On Thursday and Friday we had leni_jess to visit. Friday saw us head out 'the pretty way' through Chipping Ongar, the Rodings and Dunmow to Thaxted.


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On Sunday, we drove up to the luxurious kennels and cattery - it calls itself an "Animal Country Club" where Draco and three of the kitties are going into durance vile for the duration of Eastercon. Our cats have stayed there may times before, but this is the first time Draco will be going into kennels, so we wanted to have a look around the dogs ( Read more... )

Yesterday at 8pm the BBC showed what purported to be a programme in the Natural World series on The Wild Places of Essex (I am not going to link to it in iPlayer for reasons that shall become clear.) It was a personal view by someone called Robert MacFarlane (who has just written a book) and it was, to be frank, absolute crap. It ought to have ( Read more... )

Most of the people visiting Hainault Forest Country Park are not aware that Hainault Forest proper is not part of it. There is no visible boundary, and the two managements (the Woodland Trust and Redbridge Council) work together so well that the transition is seamless. The fields and lake are definitely the Country Park, as is this splendid view ( Read more... )