Monthly Archives: March 2017

More from Rufford Abbey

Still catching up from yesterday. A mysterious glitch seemed to stop the photos loading, whilst still allowing me to upload the post. As I’m trying to post every day, it left me, at quarter to midnight, with the choice of posting something imperfect or posting nothing. That isn’t say that I don’t post imperfect pieces all the time (they are all capable of improvement) but yesterday’s was far from finished.

Coot and nest on the Lake at Rufford Abbey

Wood Pigeon at Rufford CP

Greylag/Domestic Goose cross at Rufford Abbey

Dove at Rufford Abbey

Canada Goose at Rufford CP

This post will mark my 70th consecutive day. It’s not much compared to the magnificent achievements of some people but it’s a considerable one for a man of my disorganised personal habits. The only fly in the ointment is that some days I know I’m writing rubbish just to tick off another day. I didn’t set out to be a blogger of great dignity and importance, but I do have standards, even if they are low.

I’m going to continue with daily posts as long as I can, but I’m going to improve the quality. Er…

Yes, exactly. What is quality in blogging?

I’m not sure. I tend to like the ones about people of a certain age who do a bit of pottering, and I also like the ones about nature, which could be because that’s a description of me and my life. In fiction terms I suppose you could say I’m looking for something character-driven. Or you could say I’m nosey. (I’m the sort of person who enjoys railway journeys because you can look into people’s back gardens).

I suppose I’m not really talking about quality, but more about what engages readers and makes for a popular blog. Quality, which tends to make me think about seriousness and maturity, is probably not the exact word to use.

What does anyone else think?

So, back to Rufford Abbey.

The first thing we found was that a bottle of gooseberry vinegar that emptied itself on the back seat of the car (where my jacket was conveniently placed to soak it up and save the upholstery).

We had a look at the lake, which seemed less populated than usual. I suppose they are all off doing spring things. Apart from the Great Crested Grebes. I’m sure they should be exhibiting some interesting courtship behavior but all they did was sit there and float.

I nearly managed a video of courting grebes two weeks ago but they didn’t try very hard and it just looked like two birds flapping. My attempted video of two Robins fighting wasn’t usable as they were both quick and in cover, though today’s Robin photo shows one of the combatants perching with its tail cocked as it keeps an eye on the interloper.

Coal Tit in the woods at Rufford Abbey

Great Tit in the Woods at Rufford Abbey

Robin – Ready for Action

Julia spotted the Kingfisher, which I missed completely, and we both saw a pair of nuthatches, a Marsh Tit and several Wrens, which also all eluded the camera. I did manage to get a shot of a Coal Tit and the Ice House. Ice Houses tend not to move when you take photographs.

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Old times, new developments

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After a leisurely breakfast we dropped off some dry cleaning and went to have two new tyres fitted. Including tracking it cost me £270, which is more than I’ve paid for some of my cars. After that it was off to Men in Sheds to drop off birthday cards and then on to Rufford Abbey, where I failed to capture photos of Wrens, Nuthatches, Marsh Tits and a Kingfisher.

Just a few shots for now, showing the guinea fowl enjoying themselves in the sun, the new bird feeders being made by Men in Sheds and the kitchen extension.

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The guinea fowl seem unaware that they should be staying inside to avoid bird flu, the bird feeders may never be filled (there has been no feeding done since we left) and the kitchen extension has meant that the pizza oven and barbecue have been demolished.

Such is life.

If I ruled the World (2)

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I’m back, and I’m ready to write a list of major improvements I would make to the world.

One, I would launch a major research project into the causes of low intelligence, with the object of developing a vaccine against stupidity. This is a watered down version of my true feelings after sitting next to an idiot with a mobile phone and a demon-spawn toddler in the surgery waiting room.

Two, pass a law requiring that computers would allow you to write (2) instead of “Two” without all sorts of unintended paragraphing consequences.

Three, make it law that all doctors required to perform prostate tests were selected for their small hands rather than for their qualifications. Possibly they could be selected from families of concert pianists, who tend to have long thin fingers. I’ve never asked to see their credentials, but have strong views about their fingers. I’m also convinced that the people who take jobs like this aren’t the ones that came top of their class. Not a criticism, just an observation.

Four, I would encourage all current MPs to follow George Osborne‘s example and get a job outside politics. It would be nice to get them all jobs in the hospitality industry and see if they could organise a party in a brewery.

Five, replace health warnings with pictures. Don’t tell me something has a lot of fat in it, that means nothing. Even if it is in red. But show me a picture of a fat man clutching his chest and I might take notice.

I’ll leave it at 5 for tonight because I’m trying to design a kitchen knife that incorporates a sticking plaster dispenser. It’s a gap in the market I spotted whilst preparing vegetables tonight…

If I Ruled the World

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According to the song, if I ruled the world every day would be the first day of spring.

Looking out of my window I’m not sure that would be a good thing. I’ve been looking forward to Spring, but I’d rather assumed it would feature flowers, blossom and warm weather. Currently, we are about four hours into Spring (which officially started at 10.28 am GMT) and the cold rain has only just stopped. I’m still waiting for the sun to break through, but I fear I may be waiting in vain.

