Wouldn’t you like your hair to be that carefully coiffed on a daily basis — particularly if you lived rough in the centre of town. I am sure this is Hebden’s original Muscovy duck, as opposed to one of the additional group that arrived last year — compare it to this shot for example. Which puts it ahead of Tara the pub dog as the first animal to appear five times on the blog (and only four people, including myself, have appeared more often).
If out in the hills and in doubt about the photo, try the sheep group. I always feel these guys know something. But that’s probably just paranoia. Probably.
The pigeon/duck conflict is one of the great unseen wars. Where the river comes through the town, where waterfowl meets urban scavenger, the two species battle for the prime pickings from the humans. The pigeons sent an emissary to demand more territory, but the ducks, insistent that they were there first, just ain’t talking.
A metaphor for my own day working at home? As it took this mollusc ninety minutes to cross the doorstep this morning, perhaps.
The pollen is definitely fruiting on this one, baby. Well, I guess that’s the point of summer, isn’t it.
Unsure of the species of this flower — a two-person search on various floral web sites has not turned up a definitive identification. Any botanists out there?
POSTSCRIPT: It appears to be a Geum ‘Queen of Orange’ — see http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com/p-1543-geum-queen-of-orange.aspx
For the second Thursday in a row I went off on a trip outside England and into another nation of the UK — this time Wales, its first appearance on the blog. I am visiting a colleague in Aberystwyth, a town with more books per head of population than anywhere in the world, apparently. Later in the day she took me to a place in the hills above the town, a centre devoted to maintaining the population of red kites (Milvus milvus), handsome birds of prey. The birds gather to be fed every day at 3pm. This was my best attempt at capturing the flock as they came down and feasted on the bounty, they all move damn quickly and I don’t have the equipment to freeze their movement in the way a pro would. But I like the one on the bottom left, caught looking at the camera.
I am here in Dundee to finish off writing a paper with my colleague Annalisa and this task was undertaken today at her house; and this is the man of said house. The rest of us are just staff. Milo becomes the third cat in a row to feature on this blog where I’ve known its name, after Harry and Mathilda, the last two CCSs (Cheap Cat Shots).
A day working at home. In need of inspiration (for many aspects of my life), let me document the next stage in the cultivation of our habañero plants, first seen on here back in August. A portion of the small but still potent fruit of these has now been strung up to dry; the other half has been turned into a lovely, fresh, spicy paste. Yum. Hopefully more will grow from the same plants, in time.
I went all the way to London and back today for no immediately obvious reason thanks to someone cancelling a meeting at the last minute. Basically I did a 10-hour round trip to have lunch in the Parcel Yard at King’s Cross. So here’s none of that. Instead, let’s feature this blackbird who was looking suspiciously at me at Hebden Bridge station this morning.
Although a little colder than it has been today was another nice day, somewhat in defiance of the weather forecast. I like this shot because of the impressive vertical of the trunk on the right and the feeling it gives of the tree shooting upwards; plus the roof sneaking in the background, that’s very Hebden Bridge.
Being 42 