Mark's Wildlife and Adventures Blog

Hi, must get these photos on before i fly away.

It was Tuesday and i had a week to go before work finished and the forecast was for heavy snow. I thought, maybe we may just get a bit and that would be it but come the evening we got a big suprise!

Snowing hard in the garden, without flash.



We had the garden nightlight on and it was very spectacular, my sister was going to drive to the Cinema in Chichester but had to turn back at the end of our road as the conditions were severe.

Benjie paw prints.



Benjie is camouflaged almost!



Snowfall using flash, how pretty.



This is only 30 minutes later, still falling thick.



Video of me in the snow.



Video of Foxy singing Let it Snow!



On Wednesday i went for a short walk around the park with my fuji camera as it was still snowing a lot, infact it snowed all day and was quite thick.

Hedge in the snow.



Am i in the park or Alaska???



The Ducks have given hope that theres a Pond under all the ice and snow and were thankful when i gave them bread.



Foxy in the snow.



Foxy in the snow video.



Fox tracks by the boating lake.



Frozen boating lake.



I saw a few kids trying to walk across it so i told them to be careful as iam not diving in to rescue them

Closeup of Fox tracks.



The Squirrels all seem to be hiding but plenty of Pigoens were out.



I didnt stay too long as conditions were getting so snowy, so i went home and made my Snow Fox and filmed it too.



Photo of Log on the rockery taken with the Canon.



It snowed all day and the next day was sunny so i went round the fields in deep snow, this will be on part 2 hope you enjoyed part 1.

The nice thing about living 5 minutes away from Work is the fact that you dont have to travel and risk getting stuck in snowy weather. I decided to take my camera to work with me and took photos along the way. It was very slippery so i had to be careful aswell.

Starting off, Glenway in the Snow, its evident that people have set off for work already and probably stuck in a jam somewhere.



Whose tracks are these? iam guessing these look like domestic dog tracks when walkies with their owners.





A quick look back at my house, i rubbed out the car regs to protect their identity.



Lots of snow on the base of this tree.



Lovelly tree.



It was dark just before 8am so the photos are heavily edited to get a reasonable picture.

Walking round the corner and i turned round and looked back and took a photo.



Around the corner.



Winter flowering shrub looks nice and yellow with the snow.





The University border wall, the same type of wall that surrounds Hotham Park.



Here we are, the canteen is right across.



Student crop circle! looks like they have been having fun in the early hours in the car park.



Mordington House just visible in the Dawn darkness, this is a Georgian building which features in the history of Bognor Regis.



The Dome is where the King who was famous for saying *B...... Bognor!* before dying! Its also interesting to know what would have happened if he had survived, maybe we would have been as big as Brighton but now its a part of Chichester University.



Its VERY deep snow here, wondering why i took the shortcut over the grass....



The footprints in front of me lead all the way to the canteen!

Here we are! down the path and its just visible.



I helped serve the students their breakfast, because its the last day of term, many were worried about getting home in this weather, especially as the canteen closes today for the Christmas period.

Mid morning, we all had a Mince pie and cup of tea.



At 12pm i wished everyone a very happy Christmas and started to make my way back home again taking photos as i went.

My workplace.



Cafe next door, its also a bar for the students in the evening.



Nice wintry scene, the building on the left is the 3rd Geogian Mansion called St Michaels.



I took a photo of me infront of the Science block, this building will be demolished next year as the Campus expands and relocates buildings. The Dome is going to be refurblished and was on the Bognor Observer for £30 Million! Guess grade 2 listed Georgian Mansions cost a lot to maintain!



Walking back past The Dome i see the Rose Bed still in bloom!





Its nice to see Roses in bloom in the middle of Winter i guess but i know from my Horticulture course i did when i was at college, that Roses should be cut down to almost the stem in the Autumn. Its not my part to say so i leave it up to the groundsman.

Its starting to melt a little.



It was very slushy and slippery on the roads leading to home, i took a few more photos.

Glenway and the snow.



My front garden shrubs covered with snow.



Hope you enjoyed that folks as much as i did, its interesting how an ordinary 5 minute walk can transform into a beautiful landscape when it snows. The next post will be Benjie in the Snow, he loved it.

Well it was really beautiful, i dont think we got as much as the South Downs and even North Downs did but we got an impressive lot. Here are a few photos before i went to work, wish i didnt have to but oh well, gotta get money havent i? lol:P

Back garden taken at 6am.



Back garden when it got light, note Benjie's paw prints!



Concrete fence post topped with snow.



Close up of Benjie's paw prints.



Bird bath and small shrubs in the snow.



Glenway in the snow viewed from the front bedroom.



Benjie wanted to play!



After work i started to go to the Park, took a quick photo of the Christmas tree, yep we havent done away with ours yet!



Daffodils about to grow.



Conifer hedge with snow.



In the park there was lots of snow, it had partly melted by 2:30pm when i got there but still plenty around.

Crow in the snow.



Lots of Crows in the tree.



Shrub with very snowy leaves.



The frozen over original pond, looking beautiful.



I used flash to enhance the photos.



Video of Hotham Park boating lake in the snow.



Foxy the puppet having fun!



Video of Foxy the puppet feeding the crows.



The crows loved it when i kept feeding them! No Squirrels were around, they must have had the sensible idea of staying curled up and warm in their Dreys.



Foxy exploring the new snowy hill video.



Doing realistic shots with Foxy the plastic fox!



Can you spot Foxy in this photo?



" What are you doing putting me on a tree then taking a photo!" lol



I took quite a lot of photos, Benjie had already had a walk today so i was by myself and it was nice and quiet. I went home after an hour and took photos in the back garden.

Foxy on the decking.



Can you spot him on the log?



On the patio there was bird footprints, can you guess which bird? iam guessing Blackbird footprints.



No prizes for guessing who made these footprints!



The last photos were of the flowerbed ornaments which looked great in the snow.

Foxy.



Squirrel.



Badger.



Hope you enjoyed all of that as much as i did. here is a link to all photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21967655@N08/sets/72157613310873054/

Its good to see the Spring flowers starting to come up, must mean that Spring is getting so much closer now! All photos and video done with the Fuji S9600 camera.

Its not Christmas but it seems to snow in the Spring rather than the Winter! It all started around 8am when the sky started to get darker and darker with a big black cloud building up over the Downs and heading my direction!

Then it started with a little snow shower at first.



Then it starts to get heavier.....


And HEAVIER!



Foxy up to his waist on the snowy window ledge!


Couple of videos i did of the snow falling from my Bedroom.





When it died down a bit after a couple of hours, and about 4 inches of snow having fallen! I went to the Park to take lots of snowy scenes and it was quite beautiful. I also had a mini snowball fight with this little kid, i let him win because it ws fair..... lol

Here are several pics of snowy scenes in the Park.





I decided to try out some macro photography with the snow on the plants and got some interesting results,









I met a dodgy looking character on the way back


Playing in the front garden with Foxy and Snoopy.





It dosent seem to last long though, here it is an hour later already beginning to melt! Note Benjie's paw prints on the lawn, he loved the deep snow very much.


Here is short video of a Pigeon in the Park, the fist one didnt come out or youtube wont accept it but the second one came out so thats good.



It was great fun while it lasted! Now it back to more Spring like weather hopefully!