lambs' tails

lambs' tails, aka catkins (see link), the flowers of hazel, are out in another sign of the end of winter. Hooray!

washing the dogs

washing the dogs in the stream just below Luckett village. Luckett is in a 'bowl' in the landscape, and the village stretches up hill on both sides of the bridge (see below, taken in 2002). It is hard to believe that this was one of the most industrialised areas in the world not that long ago. In fact mining created a large part of the local landscape, but it is slowly retreating behind thick ivy into woodland and ruin.

Luckett woods

It was a lovely, soft sunny light this morning, with a blue tinge to the mist in the Tamar valley below providing a marked contrast to the orange of the winter undergrowth.

snowdrops in Cornwall

The first celandines are showing their sunny yellow faces in the hedgerows, a good couple of weeks later than last year (see last year's pages) . It is an excellent year for snowdrops, seen above near Broadgate. And my favourite complex type of snowdrop flower is back again, it obviously isn't uncommon around here.

dawn over Kit Hill

a fiery dawn, heralding a shift to calmer kinder weather. Life tends to come to a grinding halt when it snows because of lack of grit. Which sort of grit depends on one's view.

more snow from Cornwall

"OK," you can hear the lamb saying, "the joke is over". Above are pictures of Rezare, and Sharp Tor/Bodmin moor in the distance.

still snowing in Cornwall 1

more snow greeted us this morning, bringing life to a complete halt as usual. The rooks were enjoying a bit of apres ski, the goldfinches were trying (impossibly) to look inconspicuous, and the drive into Duchy College looked very picturesque.

Snow in Cornwall 4

but not as much fun as mum, the abominable snow dog

making her first snowperson

looking like one

note great paddle paws for climbing on other people's snowmen



do I have to go home now?

snow in Cornwall 3

we, of course, have had a great time, as will most children until the novelty wears off


especially spike's best friends above (spike, being white and small has disappeared)

Snow in Cornwall 2

the snow seems to have the effect of cleaning the air, making the light crystal clear. In the background, on the edge of the hill you can see what is known locally as the Temple. This is a folly built in late eighteenth century (see link). You are very welcome to come and stay there.

Snow in Cornwall 1

It doesnt often snow here but when it does it makes a pretty picture. I love the suffused bronze light as the snow clouds make way for the morning sun.

changing course

and here is some evidence that after a very wet few weeks, the Inny is changing course. And yes, that is us on the right minding our paws and qs. Pixie hat is off-course travelling travel cone (yes, there is a really interesting link).

star drops

wild snowdrops at the confluence of the river Inny (on the right) and the Tamar. There are snowdrops out everywhere now, and the wild daffodils are coming.

star jelly

every now and again we come across these odd blobs of jelly on the paths through the woods. They look like frog spawn without any sign of eggs, and, as is obvious, are out of water. This specimen is about 8 cms across; occasionally they are much larger. It could be a slime mould, but maybe it is true star jelly (see exciting link), from a meteor that has fallen to ground nearby. For an exhaustive discussion of this phenomenon see this link. Any other ideas?

a fox in the woods

we have never seen a fox in the woods before, and very rarely see foxes by day at all, probably because the pack scares them off. Unfortunately the photos are blurred even with the mighty Nikon because it was a very grey day and the light was poor. Even so, the flash of red is what you see. Spot gave chase for about 5 microseconds before returning to his usual buffoonery.

here we go again

winter ends with a long sigh, and the first breaths of the New Year are the gallant little snowdrops, and frog spawn, risking the perils of a sharp frost to be first in the struggle for new life.

yellow brain fungus

the yellow brain fungus (tremella mesenterica) which certainly looks more mesenteric than cerebral, growing on fallen birch. One book says edible, and another says inedible; who do we believe?

Rezare

the hamlet of Rezare, with the holy well to the left. In the lower picture you can see Bodmin moor in the background. The pointed hill is called Sharp Tor, to the right is Kilmar Tor, and between them is Twelve man moor

pond life

beautiful colours from deep in the woods on a still, sunny day

honesty

we would like to thank the person who found the tripod connector for the camera and placed it on a molehill by the river bank in the sure and certain knowledge that we would see it sooner or later which we did today during a long damp trudge with the pack plus visiting labrador, Alfie, and Dennis the menace, a collie from Newbridge.


