Day 293 - Moon Rising

half moon

Friday night again, and I've got a pretty random collection of photo's for you...and I'm completely distracted by something else entirely...

The top photo, whilst not so dramatic, made for a nice contrast with last night's sunset...looks like we're halfway through the lunar month!

In other news, I cleared the hole in the hedgerow this evening, after it had been blocked by a large pile of hedge trimmings.

hole whole

All ready for the Autumn Edition, in about two weeks time...

Whilst clearing it, I came across some of the tree from the bottom of my 50@50 post...somebody had used it to block up the gap. 

For reasons that will be revealed over coming days, I was looking at another hole in the hedgerow, within the garden, that I wanted to block...remembering my promise to the little tree we had to cut down, I gathered all I could find of it and used it to create a bit of lattice-work to fill in the hole.

manweb

As I was doing this, Loz started to stalk and pounce on the end of one of the sticks where it lay on the lawn, so I quickly grabbed the camera.

target locked

That stick is so going to get it - and probably much faster than I know how to photograph!

lightning strike

Yep, sure enough, she homed in so fast that everything is in focus except her!

For those of you who are unsure of the joys of owning a cat, allow me to demonstrate...

Warning, not for the faint-hearted...

deadv0l3

This is the kind of thoughtful present you can anticipate coming home to on a regular basis, when you share your home with an active feline - it's the back end of a vole...when Loz eats a vole, she always starts with the head, and works her way down the body until she loses interest.

Much as I've worked my way this far down the blog before losing interest!

If anyone's still paying attention, I'll give you a clue as to why I'm so distracted...there may be an opportunity looming to tick off a significant Challenge for the year...it's a really important one, and I could get the tick within the next couple of weeks...

Watch this space...

;-)

Day 263 - Mobius Loop

deadmau5

Much as I love the cats, the constant death gets wearing by the time September comes around.

This is the cutest little baby mouse that was dumped unceremoniously by the back door this evening, by the Killer Queen herself. 

There was another one at the top of the stairs, by our bedroom door, so I guess this one was left out as a warning to the others...kinda like Omar's boyfriend in Season One of The Wire.

Have you seen The Wire?  Best TV show ever...in fact it's an insult to call it a TV show. 

Although set in Bodymore, Murderland (Baltimore, Maryland), it's Dickensian in its keen wit and sharp societal observation, epic in terms of both scope and drama, and packed with some of the best characters ever written...

There's Omar of course, and Bubbles, and McNulty and Bunk...Avon and Stringer Bell, Prop Joe and Cheese...Ziggy and Prez, Herc and Carver and Kima, Daniels, Rawls and Burrell...D'Angelo and Brodie and Poot and Wee-Bey and Wallace...

Not forgetting Slim Charles, Cutty, Marlo, Bunny, Carcetti, Snoop and Freamon.

Oh man, what a great show, I'm so nostalgic for it. 

Going full circle, who remembers the episode where a drunken Bunk is recounting the tale of how his wife had called him home because there was a mouse in the closet?   Bunk ended up shooting the poor little thing with his service handgun (and taking out one of his wife's shoes in the process)...

Now I think about it, that's where I got the line above from, the one about leaving it out as a warning to the others.

How odd that this post has gone on such a curiously circuitous route, only to end up folding back in on itself....from dead mouse to The Wire to The Wire to a dead mouse...it's like one of those endless mobius strips, looping in on itself into infinity.

Best not go back to the beginning and start reading again - you could be here until eternity...and whilst this blog can provide a moment's fleeting amusement now and then, there's definitely not enough substance to last you forever.

Just don't do it...

:-/

Day 250 - Natural Order

deadr4t

Of the many themes that have emerged from this series of blogs, perhaps the most disturbing and familiar is...death.

A somewhat grim subject I suppose - I'll resist employing my usual tactic of linking to all earlier related posts...there's just so much of it!

I wonder whether there's an age factor - is it just a time of my life where I'm more likely to encounter the reaper?

Certainly living a country life is a factor, as these photo's (and many earlier ones) so graphically illustrate...today's specific theme is deconstruction or decomposition or decay (or maybe some other word starting with de-)...

