Sorry you can’t make it tomorrow, Caroline, but thanks for letting us know. With these darker winter evenings the Oxford city walk could be a good candidate for the the next one - let’s see what the others think.
Glad to hear the singing went well, and good luck for next Sunday.
Hwyl, John
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Time to start thinking about our next walk/ramble ym mis Ionawr. Maybe a Saturday would fit in best with most people and previous postings have made a number of suggestions as to where we might go, but more ideas always welcome and there’s the possibility too of choosing a day other than Saturday (including a week day) if people are interested. Hwyl fawr, John
As per the PM, i’m happy with Thursday if that is what you decide.
Cheers J.P.
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Great - yes, Thursday’s the day. I was going to suggest meeting at midday in the Wytham Wood parking area near the Botley roundabout (see Nov 7 post for map) - does that work for you or would you like a lift from the station? Hwyl, John
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PS If any one else would like to come along on Thursday (31 Dec), please do - all welcome (see Nov 7 post for details).
Roedd o dda, na, oedd o gwyyyyyyyyyyyyych.
Diolch am dy gymny pawb unwaith eto.
I don’t want to spoil what others may post, but the outline is we wandered chatting and laughing, found a pond that didn’t look like a pond (we may have been in the wrong place (future investigation)), met a woman who had lost her car, nearly got wet then the rain went away, failed to get a photo of the rainbow, oh and ate cake.
A few photo’s from the ramble.
Cyrn gwyn - candle snuff fungus.
Velvet shank fungus.
Eirlys - snow drops.
Blodyn taranau - a red campion flowering in December!
Hen Derwen - Old oak.
Other things mentioned today.
Dafeden goch - coral spot fungus.
ydfran - Rook.
Pinwydden yr Alban - Scots pine.
Piswydden - Spindle tree.
Wystrysen y coed - Oyster fungus.
We didn’t find a slime mould.
Cheers J.P.
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Diolch i @pippapritchard a @ramblingjohn am diwrnod bendigedig ddoe i mewn y Coedwig Wytham.
Ychydig arall o pethau y diwrnod:
eithin = gorse
titw’r helyg = willow tit
dryw ben aur/dryw eurben/dryw aur = goldcrest
tywodfaen = sandstone
castanwydden = chestnut
Hwyl fawr, John
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PS @pippapritchard - I measured our walk at five and a half miles on the map with a rise of 400 feet combining the walk up from the parking area and going up from the ‘un-pondlike’ pond
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On google earth it looks like there are two ponds and we will do doubt explore location of the duck pond on another walk.
Cheers J.P.
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So it’s Google Earth 2-Ordnance Survey 1 - I guess this counts as an away win for Google Earth if you’re doing the pools (sorry!).
But seriously, yes, the duck pond’s definitely another tempting feature to investigate.
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Pushing an electronic version of ordnance map gives this.
Strangely the lower pond/lake is not coloured blue, (the mystery continues).
Cheers J.P.
Diolch, JP - od iawn!
I had the idea of Googling ‘duck pond’ and ‘Wytham Wood’ and came across this: Wytham Wood & Park field notes 1942-1965 - the duck pond mentioned in these seems to be a different one located in the park, but there are nearly 800 pages of these observations of all sorts of wildlife (including ffwng!) to browse through and enjoy, e.g. this from 1960:
While watching these wasps was bitten by a clegg ♀ H. pluvialis (Lab. det.). 24 hours later there was still a small red bump at the wound site. Took her before she had begun to feed, just after she had inserted mouth parts.
I dolike the way, instead of swatting it, he took pains to preserve and identify it! (just happened to end up on that page after a rapid scroll down - I haven’t gone through all 800 pages!)
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I had never heard of a clegg. A horsefly apparently. ‘Pryf llwyd’.
Iolo says: Bydd yn dilyn pobl wrth iddynt gerdded trwy goedwigoedd gwlyb rhwng Mai a Medi. Pity he wasn’t around to warn your author.
I’ve a feeling he might have rather enjoyed having the opportunity to collect it!
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For those interested, we’re planning the next Oxford group walk for Saturday 16th Jan. The route’s still to be decided, so any suggestions about where we might go are welcome. On the main Oxford group thread @ramblingjohn suggests:
if some new people may wish to come, or some don’t want to walk to far, maybe a search of Oxford parks would be fun, (or the museum if wet), or cafe’s, or any other suggestions
and there are a few other suggestions if you scroll back to the Nov 15 post, but there’ll be a plan B as well in case weather and/or flooding interevene.
I’m bumping this partly to say the forecast is starting to look ok for Saturdays meetup which looks like being Wytham woods (what will we see this time).
And to give time for anyone who would like to join us to ask questions about time place or whatever they may wish to ask.
Will we find the hidden duck pond, bydd 'na hwyaden adre ?
Cheers J.P.
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I see Wytham Woods is closed Saturday.
http://www.wytham.ox.ac.uk/visiting.php
I’m hoping to be in Oxford on Saturday, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to make any meet up.
When I open this it’s an old link so I hope we’ll be OK. I’ll keep an eye on their Twitter feed though.
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Oops! Yes just seen it’s 2014. I hope I’ll be able to get there then.
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