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