In which I take a photo every day that I'm 50, and post it here on this blog, with a bit of related blurb.

Sunday 30 November 2014

Day 351 - Get Loz'd

all aboard

Have I had any selfies on my blog yet?  I'm not sure that I have...possibly...in any case, as it seems to be The Year of the Selfie, it would be rude not to include one...

First thing this morning, as I was sitting in my chair waiting for full awake to arrive, Loz came and settled on my lap, as she is wont to do of a morning. 

As soon as she's had her breakfast (or whilst waiting for it), she loves to come and sit on my lap.  Sometimes she will even herd me towards my chair in an attempt to get me to sit. 

Immediately I sit down, she'll sneak in and settle down, purring happily.  If I have time, I'm happy for the warmth, and if I'm working from home that day she'll sleep on my lap for most of the morning.

Usually I don't have time, and I have to jump up before she settles in. 

Having a warm lump of furry, purry cat on your lap can have quite a soporific effect, though...in our house it's referred to as being Loz'd..."I got Loz'd!" is a common (and accepted) explanation for having fallen asleep in my chair (again)...

Anyway this morning I got Loz'd, but before I'd fallen asleep, The Boy Wonder decided he wanted to join in the fun. 

He got his front paws up and across my belly, and wanted to climb on fully...but fortunately he accepted my firm "no" without complaint, instead choosing to simply settle where he was.

So I had both of them laying on me like this for about half an hour, which made for a warm and pleasant Sunday morning, thanks!

Once I'd eventually removed them, I realised that the day had warmed and brightened considerably after the early mist, so I wandered out with the camera to try to catch a photo of the tiny wren that's been flitting around the hedgerow for the last few days.

I completely failed to spot him.

However, I did catch a glimpse of one of our winter visitors, the fieldfare...



'fare play

There are loads of these out in the fields and hedgerows, but they're quite skittish and fly off at the first hint of human (or maybe it's just me)...

I also got a shot of a magpie in the big tree over the road...


more 'pie

I thought I hadn't got a magpie on the blog yet, but on checking, it turned out that I had...

Only two more weeks to go, and it's apparently getting trickier to avoid repeating myself!

:-)

Saturday 29 November 2014

Day 350 - Typically Atypical

sunny

Have you noticed that as time goes by, abnormal weather is becoming increasingly, well...normal?

Two days until December, and we have had a gloriously warm, sunny day, with fresh green winter wheat growing in the fields and fresh green grass growing in the borders.

The Boy Wonder seemed to glow in the low sun, as he foraged in the soggy soil at the top of the hill. 

A few minutes later, amongst the trees not 100m from here, the light was very different...


shady

A spooky stillness sat over the woods, the peace only disturbed by the intermittent caws and squawks of crow and blackbird.

Robin seemed to sense it too...at one point he just stopped and stood perfectly still for a minute or two...


stillness

He didn't seem to to want to cast disruptive ripples through the quietness any more than we did. 

I love these woods...

They're like a huge, natural cathedral, and coming here soothes my soul in the same way that I imagine going to church soothes the soul of the committed Christian.

I think it's fair to say that Nature is my religion, if I have one. 

It was up in these woods that our trailcam was stationed earlier this week, and I promised to edit the highlights together and upload them...





Stay tuned until the end for a little bonus scene... ;-)

In other news, one downside of having a lovely big blonde dog is the amount of hair he sheds...we have to hoover through the whole of the downstairs of the house every other day, as a minimum.

Brushing him once a week helps a little, and we're hoping that his raw food diet will help his coat.  His fur is feeling a little oilier than before, but not in a bad way.  He feels soft and silky, and looks really nice. 

But this is two days worth of shedding...


animal

This is part of a Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner, and I'm not sure it's going to survive the strain of this dog much longer...

But he does seem to be really enjoying the new diet, and it's not proving too onerous or distasteful to us, so fingers crossed that the shedding eases a little!

:-)

Friday 28 November 2014

Day 349 - A Tale of Two Jugs

solid

I had to ask The Boy Wonder to save you from what would otherwise be an exceptionally dull photo of these two jugs...you're welcome!

