There haven’t been many animals on here lately so let’s rectify that. If anyone living toward the top of Highfield Crescent was getting any reception problems with their satellite signal this afternoon, here’s why.
Our leeks in the garden have attained considerable girth. What we did this year that has proved so successful I have no idea, they usually grow but have never been particularly big in the past. I’m not complaining though…
Ah yes, some good old Impatiens glandulifera, a.k.a. Himalayan balsam, our friendly local invasive weed which has taken over entire swathes of northern England; if you see this bastard growing anywhere near you, you should kill it — though apparently ripping it up just makes things worse, which is helpful. So don’t ask me how, maybe nobody knows which is why, soon, it will have taken over the entire island and I guess we’re just going to have to learn to eat it.
The cat looks slightly worried, as if the guy is a devious catnapper that has been terrorising Hebden Bridge’s felines for the last few years. Perhaps he’s trying to sneak him in the bag: or the green waste bins are calling ‘feed me a cat…’ (like in American Psycho).
I sympathise. I’m sure we’ve all been there.
Back out into the mountains — for a long and rather difficult walk from Coniston to Eskdale. This shot was taken towards the end, by which time I had already done 12 miles and was feeling rather knackered. The sheep seen here probably wondered what I was doing out on their heaf. I was wondering this too, to some extent.
Spent a little while today watching this bird (probably a jackdaw although I have given up trying to identify these species accurately) working out how it could get at the bounty inside this rubbish skip with its marginally open lid. This was the moment of triumph.
Anthropomorphism: the attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to an animal or object. Hard to avoid, particularly if you are the maker of a Disney movie. But I still say this fly looks proud enough to me. And like it’s enjoying the sunshine.
Another one of these time-of-year things, annual photographic events — you’ve seen this flower (wood cranesbill) before, not to mention insects plunging themselves within, to extract the bounty.
Continuing to clear the allotment, I find this cobweb behind the most concealed of our collection of water butts. I like its dappling by sunlight and the way that tiny flower has fallen onto and nestled into it, pushing down delicately, like it’s a meniscus or the most fragile of hammocks one can imagine.
Being 42 