A grey day here, fairly warm, but cloudy and still. I walked up the hill over the road at lunchtime. There's an old ruined chapel up there and views across to the other side of the river as well as off to the south, away from the North Downs. It's mostly quiet up there away from the traffic, but the trains run under the hill too and you can hear them going into and out of the tunnel.
These oak galls caught my attention. I'm used to seeing the round marble types, but these are a bit more randomly shaped. They're the result of a "Knopper" gall wasp laying eggs in there, the larvae are still in, despite it turning brown. Apparently, they won't hatch until the spring. I didn't look around to see whether there were any ones from last year on the ground. I'm always meaning to collect some up and make some traditional ink out of them, just another of the everlasting list of projects.
I saw three (maybe four) magpies up there and heard a collared dove, but didn't see it. The whole bit of common land there is much overgrown these days, thanks to the Council having a go at rewilding. There are paths where people like to go up and down, but there's no need to keep cutting things back or mowing grass, just on the off chance that someone will want to have a picnic somewhere other than the top of the hill. It always surprises me to turn around when I get to the top and see the hill that goes up the other side of the main road. It doesn't feel like it at home, but we are in the bottom of a little valley, or at least a levelling out between two hills that also leads down to the river.