Putney – Guildford Bestiary
This weekend Mark and I set off to explore another 30-mile section of the Walk 2012 project, this time exploring various trails between Putney Bridge and Guildford. I am sure Mark will write in more detail about the route on his blog, but in the meantime I thought I’d share with you a selection of creatures (real, imaginery and metaphorical) that we spotted this weekend.
Horses – or evidence of horses; spotted near Putney Bridge, by Beverley Brook.
Laughing/Green woodpecker – this is my favourite bird as I absolutely love its giggly sound. Please forgive the detestably pixelated qualities of the digital zoom and the failure of the photograph to convey the woodpecker’s lovely, undulating flight path; it was very magical to see this bird on Richmond Common…
…where we also saw these fine Red Deer.
Much later on in the proceedings, Mark found a Feasel with its very own road-sign…
…and then we slept in a Holiday Inn, which was situated at the end of Felix Lane in Shepperton.
The next morning, striding out into the fresh sunshine and readying ourselves for a 16 mile or so tramp along the Thames and then the River Wey, we found a stern-looking Swan…
…and some sort of Goose-Yoga convention.
Beside the start of the Wey Navigations, I found a Bear with a map.
It is rumoured that a monkey accompanied us on our travels also…
…and we were greeted at lunchtime by a very friendly Badger, whose regal visage always occurs in the same place as good, Hall & Woodhouse Ales.
Joy of all joys, we spotted an enterprising Barn Owl out hunting early in the afternoon as we neared Guildford; Mark got a better picture of it than I did but you can just about make it out in this shot.
When we got home I found a lovely fox on Kate’s blog, and went in search of Liz’s post about the Barn Owl that I remembered. The title of Liz’s blog post is ‘Magical’ and that’s how it feels to see the real creatures we saw.
In my mind, even made-up-animals like feasels and bears become magical totems when you go on a journey; they make for good story-telling when you’re cold or your feet hurt, and they are a good reminder of all the living things that share the places where we go.
Tags: animals, badger, bears, bestiary, creatureful, Feasels, monkeys, owl, totems
February 1st, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Lovely pictures honey – especially the one of the geese
we also saw lots of naughty squirrels clattering through trees and some cackling magpies who found our/my grumpy muttering to be highly amusing. You’re a great walking partner xxx
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:39 am
great pics and looks like a fab walk! very exciting because my animal nickname is owl and my partners is swan – so to see us both there is fantastic – glad we could watch over you on your journey
February 3rd, 2010 at 1:21 pm
We had an unexpected kingfisher sighting on a walk through Russia Dock Woodlands in Surrey Quays at the weekend. It was the highlight of the day, above everything else including great food and sunshine! Truly magical!
February 3rd, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Goose yoga: whatever next?
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Hey ya Felix,
That sounds fab – a little TILTing from the woolly-wonder-underbelly of Oxford! I am enjoying wandering through your site…i’m new with this so still trying to come to grips with where to comment – like – where to reply to your comment…i have just read of your fascination with sheep and…well…of course we are a nation of sheep. was recently in Banks Peninsula at a Maori and Colonial museum that happened to have sheep wandering around it…my partner commented that she hadn’t realised sheep could be so ‘individual’ in their baa-ing…we captured some sounds so i will post them on my blog as a wee gift of appreciation for you