As it's Friday night, and therefore both you and I are low on interest, being rather more keen to get our collective freedy neet's on, I'm going to simply tell you a little story...

A tale of two jugs... 

For years, I would enhance Jazz and Bluez' kibble (dried dog food) with a thin marmite soup, which I would make by melting a little marmite in boiling water, then cooling a little before pouring it over their dinner. 

I always made it in the same Pyrex jug, which was never used for anything else, and was kept by the sink, rather than in a cupboard.

Anna and I are partial to scrambled eggs now and then, but preparing them in a plastic jug was frustrating and liable to end up with sticky egg all over the kitchen...so Anna bought a second Pyrex jug, identical in every way except for the surface scratches from years of stirring marmite soup in it, with a steel fork. 

This new jug was kept in the cupboard by the cooker, and that, combined with the age-worn look of the older one meant that there was no chance of confusion.

Indeed for a few years this system ran smoothly and surely, with never a hint of confusion and no problems whatsoever...

Even after The Legend JazzyB died, we left it in the same place, not wanting to do anything that signified acceptance of his passing...his food bowl, his collar and lead, even his old slippers still linger around the house to this day.  

I suppose I don't want all those little signs of him not to be here any more.  

The Treacle Spongebob even found an old bone of The Bloozer's, stashed under the storage heater, which (true to his ancestral breeds) he happily retrieved, and has had a good gnaw on several times since.

So all was well and good...until we went to Fontainebleau in September this year.

We left the house and cats in charge of house/cat-sitters, giving nary a thought to the possible fate of these two poor jugs.

Upon returning home, weary from our climbing adventures and a long car journey, something seemed wrong, out of place...but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Some days later, when scrambled eggs were on the menu, I found the jugs huddled together, cowering shamefully in the bottom of the cupboard, inextricably entwined...

And I really mean inextricably.

Having tried hot water, oil, hot and cold water, and of course a liberal dose of brute force, they really are not letting go of each other.

For a few months since, I've adopted a strategy of really hoping that they'll somehow come unstuck...but for reasons unknown this seems to be a completely ineffective strategy, making no measurable difference whatsoever.

Poor jugs, I fear they are doomed to the recycle bin and whatever horrors await them during the recycling process.

:-/

Thursday 27 November 2014

Day 348 - Mist-eerie-ous Ent

fogness

It was a beautifully atmospheric, foggy, November morning when I arose this morning, although my perspective was possibly biased by the fact that I was working from home today, and therefore didn't need to go out driving cross-country through it...

In any case, I loved the look of the leafless, skeletal trees in the misty damp morning light...in this case I particularly like the ivy (or whatever evergreen it is) that is wrapped around the main trunk...the tree looks like an Ent, waving his long arms in the air, and wearing a nice thick puffy coat, to protect him from the winter chill...

Whilst perched on the planting trough outside our lounge window, trying to get a clear shot of the misty tree, I noticed a pair of Eurasian collared doves in the tree in next door's garden.

nice collar

Typically, the two doves that were there were constantly hassling each other, and flapping about the tree noisily...I didn't get a single decent shot after this, the first one.

However, I then noticed a great spotted woodpecker on the peanut feeder lower down the same tree...

woody?

I took about a dozen shots of him, but at no point did he move around the feeder to provide me with a decent view...but at least there's enough to show that it is indeed a great spotted woodpecker!

At lunchtime I took The Boy Wonder up to the woods to retrieve the trailcam, which had been up there for a few days by now.

It was another successful mission, capturing several new species on video, as well as some old friends...when I have an hour or two to spare over the next few days, I'll mix the highlights into another short youtube movie, and put up a bonus post...

I think there's a tendency to think that the British countryside is fairly dull, as we have no significant predators any more...but I hope my blog demonstrates that there's incredible diversity of life all around.

I've been living and walking out in the woods and fields daily for years, and it's fair to say that it takes a few years to start to tune in to the wildlife that is in evidence.  Every passing year, I see more and more, read the signs better, intuit what I might see where more effectively (Anna is brilliant at this...).

