Category Archives: Flora/Fauna

Beehives

Thursday 29th August 2024, 1.45pm (day 4,753)

Beehives, 29/8/24

While walking, as is my wont, through random parts of the country this afternoon I suddenly became aware that what looked surreally like a set of filing cabinets stuck in a field 1,200 feet above sea level was in fact home to a very, very large number of bees. This was not just a ‘hive’, but an entire bee city. Prudently, I swung round on a considerable detour — but there’s always the zoom lens option. (A note to the managers here — please, put ‘Keep Out!’ signs at both entrances to a field…)

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Catching the light

Sunday 11th August 2024, 2.00pm (day 4,735)

New sprig, 11/8/24

This little new sprig, coming out from what I think is an oak tree (those do look like oak leaves), is catching the light in a figurative sense — but surely a literal one, too. I imagine that it’s exactly because that little patch of trunk achieves direct line of sight to that ball of helium 93 million miles away that the sprig has been encouraged out into the world. Life’s like that.

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More garden produce (very green)

Tuesday 6th August 2024, 4.35pm (day 4,730)

The garden doesn’t produce vast amounts of food — believe me, self-sufficiency in vegetables is something we are a long way from achieving (though for a few weeks each summer we manage better with fresh fruit). But when edible products do emerge, they get used. We haven’t had fresh peas and beans for years.

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A tomato makes an effort

Tuesday 30th July 2024, 9.20am (day 4,723)

Ripening tomato, 30/7/24

So, at least a few of the tomato flowers (as pictured on May 23rd) have made an effort: although don’t imagine that this fruit is very big, nor that there are very many of them. This agriculture lark is not straightforward…

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Balsam: the 21st century triffid

Sunday 28th July 2024, 1.50pm (day 4,721)

Bloody balsam, 28/7/24

In John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids is presented the ultimate invasive species. So hostile is it to human life that following a public health disaster the plant simply takes over. I believe some people get to live out a siege future on the Isle of Wight at the end of the novel. It ain’t happening quite so quickly with Himalayan Balsam, but nevertheless I do believe that we are in trouble. There seems to be more of it than ever, this summer.

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Squirrel memorial

Saturday 27th July 2024, 1.45pm (day 4,720)

I’m sure there are worse things to be remembered for, and less appropriate ways of memorialising a loved one. Those whom Barbara left behind are hopefully gratified to see this being properly used. (That is an actual squirrel, in case you were wondering.)

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Kestrel hunting in Cutacre Park

Tuesday 23rd July 2024, 6.25pm (day 4,716)

Kestrel hunting, 23/7/24

Went on a walk that was neither particularly scenic nor particularly straightforward, but it did have one saving grace: this beauty hovering over the grass of Cutacre Park, between Bolton and Wigan. What must the mouse feel? Does it know its hunter is up there, waiting for it to poke its head out of hiding just for that one crucial second?

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Frog, ready to move on

Monday 22nd July 2024, 3.50pm (day 4,715)

Allotment frog, 22/7/24

Disturbed while I was weeding the garden, this little fella deigned to pose for its close-ups, but its purposefully outstretched front leg suggests it is definitely seeking to move on and continue its own day.

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Lunchtime

Wednesday 17th July 2024, 12.55pm (day 4,710)

Lunch salad, 17/7/24

Sometimes Clare gets the final choice of shot on a day and she says that this one has ‘nice colours and shapes’. It tasted pretty good, too. It wasn’t ever going to be an exciting shot today insofar as the most interesting thing that happened was a webinar on pensions: this says a lot about not only the day, but also where I am in my life at this point.

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Anomalous flowering

Monday 15th July 2024, 10.35am (day 4,708)

Loo plant flower, 15/7/24

Whatever species of plant this is, it has been sitting, quietly doing very little, in a pot on our window sill (in the lavatory, as it happens) for a good decade or more. This year, without any special prompting, it decided to stretch out this long tendril and flower. Perhaps its time had just come. I doubt it’s been coaxed out of stasis by glorious summer weather, ‘cos we haven’t had any.

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