Walk Along the Canal Towpath

November, late in the year, but the warm sun has brought out the bees. They are busily buzzing around the nectar-rich ivy blooms held proudly out from the rich green foliage draping riverside trees and bushes.

My favourite river side tree is the alder. They are so delicate and their reflections steal my heart each time we walk along by the river. At this time of year they are leafless, but their branches are prettily displaying bunches of tiny cones and catkins, still tightly closed waiting out the winter for the promise of spring.

As we neared Parndon Mill we saw a lovely goat in his paddock. Had the sheep gone off to market we wondered as we walked past the lock and headed into the sun. The water sparkled and the geese at the mill shone brightly white in the sunshine. The donkey brayed loudly and made us laugh at his whimsical sound.

We saw very few birds: one mallard, one blackbird, a lone redwing. We used to have huge flocks here at this time of year, but not anymore. We heard the silver song of the robin and the call of a little owl, but no kingfishers, which was disappointing.

As we neared the lock, we saw the boar at his gate. He had heard us coming and with his teeth he caught the metal bar and pushed the gate back and forth. I usually give him my apple core, but I today I didn’t have one for him. So I collected some leafy branches of hawthorn and was lucky enough to find some covered with sloe berries, which I fed to him.


Leaving the Mill and lock behind we continued our walk along the canal towpath. We spotted some tiny saddleback piglets and their mother working their way down the field toward the gate, probably knowing feeding time was approaching. They were delightful to watch.

Walking along we noticed, on the far bank, that each fence post was marked with a hazel bush of bright golden leaves. The hawthorns were very old with twisted, crisscross branches and entwined spikes and covered in berries that glistened in the sun like baubles on a lighted Christmas tree. Some trees still held leaves of green while others were festooned in orange, red and browns, even others were totally bare. We saw a partially pollarded willow, almost bereft of leaves, but strong new 12 foot rising from the trunk covered in blue-green leaves – what a contrast!

Large bramble leaves in beautiful autumn colours crept over the bank. There were streamers of bright red rose hips shining in the sun hung suspended from branches where months before they had delighted us with their badges of dog field roses.

The fungi alongside the towpath grew in clumps and were the classic domed toadstool shape though I was unsure of its genus. We made a note of eight clumps of mistletoe that we would return to harvest in December for our Christmas decorations.