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Post by mossie on Feb 6, 2021 11:16:12 GMT
During our first lockdown last year I realised I was spending far too much time sitting about and was loosing condition, so took to making myself take a daily walk. I am lucky in that our housing estate has been built on an area of heathland and there are still open spaces around. I have only to turn right out of my door, cross the end of the close and walk down this path This leads me to the spine road though the estate and in a short way along that I reach the entrance to an old pathway A hundred yards takes me here, in sight of the water tower which gives pressure to all taps on the east side of Ipswich and beyond the track serves as an entrance to that but the path continues until it crosses a confluence of paths, known as Rushmere Corner where 5 paths meet. But I am not going there today, however looking about me I realise that this path has distinct boundaries on each side , defined by a hedge and , more interestingly a ditch on each side. This is classic Roman road, but looking at the map, my path has no obvious destination at either end, so I guess I am adding 2 and 2 to make 62 again. But I am at the end of my range, if I go on too far I won't have the stamina to get home and eat my lunch. here though I can turn off the path into part of the heath which has been kept to allow a play area for local kids. This is also prime dog walking territory and it is rare not to meet some pampered pyard. Note the miniature metal goal posts. If the weather is kind enough I may sit for a while to watch the world go by and then set off hobbling with my trusty stick, for home I think this has taken me almost as long fiddling about to post as it did to walk round.
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Post by questa on Feb 6, 2021 12:14:11 GMT
It was time well spent, Mossie. I have seen many pictures of grand houses and sweeping vistas of England but your pictures bring a human scale to these ones. The photo of the gate with the little lane and hedges is beautiful.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 6, 2021 12:16:40 GMT
This is great, Mossie. You have taken us along on many walks in the past and yet you manage to show us new things every time. And it was a nice day to be out.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 6, 2021 14:37:03 GMT
Oh wonderful to hear you are looking after yourself Mossie. Although weary and worn out by the time you get home I bet that exercise makes your feel good. Please be very careful and dont trip over any dogs. Do you have an alert 'tag in your pocket so you can sound the alarm for help should you unfortunately come a cropper.?
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Post by htmb on Feb 6, 2021 15:10:52 GMT
Looks like a nice space for a good walk, Mossie, and you certainly picked a good day to take pics.
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Post by onlyMark on Feb 6, 2021 15:33:47 GMT
Lovely Mossie. Sun shining and everything. Just right for a walk. Hope you can get out regularly - with you camera.
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Post by mossie on Feb 6, 2021 15:52:07 GMT
I forgot the shot where the path carries on towards the Corner
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Post by onlyMark on Feb 6, 2021 16:03:33 GMT
Mossie, can you cast your eyes over the link on the following page. It details Roman roads but I've specifically chosen the page with one I think is about a mile south of you as the crow flies. Is that one you know of? www.twithr.co.uk/suffolk/ipswich-felixstowe.htm
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 6, 2021 16:05:00 GMT
Excellent. I go on a similar tramp around the area every day too...I think I'm wearing a groove in the path....*sigh*
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Post by mich64 on Feb 6, 2021 16:49:09 GMT
A beautiful area to take a daily stroll Mossie. I like that it seems mostly flat, that makes it easier to be able to look around some instead of down at your feet all of the time watching out for uneven ground. Keep on Mossie!
In town, they took away almost all the benches at the beginning of the pandemic so people could not linger. I hope they are back soon.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 6, 2021 17:17:52 GMT
I don't like the look of the wet muddy path Mossie. It looks like hip fracturing territory. Please be more than on your guard. Walk with someone if you can arrange it.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 6, 2021 19:30:47 GMT
Falling in mud is much safer tha falling on hard ground. It's the getting up again that can be more difficult.
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Post by mossie on Feb 6, 2021 20:36:02 GMT
Many thanks for the maps Mark, the Lidar is especially interesting although it has not solved my query.
Don't worry about me Tod, I have put on enough around the mid section to bounce and I walk with a good stick now to keep my balance.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 6, 2021 23:50:46 GMT
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Post by mossie on Feb 7, 2021 8:37:30 GMT
Thanks Bixa, I will read those links properly later but there is some very interesting stuff there. Now I am getting more stupid every day I get older because there is yet another shot I forgot to include in the original post This flock or chatter of magpies inhabit this area and sometimes come into the gardens, I have seen one taking nuts from my bird feeder
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Post by lugg on Feb 7, 2021 18:58:16 GMT
Enjoyed taking a walk with you Mossie. It looks a lot drier in your area than here in Herefordshire where the mud and surface water is making any walk a chore. Glad you had a beautiful sunny day too.
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Post by htmb on Feb 7, 2021 21:03:57 GMT
Funny, I don’t think I’d ever seen a magpie until just a few years ago in a London park.
