Remains of Today

Cleaning up, re-positioning and re-kajiggering the hen house to make it into a duck domicile has turned up the treasures pictured here.
Exhibit a. A solitary wasp nest

Exhibit b. Dead Peacock butterfly

Sheep-Shifting

H has sent me this very helpful guide to manoeuvring one's sheep...

Tiny Tim

'He' has discovered the seed I put out for the robin.

I am distracted...

... from my distraction by a distraction.
I'm watching a little video explaining biochar and my eyes wander below the line where I read that if I want to see an albino squirrel I should look at the upper right corner after 35:35. And, yes indeedy, there it is...

Forty Winks

Voice On Record

One of the many great radio shows to have been broadcast on ResonanceFM over the years is Voice On Record with Sean Williams. It still gives me great joy to replay these podcasts on occasion while I'm working. Most especially the wildlife recordings and episodes 35, 36 & 38 featuring Peter Scott are ones I'll never tire of hearing.

World Porridge Day

Gosh! I have just realized that today IS World Porridge Day. How do I celebrate? I have already eaten my morning porridge unawares. Tsk.

Meanwhile, here is a handy reference for working out just how old your goat is.

Snoo

"An intense frost usually befalls in Jan: our Saxon fore-fathers call'd that month with no small propriety wolf-month; because the severe weather brought down those ravenous beasts out of the woods among the villages."
Gilbert White The Natural History of Selbourne

The snow ( about 6 inches now) reveals the path that the ravenous fox takes through the yard.

Lambs to the Slaughter

Well I kept these seedlings in the greenhouse until I couldn't put off transplanting any longer. They looked big enough to fend for themselves, able to survive a few nibbles. But, voilà, the slugs are operating in much the same way as the fox - killing, beheading and leaving the spoils strewn around uneaten! Grrr!

And this from B. in the morning's epost.

Things That Like This Weather

1. Spotted Aleppo 2. Red Deer Tongue 3. Moroccan Little Cress
4. New Red Fire and 5. Escargot

R.I.P. All My Hens

The thing I didn't think possible happened last night. Fort Fox was breached and all the chickens slaughtered. I salvaged the bodies of the three young ones and spent the morning plucking, cleaning and eviscerating. Woglinde's first egg of the season came out intact (see below). The shell of Flosshilde's was too soft and it got scrambled in the poop chute. All that's left is a big pot of Brunhilde soup, a meal of Flosshilde au Vin and Woglinde is in the ice box for a later date. So tragic. We must rethink our defenses before getting more.

R.I.P. Ronald Searle

From The Great Fur Opera (Annals of the Hudson Bay Company 1670 - 1970)

Women With Cows

I've just been to see a great film - Women With Cows. Don't miss it!

A Quiet Sun!Day Afternoon

... at nearby Nunhead. Hirsute and snag-toothed, this wooded necropolis is a good place for a wander. Last year I saw one of Britain's rarest mammals here - the black rat.

Boscoop Glory

"Half a bunch of grapes, and a couple of spoonfuls of jelly (lemon, or wine) left over from dinner, do not by themselves look particularly attractive, one has to admit; but just melt the jelly, and set the grapes therein, using a small pudding basin, or brawn basin, as a mould, and see how glad some sick child will be of the morsel, though your servants would probably disdain to touch it."
Epicure 1898
I have just planted out a grape vine, Boscoop Glory, having thought about doing so for longer than I care to think. Single-handedly I might add, as my left (drawing) hand is in an ulna gutter slab due to a spiral fracture of the 5th metacarpal. Anyway I'm looking forward to some sweet black grapes in the future.


Sill Life with Cardoon, Francolin, Grapes and Irises by Felipe Ramirez, 1628

* On this day in 1780 "Brought away Mrs.Snooke's old tortoise, Timothy, which she valued much, & had treated kindly for near 40 years. When dug out of it's hybernaculum, it resented the Insult by hissing." Mrs. Snook died and was buried on the 15th of March and her nephew Gilbert White took over his care. A little biography of Timothy (actually a female) can be read here. Or listen to a reading of Mrs. Snooke's Tortoise here.

Spring Things

In the 'pond'(cement thing in the ground what collects water) the other day -


Yesterday I pricked out and potted on 40 aubergine and pepper seedlings now at first true leaf stage which I sowed early February. Sweet peppers 'Doe Hill' & 'Aconcagua', Hot peppers 'Black Hungarian', 'Gelbe Kirschen', 'Grandpa's Siberian Home', 'Jemez', and Aubergines 'Slim Jim', 'Japanese White Egg', 'Thai Long Green' and 'White Ribbed' (only one of which germinated). Leeks 'Monstrueux de Charentan' are just seeing the light of day. It's all happening now!

Mrs.Snooke's Tortoise

December 17th, 1774 - 'Mrs. Snooke's tortoise, after it had been buried more than a month, came forth & wandered round the garden in a disconsolate state, not knowing where to fix on a spot for it's retreat.'
Listen out for 'The Portrait of a Tortoise', a Hooting Yard holiday season special on ResonanceFM to be broadcast 12:20 on Boxing Day. I know that I will be tucked up in front of the radio with a turkey sandwich and a cup of tea for the occasion.

The Way Forward

"Let's extensively raise goats in all families." North Korean Poster

Going West

"Young man, come nearer to me: It was devoured, chewed up, crunched by the monstrousest parmacetty that ever chipped a boat!...ah, ah!"
Oh, yes, somebody is posting 'Moby Dick' at the rate of one line every hour. Anyhoo, it sort of works as a caption for this allotment squash casualty.

Summer's Death Toll

Cause of death of the first four: unknown. But I feel responsible for the demise of the bird. I feel like Philip Larkin did after the hedgehog/lawnmower incident.
I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled it's unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
I've been trying to keep the greenhouse windows clean - even squeegeeing the condensation off in the mornings - in an effort to allow as much sunlight as possible in. The more sun, the sweeter the tomatoes. At best only 91% of sunlight gets through the glass, and there has been so much cloud cover this summer. And then I got carried away and cleaned the windows (that I could reach) at the back of the house... I'm going to leave the resulting smudge there as warning to all the other birds.


Beautiful photos of exhibition preparation for the American Natural History Museum here. (via Curious Expeditions)