Tag Archives: fungus

On Balance, a Good Day

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When she went to the Narnia show just before Christmas this tree was still standing.

It was a slightly mixed day. I had a thousand Churchill crowns to pack. It is the 150th anniversary of his birth and various people are making plans to celebrate it. We got rid of the accumulated crowns about a year ago, but we are offered so many we had managed to build the stock up again. It’s remarkable how often they crop up, even sixty years after they were issued. This was not the most interesting aspect of the day, I have to admit. In the end I only packed 500, but the other 500 are part done. With phone calls and visitors I didn’t have enough time, which seems strange as you wouldn’t think that it would take so much time.

Snowdrops are out

I did take pictures, but decided to use some that Julia took when she went to Newstead Abbey with her group today. Several people didn’t turn up, and the gardens were cold. That meant they were able to fit everyone in the minibus and go out for a trip. One of the group managed to get a wet foot using the stepping stones but apart from that it all seems to have gone smoothly.

I also had an email. One of the submissions I sent a few days ago has met with success, the editor in question accepting two of the three tanka prose I submitted. This was a bit of a boost as I have felt under the cosh recently, being too tired to write after my various illnesses. I don’t often get two out of three accepted so it feels like a step up from my normal performance.

Fungus lurks in the stump of a felled tree – a suitable morbid subject for poetry perhaps.

Books, Blue John and Bakewell Pudding

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I had a bad night last night, waking up in the early hours with a pain in the elbow. I couldn’t lie on my back and I couldn’t lie on my side, and, most irritatingly, I couldn’t work out what I’d done to cause the problem.

Eventually I dropped off, but I slept a disturbed sleep and kept dreaming about having a painful elbow. I’m not sure what this signifies in the lore of the meaning of dreams, but suspect it might mean I have a pain in the elbow.

Finally I got up and started preparing for the big day out. We had to drop a prescription off at the surgery first, then set off for Derbyshire. We’ve been a few times recently, but we like it, and we wanted to get out rather than frittering the day away. That’s what normally happens if we stay at home – a few errands here, a few chores there and suddenly the day has gone. I’m an expert at wasting time, so you can believe me on this subject.

We stopped on the way to take a few views, including the tower of the Crich Memorial.

Hills near Matlock, Derbyshire
Crich Memorial, Sherwood Foresters
Crich Memorial, Derbyshire
Derbyshire landscape
View of Derbyshire
Wall and bracken, near Matlock

 

Apart from being a memorial to the dead of the Sherwood Foresters, the hill has been the scene of Roman settlement, an Armada beacon and an 1813 steam locomotive experiment. Today the village of Crich houses a Tramway Museum.

In the years leading up to 2002, Rolls Royce used the quarry at the back of the hill for dumping low level radioactive waste. The words “low level” aren’t much comfort in this context.

Florence Nightingale lived in the village of Lea, which is round the back of the memorial, so it’s been quite a busy place in historical terms.

Our main visit was to Bakewell, where I photographed the padlock bridge again, toured charity shops (the Air Ambulance shop is probably the pick of the bunch – much better than the one at Carsington). I bought some interesting books, which will be reviewed later and we looked at traditional Derbyshire Blue John jewellery in shop windows. It seems to be making a comeback.

I found a rotting tree stump covered in fungus near the car park, a Julia-sized jumper in the Edinburgh Woollen Mill and a Bakewell Pudding in a tea room.

Fungus at Bakewell
Fungus at Bakewell
Fungus at Bakewell

 

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Bakewell Pudding with ice cream. It didn’t need the ice cream, but they insisted.

The pudding was excellent.

I also took a few other photos, including on of a dog’s footprint in cement. I bet that was a popular dog.

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Dog’s footprint, immortalised in cement at Bakewell

After that we went home, photographing a sunset on the way and buying white gloss paint  for a project in the Mencap Garden.

Eleven Photos and the Benefits of Blogging

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Teasels in flower

The main picture shows some teasel in flower. They have gone over a bit but you can still see some of the bluish flowers. I thought I’d include the picture after showing the mature ones earlier on this week.

Fungus at Mencap gardens
Mooring ring
Common Blue at Screveton
I thought I’d ID’d this one…obviously not.
Straw Bale Bowie Bear

 

The fungus is growing out of one of the raised beds in the Mencap garden and the mooring ring is from the quay at Burleigh pottery in Stoke.  I spotted the blue butterfly on a visit to Men in Sheds in the summer and the bear was in a field near Scarborough advertising a music event. The dragonfly was pictured on our trip to Rutland Water, but I don’t seem to have identified it on the photo and can’t find the reference. I think it’s a Common Darter if I  remember correctly – I only see common things.

Nuthatce at Rufford Abbey
Detail of the mouse
Swan at National Arboretum
Mint Moth
Poppy and chamomile

 

The bird with the bandit mask is another Nuthatch and the Swan was cruising down the river at the back of the National Arboretum last year. The mouse is from a harvest loaf we cooked on the farm and the remaining two photos are also from the farm – a Mint Moth (there were dozens about in the herb garden) and a poppy with chamomile.

They all bring back memories, and without blogging I wouldn’t have restarted with the photography – another thing I like about blogging!