However, it's taken the dozens of species I've managed to actually photograph this year, to really demonstrate to me the full breadth and depth of what's out there.

I really must compile a list as a sort of feature post, and a log of the many and varied species we've seen.

In't all this wildlife brilliant!?

:-)

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Day 347 - Murky Musings

soggy old tree

You may remember the incongruous cormorant that I spotted last week, sat up high in a tree?  Well this is that tree, taken just before it slides behind the hedgerow and out of my view.

This morning, as I was driving to work, traffic was a little more chaotic than usual, the weather a little more inclement, and my energy a little more jaded than is the norm these days (due to the ongoing lurgy situation).

As I reached my halfway point, the roads were running with water and clogged with more cars than usual...it quickly became clear that I was going to be there for a while (20 minutes, as it turned out).

I sat there feeling tired(!) and with dampened spirits, pondering how difficult it was going to be to get a photo today, unless there's some sort of clarion call for more photo's of The Boy Wonder - which clearly isn't going to happen.

I realised that the miserable weather might make an interesting subject, so started snapping away.  As I approached the centre of the jam I remembered that I'd been wanting to get a photo of the tree, and now might make a good opportunity.

As it happened, this was the last photo I took, and the only one that isn't full of traffic jam.  I've no idea how I managed to to get a shot with no other vehicles in it at all, as I'd been surrounded by them throughout.

But somehow the shot captured the feel of the morning in all its murky dampness, and the fact that I possibly had a PotD in the bag already lifted my spirits somewhat.

I actually like very rainy days like today.  I don't even mind being out in it, as long as I'm dressed warmly.  I find stormy Autumnal days to be atmospheric and evocative.

Having said that, I'd much rather be out, cold and damp, walking the dog in the fields, than sitting warm and dry in a traffic jam!

Another thing I've been pondering is next year's challenges...I have a few thoughts.

Rather than blogging next year, on each day I'm going to read the blog post from the same date a year earlier.

I'm also going to put the whole blog into a book (or a series of books, given the extent of it!).

I have a few of this years challenges to catch up on, notably a few climbing ambitions and a few other bits and bobs.

I'll hopefully complete Anna's 35 Challenge with her (whatever it turns out to be), in Fontainebleau in the Spring.

But I think my priority is musical...

I want to use all that lovely time that I won't be blogging to do something productive musically.  Perhaps I'll write and record some songs.  I do want to start playing the guitar more, and develop my looping skills.  And I'd still like to follow up on the improvisational live music thing I was hinting at early in the year.

Oh, and I also want to move house...and get a new car!

Hmm, seems like I've maybe overloaded my plate again - but that strategy did make for an interesting, eventful and insightful year this year...

So why not aim high again?!

I love it when a plan starts to come together...

B-)

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Day 346 - Dog in the Dark

in the spotlight


Honestly, if it wasn't for this dog, I've no idea what I'd be bringing you in the way of daily photo's, as we head into the last few weeks of this epic adventure.

Today has been a bit of a mess, quite frankly...

As consciousness rudely intruded upon my slumber, the infection that has been lurking for the last couple of days in my sinuses and chest made itself immediately felt...no improvement then, great.

I struggled to wake, and ended up leaving for work late, having forgotten to shave, which is quite unlike me.

We'd had the first hard frost of the winter, and my car was iced up to the extent that I had to go back for tepid water, and one of the doors was frozen shut and took some budging.

On the way to work, it was obviously chillier than of late, so several drivers felt it prudent to stick around 30mph, despite virtually normal road conditions...grrr..

I had a a busy day at work, eventually leaving just before 6pm and so not getting home until 7pm.  

We walked SpongeBob down the lane, where it was very dark.  I noticed how white his bum is in my powerful head-torch light (still on its first charge, w00t!), so played around taking some photos with that as the only light source (the head torch, not his bum - although he sometimes does behave as though the sun shines out of it).

