Snowdrops in the snow

I've been snowdrop viewing at this time of year for quite a few years now and usually blog about it - see here for example. This year the good old Great British Gardens snowdrop page led me to Evenley wood garden near Brackley. A delightful garden and because there was snow on the ground I got a reduced entrance fee, even though the snowdrops were out. Must remember to visit this garden again later in the Spring, the gallery looks promising. It's the first time for a long time that I remember seeing snowdrops in the snow.

Year of the tiger

To mark the start of the Chinese Year of the Tiger the BBC has put up some lovely clips of tigers. I saw a wild tiger in the wild just once - a young one. We were in Corbet National Park in the foothills of the Himalayas, out on elephant back. The monkeys with their alarm calls alerted us to it. We waited...and eventually a young tiger darted across our path - lithe and beautiful, just a flash of movement and colour. Yesterday I visited the National History museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition - quite a few of the big cats photographed there -lovely to see. You can browse some of the pictures here.

New blog - Fee Romein in Sierra Leone

Great new blog just starting here from Fee Romein who has just arrived in Sierra Leone to spend a while with the Environmental Foundation for Africa. I'm looking forward to hearing more. It's quite a while now since I lived in Sierra Leone myself but it's great to hear about the work of this consortium of NGOs and universities, which according to their webpage is as follows:

The Environmental Foundation for Africa (EFA) aims to protect and restore the environment in West Africa. For over 15 years, EFA has:
- led environmental education (EE) and awareness raising campaigns;
- restored degraded lands and conserved pristine forests;
- minimized the impacts of civil war on the environment and its inhabitants and;
- equipped thousands of people with sustainable livelihood skills such as agroforestry.