The photo above is a rat in a fairly late stage of decomposition.  It must have lain there for quite a while to have decayed so, although I suspect the local carrion have had a good go at it....made a bit of a meal of it, you might say. 

On the other hand, this poor little vole has been summarily squidged to death on the road...

deadvol3

Whilst grisly and unpleasant, I can, in the main, handle these constant little reminders of the fundamental brutality of mammalian life...it's all the other stuff that's a bit trickier.

In the last twelve months, I've lost my two most loyal and constant companions - first Bluez last Autumn, then Jazz this Summer...both of these were hard to bear (albeit in very different ways), and I still miss them like crazy. 

The tenth anniversary of my sister's death passed by a few weeks ago, and that led to much bitter-sweet reminiscence, with a side order of subdued pondering, and all served on a bed of subtle melancholy.

My dad's not been well either, I understand, although that's a very long story that I'm not proposing to go into.

Maybe 50 is simply that age where you become increasingly aware of your own mortality...I don't know.

My life is pretty damn great (see the rest of this blog for details), so I don't wish to come across as being unduly morbid...I love my life, and I love my little pack (primarily my alpha packette Anna, natch), even if I seem to be going through a (bizarrely literal) rocky patch with our home and garden just lately.

And yet along with all that proverbial love, death is also in the air...

But it's all part of the natural order of things, so I can live (and eventually die) with that.

:-)

Bonus PS...I just remembered spotting this little fella sitting stride his own personal, custom built death trap late last night...I took this photo from sitting in my chair...thank goodness for zoom lenses!

deathtr4p

Day 245 - Predator and Prey

spider eat spider

Our house is full of spiders at this time of year, but this is one way their numbers are whittled down.

We have no issue with having spiders around...the alternative is to have an abundance of flying insects, which is infinitely more annoying.  At least the spiders just get on with their own business and don't get up in your face all the time!

There are two main species or genus in our house - the house spider (Tegenaria) and the cellar spider (sometimes known as the daddy long legs spider, although personally we reserve that name for the Crane fly)...

This photo shows a cellar spider predating on a house spider, as is their wont...the house spider is thicker in the leg and a little hairy looking, and looks squat and strong, compared to the long, skinny, feeble looking legs and body of the cellar spider...and yet cellar spiders regularly prey on house spiders, and not the other way around!

It's as though Jason Statham is easily taken out by Stephen Merchant, through the careful application of lanky limbs (and possibly a sharp wit).

This cellar spider is fairly large, with a leg span of about 2 inches, and it was hiding on the side of the toilet cistern this morning.  

It's notable that the cellar spider proliferates at certain times, when it has a lot of young, and for a while our bathroom will be teeming with them...but then their numbers gradually diminish (coincidentally?!), just as two or three of them get really big in the body...and of course their growth rate is directly correlated with the amount of prey they consume...

I'll leave you to work out what's going on there!

In other news, one of the more disturbing elements of both living in the country, and cat ownership, is the extensive killing that you have to witness...

deadvol3 II (or is it III?)

This morning, Loz had only been out for two minutes when she unceremoniously dumped the large, very pregnant female vole, twitching and choking, on the floor in the doorway.

Momentarily, the poor little mite gave up and passed over, but just to add a final flourish of horror to the situation, for a few seconds I could see the young writhing in her belly...

Not the most pleasant way to start the day...

Finally, brighter news - the BirdZombie has today been flown back to England, and by now he should be in Nottingham Burns Unit...we'll be taking a trip up there tomorrow to see how he is...

So far, our worst fears have not been realised - here's hoping things continue in that vein...

:-)

Day 237 - Vole Hoovers

vacancy

Friday night sure rolls around quickly of late...

This evening we found that they've now finished harvesting the fields around us, which frees up the access to the hole side of Barney the barn owl's tree. 

As you can see, it's a lovely shelter, with a solid platform inside a big old tree.  I've seen three young perched in here in the past, but they haven't nested here this year. 

Bizarrely, the tree is actually still alive, albeit much of it is hollow...

entish

We've had glimpses of Barney in several of these holes, and he seemed to be able to move around fairly freely in there. 

It's a very cool old tree, anyway.

