High Speed 2

Over to Mum's for 10 o'clock. I was only allowed 2 hours this week because she has lots going on. After many cups of tea I left there and went Calvert Green to deliver some cards for N. Once I found my way out again I headed for Jubilee Lake which is a BBOWT Nature reserve and has been since the London Brick Company transferred it into their ownership in 1978 .

Here there have been sightings of some interesting wild birds including the Bittern and is a well known spot for rare wild flowers and butterflies.
Nothing much there today although there were quite a few waterfowl to be seen on the lake. Its been a horrible day, dark and wet and the pictures I took reflected this.

Its a place I may call into sometimes when I'm at Mum's cos its on the doorstep practically. I know HS2 will take a swathe of the reserve as part of the latest Land Clearances. In fact the contractors went in on 6 December without any permission or warning and cordoned off the area and started cutting down trees. The Trust only heard about it via worried members of the public. It has now stopped but lots of damage was done including the destruction of a well documented Bat roost...

Here's a snippet from the Trust's Website:
https://www.bbowt.org.uk/news/bbowt-dismayed-hs2-destruction-calvert-jubilee-nature-reserve

I knew that I wouldn't be able to see the damage as I can only walk a limited distance, but I went and had a look anyway. After a little hike i returned to the car and then followed the destruction via a few country roads to see the swathe of clearances cutting its way across our green and pleasant land. I cannot understand why work isn't being stopped during the review of the project. Perhaps it is a foregone conclusion but we just don't know.

I have put a couple of extras in despite it being a grey murky day.

On the way home I had the car washed and vacuumed, then popped to Honda for a new wiper blade...

Thanks for calling in as always.