A rusty hello

[TeresaW]

A few years ago I lived in Essex, and was a regular visitor to places like Abberton Reservoir, Chalkney Woods in Earls Colne, Fingringhoe Reserve, Hatfield Forest, and was very familiar with the birds and flowers, and getting to know some of the fungi in the area.

But, this was 10 years ago. One divorce, two house moves, one to Norwich, three redundancies from good jobs, and a hip replacement has left me a bit busy, and I have not been keeping up with my wildlife watching.

I'm now a little bit rusty, but armed with my new digital camera (50th birthday treat, because my new partner dropped the old one), I'm discovering places within Norwich itself which harbour a wonderful variety of plants and fungi, along with the birds and insects.

Please bear with me, I'm so rusty I'm missing vital identification indicators. You'll see me putting pics up asking for ID of some obvious plants, some for confirmation, some because I've lost the knack. I didn't realise how much I had forgotten. There was a time I could come up with the names of the more common wildflowers with no effort, but after 10 years, my memory is letting me down, and I'm learning almost from square one again.

I'm looking forward to being part of this forum...which has been an enormous help to me already.

[PMG]

Welcome back TW ....... I think you might find your brain will begin digging up the things it once knew now you are getting back in the swing ....... isn't it wonderful - you can go away and experience all sorts of life altering changes but nature is still out there whenever any of us feel the need or are able to return to it ....... welcome - enjoy

Pauline

[TeresaW]

Thanks for the welcome Pauline. I have no doubt I will awaken some long-dormant brain cells and kick them into action again. And there isn't a wrong time of year to begin either, always something going on...

[treecreeper]

Welcome to WAB TW. I thought 'rusty hello' was a typo for rustic hello, but you really mean rusty! The plants should come back to you but you'll find quite a few scientific names have changed in 10 years. And wait till you get onto fungi...

[ron1863]

A warm welcome to WAB Teresa, hope your dormant brain cells wake up, most of my active one's took sympathy with the dormant ones.

[TeresaW]

Thank you all for a lovely friendly welcome.

Treecreeper, I've been out looking at fungi today, and I'm already going mad trying to identify them. One step at a time though...

[big bill]

Hello Tereasa and a warm welcome to you we are a friendly crowd here and try to help each other out ,look forward to you input so enjoy yourself

[Deer Stalker]

Hi Teresa.

[sunnydale]

Welcome from me too. Hope you enjoy being with us!

[welsh.lensman]

Hi Teresa and welcome to WAB, look forward to seeing your images posted in the Gallery. I'm sure your going to enjoy it on here.

[TeresaW]

Thanks everyone.

I've already put a couple of images on a thread or two, looking for ID, which I promptly got. Also, I got one in the Gallery, of Hedera Helix, just to dip my toe in the water. I was surprised it was accepted, as it was taken on a standard Canon Powershot A1100IS...which does everything auto, except actually press the shutter button.. Not bad eh? It has a tendency to over-expose some colours (such as Herb Robert Pink grrrrr) but otherwise it's fine for what I want.

One of these days I will treat myself to a DSLR, but for now, this will do for my own library of 'spots'.

[nutmeg]

Hi and welcome, Teresa . I wouldn't worry about being rusty - every spring I seem to need to remind myself of much that had become familiar the year before!