back soon

we are off to Tanya at Holwell on our hols for a bit, while they have a good time. Back soon.

Andy's of Callington

There are murals all over Callington. This is the most subtle of them, and for some reason it puts me in mind of The Canterbury Tales. Andy can unlock just about anything.

St David's day

and we couldn't let St David's Day (see link) go by without a picture of the native wild daffodil we found this morning growing by the Tamar. They are just coming out. And the love birds are on the wing.

the road to Norton manor

Spot has been thinking. He is pleased to be a part of the 14th cosmic billennium (abb), and a small part of planet Earth's 5th billennium. As a billenniard (or should that be billionaire) he thinks it is amazing that he should enjoy a four hour walk followed by biscuits, because he is very very small in comparison to some things he has seen at the Galaxy Zoo (link), and yet there is room in the universe for his tiny pleasures. He has taken to thinking about the journey he makes, and has calculated that his life as a fraction of all the time that has passed, is as long as one millimeter on a journey of about a million miles. That is not very far to get, is it? Maybe it is the travelling that counts. And yet American bankers have lost trillions of dollars, and British bankers pay themselves about the same amount per year in pensions. How did they get it all into one suitcase?

more fun at the dentist

even earlier than usual, and some way (about 2 miles upstream) from where we found this unusual plant originally, the ghoulish looking purple toothwort. I think the name may come from the tooth like appearance of the bracts on the buds (see bottom picture). Its cousin, toothwort, is a deathly pale colour, hence its other name of corpse flower. Now that I have found this plant in two widely separated places I am sure it has become naturalised.

more for galanthophiles

we came across this unusual and beautiful snowdrop variant this morning. It appears to have a petal growing through the main axis of the flower. Does it have a name?

And thanks to Derrick for this link , for snowdrop fanatics.