Category Archives: Nature

Mar22

Not So Prim and Proper

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I got a present! And it was totally unexpected. A lot of times people say they will do something, and you don’t actually expect them to follow through.

Well! On the ol’ FB, I admired a friend’s photo of a flower I’d never seen before. It was gorgeous and I had to know what it was. 

She told me it was a primula zebra blue. She said she’d drop one around to me – and the very next day I found this lovely sitting by my front door!

  
Isn’t it stunning? I admit I had to play with the colours – it looked purple in the original picture and it is NOT purple at all. 

I’ve never seen a primrose that wasn’t growing wild, and they are never this colour. Sure doesn’t look anything like the ones I dug up from beside the abandoned railroad tracks last year. I wasn’t even sure that it was a primrose, but made a good guess.

Here is her photo, that got me so excited.

  
I’m in love! 

Dec29

More Dead Birds – Bullfinch

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My best mate at work shouted for me to come see something. 

He’s the same lad that calls me to come see all of the big spiders, weird bugs, and my last dead bird: the stunning kingfisher.

It’s nice when someone knows your interests. Or it might be because he likes it when I pick them up and gross out all the other guys. I have to admit, I find that amusing, too. 

This time it was a bullfinch.  
Oddly enough, this one was in nearly the same spot (outside one of our big roll-up doors) as Mr Kingfisher. I don’t get it. Yet again there was no sign of a broken neck or any other injury or illness.

  
Poor wee thing. I knew it was a finch, from the beak, but had to bring him home for a positive identification.

  
Such stunning colours. This is a male, by the bright plumage, and adult by size. I can’t imagine why these birds are dying right outside of our warehouse. We don’t create any heat or chemical output, and even if we did have windows (we do not) their necks aren’t broken.

  
There is even evidence on his beak of a recent feeding. I’m baffled as to what is killing these birds, and why. He’s still a beauty – it could again be old age but twice in a few months? Seems odd. 

Dec19

Climate Change

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Climate change is evident in my garden this year. 

Earlier in the week, I saw a report of blooming daffodils in Co. Clare, Ireland, and in Cheshire, UK. 

So, I went out to where mine are planted…

  
This can’t be good! 

What will happen to these tender shoots when a frost comes? If a frost comes. Am I going to have to learn to crochet and make them little jackets?

For comparison, this photo was taken February 1 this year:

  
Tonight it is 9C, or 48F. Yesterday, at 3 am (according to hubby, I was asleep), it was 14.6C or 58F! Crazy altogether, and worrying for the health of my garden next year. 

Anyone else having unseasonable weather for late December? 

Oct19

I got It – Croagh Patrick at Sunset

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I’ve been trying to get this photo for weeks. 

I’ve been taking the big camera to work with me, and bringing it inside instead of leaving it in the car because I didn’t want condensation issues. The two days that the view was similar (but better!) than this, I had forgotten to bring the damn camera to work with me. Once I drove all the way home for it. Of course, when I got back to the perfect place, I was not only too late but the battery was stone cold dead! Auugh! And of course, every day the sunset came earlier and earlier, while I still had to work until the same late hour… So you know now that this took some effort, and wasn’t just luck!

  
The pointy one is Croagh Patrick, County Mayo’s most famous mountain. An extinct volcano, it has been revered by the Irish for several thousand years, and is now a Catholic pilgrimage site.

From many angles the mountain also named “The Reek” doesn’t look so perfectly pyrimidical. I’ve posted a picture from this same place along the road before – back in March 2012 –  I did the research then and said that as the crow flies, I am taking this picture from about 50 KM or 30 miles away. I think the sunset magnifies the mountain somehow. It isn’t huge – 764 metres or 2,507 feet – so to be seen so clearly from so far away is a rarity. Well, I’ve only gotten it twice in over three years!

*Need I remind everyone that copyright belongs to the blog owner and this picture is not for reuse without permission? I do have it in RAW format if someone wishes to purchase it.

Oct14

Nice To See Ya!

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I’m unpacking Halloween stuff. How about this little gem?

  
That’s MY BRAIN! And my scary-ass eyeballs. Isn’t it the best? I love seeing my insides. 

Aug22

I’m Way Behind, But So Are My Flowers

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I just can’t seem to post as much as I’d like to. After taking the first week of August off work, I also let my blog-reading slide. Sorry! I’m all caught up now with that, but I have so damn many pictures I wanted to share. I guess I’ll get to it!

   
New lilies! 

 
The colour looks really weird here, but it hasn’t been putzed around with, I promise.

  
Not looking fab – the rain took out most of the petals the first day these opened. Bah.

  
That’s a bit better! All of the above are ALDI “pixels mix” bought this year as bare bulbs, so I will forgive them for looking scraggly. I like the top one best. You can tell that this yellow one is way taller than the orange one, too.

   
 I have roses like crazy. I’m glad – the white ones smell fantastic and scent the entire back garden on still days.