It seems that President elect Obama is looking at buying a labradoodle, or a portuguese water spaniel; forget the poodle and the duena mutt, have a Cassie, the perfect lurcheriever. She never moults, she is very intelligent, and she has attitude, available now.


and good in snow. Comes wet or dry, but usually wet.




for more pics of us in the snow see November 2005. Three years blogging? Must be mad.

let the trumpets sound

sorry about the lack of new photographs, but the weather has turned cold, damp and grey so walking has become an exercise in wet coats and muddy paws. I always find the period after Christmas very dreary, and February is the dreariest month of all.

Why is it that ecologists and greens are so elitist and unfriendly? I know humanity is the problem, and we are busily eating the planet, but we are also the only solution. If we head back to some false, imaginary, Elysian past, women will be the main sufferers; the life of unremitting toil will return. What Spot and I try and do is to share the joy of the world around us in the hope that more people will learn to value and cherish it. Should we worry that blogging and googling is supposed to keep kettles boiling? And maybe we do not hear enough about the qualifications and reservations that often follow statements of doom. And Venus is a lot closer to the sun, and only rotates about once every 8 months, so it is not a model of where we are heading.

We have to embrace change without alienating people, and we have to take all of humanity with us if anything is to change.

more exotic ice images. The top picture shows concentric circles of transparent and ordinary ice, and of course even if the magic has worn off the pet twig, there is still plenty of action down on the forest floor.

gold on blue

It might seem garish, but the blue feeder seems to attract goldfinches. The arrangement may work so well because it reminds them of thistle flowers, with the blue container below the seeds giving them the impression that they have found an enormous thistle. The blue is probably very vivid in UV, and is acting like a lighthouse. They definitely think they have found a new motorway service station. Other birds seem to avoid the feeder. Behind is the new installation for watching the birds feeding which is fed directly into our PC, allowing many hours of pleasure. We are considering setting up a rabbit watch to provide even more canine amusement, ... and hedgehog watch ... and ... twig watch .....

owls and tits

coming back late last night we saw two owls fly silently past followed by a blood curdling screech (check the link) ... barn owls out hunting. We would really like to get a picture of owls but we never see them in the day time, so for the time being this pic, from yesterday, of a long tailed tit will have to do. Also lots of interesting twigs (see below).

no frost and it flowers

our pet twig photographed last night, with the frost flower developing. There is no frost on the ground, and this is consistent with what happens in the woods (see below). It is some property of cold air on bare wood that has been in woods. I don't think the explanations that have I read so far quite hold up. It is not the woods themselves, or the cold alone.



Spot (bottom literally left) says he will lose the will to live unless we change the subject.

frost flowers

At last I have some more information. This sort of ice formation is called frost flowers (see link and Wiki), and is rare, and has never been reproduced in controlled laboratory conditions (according to the source). In fact, it seems highly likely to me that the critical factor is that it happens on water logged wood. Oh, the joy of science. We shall see.

Spot is yawning.

He wonders why there is no tag for calling a post boring

the plot thickens

soft rime on a piece of wood, that had rime on it yesterday and was brought back from Inny woods, and spent last night on the lawn. The formation of rime is not due to location in a wood or near to a river, therefore. It doesn't seem to form on other bits of wood lying around, but we will put that to the test next. Boring but all in the interests of scientific curiosity.

no rime or reason, mystery solved

at long last definitive proof that ice is ice (see earlier pics). And Spot says it melts in his mouth and tastes just like water. The ice formation is very distinctive. It occurs on twigs and small branches on patches without bark. It is very localised and it does not occur on all bare surfaces. I would have thought it should have a local name like Jack Frost's beard, Christmas rime, or St Nicholas's mushrooms. We have brought back a frost covered bare branch and placed it in a sheltered spot in the estate to see whether it happens here. Further research suggests this is a particular form of soft rime, possibly related to the unusual location in woodland in a sheltered river valley.