by Katie Isham. For a walk that’s under two miles long, this loop makes you feel like you’ve been on a hike through several different landscapes and even navigated a few eras. The sort of walk where, by the end, you’re surprised to remember some of the sights from...
Suburban Safari
Suburban Safari: Costa Del Southampton
by Katie Isham. Could it finally be summer? What better to do on a summer’s day than to wander by the seaside? However, for a city on the coast, Southampton only has a few spots to actually be beside the seaside, and even then, there’s no sand for comfort....
Suburban Safari: Lost in Lords Wood
by Katie Isham. Don’t tell too many people but, a mere skip from Southampton General Hospital, tucked away at the back of a 1960s housing estate, down a road guarded by the endemic sight of Tesco that used to be a pub, there’s a gateway to a hidden woodland....
Suburban Safari: The Bluebell Bandwagon
by Katie Isham. Well, everyone else is doing it, so I suppose we’d better jump on the bluebell bandwagon! If you glance at social media, the whole country has been skipping through ancient woodland in the last few weeks. Bluebell photos have been outnumbering Line of Duty theories, and...
Suburban Safari: City Safari
by Katie Isham. Meet you at the bridge? Fellow eastsiders will be all too familiar with the hassle of crossing the mighty River Itchen to get into Southampton city centre. And as a teenager, it was a trek comparable to crossing the Sahara. But cross it we did, every...
Suburban Safari Part Nineteen – Back to the Beach
by Katie Isham. Restrictions are lifting, travel is allowed and so the time has come. We’re visiting the Solent shoreline. A trip to the beach is not just about the destination: it’s about the feeling of space you get by the sea. It’s that feeling you get nowhere else,...
Suburban Safari: Sholing bloomstrolling
by Katie Isham. The recent Spring Equinox has lifted me out of my winter slumber. I took this as a shot in the arm (not the one I’m after, but this’ll do for now) to take a more positive view. Time to fling open the doors and spend an...
Suburban Safari: Bishops Waltham pond loop
by Katie Isham. Last weekend I went on holiday. Hold on, you might scream, we’re in lockdown. How did you wangle a holiday? Okay, you got me; I didn’t actually go on holiday, but I felt like I did for an hour. I embarked on a fifteen-minute drive (hedonistic,...
Suburban Safari: The trees of Telegraph Woods
by Katie Isham. If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise. Or not. You’re sure to find trees. Don’t roll your eyes – I saw that. Of course there are trees, but over at Telegraph Woods there is a colony of beautiful, breathing,...
Suburban Safari: Rekindling the Peartree Passion
by Katie Isham. What better way to spend Valentine’s weekend than by rekindling your love for an old favourite? Sometimes in life we take for granted what we have. We take for granted the beauty we wake up to. We take for granted the sights we see every day....