JJJ - 5/1/26 - Nature

Hello! And welcome to the 5th day of Just Jot it January 2026 prompts. Today’s word comes to us courtesy of the most joyful J-Dub. Thank you, J-Dub! Please be sure to visit J-Dub’s blog to read her posts and say hello.   And if you want to find out all about the rules etc of the Just Jot it challenge go here to our host Linda's blog.

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 5th, 2026 is “nature.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Regular visitors here will know that, despite living in the North East of London we are very close to the lake at Highams Park which leads on to Epping Forest.  It is lovely having nature on our doorstep.

The forest actually goes back down to where we used to live but it goes further north too and it's managed by the Corporation of London.

Over the last few days we've had a very cold spell of weather.  The days have been lovely and sunny with blue skies but the temperature hasn't got much above freezing.  The lake has patches of ice on it.

Not far from us there is another lake called Connaught Water.  This is near one of the Epping Forest Visitor Centres and recently they have made a pathway from the centre and around the lake that is accessible for wheelchairs and buggies etc.  There is also a parking area and a Brambly Hedge Trail of sculptures.  More info on this can be found here.

It's very popular.  But essentially it is still just a lake in the forest with lots of birdlife around.

It seems that at the weekend there was an incident involving an off lead dog and people going into the lake to rescue the dog.  There are signs around advising owners to keep their dogs on leads around the water and wild birds.

But apparently there are no lifebuoy rings around the lake and this caused a lot of debate on Facebook today.  Personally I don't recall seeing many lakes or ponds with lifebuoys on them.  You don't surely expect to go walking through a forest, stumble upon a lake or pond and find it has a lifebuoy in place.  I certainly wouldn't expect to find one.  Because once they are put in place they would need to be maintained.  And checked etc.  But the consensus seemed to be that the Corporation of London should provide them.

I think it's much easier to expect people to have a bit of common sense and not venture onto ice covered lakes and keep their dogs (and young children) under control. But human nature isn't always sensible.