A walk in the New Forest

I went for a walk in the New Forest in Hampshire.

It started off in the Churchyard of St Nicholas' Church in Brockenhurst. It hosts the grave of Brusher Mills, a 19th Century snakecatcher who caught thousands of snakes in the New Forest. A pub in Brockenhurst is named The Snakecatcher in his memory.

The path then meandered through a woodland nature reserve and then out into open farmland

It was an unusually sunny and dry and these pigs seemed to be enjoying the good weather.

I then headed into Ivy Wood, enjoying the bright spring flowers beside the river Lymington before returning to Brockenhurst and its impressive period buildings.

Spring Flowers

Lots of pretty flowers in the garden this spring!

Hope to post a bit more from now on this year.

Happy Easter!!

Littlehampton

I recently went on a random trip to Littlehampton. Not much there other then the seaside but it was fun despite the bad weather.

We found a dogfish on the sandbanks.

Halloween and Bonfire night have been and gone and I'm still unemployed despite none of my job applications actually having been rejected yet. At this rate I might have to wait till I go to Japan to get a job. Oh well, at least I carved an awesome pumpkin this year.

Say hello to my friend Bob who sadly I was forced to lay to rest in the rubbish bin today.

Itchen and Solent Ways

Last weekend I walked along a section of the Solent and Itchen ways, two long distance footpaths that pass through Hampshire. I've walked along sections of the Itchen way before but this was my first time on the Solent way. I started in Netley and finished up in St Denys. I was impressed by the mud flats along Southampton Water which are home to many wintering sea birds but the Itchen way section passed through too many urban and industrial areas and was completely unmarked. However there were some pleasant stretches next to the river including this dilapidated boat that reminded me of a ghost ship.

And this nature reserve.

It was also Diwali so there were lots of Christmas lights and fireworks around. Really got me in the mood for the Christmas season.

Whale Watching and Spain

I haven't talked about this on here before, but I'm a huge fan of whales and whale watching. I've been in love with these amazing creatures ever since I was very young. My absolute favourite are blue whales. I also like dolphins and other large marine creatures. I've been whale watching a number of times and it really is a fantastic experience. Last week I went on a 3 day "Mini Cruise" (more like long ferry trip) from Portsmouth to Bilbao across the Bay of Biscay which is one of the best places to see whales in the world. It's normally famous for large numbers of gray whales but mysteriously this year sighting have been way below average. We still saw plenty of wildlife though including huge numbers of common dolphins on the 2nd day and more dolphins and rare beaked whales on the 3rd. My attempts to photograph the dolphins were largely unsuccessful although the photo below just about shows a couple of dolphins just poking up through the waves.

We also had a 4 hour excursion in Spain to the scenic fishing town of Castro-Urdiales.

And for your information here is a list of all the cetacean species that I've had the pleasure to see.

Hannah's Cetacean Checklist

Definite

Humpback Whale

Bottlenose Dolphin

Striped Dolphin

Short-beaked Common Dolphin

Pacific White-sided Dolphin

Northern Right Whale Dolphin

Risso's Dolphin

Harbour Porpoise

Dall's Porpoise

Cuvier's Beaked Whale (although there’s a chance it was a Northern Bottlenose Whale)

Possible

Minke Whale – Sighting was a long time ago so I’m not sure

Fin Whale – Only saw the blow and I’m not sure that counts

Captivity – Not condoning or condemning the keeping of cetaceans in captivity just listing what I happen to have seen

Commerson's Dolphin

False Killer Whale

Orca

Beluga

Amazon River Dolphin

First post in a long time! Hopefully not the last.

Its been a long time since I last posted anything here. School work caught up with me and the further behind I got with entries, the less inclined I was to write anything. Now that I've graduated though I hope to change that and update a bit more often. In addition to graduating, quite a lot has happened, including the birth of my new little sister Ellen. Right now I'm technically unemployed and looking for a temporary job to tide me over before I go back to Japan next year hopefully around march.

Hinamatsuri

On the third of March it was Hina matsuri, the doll festival in Japan. Also know as the girls festival. Japanese families with young girls make this big elaborate displays of dolls in traditional costumes in there houses. They are designed to represent an ancient Japanese court with an emperor and an emperor and various courtiers. Our house keeper put this display up in the communal area of the dorm. We also had a little party.