Mostly they were a bit rubbish, as I'm sure you'd expect by now, but this one isn't too bad...I like the effect of the bright dog in a sea of inky blackness.

After walking him, we had to go to Sainsbury's to do the weekly shop, and whilst there, I twisted my knee...I was just hanging about by the pastries, resisting buying all the doughnuts whilst Anna nipped back for red peppers (although she came back with red wine...huh?), and idly doing some twisty balance problems on one foot.  

Somehow, whilst twisting my knee, I sort of, erm...twisted my knee, which is still sore now. 

On the way back to the car a pack of biscuits (yeah I didn't resist those) fell out of the shopping cart and I ran over them with the cart, breaking the packet open in the process.

Once home, I waited until a critical point in the dinner-making process, then randomly threw a raw egg onto the floor of the kitchen. 

Ten minutes later, I trod in the foamy cleaning product that Anna had put down where I'd dropped the egg, and walked it around the kitchen a bit.

It's now 11pm and I've just eaten...I think I need just sit and try not to do anything for a bit...

Although I feel rough as a dog (not one of our dogs of course), everything hurts, and I still need to shower...damn...

It seems to me like there's one phrase that pops up time and time again throughout my blog, and could quite reasonably be used as the subtitle for the whole thing, after the usual strap-line...

Over the Hill, and Picking Up Speed!
(I'm so tired...)

:-zzzz

Monday 24 November 2014

Day 345 - Shoddy Snaps

crap photo # 1

The light was amazing when I got up early this morning, so I immediately took some photo's with my phone.

I suppose I should have gone to get the camera...but it was early, I was tired, it was cold, I wanted to get on with some work (I know, right?!)...

So anyway I just rattled off a few shots on my phone, none of which did the morning any sort of justice at all...that'll learn me!

On the subject of failed and/or poor quality photo's, this afternoon I tried to get a shot of The Boy Wonder playing with his big yellow snake...


crap photo # 2

This time I managed to fail on several counts...glare on the lens from the low sun, too slow a shutter speed for such a bouncy dog, generally horrible framing...when I tell you that this was the best of the dozen or so photo's I took, you'll perhaps understand just how bad they were on average...

They were (again) taken on my phone though, so contrary to what I said above, apparently that won't learn me!

It seems it's getting harder to get a decent photo for the blog, so it's perhaps as well that there's only another 20 posts to go after this one...

It's probably cheating a bit, but I'll flesh this post out with this amazing video that Top Commenter Andy sent me a link to...





This video blew me away...such maturity in both her singing and her guitar playing, for one so young...although i
n fairness, I guess she's probably a little older than she looks to me (me being an old fart and all (although not quite such an old fart as Andy :-p )).

But still, wonderfully tasteful, restrained and classy jazz...

Very much reminds me of the first time I saw Eva Cassidy playing and singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

Thanks for the intro Andy!

B-)


PS Oy, Isham - are you seriously refusing to come to see me for my birthday??

Sunday 23 November 2014

Day 344 - Dog Treat

choices

We're currently on a mission to find toys for The Wonder Boy, that he'll find stimulating and interesting...So we took him for a trip to the pet shop, to see what we could find.

We were hoping to find something he can chew on; to exercise his jaw, consume some energy, and satisfy him psychologically.

I'm not sure why, but Treacle Spongebob loves going out in the car. 

When I opened the door to let him out to go to the loo this morning, he looked at me as if I was crazy, and took on a distinctly disdainful air at the suggestion of going out into the light rain.

An hour later, I got his lead and called him again to the back door, and he still showed a reluctance to go outdoors...we decided not to take him for a walk, but to simply go straight to the pet shop. 

I went out to clear the boot space, and came back for the dog...as soon as he saw the boot of the car open, he found his enthusiasm, bounced straight over to it and hopped in!

In the pet shop he was like...well, like a dog in a pet shop! 

Not only was there a smorgasbord of toys and treats and tasty tidbits, liberally spread along every aisle, but there were also people, and more excitingly, lots of other dogs!

