away, on Woodbourne Avenue, it was, like ours, north facing, but unlike our rather sorry effort it wa...
'Destroying beauty' 16 Jul 2013 | 12:55 pm
We were in Lincolnshire at the weekend, visiting my husband's grandfather who has just turned 95. A private with the Royal Berkshires in the Second World War, he was shot in France and captured by the...
A load of old rubbish 6 Jul 2013 | 06:42 pm
A hot weekend and my local parks are full of picnickers and sunbathers... and litter. Orange Sainsbury's bags blow cheerily about; discarded crisp bags and cigarette packets stud the grass, each bench...
Stag party 1 Jul 2013 | 08:41 pm
Early summer and the stag beetle sightings are coming in. My husband found one a few days ago – dead, unfortunately – while bringing the dog back from her walk on Tooting Common, and a friend of mine ...
Red alert 22 Jun 2013 | 08:07 pm
My strawberry plants are having a bumper year. I've had bowl after bowl of perfectly ripe fruit from them, and there's no sign of them slowing down yet! I'd love to know what combination of factor...
Guerilla art 15 Jun 2013 | 08:45 pm
One of my favourite local green spaces, Palace Road Nature Garden, has been undergoing a transformation. The undergrowth has been cleared, bark-chip paths wind through the trees and rustic benches hav...
Bugged out 9 Jun 2013 | 07:53 pm
I looked for them all last month but didn't see any: maybugs, or cockchafers, were late taking to the air this spring. But yesterday I found a dead one on the pavement, its head, with the characterist...
