The resident horses are at home all year, being fed haylage to supplement their grazing at this time of year.
Winter is generally thought of as the time when all the trees are bare, without their leaves. But most parts of this footpath are well provided with winter green features -
- whether it is mainly ivy growing on the ground and climbing everywhere, or yew and holly trees plus privet and laurel bushes.
There are even contributions by mosses and algae, making the most of unshaded winter sunlight, growing on the more robust vegetation as well as on walls.
Almost all the autumnal red hips and haws have gone by the end of the year, but the late-flowering ivy is now providing an abundance of green berries, turning to black as they ripen.
While twigs and other old vegetation are being broken down and recycled by fungi Mother Nature is already keen to restart active growth as soon as days lengthen and conditions warm up.
The end of 2022 having been abundantly provided with rainfall, the former canal was again a watercourse, albeit not deep enough to float a barge or narrowboat.
By a happy coincidence this little egret (Egretta gorzetta) was distantly visible on one of the horse pastures - a new experience in the New Year?
Its other foot, hidden by the grass, would have been yellow too !
(Elsewhere a rabbit and a squirrel had been glimpsed, too transiently to allow any photography.)
NEW YEAR'S DAY CIRCUIT 2024
Horses were at home in several paddocks as usual - as were some sheep this time, needing to nibble closely to satisfy an appetite. Was the rabbit getting bolder? - or the photographer luckier this time?
There was a large, lonely out-of-season daisy braving the winter weather. But virtually every clump of white deadnettle had a modest showing of flowers. Yarrow had a lower score, with only three speciments spotted.
Not part of the natural environment, but as the footpath has to pass through a section of the Love Lane Industrial Estate it's probably fair to include a mention of the shrubs planted there.
On the other hand, wild clematis is much in evidence in several places, now with its hairy fruits justifying its alternative name of "Old Man's Beard".
Although everything runs on an annual cycle each species has its own timings. The few hips left on the rose bushes are at the end of their cycle whereas the locally rare hazel is just beginning with catkins developing new season pollen.
NEW YEAR'S DAY (+1) CIRCUIT 2025
Far and away the most significant change since 2023 has been the 2024 construction and December occupation of the new school hall. The January 2025 pictures show the structural completion awaiting tidying of the surrounds. Reinstatement of the playingfield grass was also being tackled.
Coinciding with the opening of the school extension, after a construction period three or four times that of the school, the Old Rectory's new entrance opposite the school's old entrance was revealed.
Less happily perhaps though entirely natural, several trees along the canalside had been felled or lost major limbs through the action of 2024's autumn gales. Think of it as recycling!
More constructively, interested volunteers had been improving other parts of the footpath, re-profiling a section of verge in the hope that it may be mowable in 2025's growing season, and elsewhere using trimmings to define the edge.
NEW YEAR'S DAY (-1) CIRCUIT 2026
Reviewed on the sunny final morning of the year, some changes had taken place during 2025.
A semi-permanent electric fence keeps the resident horses - mainly wintering polo ponies - away from the official footpath route across two fields.
Some of the rather overpowering bramble thickets had been cut back to more manageable sizes.
A neat new post and wire fence was installed along the footpath section that links Pound Close with Coach Road and its school entrance.
When the school extension works were completed the playingfield was reinstated. But the long drought prevented any significant action by the grass seeds, so it wasn't until the recent autumn term that pupils were able to appreciate the full benefit of the whole development.
Horses continue to be much in evidence: they are the only users of the pasture fields crossed by the footpath. Like your photographer, they too enjoy a crisp blue-sky winter morning.
Although already featured on the Plants page, the profusion of brilliant fruits on a specimen of so-called stinking iris (Iris foetidissima) behind the Corin buildings was remarkable. Perhaps it enjoyed the drought year?
A neat new post and wire fence was installed along the footpath section that links Pound Close with Coach Road and its school entrance.
