Category: Water

A brilliant programme

I’m speaking of a series on BBC Radio 4.

The series is called Naturebang: “Becky Ripley and Emily Knight make sense of what it means to be human by looking to the natural world… Science meets storytelling with a philosophical twist.“

The website is: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00060x0

There are 35 episodes. I particularly liked the episode broadcast yesterday about the Clams.

“How do we extract the maximum amount of power from the sun? Becky Ripley and Emily Knight enlist the help of a giant, thousand-year old clam. And end up in the depths of space…

Featuring Professor Alison Sweeney at Yale University, and Mike Garrett from the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics.

Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley“

Amazing!

Picture Parade Four Hundred and Eighty-One

Just one from Unsplash.

Alex – The Ghost of the Forest

The second video from Alex and Lisa.

The video was produced on the 14th June, 2025.

Join us on an incredible Wildlife photography adventure through the wilds of Oregon, as we search for and capture stunning images of three iconic raptors: the Great Grey Owl, the Bald Eagle, and the Osprey. What was amazing is that we did not see another photographer whilst photographing these magnificent raptors! From dense forests to riverbanks and high mountain meadows, Oregon is a paradise for birdwatchers and wildlife photographers alike. In this video, we take you behind the scenes of our journey—tracking elusive owls, watching bald eagles, and photographing ospreys.

It makes us extremely proud to be living in this part of America!

The first video shoot by Alex is here.

The BBC

A fascinating programme on Radio 4.

As many of you know I was born exactly six months before VE Day on May 8th, 1945.

We soon moved from Acton to 16 Toley Avenue, in Preston Road, Wembley. A short distance down Toley Ave was Ledway Drive that led up to Barn Hill Pond.

A review of Barn Hill Pond by a dog walker, Tara Furlong, in 2020.

It’s a pond on top of a hill, which gets smaller depending on how hot and dry the summer is. It has been known to have sightings of its own grey heron, mallards on occasion, etc. Fish may lurk in its depths, and frogspawn in the spring. There are views of Wembley, and across to central London from the trig point nearby, and aspirations to open up the view to Harrow-on-the-Hill. Take a little wander and you may spy St Paul’s Cathedral. A small number of benches are available, and the bins overflow in fine weather. There’s nothing but green space and houses nearby. It’s accessible via a fairly short, steep uphill walk on uneven ground from the unserviced car park, which can get very busy; or from Wembley Park. Photos on a typical British day – i.e. a bit cloudy and soggy.

Click this link in Google to view the scene.

As a young boy I well remember looking out from Barn Hill and seeing the devastation of the property from the Nazi bombers.

There are twenty programmes on Radio 4 that are about this postwar period in Britain. I have listened to the first three and have found them deeply interesting. Anyone interested in British history is recommended to listen to them. That is the link.

The blue waters

It was World Oceans Day yesterday.

To my mind, nothing beats the sights of the World’s oceans.

In the past, I spent four years living on a yacht, a Tradewind 33, out in Cyprus. During that time I cruised to Turkey, to Greece, to Algiers, and loved it.

Here’s an extract from World Oceans day website.

Why Earth’s oceans are so important

Earth’s oceans are critical to human survival. Indeed, more than half the oxygen in our atmosphere is generated via photosynthesis by phytoplankton and seaweed in oceans. In addition, millions of people depend on fish and other marine animals for food. Research on some marine organisms has led to the development of new medications. Moreover, ocean currents, known as global conveyor belts, help regulate Earth’s climate.

Sir David Attenborough has produced a film Ocean and the trailer follows:

There is so much more to view on the World Oceans Day website. Please go to it.

Yellowstone National Park

An amazing National Park!

Alex, my son, and his partner, Lisa, are coming to see us later today. They arrived in Portland on Sunday, 11th but first of all wanted to see Yellowstone.

Here is an extract from Wikipedia about the Park.

Yellowstone National Park is a national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress through the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the US, and is also widely understood to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially the Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular. While it represents many types of biomes, the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.

Here is a YouTube video of the Park:

Picture Parade Four Hundred and Seventy-One

Photographs of the family of geese in our pond in Hugo Road, Oregon.

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In the last few days the whole family have winged it elsewhere.

They were gorgeous!

Crater Lake

Two shots of this beautiful lake.

I was going through some files yesterday and found many photographs taken by me.

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These were taken in 2018 which was when my son, Alex, and his partner, Lisa, came over to see us.

Here is the opening part of Wikipedia writing about Crater Lake:

Crater Lake (Klamath: Giiwas)^[2] is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the Western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is a tourist attraction for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a 2,148-foot-deep (655 m) caldera^[3] that was formed around 7,700 (± 150) years ago^[4] by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. No rivers flow into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by rain and snowfall at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 150 years.^[5] With a depth of 1,949 feet (594 m),^[6] the lake is the deepest in the United States. In the world, it ranks eleventh for maximum depth, as well as fifth for mean depth.