Biggles got to meet an enthusiastic golden retriever, a wary but dominant young black lab bitch, a fat bernese mountain dog, a pair of red setters, a jack russell terrier type, some kind of bull dog cross, and a couple of other random small dogs that I have to confess, I didn't pay much attention to. 

He was reasonably well behaved, given all the over-stimulation, and we asked him to let us know which treats and toys he preferred.

He nosed through the soft toys, and any he showed interest in, we picked up and offered to him.  Judging by his response to each one, we gradually homed in on the ones he most liked.

Robin quite liked one particular toy which consisted of a short length of rope attached to a hard plastic ball.  Not only does it have chewable rope, but if you do the death shake thing (as dogs are wont to do) with it, you sometimes get smacked around the face by the ball...bonus!

Curiously the thing he liked most was a yellow snake. It's a big fluffy thing about 2 feet long, with a rope or some such inside, and a squeak in its head.  

Sure enough, since being home he has played with the snake a fair bit, and seems to really like it.    Fortunately he only finds the squeak once in a while, so it surprises him, and hasn't yet annoyed us.

We took him for a walk in the later afternoon, when the sun was low in the sky, and I got another nice autumn shot of the fading day.

autumnal afternoon

I quite like these crops of the skyline, especially with an interesting or dramatic sky, and I think there are two or three of them scattered through this blog now.

Oh well, I think that's it, from a slightly uninspired Sunday...

Sorry about that...I'll try to be more interesting tomorrow!

:-)

Saturday 22 November 2014

Day 343 - Walk in the Woods

me and my new boy

Saturday today, and so I got the opportunity to lie in until 9am...yay!

Targets for the day were to:

- start The Treacle Spongebob on his raw meat diet...
- place the trailcam up where we might catch some deer...
- go bouldering in Milton Keynes...
- watch the Formula One Qualifying...

The plain ground chicken we are going to use to help transition Wonderboy onto a raw diet went down well.  He seemed to enjoy it, and it wasn't even particularly distasteful to prepare.

Here's a shot of him as a "before" photo.


big'ead

He had already had his first meaty breakfast by this time, but of course the effect won't be that immediate...but it will be interesting to see what effect the new diet has on his coat and general condition.  

Also, hasn't he got a big head?!

A new emerging nickname is Biggles, as a sort of contraction of BigDog.

We took him up to the woods to find a spot for the camera.  The plan had been to leave it on a main pathway, but it's pheasant season, and there were shotguns going off all around...I was reluctant to leave it too obvious, so instead we went up to the tree where I carved Jazz and Bluez' names...


living monument

You can see the camera (or at least, the white plastic rain-hood I made out of a milk bottle) on a tree in the upper left, where we left it watching a small clearing with lots of signs of badger, and a possible deer passing point.

It was nice to see the vibrant green moss growing well, and nicer still to see the little ivy starting to creep it's way up the trunk.  I like to imagine that My Boyz ashes, some of which were sprinkled around this tree, are feeding both, until the fresh new life grows up over their names in years to come.

Romantic, I know, but if it makes me feel better and warmer about the world, then that's not a bad thing, is it?

Here's a nice close up that Anna took of the moss at the base of the tree.


green carpet

And finally, here's a lovely shot (again, taken by Anna) of another interesting fungi...


layered

I like the droplets of dew hanging off the blades of grass...

Anyway, we went climbing, and we were weak and tired...and now I'm watching the replay of the F1 Qualifying on the iPlayer, as I write this...

Missions accomplished...

B-)

Friday 21 November 2014

Day 342 - Frozen Meat Friday

mmmmm

Slightly grisly subject this evening, which is probably best served to a reduced Friday-blog-post audience...

Whilst researching canine diet, following some of The Boy Wonder's interesting food issues, we rediscovered the BARF approach...Biologically Appropriate Raw Food.

The diet is based on the theory that dogs, fairly recently evolved from wolves (a mere 15,000 years or so ago) would historically have eaten raw food, primarily meat and bones...moreover the arguments in support of this idea suggest that they need this diet in order to be healthy, both physically, and perhaps psychologically.  

