Tag Archives: grasshopper

Some Pictures from Last Week

These are just a few photographs from our trip to Sherwood Forest last week – I’ve just got round to sorting them out. It’s amazing what you can see if you wait around for ten minutes on a roadside verge. Quite a lot of them were blurred, or featured the space where something interesting used to be. The bees were quite frisky in the sun, as were the Ringlet butterflies. I didn’t even manage to frame a Ringlet. They are always tricky to photograph, but I can usually get something, even if it is blurred.

Flowers are easier because they don’t move as much. Fortunately there wasn’t much of a breeze.

They aren’t the the most inspiring pictures, but they are a start. We couldn’t go to Clumber Park because you have to book now, and we couldn’t go to Arnot Hill Park because the car park always seems so full.

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A very light grasshopper

I’m not sure what sort of grasshopper it is, probably a common one with funny lighting rather than a pale one. I suppose a light one would soon be eaten. It really was at that angle when I took the photo, but was down near my feet and I didn’t really frame the shot properly. I would try to turn the photo round to make it look more normal, but I can’t get the rotate button to work.

When we arrived home I noticed we had a couple of grasshoppers amongst the weeds in the front garden, but they had gone before I could get the camera.

All that travel, and I could just have stayed at home. There’s a moral in there somewhere.

 

 

 

Boiling a frog

We had a power cut yesterday, starting just after lunch and lasting until we went home. At times like that you realise all your work is on computer, and when the wireless connection goes off everything grinds to a halt.

Julia had just started a meeting about The Grant (it is taking over my life to such an extent that I now think of it with capital letter) when everything went dark. Fortunately she had her laptop and a fully charged battery so she was able to carry on.

I filled my time usefully by reading the paper outside on the decking and by taking photographs. That’s when I found another problem with having no computer – I had nothing to view the photos on. It’s so much easier using the computer screen for viewing; the small screen on the camera just isn’t good enough.

When, I asked myself, did I become computerised to the extent that I can’t function without electricity?

And when did I start referring to the  verandah as “decking”?

That’s how it is with change (as exemplified by the tale of the Boiling Frog) – it just creeps up on you without you noticing it.

 

 

Two swallows and an Amazon

We had a visit from a small group today, which is nice because we have more time to spend with them, plenty of equipment and (the best bit for me) less washing up. We did the normal pizzas and salad, and as you can see, the novelty of eating weeds didn’t seem to put them off. We also had a cabbage, apple and spring onion coleslaw because I absent-mindedly allowed them to feed the carrots to the pigs.

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Empty plate

In wildlife news we had a lot of pollinators out again. We also caught quite a few grasshoppers and crickets out in the fields, though most of them were a bit too jumpy to photograph properly. I think this one is a Meadow Grasshopper.

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During the afternoon we had a young blackbird wander into the building (to add to the jackdaw that managed to squeeze into the hen coop yesterday). Finally, at 5 pm, as we were holding an exciting but Top Secret meeting which may have Considerable Repercussions for the Ecocentre, two swallows flew in through the back door. One came all the way through and smacked into the front window, the other managed to turn round and fly back out. They had been flying close to the building all afternoon, sometimes flying  along the verandah under the roof and occasionally perching on the ledge under the roof as if nesting but I’m not sure why they did this. It’s never happened before.

My wife is a lot better than me in a crisis and leapt into action, scooping the stunned bird up and returning it to the air (where it flew away as if nothing had happened) before I could even think of reaching for my camera.

I bet it had a headache though.