Tag Archives: nature

Dec 11 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Hard at work, in the wrong place

Wednesday 10th December 2025, 9.55am (day 5,221)

Spider at work, 10/12/25

This spider was not a big one, but its web was expansive enough, and as you can see, it’s still hard at work with the building. What marvellous creatures these are: there are many species which build some kind of dwelling, of course, but can’t manage it purely with goo extruded out from their bodies.

However, you can see that it’s working on the outside of a rather grubby window (the kitchen one, as it happens). By the evening, evidence (like, a bill on the doormat) then suggested our window cleaner had been round on one of his seasonal visits and all this was nowhere to be seen. I bet the spider was substantially pissed off, I know I would have been.

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Dec 03 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Firethorn berries

Tuesday 2nd December 2025, 12.30pm (day 5,213)

Firethorn berries, 2/12/25

I believe these clusters of bright and, definitely, orange berries are firethorn [genus Pyracantha] — doubtless someone will correct me if I am wrong. A whole slew of them have grown to cover the fence outside the Ellen Wilkinson Building, anyway. Valuable winter bird food, apparently.

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Nov 23 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Rose hip

Saturday 22nd November 2025, 2.35pm (day 5,203)

Rose hip, 22/11/25

There have been a couple of exceptions — namely 2018, when I was in Germany, and 2021 on St Helena (and in 2019 I was about to go to Indonesia but not quite yet on my way) — but the 22nd November is not usually a date on which much happens. I find this a depressing, enervating time of year to be honest. Everything’s in decline yet we are still weeks from the turnaround point at the solstice. This rose hip (and feel free to correct me if I’ve got the botany wrong) is still putting in an effort, I guess, but most of the rest of nature has kinda given up. I know how it feels.

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Nov 19 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Poison dart frog

Tuesday 18th November 2025, 3.05pm (day 5,199)

Poison dart frog, 18/11/25

This little feller is, at most, two inches long but what does he care? In the wild these kinds of frog accumulate enough poison in their skin to kill a dozen people. But apparently they acquire it by eating certain types of ant and other insects, and when fed a different diet in captivity, the toxicity is lost. Maybe he doesn’t know. If he did, would he care? (Taken in the Manchester Museum’s vivarium, where saw some of his cousins before, in 2014.)

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Oct 29 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Spotted near town

Wednesday 29th October 2025, 1.40pm (day 5,179)

Hurst Road deer, 29/10/25

Yes guys — you’ve been spotted. Then again with those bright buttocks you might as well paint a target on your behinds: I have relatives who will get itchy trigger fingers just looking at this photo.

This is not the nearest to the centre of Hebden Bridge that I’ve ever seen deer — that award is still held by the one spotted at the railway station in April 2019 — but let’s say it’s the second-closest: 15 minutes’ walk from the market square, at most, and with houses just yards away.

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Oct 23 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

The courtyard

Tuesday 21st October 2025, 12 noon (day 5,171)

EWB courtyard, 21/10/25

The courtyard within it continues to be the only truly nice thing about the Ellen Wilkinson Building, my place of work for the last 20 years and, more or less, three months. Will I miss it when I finally do manage to leave? Probably not. But it can look nice, at different times of the year.

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Oct 12 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Heron in the Tame

Saturday 11th October 2025, 12.30pm (day 5,161)

Stalybridge heron, 11/10/25

I know it’s not long since I did a heron but they are good looking creatures with an agreeable habit of staying still for the camera. And this one isn’t the usual stamping ground in Hebden Bridge, but rather Stalybridge, the water being that of the River Tame.

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Sep 21 2025
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Daily Post, Sport

Cougar Park gates

Saturday 20th September 2025, 4.00pm (day 5,140)

Cougar Park gates, 20/9/25

I pick this shot for the colour palette mainly — the blue of of his jacket works very well. It is taken from inside the ground, as the reversal of the lettering makes evident. As you can also see — it is raining, a lot. But the game behind me did manage to reach a conclusion. Nothing to do with Keighley Cougars, a rugby league club (you have never seen rugby league depicted on here, and unless I radically change in my remaining years, you never will) — the owners of that club decided they fancied a football team as well so simply bought one, Eccleshill United of Bradford, and teleported them here for as long as they feel like dabbling in another mode of football.

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Sep 17 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Smug heron

Tuesday 16th September 2025, 3.40pm (day 5,136)

Smug heron, 16/9/25

Photographically, today was definitely a ‘give thanks to the heron’ day. Had I left the house 30 seconds earlier, you might well have seen the reason for its somewhat smug look, seeing as it has just guzzled a fish almost as long as its throat: I did get a shot of the kill but it was on such a long zoom (and in the same gloomy light as all other shots in the last few days) that the quality is very poor. Take my word for it, though: this is a heron that dined well this afternoon.

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Aug 30 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Spider on the stairs

Friday 29th August 2025, 1.25pm (day 5,118)

Stairwell spider, 29/8/25

Our Victorian house has always provided various nooks and crannies in which spiders can happily make a living, but like various types of fruit, the species has had a particularly good 2025 — at least at our place. Some mass hatching, then subsequent occupation, occurred in the spring. Alternative versions of this shot are currently available: Spider Above Bath, Spider(s) In Kitchen, Spider Lurking Above Front Door…. take your pick.

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