joy

meanwhile Spot takes a grass bath and is happy.

the Sun rains down

the Sun, thrown thoughtfully out of a passing vehicle, carpeting the lanes.

I dreamt of dying last night; not about dying, but doing the thing itself, only to wake (reincarnate?) in this parallel universe in a state of relief but confusion.

What we see here is the death of England, casual, contemptuous, careless and full of loathing. I am optimistic for humanity as a whole because we can and do solve problems, but I fear for the local branch and its mindless, barbaric self.

wood anemones on the road to Latchley

these beautiful flowers are flourishing now and carpeting the older woodlands.

misfortune

a fledgling sparrow (not a mistle thrush as I first thought). Soon after this photo was taken it was rescued from the jaws of a hungry jackdaw. The young are much bigger than their frantic parents. Parents nowhere to be seen, usually they will defend their young very aggressively. Now what do we do?

flight to safety

meanwhile hen is flying away as fast as she can

nut hatch

an unusual sight in the open, and a much fatter distant cousin mooning about looking for hens.

where herons may safely fly

one of these sheep appears to have taken fright at this large flying object.

Stoke Climsland

Spot felt that the blog was becoming too biological and asked for some of his favourite views to be included. All that is missing from this Spring view is the trail of litter up the hill. Some people locally express the view that litter bins do not belong in the country side, unfortunately litter louts do. And then someone wants to reduce rubbish collections to once a fortnight. How about employing someone to pick it all up?

Goodnight Spot.

a sad story from Cornwall

Jackson (aka Toby) was the runt of our litter. Rejected at first by his mum, he was hand fed. He was Harriet's best litter mate.


(below is a photo of him at 7 weeks)










He might have gone to St Cleer and lived happily ever after but he went to Looe. Sadly his owners must sell up and leave their home and they cannot keep him, leaving Leslie in tears. He is a very happy, lively but gentle soul and dearly needs a new owner who will love and cherish him. Can you help? If so contact Spot.

yellowhammer

continuing the generally yellow theme, I saw this male yellowhammer on our morning walk today. They are very easy to see at this time of year.

buzzard

three buzzards in the wood today, showing off and generally fooling around. The female seems to choose a high tree and wait for the males to disport themselves. No clouds though.

catkins

and completing today's yellow theme, pussy willow emerging.

sprung 2

Two inheritors of the village pond after the great duck theft of 2005 posing for posterity. Notice the mischievous glint in their eyes. Eggs are coming.

carpet of broken stones

opposite leaved golden saxifrage in profusion

grey wagtail and long tailed tits

confusingly yellow, the grey wagtail is distinguished from the yellow wagtail by being yellow and having pinkish legs (actually this could be a blue headed yellow wagtail (!) migrating through). By a stream in grounds of Duchy College

And below is a long tailed tit, one of a party of six of these characterful and enchanting birds.

sprung

Spring is.

rooks nest

I think the rooks cannot nest much higher without leaving the trees (especially the nests in the trees to the left of the bungalow). This is a much vaunted sign of fair weather but is it true? I will search the archives for earlier views of these nests and let you know

fine weather coming

the first fine sunset for a month or so, the harbinger of some fine weather perhaps.

bird life

we saw a lot of birds in the woods today; it is much easier to see them before the leaf canopy forms. Many of the small birds are very elusive and camera shy, but this robin was quite happy to perform for us.

wood anenomes

the first wood anemones are appearing by the stream between Latchley and Luckett about three weeks earlier than last year (see link). Along with plastic bottles, plastic bags, polystyrene containers and any other garbage worth chucking out of your car.

also singing yesterday

the sparrow and the blue tit, more like drowning today than singing.

simon and the wolf

two events took place last night, a concert of violin, cello and singing in the Old School by Sarah Trickey and Simon Wallfisch, and the lunar eclipse; which of these was more beautiful or spectacular is hard to say but they reflected well on one another and we heard the music of the spheres.

occasional visitors

wrens are normally seen on the ground but the male wren is beginning to mark out his territory by singing from a vantage point. The male bullfinch is a very infrequent visitor probably because they were much persecuted for the damage they do to fruit trees.