The rest of the week looks equally miserable (and so do I).

For those of you reading in the Southern Hemisphere, congratulations on your Autumn Equinox, and apologies that the rest of it may make no sense. I suppose that somewhere down there you must have cold rain and cloudy skies, but I find it hard to imagine.

However, back at the opening sentence, if I ruled the world things would be different, even if if I couldn’t control the weather.

I won’t go into detail, because the sun has just emerged unexpectedly and I’m off out. Here are a few photos to put you in mind of Spring.

See you later. 🙂

Spring at last!

Alder catkins and cones

Snowdrops – Arnot Hill Park

A Walk in Wikipedia

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It all started with Derrick J Knight. The man is a bad influence, though probably not as bad as Wikipedia.

His mention of a Spong mincer set my mind back to a time when, in my early 20s, I was firmly based in the cookery traditions of my mother – Be-Ro cookbook, Spong mincer and pressure cooker.

I’ve just spent a happy couple of hours delving into various links and thinking about the cookery of my youth.

In those days we had savoury mince or Cottage Pie (which is not much of a stretch, just savoury mince with mashed potato on top). Spag Bol and chilli con carne were still some years off. If you wanted exotic food when I was a kid you had a Vesta meal or prawn cocktail, and you had it with lettuce. Avocados ranked with Unicorns in those days. (I was going to say “hen’s teeth” but even as a kid I knew chicks were born with an egg tooth. It’s a throw-back to when they were dinosaurs). Not all my useless knowledge comes from Wikipedia.

I’ve also been looking into the Laws of Rugby in reply to a discussion on yesterday’s France v Wales game. That’s not as relaxing as thinking about food.

I’m planning to look at poetry next, as I need some new titles and I should really give Gray’s Elegy a rest.

No photographs for now, I don’t have any relevant food photos and there’s no point photographing a pile of poetry books as I’ve just said I’m browsing poetry on the web.

Instead, I’ll leave you with this thought:

“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”
― Bill Watterson

Rain, Rugby League and the Royal Artillery

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Yes, it’s that time of year again, the opening of the summer Rugby League season. In theory it doesn’t really start for Nottingham Outlaws until 1st April when they play their first game in the Yorkshire Men’s League. It’s going to be quite a test, and interesting to see. We’ve beaten Yorkshire teams before, but this is a step up in class so we will have to see what happens.

Today it was the seventh Heroes Trophy match, an annual fixture against the Royal Artillery. It marked our fourth win in seven years, and was an excellent match despite the wintry conditions. I say “our” though, of course, I confined my part in the match to a spot of gentle supporting from the sidelines.

Obviously I shared some of the team’s discomfort, as it was wet and cold, and I didn’t get a cup of tea for over 80 minutes, though I didn’t have to cope with the hostile intentions of an 18 stone Gunner.

Man of the Match, sporting an excellent line in beards

Nottingham Outlaws in action

Nottingham Outlaws v Royal Artillery RL

Outlaws Play the Ball

As I said to Number 1 son, who was visiting for the weekend, a summer season is all very well, but it does depend on the weather cooperating. It wasn’t a great day for photography: there wasn’t enough light for decent photographs, and water on the lens really didn’t help either.

Roll on summer…

A Pun for Punks

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We saw this nicely laid hedge while we were at Carsington Water, I’d been looking for a good example for a couple of weeks because I wanted to use the “Punk” setting on the camera. Here it is.

Punk Hedge

I thought a nice punky picture of a laid hedge would be a good chance for a pun, as in Never Mind the Billhooks.

For those of you unfamiliar with hedge laying tools and punk rock here are the links. This probably indicates that it’s not really strong enough as a pun, but it’s a slow day.

Two go to Anderby Creek

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Anderby Creek is, according to its website, Lincolnshire’s hidden coastal gem. Or, to quote Julia, it’s “like the places we used to go in the sixties”. Even the name makes it sound like an Enid Blyton story.

The website admits to having five caravan parks and a chalet park, so I’m not quite sure what it will be like in summer – but I’m guessing that the word “unspoilt”, as used on their website, is relative. They are, however, free from amusement arcades and night clubs, though there is a cafe, a couple of shops, a pub, a Cloud Bar and a car park. In the high season I imagine it’s a badly heated version of hell.

Structures on the Edge

Cloud Bar – Anderby Creek

Beach at Anderby CreekRA

Julia on the beach

Out of season, as one a warmish spring evening, it was a very acceptable way of spending an hour on the beach taking pictures and thinking of chips.

I didn’t go up to the top deck due to my creaky knee and a deeply held belief I didn’t need to see more sand. Julia went up because she’s more adventurous than me – they have mirrors for looking at clouds and information boards. Each to his own.

I liked the poem on the goose silhouettes, though I’m not sure why they didn’t use cloud shapes.

