New paintings and regular art updates.
I joined a moss appreciation group recently. I’ve taken a few photos but I’ve not come across anything as spectacular as some of the members post. You can just see a reddish orange cup shape in the bottom right quarter of this photo. I think its a type of fungus?
Here’s a closer look. Can you identify it?
I like the idea of eccentric groups of people adding information and images to the Internet. That’s what makes it interesting.
The visitor centre at Westport lake stands on stilts and appears like the curved prow of a boat above the lake. The roof juts out over the balcony and offers some shelter from rain that can blow in on the prevailing wind. The visitor centre has a cafe, and sells gifts relating to the wildlife on and around the lake and wooded areas. You can buy bird food and bird nesting boxes, and books including natural history. Staffordshire Wildlife Trust manages the park and does various activities to encourage children to get into supporting the environment and nature. There is also a children’s playground. The only drawback is that the council has bought in parking charges.
A random selection of fallen leaves, early autumn, now there are far more. Hedgehogs might be using them for nests, squirrels have places to hide walnuts, and the daffodil bulbs they have dug up!
It’s been very cold for the last couple of days, bright sunlight today with wispy fog in the morning. The frost has come, and in the north of Scotland it’s been snowing. A milder spell is forecast for next week. I’m a typical Brit, obsessed with weather and the seasons.
What are your favorite animals?
He looks small, but the floral print is really big.
I love all cats, that includes Tigers and Lions, cheetahs, snow leopards, ocelots, domestic cats, or any other form of feline. I don’t think I’d like to meet a real big cat, I wish they could be left alone in the wild. I read somewhere that there are more big cats in captivity, or kept as pets, in America, than in the wild. Our obsession with them is causing massive decline in their populations. And yet domestic cats have become pests in some countries. They have decimated wildlife and are sometimes hunted to try and eradicate them. We live in such an upside down world. Too many people pursuing too few wild animals.
Photo from the BCB
A giant lies upon it’s back
It’s hop has gone, it’s knocked flat!
A human male looks on
At where nature has gone?
Ceramic frogs don’t jump
They don’t have a heart to pump.
But life has a way of staying
If we from nature aren’t straying.
So give frogs a chance
Put in water plants
Dig a new pond
If of frogs you are fond?
Protect anphibians
Their survival’s in your hands!
We still have yellow Welsh poppies in the garden and it’s almost November!
I don’t think they are that hardy, but it’s a testimony to the exceptional warmth we have been experiencing recently.
It’s edges are darkening, its bright flower reaches up to be pollenated by a bee or hover fly. But they are not awake (or alive?), so perhaps it waits in vain? We need to see nature and our damage of it, look closely at the environment and try and turn back some of the destruction we have wrought. Let’s try and do some small thing to help mother nature.
I was just watching the news and so far this September is the hottest ever recorded in history, and the year is heading towards the hottest ever too.
Meanwhile our government has decided to cancel a high speed train project and instead wants to support car drivers. They are going to have some kind of war on potholes in the streets! They don’t want to slow traffic to 20 miles an hour in built up areas, although it means children would be less likely to be killed in accidents where the current limit is 30 mph.
Also the petrol or diesel car is seen to be better than electric vehicles. Our government is putting back the date when cars have to be electric from 2030 to 2035. Firms that were planning for the 2030 date and retooling their workshops now have to rethink what they are doing.
And the government have signed off on a new oil field in the north sea, but the oil and gas from there is due to be exported to other countries to be refined and we will have to buy it back at inflated prices!
But as long as our Prime Minister can travel on private jets all must be well with the world!
Two years ago we were having regular hedgehog visitors to our garden, but this year we haven’t seen any. We live next to a busy road and I worry about them. There was also an area of wasteland next to our garden that had brambles growing on it. That was cleared by a builder who removed all the vegetation from it, our garden is quite wild but there was old bits of wood to hide under. I think we will start leaving food out for them to forage again.
Blurry photo of a heron chilling out on the canal bank today. It leant forward a few times and looked into the murky brown water but then resumed it’s original position again. I guess it must have seen a fish.
We have previously seen people magnet fishing in the canal, they said they sometimes find things, but nothing valuable. Is a shopping trolley or bike frame worth it? I guess you can weigh things in for scrap. In the meantime I hope the heron got his dinner!
What bothers you and why?
I have lots of problems but the one that worries me the most is global warming. This is essentially the biggest threat to humanity I can think of. We should respect the world and it’s environment.
Carbon dioxide levels are higher now than in the past. It means that global heat is held in by a greenhouse effect. Europe, America and China are suffering extremes of heat and wildfires that can be seen from space continue in Canada and in Sardinia. Children at a holiday camp near Athens in Greece were evacuated because of wild fires nearing their camp.
Friends and relatives are my concern to some extent. I have no way of protecting them or their children. But it’s the rest of the population that are at risk. Water shortages, food shortages, lack of health care, damage to crops, drought, all have an impact. And it’s not just humans. Animals are increasingly endangered as we take over their land to grow crops or fell the trees they live in. We grab land like it’s infinite. We have to work together as societies to reduce emissions.
But even as some governments try to persuade us to be more careful with the planet, others are are being lobbied by Industrial bosses to just carry on with old technology and fuels, they are more interested in profit than saving the planet.
I can remember fears about population explosions and pollution back in the 1970’s. This has been happening insidiously for decades. We have to realise that our responsibility is not just for ourselves but for generations to come if we want them to have a decent future. Perhaps the idea of constant growth needs to end and we should work towards sustainable development goals.
Mallaband-Brown