Hobbies

No pictures today because we couldn't get a decent shot but we saw two hobbies in the woods. They are like large swallows, and sound like rusty bed springs "keekeekeekee". They like to nest in woods but hunt for swallows and other small birds and insects over open countryside. The tall trees in Gunoak woods provide the best possible combination of these two requirements. I am not sure about eating swallows (it seems unfair) but I suppose you must swallow to eat (apologies). And anyone who cuts the fins off sharks and throws them back into the water is evil, and anyone who eats the soup deserves to go to hell. What is wrong with us?

On a general note this summer has fizzled out. Everything is looking tired and dried out. It is almost as if after this hot summer everything is waiting for Autumn to start properly again. Usually there is an abundance of purple flowering plants at this time of the year; all I have seen is a bit of devil's bit scabious and some selfheal, and tons of bracken. Well, maybe one picture of db scabious (strange name!). Useful for treating the plague.

at home

.... as you can see I have just eaten the golf ball below.

andrea's bright ideas

this is where I live as seen from Googlesat. My house is in Venterdon, and to the right is Stoke Climsland. I would show you the Tamar but the quality is not very good yet. What a bright idea, every walk could have a google earth picture reference. Every picture could be signposted ...there is no limit.

Trewortha

Trewortha farm, below Trewortha Tor and King Arthur's bed. There are two yurts in front of the farm house where Dad says I will be kebab-ed if I show any sign of taking any closer interest in sheep. What does kebab mean and will I enjoy it?

Bodmin moor

even the sheep pause to take in the view.

this is taken from Kilmar tor, above Twelve Men's moor. Inhabited since neolithic times but windswept and bleak now.

buff tip moths

...and someone intent on eating their way through the universe. I wonder if caterpillars see butterflies as a somewhat frivolous deviation from the main purpose of life. It is hard to imagine a free flying form settling down and metamorphosing into a grub.

admin note:- Spot thought these were mullein moth caterpillars but they are more likely to be buff tip 3/9/06

reflections

late summer, the Lynher in deep green, like a giant cathedral in wood and water. 

lamping

this bus is not native but can be found at http://www.redkid.net/generator/bus/sign.php
but in my minds eye it is how I think I look to the average rabbit. Thanks to Queen Eliza 1.

berries 2

...and somehow these are the berries one might expect from a plant like lords and ladies, it just looks very vulgar; maybe I should call them dogberries.

berries

these exotic red berries are the fruit of the flowering nutmeg (qv) escaped into the wild at Old Mill. 

water rat

chasing the water boatmen, making huge ripples in their universe, water like liquid mercury.

nine months later

...if you look at the November archive pictures you will see this lovely scene in a very different light. Kit Hill in far background, and Stoke church to the left.

wall brown

this elusive butterfly will never keep still for long. The sun has just come out after a longish period of cloud and it was trying to warm up. 

bouncing boy back

the pack watch in amazement as boy jumps over fence into waiting boots, and is rejected by Mother Earth on grounds that he is a teenager.

tortoiseshell

last of the summer wine at the Old Butterfly and Bush, Buddleia. 

armchair philosopher's mission statement

my leitmotif is to give you an ersatz zeitgeist, the weltanschauung from my rucksak, to blitz you with my wanderlust. I am no dumbkopf but a wunderkind of dobermen, a meister hund; this is no bildungsroman but a festschrift of canine schmalz. Donne und blitzen (as the comics used to say)! I am off for some bratwurst and riesling, and gesundheit meine freunde, while I abseil off the planet before I am overwhelmed by my torschlusspanik (no, I haven't heard of this one either but I've got it) .

All this induced by one visit to the vet

black berrying

... and this is very odd too, Dad says he has never seen a dog eating blackberries, but mum, who is very like a medium sized black bear any way, has taken to eating blackberries by picking them off very gently with her lips. Has anyone else got a berry eating dog?

dragonflies

this is a very odd photo. This dragonfly flew into Jane Parry Davies' house and died. It has a bizarre face which reminds me of the illustrations in a book called the water Babies.

summer

August rain even though St Swithin's day was warm and dry. It may be something to do with the decision to downgrade the only canine representative in the Zodiac. This is what happens if you disrespect dogs.

raining in Launceston

more fireworks tonight, more rain in Plymouth, sun is still shining on us.

monbretia

this is a patch of montbretia growing on Kit Hill. Monbretia was created in the nineteenth century by a Frenchman (Mons. Bretia) and is now rampant all over England. Is this reasonable? 

three heathers

there is an abundance of heather out at the moment. Three different varieties and Uncle Max seen together here, and Harriet doing her Erica imitation. Is anyone called Erica Heather, or Erica Ling?

orange and grey

.... as you can see the weather has changed in a week. There is a fireworks competition tonight in Plymouth, 50,000 rockets all at once; and so it rains.

toadflax

common toadflax is appearing in the hedgerows, apparently toad is another term like dog that means useless, so this is dog flax, or maybe common toad dog. No flax and no toad. It has many local names like weasel snout and pigs chops. 

Luckett and Townlake

we are still on the trail of that elusive photo of Luckett. This picture was taken near Townlake (in Devon) above Horsebridge. The Tamar is at the bottom. All this after a forced march through the woods to find lost keys that were still in the door of the Terrano. Life can be frustrating.