Tag Archives: teasel

Getting the Hang of It

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Teasel heads

No, not driving the electric scooter. I had several moments in that again, including a repeat of the track crossing where I came close to running off the path.  It swoops down whilst slanting off to one side and switching angles all at the same time. I probably should take a photo to explain, but I may just stop going that way. Mostly it was OK though and I am getting better at driving it.

Greylag Geese on a grey day

As I stepped outside this morning I noticed something brown and furry on the driveway, disappearing behind the car. I followed, with a sense of rattish foreboding, then looked in amazement as a rabbit hopped out of cover, through the gap in the boundary vegetation (to call it a hedge would be boastful and inaccurate), across a path and onto the grass strip between us and the woodland strip. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a rabbit in the garden.

Rabbit

The day was cold and gloomy, made more cutting by the brisk wind coming off the cold body of water.

I really need to dress better for using the scooter, including finding my gloves. I have several different pairs, but seem unable to find any at the moment. I suppose I will be looking for things for months, or years, to come. That’s the problem with moving in a haphazard fashion. It’s also part of the fun. I have rediscovered so many things in the move, including some I didn’t know I had. In the end I stopped taking photos because of the difficulty in operating the camera with no feeling in my hands.

Cormorant on a buoy

That’s about it for now. I’m going to go and sort some of the stuff we brought from Nottingham this week. The problem is that we have been bringing stuff up without sorting it, so we can get the house cleared out, but we are falling behind with the sorting at this end and the bungalow is in danger of becoming cluttered. That is precisely what we don’t want.

Teasel – me being arty

 

False Positive

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Today feels like I have done a lot of work, but if I sit and list it all, I’m not sure what I’ve actually done, hence the title.

I’ve read and replied to comments on WP. I haven’t written anything yet (it’s now past midnight) and have only read a couple of blogs – which have been about the Birdwatch, rather than my regular beat.

I’ve researched mealworm farming, which is a lot like worm farming. The main feature is that they do better when the temperatures are warmer. Our worms never prospered, though when we move the equipment I am going to keep them in the garage for a bit of extra warmth and see if we can do better.  The mealworms will be next to them. I also looked at the practicalities of keeping them going through the winter, but decided it is too much trouble, as it needs a pump, a fish tank heater, piping and insulation. I’ll let the worms go dormant over winter and will buy dried mealworms for the birds. That was 2-3 hours for very little result.

Breakfast was toast and marmalade. We watched the birds on the feeders, I tried to write poetry, Julia went for a walk and we had a full English breakfast for lunch (including the black pudding Julia bought from a local butcher. It was good, but the price seems to suggest it is in the luxury bracket these days rather than the peasant food I always thought.

Teasel – breaking into flower

In the evening we finished off the cauliflower soup and had a sandwich. Having weighed myself this morning, I find I am back to my pre-Christmas weight. It’s far too heavy, but at least it’s not an increase.

I also did a number of emails this morning and researched a couple of articles. Didn’t write any though. Struggle with poetry again this afternoon, had cup of tea and freshly baked banana bread (Julia has had a busy day too, though hers was more productive than mine).

I also found the camera battery chargers and spare batteries – they had gone missing during the move. Also sorted my files and stationery drawers (mostly) and cleared my desk (by shoving the files and stationery into the aforementioned drawers. then I made a  mess of the desk again.

Watched some TV. Watched some more. Sat down to finish some submissions – failed.

As I say, a busy but unproductive day.

I note that according to a treaty of 1917 the UK has first refusal on Greenland if the Danes decide to sell it. That could be subject for a political farce. The only trouble is that it’s too hard to make things up that are madder than real life. My main worry, apart from WW3, is that Boris, inspired by Trump, makes another bid for party leadership.

Teasel at Rufford Abbey

I really must look at where to plant some teasel for the wildlife. So much to do, so little time.

 

Day 194

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On my return home I approached the teasel with camera in hand, trying to stalk a bee. We haven’t had many this year and photo opportunities have been rare. As I approached the plants, a breeze appeared and started to move the seed heads around (I swear this happens almost every time I try photography in the garden).

Then the bee flew away.

