Close to Home

The commercial centre of Plymouth is located close to the waterfront but the city as a whole stretches inland where over the past 200 years or so it has absorbed a number of small villages. Between the river Plym on one side and the River Tamar on the other side of the city there are large areas which have largely survived any major development and it's possible to cross the city from east to west with very little road walking. Our local woods form part of this natural corridor and are easily accessible from home. This is a pond created as part of a major road development. There was a heron here when I arrived but it saw me first and flew off uttering a grumpy, coarse call. In the woods the undergrowth is slowly beginning to thin out, though  the trees have mostly still retained their leaves. Beside the path I saw marks where badgers had been foraging. There were wrens in the  thinning undergrowth and a huge hornet flying around in one of the clearings. A few simple pleasures closer to home!