Category Archives: Flora/Fauna

Apr 22 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Tree roots

Wednesday 22nd April 2020, 8.35am (day 3,163)

Tree roots, 22/4/20

I may have already said this — like in Groundhog Day, there is a sense of repetition — but there are a couple of things whose value has been emphatically demonstrated during the last few weeks. Firstly that the topography of my life still provides legitimate reasons to leave the house on a regular basis. Second that there is attractive woodland just over the road that I can reasonably walk through in order to get from one part of this topography to others, which at least provides regular photo opportunities. These gnarly roots (brushed here and there by strands of gossamer) caught my eye this morning: this is the earliest shot on a day since February.

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Apr 20 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Bluebell season

Monday 20th April 2020, 9.55am (day 3,161)

Bluebells, 20/4/20

At the moment, some pictures just need saving up for a day when there’s nothing else to show. The bluebells have been out for a few days now. Is there a flower with a more appropriate name? Beyond the fact that they don’t make a sound, it’s hard to fault it.

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Apr 15 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Sakura

Wednesday 15th April 2020, 9.30am (day 3,156)

Cherry blossom, 15/4/20

It is three years and a bit, or more precisely, 1,112 days, since I went to Japan and commented on that nation’s obsessive interest in cherry blossom, which they call sakura. It is certainly a sign of full spring, and so ephemeral that I wonder if the Japanese are getting their spiritual money’s worth from the sakura in this rather odd springtime. I will at least report that Hebden’s own cherry/cheery trees are in full blossom right now.

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Apr 11 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Squirrel portrait

Friday 10th April 2020, 2.05pm (day 3,151)

Squirrel, 10/4/20

More fauna: it came down to a choice between this rodent and a butterfly today, as nature gets on with its stuff while we’re all stuck at home. I like this squirrel’s happy little face — it looks a bit like the way aliens are often depicted, with its big eyes and pointy nose.

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Apr 09 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Plum blossom

Wednesday 8th April 2020, 3.20pm (day 3,149)

Plum blossom, 8/4/20

One thing to be thankful for at the moment is that we have a garden, and now, the fact that it is a few minutes’ walk from the house is a boon rather than a burden. The plum tree has blossomed well: maybe this will be one of its glut years.

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Apr 07 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Stuck inside

Tuesday 7th April 2020, 1.20pm (day 3,148)

New kale, 7/4/20

The media narrative is that however safely we behave, we are not to be allowed outdoors. Like this new sprig of kale we are condemned to watch spring unfold outside, from behind glass. On the other hand this plant is probably more likely than us to get out before May: assuming we are permitted to take it up to the garden and transplant it, anyway.

I’m trying on here not to sound too bitter, but it’s not easy. These are bad times. If anyone in the future feels like looking back on this last month (and the month, at least, which is surely to come) with any kind of nostalgia or wistfulness then they will deserve all the contempt they receive.

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Apr 07 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

King of his castle

Monday 6th April 2020, 3.35pm (day 3,147)

Jackdaw king, 6/4/20

Happily, the sun has come out. Sadly, the people have not. So here is more birdlife: there is little else to bring variety at this time. This jackdaw was determined to get the best vantage point in his immediate area, and seems to have succeeded.

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Apr 05 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Equus

Sunday 5th April 2020, 1.10pm (day 3,146)

Equus, 5/4/20

Amongst the ways we are passing the time at home is to watch a movie each evening, and last night’s happened to be Equus, the worthy and very good 1970s play about a boy who worships horses, and the psychiatrist who starts thinking that maybe he has a point. I too think that horses know more than they let on to us. This one virtually galloped up to me this afternoon as I walked past and demanded that I do its close-ups.

Today’s statutorily permitted ‘one piece of exercise’ got me over into Luddenden, a valley that is next-door, but definitively not ‘Hebden Bridge’. So HB’s run of consecutive shots ends at 14, not quite giving it the blog record which therefore remains Brisbane’s 15 pictures in a row in 2013. But no one’s going anywhere very far in the next month or so, I imagine, so we’ll give it another try, starting tomorrow…

Apr 01 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Nuthatch

Wednesday 1st April 2020, 10.45am (day 3,142)

Nuthatch, 1/4/20

It can’t honestly be said that April 2020 promises much variety. Not as things stand. Forgive me then that this shot repeats the theme of two days ago, but local birdlife is at least photogenic and active at the moment. I marvel at the ability of this tiny creature to happily cling to a fully vertical surface using only its feet: something we humans have yet to master.

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Apr 01 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

The wild garlic motherlode

Tuesday 31st March 2020, 9.55am (day 3,141)

Wild garlic motherlode, 30/3/20

Day 10 of house arrest. Amongst the various ways in which this virus is causing trauma to the human world is the added strain it is putting on our communications infrastructure. WordPress seems to presently allow me to upload photos at around noon each day, but at no other times. And lower-resolution pictures are the only ones getting up there. Right now, it’s the way it is.

But at least there is no need to go out panic buying salad leaves at the moment. I have found the wild garlic motherlode a few hundred yards from home. All edible and delicious.

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