Ham common & wildlife at the pond

This is a special place. 

You know what kind of place I mean. The ones that are actually really ordinary... but for some reason they just feel... special. That's what Ham common is.

Maybe it's happened over time, the memories we've shared here. Maybe there's just something secretly magical about a bit of grass and a pond? Who knows.

We often spend some time there on Fridays, because it's en route to forest school. Today was no different, we were early - so we went on the way - and then we went again with Joshua while Jakob was at forest school.

It was lovely. Freezing, but for a while the sun shone through the trees onto the leaves (and Joshua) covering the floor.

There were a lot of birds there today. There are always ducks, geese and a family of swans (the baby swans weren't there today for the first time! I hope they are ok..) but never usually so many seagulls and pigeons. Perhaps they smelt us coming with our picnic!

I decided to try taking some pictures of birds flying. A first for me, and surprisingly difficult (especially with so many birds flying at once!). Once you've figured out how to make the shutter quick enough but also allow enough light in you have to try and actually focus on a bird before it flys past! I gave it a good go though, and quite enjoyed it!

There was also a new mallard in town! Very creepy. He was like one one of those paintings where the eyes follow you no matter where you go!

I wish I could have taken more pictures, but *someone* has snapped my memory card so I'm now using the emergency one so ended up taking mainly pictures of the boys and the wildlife!

Joshua loves the swans. There are only two of them (and their babies) so he always knows they're the same ones... he likes to say hello and catch up whenever we go to the pond. He asked where their children were but they didn't answer. Well actually, he said 'baby? YOUR baby? gone?' whilst waving his arms around, so maybe they didn't quite understand.

I only realised whilst uploading pictures that Jakob was scarily colour co-ordinated. Not quite sure how that happened... and looks a bit odd. Maybe navy blue and green are his favourite colours? Who knows.

Hopefully we will be back soon and I will be able to get some proper pictures of the area, because honestly, it's a special place.