spring time

for all those still suffering from Northern hemisphere winter blues, daffodils by the Tamar, Cassie in winter coat (due to be shorn next Wednesday).

cousins

Dad's second cousin once removed, hanging about at Sepilok. He says they are semi wild but I think they don't keep pets. Baby is about 3 months old.

Meanwhile down at the golf club, three Dutchmen were talking about their rounds. The indigenous people call the proboscis monkey the Dutchman because of his prodigious nose and fat belly.

to see more pics of Borneo, go the web album (link)

wood anenome perfection

well, we are all back from our hols in Holwell (well named I think for vacations), and they are back from visiting their second cousins in Borneo. Of which more later no doubt. But can anything anywhere compare with the perfection of a wood anenome bathing in the sun? The weather has been fine and warm in the last two weeks, and everything is bursting out all over. Spring is here. Hooray!

back soon

we are off to Tanya at Holwell on our hols for a bit, while they have a good time. Back soon.

Andy's of Callington

There are murals all over Callington. This is the most subtle of them, and for some reason it puts me in mind of The Canterbury Tales. Andy can unlock just about anything.

St David's day

and we couldn't let St David's Day (see link) go by without a picture of the native wild daffodil we found this morning growing by the Tamar. They are just coming out. And the love birds are on the wing.

the road to Norton manor

Spot has been thinking. He is pleased to be a part of the 14th cosmic billennium (abb), and a small part of planet Earth's 5th billennium. As a billenniard (or should that be billionaire) he thinks it is amazing that he should enjoy a four hour walk followed by biscuits, because he is very very small in comparison to some things he has seen at the Galaxy Zoo (link), and yet there is room in the universe for his tiny pleasures. He has taken to thinking about the journey he makes, and has calculated that his life as a fraction of all the time that has passed, is as long as one millimeter on a journey of about a million miles. That is not very far to get, is it? Maybe it is the travelling that counts. And yet American bankers have lost trillions of dollars, and British bankers pay themselves about the same amount per year in pensions. How did they get it all into one suitcase?

more fun at the dentist

even earlier than usual, and some way (about 2 miles upstream) from where we found this unusual plant originally, the ghoulish looking purple toothwort. I think the name may come from the tooth like appearance of the bracts on the buds (see bottom picture). Its cousin, toothwort, is a deathly pale colour, hence its other name of corpse flower. Now that I have found this plant in two widely separated places I am sure it has become naturalised.

more for galanthophiles

we came across this unusual and beautiful snowdrop variant this morning. It appears to have a petal growing through the main axis of the flower. Does it have a name?

And thanks to Derrick for this link , for snowdrop fanatics.

my mum is a portuguese water dog

no, we are not mongrel lurchereivers, I swear we are pure bred pwd's , White House here we come.

perfect snowdrop

we are still searching for the perfect snowdrop picture.

butterbur and snowdrops

It was misty this morning, so we went for a long walk, to the site of the butterbur patch (top photo), where as predictably as ever, the flowers are emerging once more. The colours this year with a mixture of orange (old) and green (new) have been striking. Not far from here we found some otter spraint which suggests that otters are active on this part of the Inny, not that with 4 hounds there is any chance of catching one unawares. We saw one once for about 15 seconds, on the other side of the river, during a great spate, when it had been flooded out of its holt. We remain hopeful that the renegade Gunnislake beaver will move upstream and pay us a visit. At 6 1/2 stones he sounds like quite a character. In the meadows Mole has been very busy, but no sign of Ratty.

the eponymous dog

well, it is his blog

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?