It’s interesting when walking around to take a look and see if you can work out how long something has been in place. Some things are easy, a church or other public building may have a dedication stone; you can estimate how old a tree is from its size. How do you work out how …
Category Archives: Dagenham
2023
I started 2023 with some plans, but then life happened and some of the plans were disrupted. Let’s see where I got to. Walking Dagenham: My plan to walk every road in Dagenham. I had planned this would take about six months, if I walked at weekends and holidays. It soon became obvious to me …
Birds of Dagenham
I’m a scientist, I like data. If I can collect and analyse data from the environment around me, I’m a happy scientist. I’ve been using BirdNet on my phone to identify birds by their sounds; it works pretty well, but sometimes gets confused by lots of birds together, I’ve taught myself a lot of bird …
I am become Death, the destroyer of snails.
I like snails. Not to eat, but as animals in themselves. I’ve even done a stand-up comedy set about slugs and snails. I find them fascinating. I don’t kill them on purpose. Since taking up cycling to work, I have accidentally killed many snails. There is a patch of tarmac connecting Castle Green park and …
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An early awakening
Around 5:30 this morning I was rudely awoken from odd dreams about plastic jewellery by loud voices outside my window. Looking out, this was the scene that greeted me. The pipe was happily disgorging hundreds of liters of water per minute, washing away the sub-surface of the road. The water carried the mud and silt …