Last run of my forties

I've just come back from the last run of my forties, up the middle of the common, down through Norwood Grove, back up the big field hill, back along by the natural amphitheatre, through the woods, down Streatham common South side, across the common and onto home. I hope I'll be doing this and more all through my fifties, fingers crossed. 

In the morning I went to Bedford Wood and saw the male and female sparrowhawk sharing a tree, then, fortuitously, I was invited to join a nature walk, with children and adults which made it rather sweet, the children seemed delighted to see robins and parakeets, then I spotted a buzzard high above the common and the organiser seemed quite excited! Later I saw the male sparrowhawk gliding high above the common, I read males and females often do this together in spring, which is what I saw yesterday, I wonder if they are the pair from Graveney wood?. We also saw on the walk, Dunnock and two huge herons acting pretty friskily, I leant that black caps are called mother and father blackcaps, like the pub in Camberwell,  well, not quite. 

I learnt what broom bushes look and smell like (peas and asparagus) and what goat willow (?) feels like - very soft and cuddly catkins, and that holly is less spiky the higher it grows as the spikes are to stop animals grazing on it. goldfinches like eating blackthorn flowers so that's something to look forward to soon, though I've seen quite a few already on Streatham Common. It's been a great last few weeks of effortless birdwatching. I read this morning in Helen Macdonald's 'H is for Hawk' that Hawks often hold one leg up when resting, I was glad to know it doesn't mean they are injured as I had worried it might. It's such an engaging book, well written and touching, having watched these Hawks for weeks now I relate very well to something deeply powerful and touching about them, their fragility and power and the sense of emotions flitting through them, from fear to outrage to imperious command of the woods, watch them for long enough and you see all that. They also seem very patient, waiting and watching for hours at a time. The female looked straight at me with her eggy yellow eyes this morning, she looked affronted by my presence but not threatened. She has such presence, I think I know now when she's in the wood without even seeing her.

 As the last day of my forties it probably couldn't be improved, all the things I love to do and see, I did and saw, apart from friends and family, but I'll see some of them on the hop farm in Kent tomorrow and, with any luck, badgers and birds too...
Below, sunset on my forties...

 Last picture of me as a forty something, below, sun beginning to go down on Streatham Common this early evening...