Goose poem = Anderby Creek

Goose poem – Anderby Creek

Steel Goose on the Cloud Bar

It’s part of a series of structures along the coast – Structures on the Edge. This is the second we’ve seen, though we didn’t realise at the time. The wave-like screen we saw at Frampton Marsh is actually one, called Reflector. I don’t have a photo, because it’s on the card I lost.

On the way to the beach we’d passed several sets of telegraph wires covered in hundreds of Starlings so we kept a lookout as the sun went down, and weren’t disappointed when three groups of Starlings started to whirl around the sky. It wasn’t a massive murmuration, but it was one, and there were just two of us to see it. The picture only shows one of the three flocks, by the time they’d joined up I couldn’t get a decent shot.

Murmuration of Starlings – Anderby Creek

As I said to Julia, I may have my faults, but how many husbands would lay on a murmuration especially for their wife.

Then we went for chips.

Time goes by

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Sorry, this is one of those posts that runs contrary to the nature of time. After telling you about the visit to Gibraltar Point I still had plenty to tell, and was going to post a second installment on Wednesday. However, as you know, I had a lucky escape yesterday, (or a frustrating waste of time, depending on point of view), and wrote about Carsington Water.

I could have written about my view of the National Health Service, but why bother. They waste enough of my time without me going over it all again.

So, going back in time two days, imagine yourself standing on a windswept saltmarsh, with just a visitor centre, a car park and some bits of whalebone for company.

Whale bones at Gibraltar Point

Whale vertabra

There’s no explanation with the whale bones, they are lined up and left on the grass. I’m assuming that it hasn’t been done by the person responsible for grass cutting. These could be from the 1985 whale, they certainly look old enough and the size seems right. However, there are a lot of dead whales knocking about on that part of the coast when you start looking at the links. Mass strandings and art installations are all part of the story, and according to this report a sunfish and blue shark were also washed ashore in 1998.

The first birds we saw, whilst walking back to the car, appeared in a big noisy flock, flying between trees. They were against the light and just looked like tubby brown birds. We didn’t have the telescope with us (no more will be said on that subject, as Julia is of the opinion that I mentioned it enough on Tuesday) and we couldn’t get a good look with the binoculars. I couldn’t even get a decent photograph, though we did manage to see streaked underparts, white face markings and black breast markings.

I haven’t seen Corn Buntings for a while, but that’s what they were. In addition they were very vocal (a song described as “jangling keys” in the book) and (biggest clue of all) there was a flock of 40 Corn Buntings recorded in the sightings book.

It was a good start to the day, which got better when we drove to the other car park and heard the call of waders. Two curlews flew over as we were standing by the car deciding which way to go. That made the decision easier.

In the first hide, after mentioning that things would have been better with a telescope (I’m reporting what I said, here, not actually commenting on People Who Forget Your Telescope) we immediately saw a variety of birds, which became better when two avocets flew across to join an assortment of dots in the distance. The dots proved to be more avocets (23 in all, when we managed to count them) though, due to lack of telescope, we had to move hides to complete the count.

Avocets, Canada Goose and Cormorants

There were other birds about, including (on the other side of the road) a male Goldeneye that kept diving just as I tried to take the photo and a pair of mating Mallards. I would normally have allowed them some privacy but the fact they disappeared underwater completely several times made it more more interesting. By the time I got round to using the video button they stopped and swam away. It’s quite clear that Mallard drakes aren’t gentlemen.

Elusive Goldeneye Drake

Dabchick

Black Headed Gull

Mating Mallards

There was a lot to see, and we saw quite a lot of it. However, there is still a lot more to see so, as with everywhere we go, we will be going back.

We went home the long way round, but that’s a story for another post.

A Lucky Escape

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I went to Urology today. I was clean, fragrant and mentally prepared. My paperwork was in order, I had filled in my IPSS test and monitored my liquid intake and output for three days.

Those of you who like anagrams and word games may well be looking at those letters and pursing their lips. If you know that IPSS stands for International Prostate Symptom Score, and is therefore connected with urine, that pursing is probably becoming more pronounced.

I asked if they realised it was a badly chosen anagram and after a moment of thinking the nurse smile and said, “Yes, it does look like they’re taking…”

The result of today’s tests?

We didn’t actually get that far as there’s another procedure that needs doing before the test results will mean anything.

However, I’m not downhearted. Or annoyed. Or wondering why the hell we spend so much money on a health service.

I’m just glad that the whole fiasco only took forty minutes and gave me a whole day of beautiful Spring weather.

We went to Carsington Water, saw plenty of birds, Scarlet Elf Cups and two Brimstones.

Carving at Sheepwash Car Park – Carsington

I had a Chicken Tikka pie and chips for lunch Julia had a pasty. What more can I say? It was “Today’s Special” and I love a bargain. I’m on nine types of fruit and veg for the day and about to make it ten with an apple. May go mad and have some grapes for eleven.

The pictures are from the stones in the Sheepwash car park and a few other things we saw around.

Jacob’s Ewe and Lamb

Lapwings and Knot

Scarlet Elf Cup

Redshank at Sheepwash

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Life after the Care Farm