By Katie Isham. Sometimes it’s staggering to think of the lives and stories that evolved right where we now live: where we get our petrol, walk our dogs or trudge over Northam Bridge on match days. Time for a wander along and across the river on the ground of...
Suburban Safari
Suburban Safari: Lepe into the New Year
By Katie Isham. Starting a new year is never for the fainthearted and 2026 has toed the line admirably. Sure, the blinding sunshine has helped raise spirits and recharge deleted energy reserves, but what the sunshine giveth, the Baltic temperatures taketh away. For those of us resolving to be...
Suburban Safari: Hiltingbury Lakes
By Katie Isham. The days are growing darker by the moment, sometimes in many different ways. So it seems like the perfect time to search for the brightness. Light may be rarer as autumn shuffles along, but there are dazzling flashes to behold, if you know where to look. ...
View from the Kingsland: Does the league table ever lie?
By Nick Mabey. It’s a cliché – that the league table never lies – but is it a truth or a myth? This season, Southampton have already occupied a range of places from 1st (briefly) to 19th in the Championship so what does that tell us? After nine games...
Suburban Safari: Marlhill Mushrooms
By Katie Isham. The calendar has clicked into October and the Harvest Moon is about to wax to the max. The time is right for wandering through some local woodland to fawn over the blushing branches and squeal at magnificent formations of fungi on display. Marlhill Copse is a...
Suburban Safari: Marchwood
By Katie Isham. “Where’s the beach?” is the question often posed by visitors to Southampton. To which the answer, woefully, is that there isn’t one. But, that isn’t strictly true. The dictionary definition of a beach, is a strip of land covered with sand or stones at the edge...
Suburban Safari: Dowd’s Farm Park
By Katie Isham. Join our resident mild adventure writer on her latest exploration of Southampton and surrounding areas. When is a farm not a farm? When it’s a park instead. A charming suburban park right at the heart of Hedge End. Dowd’s Farm used to belong to Vera...
Suburban Safari: Buds in the suburbs
By Katie Isham. It’s that foolish time of year again. The recent mild weather tricked us into thinking spring has sprung, but alas, the cold is persisting. It might be sunny, but we are in the grip of Fool’s Spring! Yet, there are signs of the promise of things...
Suburban Safari: Winter Sun on the Shore
By Katie Isham. In the midst of a cold, dark winter, any bright, sunny days are heralded like the returning hero after a battle; the second coming of a messiah. Any appearance of the sun from behind the great, grey shroud we currently live under, and we must make...
Suburban Safari: A tree is for life
By Katie Isham. There’s been so much tree exposure over the past few weeks. The shiny ones, the sparkly ones, the pink ones. But it’s all unearthed a deep-rooted need to commune with some more natural trees. Do you ever get the urge to walk among the trees? Drop...