My New Speedo’s

Oh No !

I am going to write a post about a Speedwell flower.

I discovered one today that I hadn’t seen before, there are quite a lot of them. Anyway, you are not even in my post tonight.

Oh Please.

Did you wash your face this morning?

Veronica filiformis. This is Slender speedwell.

Worldwide there are about 500 species in the Veronica genus and in the UK we have about two dozen different Speedwell flowers. Half of those are quite rare and the rest… Well, it is just a case of finding them and photographing them. This is number seven for me.

With so many little blue flowers around the problem is usually recognising that I am looking at a species that I haven’t seen before. It is very easy to see a little blue flower and just think, “Speedwell.”

In this case I saw a fairly dense matt of pale flowers and thought, “Wow, speedwells without any leaves.”

They do have leaves , they are just quite small.

So here is my list to date.

(Germander Speedwell, Veronica chamaedrys)

(Heath Speedwell, Veronica officinalis)

(Ivy-leaved Speedwell, Veronica hederifolia)

(Persian  or Common Field Speedwell, Veronica persica)

(Thyme-leaved Speedwell, Veronica serpyllifolia)

(Wood Speedwell, Veronica montana)

And now of course…

(Slender Speedwell, Veronica filiformis)

So many Veronicas 🙂

I love finding new flowers and I love my Speedwell collection. I would like to add a few more this summer.

I am sorry that this daily post is late. We have been having power cuts all day. It goes on and it goes off and it has been going on for ages, very strange. I am probably the only person being bothered by it because it is now the middle of the night and everybody else is asleep but it is still annoying me.

Fortunately I have got my “light in a bag.”

It is called a Luminaid and it is a solar charged lantern. It throws out enough light to fill the room that I am in and I can read by it and for sleeping in the woods and stuff like that it is perfect. It charges itself in the day and runs all night.

I am not being sponsored to say this but I will see if I can find a video about it because I am loving my Luminaid tonight. (Fizz hasn’t got one but she is asleep)

THIS IS NOT AN ADVERT (I think it is a kind of charity thing)

I am not sure that I am allowed to put adverts on here but nobody is getting paid for anything here and if you want one then  you have to go and find one for yourself and all sorts of places sell them.

I did get approached by a company recently who asked if I would like to write about their product on  my blog but I didn’t really know what it was and so that is on hold for the moment. This little light really works and deserves a free mention tonight because it is dark here. (on and off)

I might like to do some kit reviews one day. It would be things like Buffalo Pile clothing (I bought my first Buffalo sleeping bag thirty years ago), Frosts, knife makers of Sweden (they are called Mora now but I still have my “Frosty”) My little Vango wood burning stove (that has been on here once). There  is kit that I have used for ages and I know that it is good but it wouldn’t be “paid for” advertising.

On that controversial note I will say Goodnight (Good morning)

Being Columbus

A few days ago I set sail for a new world. My plan was to explore it, meet the indigenous peoples and see if I could trade with them.

It is extremely strange. I don’t think that I have met any of the locals yet. I can’t figure out how they communicate with each other because they all seem to be invisible. I am enjoying being there despite the lack of progress and today I thought that I would show them some baubles in the hope of initiating some kind of trade. (They can see this post) I will accept anything of value in exchange for my trinkets.

To keep my friends back home entertained (They can also see this post) these are all new baubles and today my baubles will all be flowers.

This one is called the Scarlet Pimpernel.

There is also a Yellow Pimpernel, related by family but a different genus.

That is enough Pimpernels.

This next one is a Speedwell. This is Thyme-leaved Speedwell.

There are quite a few different Speedwells and while the structure of the plant may vary a lot, the flower tells you that this is another type of Speedwell.

Wood Speedwell.

Germander Speedwell.

The very  tiny Ivy-leaved Speedwell comes in two colours.

Veronica hederifolia subspecies hederifolia

and

Veronica hederifolia subspecies lucorum

Other than colour they are pretty much identical.

Last of the Speedwells for now this one is Common Field-speedwell.

Here is one that everyone knows, I have seen this on a lot of blogs this summer.

This is Queen Anne’s Lace (Wild Carrot)

So this is what has happened:

From time to time somebody visits me from the other side. I am trying to reach out and contact them. I have put a foot on their land, let us see if they want to trade.

A Tramp on Blogger

Blogger is a complete mystery to me but it only takes me a few minutes to copy and paste something that I have written for this blog into the other world.

If anybody here understands their culture then I could use a few tips.

I can’t see how they like a post. There is a little +1 sign that has appeared at the bottom of one of my posts, that may be their way of saying that somebody liked it but if so then how do you find out who liked it?

I can’t find a way to search for blogs that I may like, for instance to search for blogs about nature.

It is a very alien world but I am trying to emphasize that I come in peace and for trade. Later if they don’t die of our diseases and we can’t convert them then we will probably have to shoot them and steal their land. I think that is what colonists do but I will do some more research first. (Let’s keep that amongst ourselves for now)

I will just show them one more trinket. There are so many to choose from….

How about Ragged Robin?

I will let you know if I am able to make contact with anyone from the other side. It is all very exciting, I wonder what they will look like, just like you and me I guess 🙂

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…..