A modern dried dog food does have a reasonably strong scientific base...but it was paid for by the companies that want to sell you the dog food. 

Having thought about this a little bit recently, I've found I have some strong opinions.  

In a pub a couple of weeks ago, I found some dog biscuits in my pocket, and offered them around.  Nobody wanted one, but someone suggested I try one, so I did. 

Now, I'm not a foodie by any means...but oh my word, it was dull...dry, flaky, tasteless and utterly dull.

It made me realise that we basically take a day's nutrients (simplified and dumbed down to the point of blandness), and turn them into something resembling Ryvita...if offered a diet of dry Ryvita and nothing else, for the rest of your life - how many of you would happily accept that?

And yet that's what we impose on our "best friends"!

I concede that the idea of sourcing and handling raw meat and bones every day is somewhat unappealing...but there are ways and means.

Whilst researching suppliers, which are dotted around the country, I found a place that looked interesting...decidedly un-corporate, a nice feel to them ethically, and very reasonably priced.,,and importantly, they supply a pre-prepared (and locally sourced) product...ranging from raw, ground chicken, beef and pork, to a variety of meat mixed with vegetables and fish oil, and a variety of bones and natural raw treats.

So I when I looked them up and discovered to my great surprise that their single small warehouse unit is located around 150m from where I'm now working every day, I took it as a significant omen! 

Today I popped round there on my way home to collect these frozen chicken necks, which we will use as a supplementary snack for The Treacle Spongebob.

And here in the freezer is a couple of weeks worth of raw chicken, pork, and duck.


erm...yum?

It only cost around £20, so it's not really that expensive...if we could get away with spending only £40 each at Sainsbury's every month, we'd be minted!

So it only seems fair to spend a little more and give The Big Dog a diet that he can get excited about.

By all accounts, dogs are almost immediately noticeably healthier on such a diet, with glossier coats and a more satisfied demeanour.

We shall see...if nothing else, I hope Robin will enjoy some lovely raw meat over coming weeks.

We have a kilo of ground chicken defrosting in the fridge...

...the great experiment starts tomorrow!

B-)

Thursday 20 November 2014

Day 341 - Woodland Wildlife

hopeful

This evening, without much hope, we went up to the woods in the dark to collect the trailcam that we'd left up there last Saturday morning.

We'd set it up in a bit of a rush, as we had two birthday bashes to attend that same day, at what felt like opposite ends of the country.

The photo above shows the camera strapped to the trunk of a tree, and the photo below shows the approximate view that the camera was observing.


bonus spongebob

One of the challenges with the trailcam is that you can't really tell what view it has - you just have to point it in the right approximate level and hope for the best...and given that tree trunks are generally not uniformly straight and vertical, it can be quite tricky.

Also, we weren't sure we'd picked a great spot, but still, we hoped for a little passing activity.

Upon arriving back home with the camera this evening, we were excited to find 84 one minute videos!  

They were all taken between Saturday morning and Wednesday lunchtime, when the 8GB memory card filled up.

On viewing them, we discovered a range of interesting activity, and learned something surprising!

Between Saturday and Monday morning, a variety of animals passed by...


V9 at least

By day, squirrels were busy with some impressive roof climbing...and the occasional pheasant wandered by...


learn to phly

Whilst at dusk, rabbits were most active...


whu-whu-whu-what's up?

And badgers were about through the night...


badger blur

Then, on Monday morning, this happened...


intruder

And that was it.  For the next three days, we got dozens of clips of sheep wandering down the field...or hanging about...before wandering back down the field again. 

Back and forth they went, presumably on some sort of cycle...

(And I don't mean on a bike - that would be ridiculous!   With cloven hooves it would be very tricky to ring the bell to warn others of your passage through the herd...).

Anyway, the surprising thing was that as soon as the sheep arrived, everything else disappeared. 

Even though all the animals had so far been in the woods, and the sheep were the other side of a fence, in the field, there was nary a sign of anything further. 