In other news, the Killer Queen is on the rampage at the moment...

ritual sacrifice

I found this vole on the rug in the kitchen when I got home.

Within 5 minutes of opening the front door, Loz came in with a live, squeaking juvenile vole...I chased her out and got her to let it go, but within minutes she was back with another one. 

I shut her in for a bit, which she was really offended about...but later in the evening she was back out, and bringing more struggling young voles back, to the extent that we've had to shut her in again.

At the moment she's prowling the window sill, looking out into the night longingly, and miaowing at me in a frustrated tone. 

I presume the harvest has flushed lots of small animals into the hedgerow, and Loz just wants to go out there and sweep them all up, as I'm sure Barney would be if he were around...he's a vole hoover too. 

I've watched him hunt in the meadow (the next field over), and he was getting a kill every few minutes and brining it back to his young in the tree above...he must have killed a couple of dozen a day, at least. 

Hopefully the tidal wave of death and torture will subside in a day or two...

impressive

Speaking of which, my 'boarding injury is now a large, swollen bruise on my forearm...suffice to say, I wore a short sleeved polo shirt today in order to impress everyone with my war wound. 

I'm sure that will have had the desired effect, won't it?

One of my staff asked me what I done, and when I told him he said (as predicted),

"How old are you?!  There's some kids out the front doing loads of tricks on skateboards and bikes, it's crazy...they're about ten years old...".

So I'm fairly sure he's impressed with my youthful energy and enthusiasm.

I think that was his point anyway...

...yeah, that's probably it...

;-)

Day 233 - Death By Cat

deadvol3

Cats are great and all, but they do have a bad habit of assuming you want the same things that they do. 

Anna was away overnight, so I got up and fed the cats before work this morning.  They were both hassling for breakfast, and once I put their bowls down, they went after it with gusto.

Not five minutes later, I heard the unmistakable sound of a cat wretching, and found Loz being sick in the doorway to the lounge.  I shooed her outside and set about cleaning it up.

Not five minutes later again, and I sat in my chair briefly to have a slurp of coffee...as I turned round to stand up, I found this poor, dead little vole slumped on the carpet behind me...

No cat to be seen.  

Picking him up, it was immediately obvious that he was very freshly dead.  As I took him out to the garden (for the crows), there was Loz, back on the hunt again around the borders of the lawn. 

She must have gone out and chanced upon the vole, and quickly taken it...as it was an easy kill, she then decided to present it to me before nipping out to pick up another one...

I know she's just a cat being a cat, and that the local vole population remains as healthy as ever, despite Loz's voracious kill rate...but I still feel bad every time, and rescue them when I can. 

It was too late for this little one...if it's any consolation, at least in death it provided me with a photo of the day (once my brain kicked into gear).

Voles are the most common prey for Loz, but there have occasionally been more impressive (sort of) kills.

Once or twice she's brought a baby rabbit home, looking immensely pleased with herself.

And one memorable day two years ago, I got home to find spots of blood here and there on the carpet, and this very dead weasel in the middle of the rug in the lounge...

deadweeze1

Weasels commonly take prey such as large rabbits, many times their size...they're ferocious warriors - it must have been quite a battle!

Beautiful animal, in any case...I still have guilty pangs about his unfortunate demise...

Still, the price of every life, and all that...

:-/

Day 212 - Life in Death

 broiling insect ecosystem

Whilst wandering in the meadow down the lane this evening, we came across this gruesome hive of activity. 

The dead sheep is piled in a mound of manure that's been left in the field, and was a writhing mass of maggots, beetles, flies and who knows what else.

In this case, it seemed like the close up image was not going to be particularly palatable, so I didn't bother...and I'd probably advise not clicking on the photo to see it in more detail.

The shepherd seems to do this - just leave a dead sheep lying around in the field to rot away.  I don't know whether there's any purpose to it, but I've seen it before.

It's not very pleasant, I know, and I'm sorry to subject you to it...but it does make an interesting addition to my ongoing dead animal series, and it's not every day you come across a dead sheep!

Without human intervention, this would happen all the time, and is part of the natural order of life...it's fair to say that this carcass alone is supporting a diverse colony of life of myriad form and number...death always feeds new life, when allowed to...

