callington

Callington (said Kal-ington rather than Call-ington which would sound incredibly posh) on a fine sunny morning looking south west towards the rest of Cornwall. All the key features can be seen, church, chapel, cricket green and cemetery

not howling but singing

"now, after me, one two three, "happy birthday to me "

birthdays

yes, I know, you would have sent us a birthday card if I had reminded you. It is hard to believe that we are three today and old enough to vote. Harriet (on the left) has always looked out for me even though she cannot read or write herself. If we can sit still for more than a few seconds we will try and provide an up to date birthday pic.

swallobatics

a pair of swallows doing an aerial show chasing down insects above the paddock this morning

more and more blogging

on a more mundane note, this pretty flower is hedge cranesbill, which I have probably seen but not noticed before. The lower picture is from another type of cranesbill but shows the bill in question. We are not entirely convinced by the analogy but we don't see many cranes around here.

we must blog on

the French have stopped sending us their great thunderous clouds of rain, so at last life can emerge from the swamp once more. This little insect was a complete mystery but, Spot thinks, this is a female glow worm or larva, not that he has ever seen one before. They sometimes climb up on grasses to flash themselves about more widely (soi disant, to maintain the French theme today). Our source of information (The Illustrated Book of Insects, 1979) informs us that they eat snails, by injecting them and then drinking the dissolved fluids (sounds tres gastronomique). Given the weather we clearly need a lot more of them. Are we the only ones who find it very difficult to identify certain things like insects on the internet but very easy then to use the internet to verify something once we have half an idea what it is (for example see this link)? Is there a way round this? Googlmology?

editor's note:- Lisa has pointed out that this is a ladybird larva, (see link) so this was a mis-Spot. Would we have ever have found out without the internet? It illustrates the axiom popular with most doctors, common things are common, and hen's teeth don't grow on trees.