I live in the Village - one of the student hall residences of the UEA. Why is it called the Village? After the walk behind the Village today, I believe I have found the answer.

The Broads is a network of waterways and the Broads in Norfolk is famous in the U.K. for sightseeing.

This time, I went with the UEA conservation society for canoeing in the Norfolk Broads. As I am clumsy at rowing and sports, I of course had joined a team who looked good at rowing - a strong man (although with an excusable big belly) and an engergetic young man (although he looks much better in academics than sports). Actually, I had “forced” them to let me join them because they were very nice people. Maybe they regretted later for their decision because they kept reminding me to paddle harder otherwise the canoe would drift without enough speed.

Unexpectedly, we found some fallen trees in the water blocking our way. So people used whatever way they would think workable to cross over the fallen trees - climbing over the fallen trees, carrying the canoe onshore… Whatever way they had chosen, there must be some people who would be ”sacrificed” if they were very brave - falling into the water! 

The Broads water was quiet. Swans sometimes led your way and sometimes took off or landed the water before you. “Cuckoo”… “cuckoo”… cuckoos could not wait telling us they were there too.

Life is amazing! Outside my window, there is a tree. It is interesting and amazing to see it from full growth in summer, to bareness in winter, and then freshly new green leaves in spring. The speed of growth is so fast that three days ago I could still see the church behind it, but now its new leaves have completely blocked the view of the church (see the contrast of the two pictures on the left below with the other two on the right below). Chance will be missed if we do not grasp it.

Now I know spring can be like autumn – trees displaying different colors, red, yellow, light green, fresh green, dark green, colorful and attractive.

Sometimes, the sky is blue and dotted with cotton-like clouds, so cute and interesting.

Running on a grassland covered with bright yellow dandelion flowers is like a dream and romantic! Running and at the same time watching the clouds moving and converging in the sky is so enjoyable!

Nature always surprises me. Two days ago I was still running on a grassland covered with yellow flowers (dandelion flowers). Today, the grassland was blanketed with white dots (white dandelion clocks - globe of white fine filaments formed when the dandelion flowers matures). What a beautiful and sudden change!

I was surprised to find that although I have been living in the campus of the UEA for half year, there were still places around the campus which I had not yet discovered.

I started the walk from the campus, passing by some of the beautiful student residence halls. It was the spring time and new buds started to appear on the trees. New life and new hope to the world!

Then I found a horse farm (the horse in the bottom right most picture had been standing still for more than five minutes - a Trojan horse!).

I went further and discovered the River Yare valley. It has its own beauty in spring.

I have talked about the fox I found in the campus. Besides fox, I also found many rabbits and squirrels in or around the campus of the UEA. However, they were very clever and sensitive. Whenever I tried to go close to them, they would run away (even though I was more than three metres away from them) and disappear in a second. So the pictures and videos below did not come easily.

Squirrel

Squirrel in the Earlham Park near the campus.

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Rabbits 

Rabbits near the Norfolk Terrace in the campus.

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Every time I went to Buxton Heath, there was something new to me. This time, the adders (small poisonous snakes) started to wake up from their winter hibernation. So, besides cutting down the gorses, we looked around to search for the adders. The result was… we found more than 21 adders! When one volunteer told us we should walk in such direction so that our shadow followed us, I had no clue why it had to be so. Later I realized that the snakes were very sensitive and if there suddenly came a shadow, they would run away immediately.

To be honest, I do not like snakes. They look terrible, ugly and dangerous to me. However, our volunteer warden is very fond of snakes! He knew very well where the adders were hiding because he had been visiting the Buxton Heath for many years already. He led us to look for the hiding places of the adders. The adder sometimes was found to be alone, and sometimes to have one or even two other adders nearby.

Tha adders were not big in size and we could only watch them from a distance (because if we went near, they would run away). Therefore, I was not afraid to watch them. On the contrary, I found it very fun to search for them. They were hiding so well that it always took me some time to spot them (even though the people had already pointed to me where they were). (See the picture below. Could you spot the adders?)

The gorses looked so beautiful at this season. With their yellow flowers, they always stood out in the area.

However, for keeping the place a heath, we needed to cut off some of the gorses (my tools in the picture on the right below - a pair of loppers and gloves).

