Tuesday 24th June 2025, 3.50pm (day 5,052)
“OK, are you ready? I want you to get my best side…. THAT’S the one. Send me a copy….”
Duck pose
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: nature
Homage to ‘Power Corruption and Lies'(or, random flowerpot)
Wednesday 18th June 2025, 3.50pm (day 5,046)
A still life. Those who know New Order may see my point with the title of this post. But it is just a random flowerpot, really.
Mother of nine
Saturday 7th June 2025, 3.40pm (day 5,035)
I don’t think I have ever seen a brood of ducklings as large as this. Even though a couple of them are only glimpsed on this shot (there’s one right behind the duck, and another mostly concealed in the left-hand group) there were definitely nine of them. No wonder she looked somewhat frazzled: and there was an equally stressed-looking drake in the vicinity too. Still, they’re a good size: quite an achievement in fact.
Incidentally this was taken at Dunsop Bridge in the Forest of Bowland, a few yards from where, on 27/12/2011, I depicted Clare stood in the phone box that is still there, being the reputed “centre of Britain”. That was 4,911 days ago, meaning that Dunsop Bridge now takes over as the place with the longest gap between appearances on this blog. Can things get any more exciting, you ask? Hey, this particular journey has only just started.
Teenage goose and hanger-on
Monday 2nd June 2025, 4.25pm (day 5,030)
Only a few weeks back the gawky thing with over-size feet would have been an adorable little ball of golden fluff. We all go through an awkward phase at adolescence though, don’t we. The pigeon, meanwhile, is attempting to recruit this new arrival in the war against the ducks, but soon, the goose will realise it is above all that rubbish.
Watching me watching him
Friday 30th May 2025, 2.30pm (day 5,027)
There have been, I count, five previous photos of deer on here down the years and with the possible exception of the first one (13/10/2015), the subjects of each were well aware of my presence, watching me just as carefully as I was watching them: take this lot, for instance. This young chap (and he is a male: there are antlers beginning to sprout) was no exception. He let me take the picture but scooted off the moment I made to come any closer. It’s just as well for him I didn’t have a gun, though.
Snail snog
Thursday 29th May 2025, 11.25am (day 5,026)
The damper weather appears to have made these two frisky. But guys — doing it on the pavement is probably a bad idea. You need to keep an eye out for the Boots of Death coming your way.
Chances of being saved, fairly high
Wednesday 28th May 2025, 2.40pm (day 5,025)
I suppose, to an insect, that the foam layer on top of a glass of beer looks like a solid landing place. But this is one of those risks that if it gets a second chance at it, this will only be because of the benevolence of the putative drinker of said beer, who doesn’t want a mouthful of insect to spoil his enjoyment. Learn the lesson, kid.
Jackdaw in the sunshine
Tuesday 13th May 2025, 5.50pm (day 5,010)
The sunshine continues: if you hear any Britons complaining about the weather this spring, you have my permission to scoff. This jackdaw seems to be enjoying it just like the rest of us.
Plumlings
Friday 2nd May 2025, 2.30pm (day 4,999)
Going on the number of plumlings that currently festoon the tree, I predict that come around late July, the whole thing is going to fall over. Should it stay standing, even 2023’s glut (forty-four pounds of fruit) may be surpassed.
Hello, it’s day 4,999. I’d better not forget to get the camera out at some point tomorrow.
Ready to fly
Tuesday 29th April 2025, 11.05am (day 4,996)
The weather has been pretty good for some time now and things seem to be emerging earlier this year, nature-wise. It feels we should be well into May already, but that month doesn’t start yet for two more days. The dandeliion clocks are heavy with seeds, and an explosion is surely imminent.
Being 42 