I did mange to get a few shots in the end but the flowers are looking a bit ragged already (not helped by the fact the bees seem to be plucking bits out of them) and the bees aren’t posing properly.

Bee and Teasel

Different Bee and Teasel

I’ve been wrestling with the International Banking System this week, trying to send money to Canada. It starts with ringing the bank and finding they are busy. Around ten minutes later you get through to a human, having been driven close to the edge by tinny music and a recorded condescending man telling you they are busy but will be with you soon. An oleaginous professional liar working for a bank? Whatever next?

Second stage, answering stupid questions. The stupidest two are “Are you being put under duress to make this payment?” and “Has anyone asked you to lie to us about this transaction?” Not sure how many  cases of duress and lying the average banker comes across, but I’m sure these cunningly phrased question strike fear into the hearts of fraudsters everywhere. I wonder how many criminal masterminds lie, gazing through bars to the sky, and think to themselves “I wish I’d answered “no” to that second question.”

Then they ask me about account numbers, I find I don’t have all the information, email Number Two Son for the right information and then start all over again. Twice so far.

Photos are bees on teasel. Or sometimes just teasel.

Teasel

Day 189

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On my own in the shop today. The other two had family matters to attend to and there I was, a whole shop to myself, It wasn’t planned like that but one of the “family matters” was an urgent visit to the vet, which turned out to be yet another false alarm – that dog is cheery and full of energy but a canine hypochondriac of legendary proportions.

After a quiet week, things got very busy and by 01,00 I had only just managed to pack my second parcel, though I had bought two lots of stuff, turned another down, run out of money and sold some Roman coins. All that and answer the phone on an almost constant basis. I had more phone calls this morning than I had answered in the preceding week. How did they all know I was on my own?

Fortunately the owner was able to get in just after lunch, which took some of the pressure off. I(t was a nice day so he decided that we should pack up at 2pm. It’s nice to have  a boss with an appreciation of the life/work balance.

That allowed me plenty of time to get to the pharmacy for my prescription. There, I was nearly hit by a reversing van, hit a kerb with the front of the car (caught the bit at the front under the number plate when parking) and found myself staring at someone in the pharmacy because they looked familiar.

It was the neighbour from across the road. I’ve known her for 34 years, but in  a mask, with only eyes showing, my facial recognition skills completely desert me.

In the front garden, the teasel is starting to flower.

When I opened the front door I found a letter from the tax office.You know the feeling of a cold, skeletal hand clutching your heart, well that was just how it felt. Letters from the tax office, in my opinion, are never good. I may make an exception for this one as it was news of a £108 refund. Say what you like about the tax authorities, they are vey fair.

That’s it. A day in a  nutshell, some good, some bad and some (like the tax letter) unusual.

Teasel – breaking into flower

Day 172

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The Longest Day. It is all downhill from now on as the nights draw in and winter approaches . . .

Too depressing?

It’s been that sort of day. I fell asleep in front of the TV and when I woke up realised I had been subliminally bombarded with politics and warfare. That’s why I gave up watching the news several years ago. I can absorb most news from the internet in a less depressing format and stay informed without feeling that Armageddon is just around the corner.

News reporters love misery and they lay it on with a trowel instead of just giving us the facts.

I find myself very annoyed with the Russians and would, if put in the position of Putin’s nanny, give him a slap on the bottom and send him to bed with no supper. However, as the man already has what the British refer to as “a face like a slapped arse” it might be tricky selecting the correct end to chastise.

This morning the journey to work was busier than usual, which we attributed to the rail strike, but half-way through it suddenly became almost empty. So much for the rail strike theory.

Life in the shop was pretty average and I wasted my evening with a nap     (as mentioned), mindless TV and browsing the internet. All in all it’s been one of those days that would not be missed if it disappeared.

The photos are from the garden, being mainly photos of growing teasel plants. I’m afraid most of them won’t be allowed to flower as they are too spiky to be allowed to grow that close to the footpath, and we will end up taking them out.

Teasel

Teasel

 

Attempts at Photography

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A few days ago I did about 160 words then couldn’t get the next paragraph going. It kept petering out, or wandering off the point. I tried half a dozen times but eventually gave up.

