Tag Archives: animal

Feb 04 2023
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

In the Woody Ridge flax mill

Thursday 2nd February 2023, 2.00pm (day 4,179)

Cow in byre, 2/2/23

Curiosity, and the need to stretch my legs during a day sat working on a report, took me down the road to investigate the old flax mill that stands there, a relic of just one of many attempts to institute some kind of working cash crop economy on St Helena — doomed from the point in the 1960s when the Royal Mail decided it no longer wanted to use string to tie up its parcels and would instead rely henceforth on nylon. Now the place seems to be used as a cow byre: but the dairy industry here didn’t survive regulations on hygiene, or was it something else? Laws and practices developed for quite different contexts have never really gone down very well in this remote and distinctive place.

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Jan 07 2023
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Sheep at the trough

Friday 6th January 2023, 3.15pm (day 4,152)

Feeding sheep, 6/1/23

There is just such a look of contentment on the face of this sheep, as it has a rest from its communal troughing. I guess with all those fleeces on each side it must be pretty warm and stuffy down there; no wonder they were all taking breathers now and again.

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Sep 13 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

I’m sure we’re not the same species

Saturday 3rd September 2022, 2.15pm (day 4,027)

Disparate dogs, 3/9/22

With no posts for ten days perhaps you thought I’d finally given up the ghost, or at least the blog had — but no, ’twas that old staple, “computer problems”. Not entirely solved now, so bear with me, but I shall start on the catching-up process at least. This encounter seems quite a while ago now, but one can see the basic curiosity-mingled-with-sheer-terror that this little dog exhibits, faced with this giant Newfoundland. Yes, they are the same species. That’s genetic engineering for you.

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May 17 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Fox, central London

Monday 16th May 2022, 9.55am (day 3,917)

London fox, 16/5/22

This is the second fox to appear on this blog. The first was depicted on the hills above Kentmere in the Lake District (on 4/3/2020) which one might think was an appopriate location to see one. However, I believe there are now more urban foxes in the UK than rural ones, and this one was seen less than five minutes’ walk from King’s Cross station, at roughly 10am on a Monday morning in central London.

It’s injured though. Whatever is up with its front left leg, it wasn’t putting any weight on it. Nothing I could do about it, sadly. I hope it is OK.

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Apr 28 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Not Mathilda

Thursday 28th April 2022, 12.50pm (day 3,899)

Not Mathilda, 28/4/22

Mathilda the cat has appeared on this blog more often than any other animal but definitely moved away, her last appearance (of six) being on 3/3/20. This puss is a tortoiseshell as she was, and appeared today in the same location — but it is not her. I got a fairly friendly reaction however, so perhaps s/he is putting in a bid for repeated appearances, just as Mathilda did.

This is a photowhack — the only picture I took today.

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Mar 28 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Landscape

Formal cow portrait

Sunday 27th March 2022, 12 noon (day 3,867)

Formal cow portrait, 27/3/22

it’s taken Clare and I over a year to get round about four-fifths of the Calderdale Way’s 50 miles, after today. Still a couple of legs to go yet. Today introduced us to the side valley of Shibden Dale, a beautiful spot and, somewhere previously unknown (except as a brief glimpse now and again from the train, as the line crosses the dale not long after leaving Halifax) despite having lived here 21 years now. The cow looked happy to be there too.

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Nov 30 2021
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Jonathan — world’s oldest living land animal

Sunday 28th November 2021, 3.10pm (day 3,748)

Jonathan is a giant tortoise, originally from the Seychelles but resident at Plantation House in St Helena since the 1880s. It is not known exactly how old he is but there is good documentation that he is at least 189 years old, and possibly older. This makes him the oldest land animal on the whole planet, at least among those for which there is evidence.

I was thinking at first, it’s a shame that he doesn’t know he’s a record breaker. But — you know — he looks like such a cool dude, that I think he probably does.

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Jul 09 2021
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Not-at-all-cheap cat shot

Friday 9th July 2021, 3.30pm (day 3,606)

Expensive cat shot, 9/7/21

I sometimes feature what I would call ‘cheap cat shots’ on here (see this one for instance) but I don’t think this baby would be cheap at all. This is a challenging look, don’t you think? But I’d give it a go.

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May 13 2021
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Saluki

Thursday 13th May 2021, 5.30pm (day 3,549)

Saluki, 13/5/21

I don’t mind dogs on the whole but I’m never going to make myself responsible for one, and there are plenty of people who seem to think I should find their pets as endearing as they do. But these salukis — this is one of a matched pair — were OK, attractive animals I thought. If I’ve got the breed wrong blame the info I got from the owner.

When I put the tag in, and something else came up under ‘Saluki’, it was — where, when? But now I check I see it was the name of a train in Illinois. After nearly ten years doing this, sometimes things get forgotten.

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Feb 21 2021
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Debutant pig

Sunday 21st February 2021, 11.45am (day 3,468)

Pig, 21/2/21

“Whaddya mean, in nine and a half years you’ve never had a pig on this blog thing of yours?”

“Nope, never.”

“I wanna be FIRST. (Oink.)”

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