Frosting the Dog

Well, it wasn’t really much of a frost and I think we may have to put off declaring a “State of Emergency” for a day or two.

There was some frost on the little things.

Frost can be quite destructive and Spindle berries were dropping off the tree as I was trying to photograph them.

A few of the remaining flowers were totally frosted and I don’t think that they will last much longer.

It feels a bit like we are saying goodbye to the colours of Autumn and hello to the greyness that is Winter.

Today wasn’t very cold.The Puddles were not frozen…

(There is nothing like a cool drink of mud to set you up for the day)

There was no frost at all under the trees. They have a warmth of their own, trapping warm air and protecting their surroundings from exposure to the cold night.

I am not really sure that this is frost on the grass and not just cold dew.

But Winter is coming…. and the Sloes will taste sweeter.

Fizz got an extra walk and she has got insulation so she doesn’t mind the cold and when we got home I had some toast (In case it gets bad later)

 

 

Out to lunch

Yesterday I took Fizz out to dinner. Well, it was just a walk really with a bit of foraging but she called it a date and I didn’t mind that.

We got a nice table (hay bale) by the hedgerow and had Sloe berries for starters.

I know that some people say that you have got to wait for the frosts but I like them as they are. Juicy and refreshing but anyway you can always try one and see if you like it, they won’t kill you.

There were lots of berries on the hawthorn too and you can eat them if you want…

But why would you? They are just pip and skin, there is no flesh on them and they are not juicy.

Here’s me and Fizz playing games with our shadows.

Rose hips are nice.

You have to break them open and scatter the seeds. The inside is hairy and I just scrape that off with a finger nail…

What’s left is a delicious crunchy little nibble for when you are walking around the field, full of vitamin C.

But all this is just nonsense. The berries are sweets, lovely to nibble on as you wander but not proper food.

I was absolutely delighted to find a pond full of proper food.

This is Water-cress, Nasturtium officinale and it something that I would go to the super-market and buy, so that makes it proper food. It is a delicious peppery salad leaf a bit like wild rocket but better and if you have got two slices of bread and a pond full of Water-cress then you have got a really good sandwich and your lunch.

There is so much of it here that I could fill carrier bags up with it but I like my salad fresh so I just take what I will eat today.

(There are lots of pictures of Water-cress for identification purposes, just in case you decide to eat Dog’s Mercury after reading this, which could kill you. These pictures have been checked by experts from the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and are a true and accurate depiction of Nasturtium officinale, it grows in water) 😀

Blue

Blue is for Sloes. Blackthorn is the most wonderfully photogenic tree.

Blackthorn flowers appear before the leaves. Hawthorn, which looks very similar from a distance, gets it’s leaves first and then flowers. So when the hedgerow first turns white in March, that’s the Blackthorn and when it does it again in May that’s the Hawthorn.

But this isn’t Spring this is Autumn and today we have berries. There is no confusion at this time of year. The fruits of the Blackthorn are big and plentiful and very beautiful.

Animal Magic

“Just like that”

It’s your destiny

The Swallows have fledged, or at least they are fledging. They are still in the nest today but they have been out and they can fly.

It has taken me a few days watching and all that you get are a couple of short video’s but for me, my understanding and the pleasure that I got from watching them makes a few days just a drop in the ocean. It was time well spent.

Anyway you should be glad that you don’t have to watch the whole twenty hours of video, that I now have to sort and delete from my machine to free up space.

Here are the best bits.

Yesterday morning there were five birds on the nest, there were five birds on the nest and then there were four birds on the nest. I had missed the very first flight and only realised when number five returned to the nest.

This first video starts with the mother calling for them to leave the nest, there is a little comic interlude of the way that they follow flies, their little heads bobbing in unison and in the last bit the second bird to approach the nest is the returning chick. Does he bring food back or do the others just think that he has?

This next video shows them leaving the nest and returning. They spent most of the day fluttering around inside the little alley way that has become their home and by the end of the day they were all settled back on the nest but this is fledging. Today I think that they have ventured outside and seen the blue sky but they still return to the nest.

These birds have made me think a lot about nature as a whole thing and about life and death in the wild. The caterpillars that I am trying to raise are falling to the parasitoid flies that these Swallows depend on for food and survival. The parents have done a really good job of raising them given the wet weather we have been having. I have often looked out in the pouring rain and wondered how they are managing to raise a brood and now this, flight.

I am so in in love and in awe of them and so damned jealous.

I am jealous because they get to eat those delicious crunchy flies, or perhaps because they can raise offspring in a matter of weeks and not the 26 years it usually takes us. Maybe I am jealous of something else altogether…..