It’s time to grasp myself firmly by the scruff of the metaphorical neck and give myself a good talking to. That sort of nonsense leads to writer’s block, and, as we all know that’s a non-existent condition, it cannot be allowed to take root.

It’s bad enough that I turned out to be a poet rather than a writer of lucrative thrillers, so I really can’t give in to imaginary conditions as well. If I have to be a poet I will at least try to be an industrious one.

Rear View Mirror Shot 1

Rear View Mirror Shot 2

Tonight, the sky was pink and cloudy when we left the shop so I unloaded my camera from my bag and took a couple of shots. The camera filtered most of the colour from the sky and as soon as I tried to take photos people appeared and got in my way. This was to be a theme of my picture taking for the rest of the evening. I tried with the sunset filter on, but that takes so long that everything was blurred. I missed some great moon shots to. Eventually I tried some sunset shots of teasel as the neighbours all decided to move their cars and shine lights everywhere.

The accompanying photos are a selection I took on the way home, including light pollution from cars, “abstract” shots and shots taken in my door mirror (whilst stopped in traffic, not whilst moving).

 

A Rushed Post

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I sat down to write about ninety minutes ago, read some blogs, tinkered with a sonnet, polished a couple of poems for submission, checked my emails, looked at the website of a magazine for submission details and then, as usual, wandered off on a voyage of discovery as one link lead to another.

Unfortunately, I forgot that I had a post to write so instead of the heavyweight intellectual article I was planning, you will have to make do with some lightweight drivel Again. Sorry, I would like to deliver hard-hitting articles full of facts, but the truth is that although I have aspirations of greatness, I have the brains of Winnie the Pooh.

This weekend we have been eating Cape Gooseberries and tomatoes from the garden. I love the taste of Cape Gooseberries, though the tiny seeds are a bit of a pain. If we had growong space under cover I would always have  a few plants as they are prolific, delicious and last about three years before they need replacing (the fruits seem to get smaller each year).

I have managed a few pictures of bees and our new teasel plant. I wasn’t expecting any teasels this year as they are biennial and the seeding was a one-off accident, so this is a bonus. IF these are left to seed undisturbed we should find ourselves with teasel every year. They seem to like out front garden as they are self-seeding prolifically in the gaps between paving slabs.

Buff-tailed Bumblebee on Red Valerian

I may look for some honesty next, as they have a similar habit and it would be nice to get some established.

 

Time to post now.

Not Quite a Senior Moment…

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I really don’t know what to write about. I did do part of a post earlier this evening but I decided I ned more time so I can do it properly. That’s the trouble. My past is littered with posts that need more time. Somehow I manage to forget about them time after time…

It’s cold here tonight, and wet and windy. I really want to put the fire on, but it’s the second half of May and it doesn’t seem right. Better to be cold than soft.

I’m starting to get perilously close to a couple of deadlines and I’m falling behind with a daily writing challenge I set myself. It’s been going for four weeks now and I’ve managed to get behind every week. Fortunately I manage to pull it round each time.

I woke up in front of the TV last night after Julia had gone to bed and thought I was having a heart attack. I had a terrible burning pain in the chest, radiating up through my neck and into my jaw. Even as I was searching for pen and paper for a final message to Julia, I remembered some of the final words of the pharmacist relating to my new anti-coagulation drugs.

“Take it with food,” he said, ” preferably a proper meal.”

Yes, I had indigestion caused by throwing down a pill several hours after I had eaten, completely forgetting all I had been told. I spoke top the Anti-coagulation Service this afternoon, they also reminded me I had to have the pills with a meal, though they did say it was for the purposes of absorbing it better. There’s always something extra to remember, and as I’m having to do it with a decreasing amount of brainpower it isn’t easy.

Not sure if it’s a senior moment or not. Probably just stupidity…

Talking of stupidity – a couple of years ago, Julia brought some dried teasel home and left it on the floor as she sifted through her bag searching for keys. It seems to have released some seeds and we had teasel growing last year, hence the header picture. This year, we seem to have around 50 self-seeded teasels, including some in very tricky places. They are all rooted between paving slabs, so we can’t get them out to transplant and will have to weed quite a lot out to allow us to get to the front door. I don’t think we will have flowers this year, as I seem to remember they are biennial, but we will have  lovely show in 2022.