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Post by fumobici on Feb 8, 2021 0:38:17 GMT
I saw a lot of magpies when I lived in Eastern Washington, and I see them almost daily in the Tuscan hills. They don't come across the mountains to the Pacific side here, I'm sure they have their reasons.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 8, 2021 1:25:52 GMT
Like Htmb, to my recollection I never saw a magpie until going to London. After reading her post, I googled magpie & see that they are only in the western half of the US. Considering how striking they are, surely I would have remembered seeing one. That is quite interesting that the don't cross the mountains to the coast side where Fumobici lives.
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Post by htmb on Feb 8, 2021 1:47:39 GMT
I’m used to seeing blue jays, but magpies are so much bigger and more boisterous. I was in Greenwich Park when I saw my first.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 8, 2021 5:24:16 GMT
Yes, and that own-the-world way they have of hopping across a lawn. My favorite bird memory of London was asking people about this beautiful birdsong I could hear out my window. Everyone would look at me like "Don't get out much, do you?" and then say "A blackbird?!" in a tone indicating it was too common to mention. mossie, I just spent two hours thinking about you! It's because I was watching the movie The Dig and thrilling to the fact that I could say that I saw it all on anyport first!
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Post by bjd on Feb 8, 2021 6:59:27 GMT
It's still dark but in the mornings I can hear lots of birdsong these days -- a sure sign of spring. But the surest sign is that of blackbirds singing in the evening. It really is very nice.
As for magpies -- they were very common around our house in Toulouse, here, fortunately, there are fewer of them. Lucky for them they are attractive in plumage because they are rather nasty otherwise. They can be trained too, so are probably quite smart.
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Post by mickthecactus on Feb 8, 2021 11:33:44 GMT
Heard the wood pigeons this morning for the first time.
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Post by lugg on Feb 9, 2021 18:41:36 GMT
Yes I am hearing lots more birdsong in the mornings and evenings too. Lots of magpies where I live .. and I do count them and relay the rhyme , sing the tune , I guess I watched too much "Magpie" as a child www.imdb.com/title/tt0238791/One thing that I hardly ever see is another very common British bird - the starling. I guess that maybe I need to find a thread where birds are discussed /or create one so as not to interfere with Mossie's post too much.
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Post by mossie on Feb 9, 2021 19:49:36 GMT
Magpies are a nuisance, they eat other birds eggs and sometimes the nestlings. The harsh noise they make can really grate as well. Gamekeepers used to shoot them.
Bixa, the film The Dig has made quite an impression on the reviewers but I doubt I will see it. I did some work at Mrs Tranmers house back in the dark ages when I had to work. Thanks for referencing back to the thread I made of my visit to Sutton Hoo, which incidentally is only a short way from the end of the massive emergency strip which was the runway at Woodbridge airfield and which many American airmen served on during the Cold War. It had been built on Sutton Heath.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 10, 2021 12:02:10 GMT
One thing that I hardly ever see is another very common British bird - the starling. Starlings are a fairly new addition to our garden - only the two kinds called The Glossy Starling and Redwing Starling. Hundred, no thousands reside in Kruger Park and are a pest. We also have crows which I think is like a Rook. Magpies are not as big ??
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Post by bjd on Feb 10, 2021 15:34:13 GMT
Lots of starlings here. They seem to like large groups -- one day I counted 40 on my front lawn. A friend of mine has a house in a village in Aude department. It's on the main street, where there are also rows of plane trees. The starlings roost in the trees in their hundreds, and every morning the cars parked under the trees are covered in poop. The village actually hired someone to shoot firecrackers at the birds to make them go away last summer. In summer too, they wake really early (4:30 am) and start making a terrible racket.
Tod, magpies are about the size of a large thrush, with a long tail. They are thinner than crows.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 10, 2021 16:51:26 GMT
I remember when I was little, there were reports on television in the United States about an absolute plague of starlings, a horrible bird imported by some stupid person from Europe. They would show huge clouds of birds blackening the sky, worse than in a Hitchcock movie, totally defiling the country.
I don't think I ever saw a starling until going to Hyde Park. They are really quite beautiful.
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Post by mossie on Feb 10, 2021 17:37:57 GMT
Just after the war I remember we had a huge flock of starlings near home, they used to fly round in a great swirling mass, darkening the sky and settle on a patch of woodland. The noise from their chattering was tremendous and in fact a flock is called a murmuration, what was worse that they always roosted in the same place and that area was white with their droppings. They can be domesticated and are great mimics and can be trained to speak after a fashion.
Magpies are great thieves, they go for bright things and will take rings etc. They can also be trained to talk, although their voices are very harsh.
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Post by bjd on Feb 10, 2021 17:50:31 GMT
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