It's curious (or maybe not, but it is interesting at least) to note that the closer a non-human animal is in size and shape to a human, the more we find its death disturbing, upsetting or simply distasteful.

Nobody cared about the dead giant woodlouse thing I found by the sea, and nobody thought much about the dead pigeon whose foot featured a while ago. 

But there has been much concern about merely the possibility of the death of Frankie the horse...and I anticipate that the image above will be treated with an element of upset...poor lamb. 

I somehow doubt if anyone would be particularly concerned if we now burnt this carcass, brutally slaughtering whole colonies of beetles and maggots in the process...

And yet, the price of life is the same for all of us, animal or plant (human or not)...and the price is precisely one death. 

No living thing can avoid the inevitability of this debt, which must in all cases be paid in full, upon completion. 

So I suppose it's understandable (and acceptable), that death should crop up every now and then on my blog.

We should neither shy away from it, nor glorify it, nor turn it into something wrong, taboo or distasteful...

...but we should always remember that every other living being, no matter how big or small, is worth exactly the same as each of us...one life.

As we value our own lives, so we should afford the same respect and concern for all life. 

Hmm, that one went off in an unusual direction...I'll shut up now!

Peace, out...

B-)

Day 202 - Eating Crow

breakfast time

Not the best photo today, but I have got you a nice video clip to go with it!

Well, to be honest, the photo is a clip from he video..but it fits the rules - it was taken just before 5.30 this morning, on a trailcam that I set up.

In the bottom right of the picture, you can just about make out the swollen, lifeless body of the pregnant vole that I left out as bait, and which the crow is homing in on.

I'm fairly sure this is a crow - to me, it looks tiny compared to last night's hefty beast...of course, Anna disagrees, and thinks they're both crows...

Anywhere, here's a brief clip from the wildlife camera:



I did say it was brief!

And this is Friday night, and as we now know, Friday night is short post night...

So I'll bid you a warm night night.

Night night!

B-)

Day 201 - Identity Crisis

into the night

This evening, all my photo's are chronologically contrary...starting with this atmospheric shot of a skittish corvid fleeing the scene of an unsuccessful scavenge...

As Anna and I were idly chatting, and I was sorting photo's for this blog, there was a loud (yet frustratingly inconclusive) croak from the garden.   

Half an hour earlier (continuing the reverse chronology), I'd noticed a distinctly distasteful smell coming from under my desk, and realised that our little vole friend that Loz released into the lounge, only to lose it under my desk a couple of days ago, must have died under there.  

I dug a few things out of the way, and soon found a large female bank vole amongst the usual behind-the-desk detritus...she was fat, pregnant, and very, very dead.

I took her out and left her carcass on the patio, remarking to Anna that it would make a welcome meal for a raven or crow. 

So when we heard the croak a little while later, we immediately realised that the vole had already been discovered...as I jumped up quickly and grabbed the camera, I could see the big black bird out on the lawn, and grabbed a quick snap through the window:

craven

With an ambiguous croak, we can't reach consensus over whether this is a crow or a raven...the jury is still out. 

I went to the front door, but before I got there, he spooked and flew into the tree next door.  I got to the door and saw that Loz was out on the patio, and it was probably her that was deterring him, being only a few feet away from the stinky dead vole. 

I stepped outside and he immediately took his leave, which was when I grabbed the main photo of the day.   You can't identify the bird clearly, but it's a lovely silhouette against an interesting sky, and nicely framed by the foliage. 

Anyway, I then got the vole and put it in the open on the patio, and I've left the trailcam on video mode a few feet away...we'll see who's the bravest, who gets to claim the nutritious prize...

I'll let you know!


Earlier, whilst walking Jazz down the lane, we came across this furry little fellow:

punk 'pilar

Unfortunately I didn't get any brilliant shots - the aperture was so wide that I didn't get all of him in focus...even when I narrowed it as far as possible, there was still a marked narrowness of depth of field.   I guess this is due to taking the photo with a long focal length at a very near distance - I was on full zoom from about 4 feet away (lying on my belly on the road!), when I took this. 

So I will try to learn from that...

But in any case, he is an interesting lil' 'pilar...and neatly bringing to an end my recent lack of confirmed identification streak, he is pleasingly distinct...