  
The new rudbeckia (black eyed Susan) ‘chocolate orange’ from seed this year. Not as advertised – but clearly I have it in a too-small pot as you can’t even see the pot in this picture. Replanted today. Poor thing.   

I can’t remember what this is! Grown from seed last year, and again this year – and it also self-seeded in random places. Help?

The crocrosmia dug out of wasteland a few years back – looking great!

   
Hosta flowers – the white, closed

 The white, open

 
The purple, from the non-variegated leaf hosta. My neighbour told me she didn’t grow Hostas because they don’t bloom… Again I must have the magic touch.

  
I wish they didn’t look so bad when they wilt, though. Quite ugly, like rotting used tissues.

Couldn’t end without some tigridia. This is a side view – don’t think I’ve taken this angle before.

  

I’ve caught up to August 15 now! Woot.

Aug16

I Left Ireland – for the Giant’s Causeway

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My luvvies, I got to have an adventure two weeks ago! iDJ and I took the first week of August off, just because we had unused holiday time. There was also a birthday in that week, but that is of no consequence.

What is of consequence is that he asked me on Sunday if I wanted to go see the Giant’s Causeway. Well, yah! I’ve been in Ireland over 10 years and not seen it yet. He’s been here his whole life and not seen it yet!

After many debates and checking of every weather-app we have, we settled on a day that was ‘meant to be decent up North’, which turned out to be that very next Tuesday. Two whole days to prepare to go to another country. Of course, we can drive there, and it “only” took four hours one way.

So: through counties Mayo, and Sligo, and Letrim. Through Donegal and Derry and into Antrim – where you can actually see Scotland on a clear day (it wasn’t a clear day). A long drive on rough roads, and bad weather for most of it. The usual, then!

We have a Garmin sat-nav. Of course, we rarely trust it. So we followed the road signs and ended up taking the coastal route, which was prettier anyway. We found an odd place that we really wanted to explore, but were too pressed for time: Mussenden Temple and Downhill Demense. Maybe next time.

   
 These two photos are stolen from Himself as my only picture was rubbish. Clearly they were making hay while the sun shone.

We continued on to Dunluce Castle. While it is quite large, we didn’t fancy paying the entrance fee so took pictures from outside the castle.

   
 It was hard to avoid getting other tourists in the shot – and I also truly hated the wire fencing at the base of the castle that was keeping the erosion down. Shame they couldn’t find a more natural way to contain falling rock.

Finally, we made it to the Causeway. About 5 hours after we left home! We were already tired. Getting old sucks. 

This is the first picture I took – you have a good downhill walk to get to this part, and the causeway hasn’t even started yet at that wee hill. Still, we were tempted to climb it, like these people did.

   
Very eroded rocks. But I still feel and see the lava that created them.    
I found a tidal pool! Yay! It helped because there were SO DAMN MANY PEOPLE around. 

 

I went right to the edge. I was feeling a bit claustrophobic with the crowds, so I did my best to escape them. Hubby went another direction, and I did worry I’d lost him – several times.

   
It was very hard to get pictures without strangers in the frame. People had come from all over our planet to see this natural wonder. This is the widest people-free shot that I managed to take – and only because I’d walked way out toward the ocean. Families were much less likely to let their kids near the water, and no one wanted a selfie. It pays to be anti-social sometimes!

 Beautiful and amazing at once.

  

The basalt columns are all on an angle. Had to get the horizon in this shot to prove it! 

 I love rocks.

 
More rock detail. Each one of these is just about the right size for a human adult’s foot. Made climbing up and down quite easy – like a huge but wonky staircase.   
 We didn’t have time to walk to this part. You will have to click and zoom in to see how tiny the humans are compared to these massive inland columns. What you have to imagine is that the entirety of the land you see here is made up of the volcanic columns I was stumbling around on, on shore.

  
I spent a lot of time looking down. Sometimes I looked up.

 I know these aren’t the most symmetrical of Causeway rocks. I love them regardless. I’ve never been to the New Mexico badlands – but somehow I expect to see the same sort of rocks there.

  
Another part we didn’t have time to explore. Damn. Aparently there is a rope-bridge and I was curious to see if I’d finally defeated my fear of heights or not.

All in all – go see it. Next time I will drive up, spend the night close by, and have plenty of time to explore the next day. It is on par with any natural wonder you might be close to. But give yourselves a lot of time to wander and explore, and bring some water with you as there is a lot of walking uphill! 

Aug13

Kingfisher

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I found this poor boy yesterday. He was perfectly positioned as if he was resting. But a bird like this does not stop to rest on the asphalt right outside of a busy warehouse’s open roll-up door.

 Yes, he was dead. But I picked him up anyway. I touch a lot of nasty things in my job – a dead bird was never going to bother me.

