things we find in the attic

It is little surprise that we seem to have a lot of wasps about in the late summer. There were at least three of these beautifully constructed wasp's nests in our attic. No bats thank goodness. And the martins returned today although after a brief reconnaissance of the old nest site they didn't stay.

cuckoo pint

Lords and Ladies (aka cuckoo pint and other scurrilous names ) in flower. Almost all have the tip of the spadix eaten away. Wiki states that many small rodents appear to find the spadix particularly attractive and it is common to find examples of the plant with much of the spadix eaten away. The spadix has a distinctive, unpleasant smell, and manages to generate a lot of heat (up to 15 degrees C above ambient temperature) and it may be this that attracts mice etc.

narcissus spoticus

Spot, some pheasant's eyes and some dog violets

interior landscapes (moss Spot)

It looks like an oriental landscape of woods and rocky escarpments, in fact it is the small landscape of a moss covered wall

keeping up with the longs

the first, rather tattered looking speckled wood of the year. These butterflies over winter as caterpillars or chrysalides, so this must be a newly hatched butterfly. It has certainly seen some rough times already.

witches broom

witches broom is a common sight locally, and is the result of a fascinating and ill understood process whereby bacteria harness and corrupt the growth pattern of plant cells, see link. This occurs at a deep metabolic level and may help us to understand the way genes control growth and development... of such simple things are advances made.