When he grows up he's going to be a beautiful Peacock butterfly!

B-)

Day 191 - Half a Tick

one word from me...

Apparently, 'tis the season of the half-ticked challenge...

Having been up early this morning to start packing before breakfast, we were loaded up and ready to leave the yurt by around 10.30.   Our horse ride on the beach was booked for 12.30, so we spent a couple of hours exploring the back roads along the coast, and hanging out at the beach.

Our trek consisted of a half hour walk to the beach, followed by a half hour or so trotting up and down, and a walk and trot back...

They allowed me to attempt to get my horse, Nelson, into canter...although not without first telling me that he's really hard to get going - unless you're a really good rider.

Although I'd passed their little riding test in the ring before we went out, I hadn't ridden for 15 years or more before today, so I was a little rusty, to say the least.

Nelson, as well as being barely big enough for someone of my size, was as advertised...pretty lazy, and almost impossible to cajole any energy out of.  He really had my measure - I couldn't remember the nuance of getting a horse into canter, and have since realised I was giving him quite a few mixed messages.   He had clearly decided that unless I gave him very precise, clear and specific instructions, in all the right ways, he was just going to resist.

(somewhat prophetically, the only climb I've fallen off this year was at Birchen in April, and it was called Nelson's Nemesis...which is how I felt as though Nelson viewed me).

The instructor, presumably in the name of Health and Safety gone mad, refused to give me any assistance, apparently on the basis that I was only allowed to canter if I knew how.  When I was told I had to ask Nelson more firmly to pick up the pace, and I enquired exactly how to do that, seeking a few reminders, I was told to "just generally ask him more firmly."   

Great, thanks...

So whilst it was brilliant (as we descended onto the beach I found I had a huge grin on my face), I failed to get a full tick on my challenge.  The challenge states a preference to ride the horse to gallop...I would have accepted canter, but as he wasn't having that in the only two short attempts they let me have, I can't with clear conscience claim the full tick. 

Whilst in the Lakes, then, I've got a half a tick for climb a long mountain route, half a tick for sleep in a tent, and now an additional half a tick for ride a horse to gallop...

Still, they were all great fun and I'll seek the full ticks as and when the opportunity arises!

Riding on the beach is ace, though!

Anna rode really well, for a novice...and her horse Pandora is a bit of a celebrity, featuring as she does on the opening credits of Country File!

I'm special, so special

Here's Anna riding away from me as Nelson puts in the least possible effort to keep up:

look at the arse on that

As a little bonus, perhaps to make up for the lack of cantering, the Universe offered me another great example for my dead animal collection - a lovely fresh jellyfish.

jelly, baby

After the trek we headed back to Warrington to collect Jazz, who seems to have had a brilliantly chilled few days with Cathy and Phil.  After a lovely early tea, we set off for the last long leg of the journey back to South Warwickshire. 

On the way, we took a detour to collect Loz and May-Z from the cattery before arriving home at around 9pm, incredibly weary and with a number of significant sore points setting in...that riding session is going to make itself felt over the next few days, I'm sure...

Anyway, check this further bonus photo opportunity that the Universe proffered whilst we were waiting at the cattery:

when you see it....

On first glance this may seem a fairly innocuous and perhaps confusing photo of a cat run...but look a bit closer, right in the middle of the picture...

soon...

I give you....

Cat in a Box!

Now please excuse me whilst I go collapse in an exhausted heap somewhere...

B-)

Day 190 - St Bees

king of the hill

Another adventurous day today...this time, down by the sea.

Just south of Whitehaven, on the Cumbrian coastline, is a place called St Bees.   Steep cliffs of ruddy sandstone tower above a rocky, red platform, dotted about with a myriad boulders of all shapes and sizes.

It's unlike anywhere else in the UK, so we were really keen to visit, whilst staying only a few miles away in Wasdale.

According to the guidebook, there's a 15 minute walk in to the boulders...which, it turns out, is misleading in the extreme.

First you have to skirt around the edges of Whitehaven, before turning off into a private, single track road.  This road winds and weaves towards the coast, through grassy, featureless fields. 

After several miles, somewhat improbably, you come to a couple of dwellings and a farmstead. 