He fit right into my hand, my palm cupped perfectly. And still looked so very vibrant and alive. No broken neck. No sign of death by another animal. Not riddled with parasites or even bird-lice. 

I took him to a few of my co-workers: ‘Look what I found! Isn’t it beautiful? What is it, do you think? Looks like a kingfisher to me, but I thought they were bigger?’ Some agreed that he did look like a kingfisher. Most of the lads just exclaimed on how beautiful he was. Or made jokes about me learning taxidermy. Love my coworkers, I really do.

I wrapped him in bubble wrap, put him in a box, and brought him home with me. I wanted to have a better look, identify him for sure, and take photos.

  

  
My Irish Wildife book confirmed he was a kingfisher – Alcedo atthis – or Cruidín in Irish. They are 16-17cm long (about 6.5in), and this one was 17cm so an adult. They aren’t endangered, just hard to spot despite the bright colouring.

  
Most stunning is the bright turquoise stripe. Incredibly vivid and bright!

  
Wing and foot detail.

  
Detail of the back feathers. They almost seem to move.

While I am very sad he is dead, I am still happy that I was able to get so close to one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen. A bird that is now in my freezer… yeah, I’m weird. I might find a taxidermist after all. 

Jun20

June in Bloom

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Plants got the vote: thank you, Grannymar! What shall I start with, hmmm…

How about my two Duggar species. So named by me as they multiply like crazy – the violas: And the Sweet William: That’s a five-foot long shipping pallet, chock full of William. Only just starting to bloom, it will be lovely soon.

I forgot what these are (again). Not as many of them this year, wonder why?

  Clematis clematis clematis!

 
  Our robin in the grey willow that the clematis is climbing up. He kept me company for hours as I was moving dirt and finding him all types of tasty bug-snacks.  
 Planted this last year from seed, and over-wintered it indoors. Now what is it again… oh great, the tag I made has totally faded! Augh! Just spent about 10 minutes looking through last year’s posts, can’t find it. 

Mutant zinnia. The four flower buds are coming out of the previous bloom’s base, instead of on their own stems. Freaky. The lavender is happy this year.

 The tiny iris are happy, too!  My native yellow iris (dug out of a bog) opened the first bloom yesterday.  Also native – Irish common spotted orchid. I just love the spotty leaves! They moved in, I didn’t plant them – these are growing in my garlic planter. 

More common spotted orchid – this is the first to begin blooming and popped up in the raspberry patch. Simply gorgeous. They are more than welcome to live in my garden!

 

Awkward narrow strip next to the driveway – I pulled all the grass out and this ugly mess is what is left. Put in some nasturtium and nicotania. The ivy moved in on its own – bet my neighbour hates it – and the sweet pea is going gangbusters. Trying to get it to go over the front wall instead of falling into the driveway this year. Wish me luck! 

 

The new ALDI bulbs are coming up! 

  My front door – white-trash alert! Taken to give the size scale of the black lilies and stargazer lilies, which are well established compared to the new guys. Guess what is in the pot to the far right? TIGRIDIA!!!!

 Finally, a rose bud. Lots of buds but none open yet. 

Apr17

Forgot to Title… Meh.

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I’m currently fighting for space in front of the fire with the two boys. I can’t get a picture as it is too dark, but Lokii is jammed between my thighs and Spot is making sure that I cannot stretch my legs.

Oh wait, iDJ just came in and I got him to take a pic of us. This is live-blogging, folks!

 

He Himself has recently brought to the house his old electric guitar, and bought a small amplifier. He was just playing, and I tried to get a pic but he stopped too soon. He is going to figure out how to hook up a microphone to the amp so I can sing while he plays. This is something I’ve wanted us to do together for a very long time!

 

An earlier, ‘action shot’ of Lokii when he was doing his stretching exercises. Along with my feet still in winter indoor booties and the dog bed (brown thing with green fluff) that Lokii is entirely responsible for chewing up. Little shithead.

I think our robins have abandoned the hose-reel nest. They weren’t expecting us to be outside so much, or throwing smoke in their faces every weekend when we grill. iDJ just loves to grill.

 

Not taken tonight: this was last weekend. But since I have shared kitty pics, I must include a doggie pic of Neko looking so sad that she can’t have BBQ. Tonight we are having sausages, drumsticks, and my homemade hamburgers. Maybe an ear of corn for me, if I get up away from the lovely fire and open the oh-so-difficult package of Spanish corn for him. *snark*

Back to the birds – we bought them dried mealworms. Because, supposedly, robins love them. I opened the package and they smelled really good. So I ate one. On purpose, and all. It actually wasn’t bad – like popcorn without butter and salt. Nicely crunchy, a slight taste of fat. So maybe they just need warming, and salt.

It didn’t bother me to eat one, as mealworms don’t have legs or a distinctive head. Does that even make sense? Maybe I’ve just been reading too much about alternatives to protein in our diets and wanted to give it a go. Seriously, it wasn’t disgusting at all.