Elsie Alice

I’ve neglected the old girl for too long

I took a wander down to the Bridge Marine boatyard on Sunday – just to check that Terra Nova, the old Seamaster Admiral cabin cruiser that Julie and I own along with my brother, was still where I left her when she came out of the water back in October.

Beware the hairy horde

It was three years ago when I first wrote about the invasion of the Thames by Chinese mitten crabs – so called because of the dense hair on the back of their large claws – and I wondered whether readers of this column had spotted more examples in our stretch of the river.

I found a zoo

My readers never cease to amaze me with their enthusiastic responses to this column. Last week, I wrote about the diversity of wildlife on our stretch of the Thames and ever since the paper came out, I’ve been bombarded with people telling me their stories about their encounters with wildlife.