The farmer charges £2 to park in his yard, and from there, although the road continues, you have to walk...

So with my bouldering mat on my bag, and Anna carrying a bag of shoes, food and drinks, off we set, sweating in the midday sun...after half a mile, we reached a lighthouse and associated buildings on the cliff top, before the road runs out altogether.

Following a cliff top path northwards for a quarter of a mile or so, crossing a style, we eventually found ourselves at the top of a thin path disappearing steeply down the bracken covered upper slopes towards what appeared to be a 50 or 60m drop to the rocks by the sea.

Heading tentatively down a path so steep it seems only suitable for goats, we nervously picked our way down, all the while aware that every steep step downwards had to be climbed back up to get out!

Here's a photo looking up at Anna halfway down the path...

path less travelled

And another looking down on me from Anna's position...

path to enheavyenment

Neither of these remotely do it justice, or give any impression of how precarious the path was. 

This one is closer to our experience:

uneven ground

This doesn't show the actual path, which was just to the left, but it's similar in size, steepness and general characteristics...imagine a small path picking it's way straight up to the top... 

Anyway, once at the bottom, we then had to scramble over a variety of huge boulders for about 100m to get to the boulders we were aiming for.   

The claimed fifteen minute walking must have taken an hour or so...

Still, when we got there, it was worth it...fun (though hard!) bouldering, warm sunny weather, calm seas, and almost nobody around.

tiny boulder

After spending a little time orienting ourselves, and trying to hydrate, we pulled on our bouldering shoes and threw a few shapes.

tiny boulderer

It's curious how boulders that seem huge at the time, suddenly look a lot smaller when I'm on them...fortunately, Anna makes them look the proper size!

mantle

Here Anna is mantling up in the hope of being able to reach a decent handhold...a precarious move where you don't feel as though you're really holding on, more just balancing on whatever contact points you have. 

sunny climbs

Here, and in the top photo, I wasn't bouldering, I was simply clambering around for fun, finding a good vantage spot to see whether I could spot any seals...which I didn't...

After a couple of hours in the hot sun we were fried.   Aware of the difficult scramble back along the shoreline, before the steep, committing climb up the tiny path, we packed our bags, hydrated some more, steeled our nerve, and set off for home. 

Fortunately the climb out wasn't as horrendous as (I) expected...Anna hadn't been concerned at all, but having struggled up several steep approaches with very heavy bags of climbing gear over the last few days, I was wary of it.   

However, with just the relatively light weight of the bouldering mat, it really wasn't too bad, and before long we were back, hot and soaked in perspiration, at the cliff top.

As we got to the lighthouse, we saw another couple walking towards us, laden with bouldering gear...three mats, and two or three bags between the pair of them.  The girl just had a bouldering mat, but the guy had two bouldering mats, one on his back, the other in one hand...he also had a loose bag hanging around his neck, flapping about in an uncontrolled manner, and a plastic shopping bag of food in the other hand.

And he had flipflops on his feet...

Alarmingly, he asked us if we knew the way down to the bouldering...we told him the way, and pointed out that the descent, with no free hands and in flipflops, (not to mention the hard scramble over broken rocks along the shore) was going to be interesting, at the very least...the girl said she'd told him all that, but he just shrugged as if to say, "It'll be alright...".

As Anna said, if we don't hear about the rescue operation on the news, it's because they thought better of it when they got to the top, or they stashed most of the gear in the bracken before descending... 

wast water

Having survived another adventure, we decided to head up Wasdale towards Scafell Pike, taking in the Wast Water along the way.  

Anna took this lovely photo - lakes and mountains seem to be a speciality of hers! 

Finally, just to add to my collection of animal photo's in this blog (and either more interestingly, or more disturbingly, depending on your sensibilities), to my collection of dead animal photographs, here's an odd creature we found on the rocks...some kind of giant water louse... 

having a louse-y day

And here's a dead crab, which, of course, no self respecting blog should be without.

he's a bit crabby

One last note...one of the problems I climbed today was graded V2 6a - I'm not sure if the 6a is font grade or English tech grade, but in either case, I think it ticks off my challenge of climb a font 6a boulder problem...

Bonus - yay me!!

B-)