After cutting down the gorses, we needed to carry and pile them at one side. The gorses have thick and sharp thorns. So to hold them by hand, even wearing gloves, sometimes is very difficult. A clever way to do this is to use a pitch fork (see the picture in the middle below). To the gorses which had been cut off, we also painted a red chemical onto the surface of their remaining trunks to kill them permanently.

 Lunch time was always our happy time.

Three weeks ago, I have mentioned about the first sign of spring - the flowering of Snowdrop and Winter Aconite. When I passed the same place of their flowering two days ago, I noticed they were dying out. However, more exciting spring flowers have come - Daffodil, Crocus and Blackthorn! They are the first flowers to bloom in spring. When I found them, I was crazy about them, not only for their beauty, but also for the liveliness they are bringing to this world. They are pronouncing - spring has come! (All pictures below were taken around my hall residence.)

While I was immersed in picking what flowers to shoot and what angles to shoot. I suddenly heard “Hello”. I turned back and found a passer-by standing at the road side. She was smiling, “My friend yesterday passed by here and also loved the flowers. Do you want me to take a picture for you?” Her kind offer came a bit of sudden. Yeah, why not? I thanked her.

I continued to shoot the flowers. After some time, I heard someone calling my name. I looked back. Oh, here came a good friend of mine who lived in the same hall residence as me (I knew him because one day I was carrying loads of food returning from the weekly big supermarket shopping, he offered help to me). His was smiling cheerfully. “When I came along, I saw from a distance someone was taking pictures, and I thought it must be you,” he said. “Yeah, you knew me so well. Only me who have so much time to do such meaningless things.” (It was not the first time he found me shooting pictures in the streets like an insane person. Last time of snowfall, while I was taking pictures in a crazy manner, he also bumped into me.)

Daffodil

All daffodils are the common name for Narcissus, which is the genus name. What are shown in the pictures are the single flower, large trumpet yellow ones, which are the most common kind of daffodils in the U.K. (there are smaller headed scented varieties like the kind the Chinese people grow as ornamental flower for the Chinese New Year, and people usually call them narcissi).

The genus name “Narcissus”, is considered to be derived, not as is often said, from the name of the classical youth who met with his death through vainly trying to embrace his image reflected in a clear stream, but from the Greek word “narkao” (to be numb), on account of the narcotic properties which the plant possesses.

The bulbs of the Daffodil, as well as every other part of the plant are powerfully emetic, and the flowers are considered slightly poisonous, and have been known to have produced dangerous effects upon children who have swallowed portions of them.

The Daffodil is very easy to grow and therefore appears everywhere, along the roadside, next to a tree, near your house. Even when other plants are still in their withered state, it has already bloomed. Its sharp yellow color always makes it stand out from the rest.

Crocus

Crocus is one of the first flowers to bloom in spring. The color of their flowers varies enormously, although lilac, mauve, yellow and white are predominant.

Their cup-shaped, solitary, salverform flowers taper off into a narrow tube. The grass-like, ensiform leaf shows generally a white central stripe along the leaf axis.

Blackthorn

The Blackthorn (species name is Prunus spinosa) is a large shrub or a small tree of the genus Prunus (which is a genus of trees and shrubs, including the plums, cherries, peaches, apricots and almonds). It is covered in white flowers in early spring, and is often one of the first flowering trees. 

The Japanese sakura is also under the same genus Prunus. No wonder the blossoms of Blackthorn look so much like sakura.

Weeping Willow

The weeping willow trees do not display beautiful flowers, but they are one of the first deciduous trees (i.e. they lose all of their foliage for part of the year) which will grow new leaves. When looking close to their branch, I found a lot of new buds (see the right most picture below).

About five months ago, we cut down the willow trees. This time we burnt them. In five months, the environment has changed so much. The left and right pictures below respectively show the same site of the tree cut today and five months ago. What a huge contrast!

To burn the trees, we first needed to start a fire. We were fortunate to have a volunteer who could start a fire in whatever conditions. That day, while we were half way in the work, the rain began to fall, at first drizzle, then pouring. Still and amazingly, the fire kept burning. This volunteer was one of the three cornerstone volunteers for taking care of Buxton Heath. The other two were a young volunteer warden of Buxton Heath and a humorous old volunteer (see the picture at the right most - he was trying to “attack” the photographer (me!), because while everyone was working hard, I was taking pictures.) I respect each of them very much for their perseverance and enthusiasm in the conservation work for the Buxton Heath.

