Year of pleasures #7: Snowdrops

Flash of green and white
Tiny harbingers of Spring
Heralding the sun

Name that bird!

It's been spotted on the canal in King's Cross for a few months now (it's kind of adopted Holly), and it's obviously not a native to British inland waters. But what is it? It sits very low in the water, and spends most of the time diving for fish. Curiouser and curiouser.

A walk in the woods

We went on a family outing to Coppetts Wood on Sunday, a nature reserve nestled behind Tesco by the North Circular. It's full of apple trees, plum trees and bramble bushes for foraging, and there are ponds and logs scattered around.









Bramble picking - made lovely jam!

Is this a coot or a moorhen?

I can never remember which is which. Anyway, I took this when we took Logan to see the ponds at Hampstead Heath, after a lovely lunch with Isabelle and Lauren at the Freemasons Arms on Downshire Hill (overpriced and a bit pretentious considering it used to be a bit of a dive, and nothing like the "country pub" they claim to be, but very welcoming nonetheless).

I'll put some more pics up on Flickr tonight.