This is my version of the old Greek proverb – “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.”

I just noticed that it has slid past midnight – another day missed…

Bee on Teasel

 

Old Habits Die Hard

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The secret of training, as many top athletes have said, is not dedication or motivation,, but habit. You don’r drag yourself into a November night because you are dedicated or motivated; you do it because you have established a habit.

At the moment I cannot help myself and have sat down at the blog to write. I will not, however, post it until Sunday.

I can’t really complain, because when I started the blog I did it partly to practice writing and establish a writing habit. I think I have succeeded in that ambition. The other part of the plan, to promote the Quercus Community group, did not go quite so well.

“C’est la vie”, as Chuck Berry said, it goes to show you never can tell.

Bumblebee bottom
Bumblebee – Sherwood, Nottingham
Bumblebee – Sherwood, Nottingham

On my return from work, I found the lighting subdued, the temperature cool and the air still. There were three bumblebees on the teasel in the front garden and, with it being cool and still, they were more inclined to pose for me than they had been last night. I was able to use both hands on the camera and work close to the bees without them taking flight.

I can’t see myself having to attend any awards ceremonies in the near future, but at least it’s progress. Looking on the bright side, if you don’t get prizes, you don’t need to polish them. One thing I do need to improve on, as the photos show, is learning which end is which. I would not like to be known to posterity as the man who took pictures of bumblebee’s bottoms.

Bumblebee – Sherwood, Nottingham
Bumblebee bottom
Bumblebee – Sherwood, Nottingham

Doh!

Despite what I said, I just pressed the button automatically and posted on Saturday night.Old habits, as I have already said, really do die hard.

2020

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I said a while ago that I was going to cut back on blogging and with this being the 2,020th post I’ve made, which matches nicely with the year, this is as good a time as any.

I can’t keep up with the reading and commenting, for one thing, and it seems rude to ignore people when they are kind enough to pop along and have a look at the blog. If I cut down on blogging, I can spend more time of reading and commenting.

More selfishly, I want more time for other writing projects, and I want more time for reading books. In fact I just want more time. Some nights I can write the blog in twenty minutes, as you may have noticed from some of the titles. Other times I take several hours and a number of false starts. Some days the number of words you see is near enough the number that I wrote. On the bad days the 350 words you read may be the distillation of seven or eight hundred I actually wrote. On other days I have sometimes written as many as two or three part posts before getting into my stride. Some of those discarded posts may become full grown posts in time, but many don’t. I’ve just been through my drafts and removed 12 posts which would never have amounted to anything.

Teasel in the garden
Teasel in the garden

My intention at the moment is to write blog posts on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. I’ll see how that goes. My standards or organisation, as you may have noticed, are such that this may end up as any combination of days as I miss deadlines and sleep my evenings away. However, roughly three times a week I will post.

Friday night will be a report on my week, Sunday will be the usual ragbag and Wednesday will be the new day for posts on Collectibles. Probably.

I sent two lots of Haibun off to magazines last night. Having decided to start writing again I thought I might as well get stuck in. I finished fourteen haibun this week – six based on old ones that were hanging around, six based on notes in my notebooks and two just came to me as I was copying out the others.

I have copied them out, rewritten, trimmed, tightened and tinkered, and, finally, selected five to send off. They have gone. I’m now looking to see if I have another three fit to send. The trouble is that after all the work, some of them just seem dull and lifeless. I might have over-worked them, or I may initially have been blind to their faults.

This afternoon I started work on some school attendance medals for eBay, and when I got home I took some pictures of a bee on a teasel – holding the teasel still with one hand and using the camera with the other. I got one reasonable photo out of twenty attempts.  Teasel without bees is an easier subject. I now know why we have teasel in the front garden, Julia says they are growing where she put some seed heads down when bringing them back from the Mencap Garden for a flower arrangement. I might have known she’d be at the bottom of it.

London School Attendance Medals 1890s

London School Attendance Medals 1890s