Before we started our work, we needed to put a large tin plate on the ground. Then we started the fire on the plate, and put more and more trees on it.

At the same time, some volunteers cut the already cut-out trees further into shorter sticks, with saws and loppers. This was to make the burning easier.

Here came the fun part - warming the marshmallows and making a toast!

While we were working, we found a lizard in the mire. Everyone (except me) felt very excited and wanted to hold and touch it. I do not mind watching the reptiles, but touch them - no way! However, this lizard was small and to many people very lovely. We did not know why it was in the mire because it would be difficult for it to breath there. It should be hibernating somewhere at that time. So finally we moved him to a safe place.

This time in Buxton Heath, I did not fall into the mire. But I still suffered casualty - when I returned home, I found a number of tiny holes in my jacket - the ashes from the fire!

A nature wonder - in late afternoon in winter, starling flocks will congregate and make a swirling cloud-like formation before settling at their roosting site.

The following video was taken around 6 p.m. on 3 March 2007 at Minsmere nature reserve.

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Starlings are gregarious and often flock. The flock permits more efficient feeding, since each bird can afford to be less vigilant. The greater vigilance of the flock gives each member a greater protection from predators - there is safety in numbers.

During the winter, starlings live in flocks throughout the day, travelling between feeding sites. Starlings feed up to 20 miles from their winter roost, but return each evening. In late afternoon feeding flocks coalesce into progressively larger flocks as they move towards the roost. Large pre-roost assemblages form in places where the birds can get one last meal before nightfall. At dusk birds from these assemblies fly, often in a swirling cloud-like formation, to the roost.

Minsmere is a nature resereve under the managment of the Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB).  It is near Southwold. We went there after finishing the beach clean in Southwold.

I did not expect that beach clean could be that fun. It was like a treasure hunt game. Because the beach, even before our cleaning, was already very clean! I had to search it carefully for any litter hidden in the sands - like a detective conducting a carpet search for forensic evidences.

The beach was at Southwold a coastal town in Suffolk and about one hour and fifteen minutes’ car drive from Norwich. We, however, were not playing there. The beach clean we did was organised by the Marine Conservation Society and coordinated in Suffolk by the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB Unit (see the third paragraph from here for the meaning of AONB). The purpose of the program is not just to clean beaches but to tackle the whole problem of marine pollution. Because volunteers (like us) record all the litter that is collected, the Marine Conservation Society are able to identify the sources, target offenders and lobby government.

When we arrived at the Southwold beach, a lady from the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB Unit greeted us and explained to us why and what we needed to do for the beach clean. Then each of us was given a plastic bin, a trash pickup tool, a pair of gloves, a box for storing sharp pointed glasses, a sheet and a pencil to record what litter we have collected.

We, a total of 9 people, had in one hour and forty-five minutes, collected trash of 45.7 kg. It included many kinds of trash, even sanitary napkins and condomes. Rubber and plastic formed the majority of the trash. We actually had overdone what we were requied to do. We were asked to clean the beach for 100 metres only but we had made it 400 metres!

Southwold is part of Suffolk Coast and Heaths, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).  Created by the legislation of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949, AONBs represent precious landscapes whose distinctive character and natural beauty are so outstanding that it is in the British’s interest to safeguard them. Currently there are 49 AONBs in the U.K.. Their care has been entrusted to the local authorities, organisations, community groups and the individuals who live and work within them or who value them.

Southwold was once a very busy fishing port. Nowadays, the harbour area of Southwold (where the beach we cleaned is situated), although still provides sale of freshly caught fish, the boatyard services have become the prominent business there.

In Suffolk, there are two nuclear power stations at Sizewell (the structure with white dome in the left most picture), even visible for many miles along the coast of Southwold. one of them is no longer in operation but remains harmful for health for decades even after ceasing operation. The British government is now proposing to build the third nuclear power station at Sizewell. Inevitably the people in Suffolk and especially the environmental groups there object this proposal.