It's interesting to note that the variety of more natural species all seemed to get along happily, or at least, in balance...but the sheep, whose presence is as unnatural as is our own, have the same intrusive effect that we humans have.

We don't fit in, we just push everything else out.

Humans and sheep...and I suppose, cows...

Lot to answer for...

:-/

PS bonus video below...

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Day 340 - Rambling Man

4CV

I've been spending an awful lot of time in the car lately...but that does have it's upside.

For the last nine days, I've spent at least 2 hours per day driving...on one day at the weekend it was nearer 6 hours.

This is having various side effects...for a start, I'm quite tired, and I'm losing out on time at home with Anna, Loz, Maisie and the Boy Wonder.  I'm sure things will settle down on this front, and ultimately we will move nearer...but for now, it's one of the more challenging aspects of our many recent significant life changes.

My daily journey to work and back isn't too bad, to be honest.  It takes an hour each way, but I go the scenic route which is, you know, scenic...at least, it is in the mornings - at night it's just dark and wet, and driving conditions on winding, bumpy, busy roads are somewhat challenging in themselves. 

It's also making me hanker after a new car (much like my man Jezz is)...

Don't get me wrong - my old Mondeo estate has been brilliant, a trusty, willing and capable servant over the last two and a half year's climbing adventures...it's taken us (and a shedload of climbing gear and whatnot) to Dartmoor, to Snowdonia, to Pembrokeshire, to Fontainebleau in France (twice), to the Lake District, and to the Peak District about a bajillion times.

It carried both of my boys Jazz and Bluez on their final journeys...and although we have Robin now (which is great), he doesn't replace them in my heart, and even now I'm crying quietly as I remember my old boy Bloobs and his long time partner in crime JazzyB, and those two last car rides....

God, I miss them.

Anyway, moving right along (albeit with a snuffle and a big sigh)...one of my regular little traffic jams is in a little village called Bretford, where a single lane bridge stalls traffic in both directions daily. 

I like to look at the horses as I'm waiting in the queue, and I often find myself thinking about how I should get a photo sometime...when suddenly, I realised that I actually could get a photo, right now!

It's not a brilliant photo, taken from my phone, but still, horses!

A moment later, I saw this, below...


what?

Unfortunately I had to move a few car lengths along the queue, and lost a beautiful perspective on this, but still, I got the documentary evidence I was after...look closely at the tree in the centre (well beyond the hedgerow)...


wait...what?!

That, my friends, is a cormorant...and whilst we see these once in a while around here, it's always a surprise...it seems incongruous so far from the sea. 

I'm not even sure whether it is purely a sea-bird, as it is in my head - I suspect not...but in any case, a pleasing addition to the collection of bird photos I've amassed throughout the year...

I must write a summary blog for bird photo's soon, given that I only have, what, 25 days left in this little blogging adventure of mine?!

Finally, to pull you somewhat rudely in yet another intense emotional direction, do you remember my 50@50 Challenge, where I climbed 50 routes in a day?

You may recall that in order to do that many routes in a day, I had to free solo them all.  

Free climbing is climbing without any kind of assistance - no equipment that helps you ascend (you can have ropes to catch you if you fall, but they don't help you to climb).

Soloing is climbing without any kind of protection - no ropes, nothing to catch you if you fall.

Free soloing is therefore a term used to describe simply climbing on your own, with no equipment to help you climb, and no ropes to catch you if you fall. 

I talked about it in some detail in an earlier blog post...

Anyway, my 50@50 free-soloing was not really all that dramatic...routes were on average only around 8m tall, with the tallest being only about 12-14m...and the climbing itself was fairly easy.

There is, however, an American called Alex Honnold who works at the other end of the free soloing spectrum.

If any of you find that your palms aren't quite sweaty enough, check out this short video...





He's a fascinating guy, and an absolute master of the head game that this type of climbing essentially is...as well as being an awesome climber - strong, controlled, positive.


Don't get me wrong, I have no aspirations to do anything like that!

But I do both admire and fear for Alex Honnold, with more or less equal intensity...

:-/