Rural Life

Final post of 2021

Well, we are getting near the end of 2021 and quite frankly I shall be glad to see the back of it.  Covid and its constraints on life as we knew it have been a challenge, as they have made difficult things even more difficult than they needed to be.  Finding a quality nursing home and installing someone in it, trying to earn a living, helping people with the bureaucracy of Brexit (getting a residence permit, exchanging driver's licenses, reregistering cars) have all been that little bit harder than they needed to be.  As we get to the end of the year, we are back to the second guessing what the next restrictions are going to be.  Today we did forays into a number of stores for wild bird seed, chicken feed, and store cupboard basics in case, as there is a definite feeling from the media that the next few weeks aren't going to be easy.

But away from that, and looking at the natural world around us, there are still uplifting vistas, so once out of shops and built up areas, things seem more hopeful.  On Christmas Day we did a lovely walk from The Shack to the One Acre Wood and back, with hardly an engine or an unnatural sound to be heard.  Today at The Shack, we looked across the valley to the Chapel and the world didn't seem so bad (although the weather could have been better I guess).

Nature finds a way (listen to Jetho Tull's Jack in the Green), and indeed we are impressed, as well as slightly concerned, at the persistence of a mole that wants to set up home in the near derelict Studio!  There are mole hills by the steps and next to the terrace!

The trail camera also shows us that we are not alone - so here are a couple of videos from near the Studio.

And this one

Happy New Year - I'll be back on 1st January!

 

First image from the Trail Camera

Yes, finally, something other than a cat or a blackbird!  We took the camera down from its position yesterday afternoon and I watched through the videos and looked a the photos.  We now know what is making the tracks around the Garden bit of the estate (not by our house in the village), but it look a lot of zooming and searching and thinking.  This is the best image I could do (because all that image enhancement on CSI and NCIS is military boloney).

Anyway, the camera is now set up in a new position, and I will have to contain my excitement until Saturday next week to see what the new position gets (Big Hint, Santa, I want hares and badgers and deer and foxes and pheasants and partridges and hedgehogs!).

In the news today I see that Richard Rogers has fallen off his perch at the age of 88.  My Dad was very friendly with his first father in law, Marcus Brumwell, and used to stay at the house Rogers designed for him on the Fal Estuary.  I was therefore fascinated to see Creek Vean featured in the BBC obituary.  I remember visiting it once, when perhaps 13 years old.  Mum was having kittens while I was in the house due to the number of quality modern ceramics dotted around, while when I was in the garden I got annoyed with all the stones with holes dotted around - only Barbara Hepworth sculptures, but at 13 one tends to be a philistine!

The photo is from the BBC website, but is credited to English Heritage.

The days are nearing their shortest now, so it isn't surprising to see the moon rise as I go to lock up the chickens in the evening.  Or it shouldn't be, but the anticyclone is locking humidity at ground level so for much of the time we have been "enjoying" wall to wall low level murk.  Yesterday was different fortunately, so I was able to capture moon rise over the Church and next door's underwear (better photo editing required in future me thinks).  It is just past the full, but was exceedingly bright.

Although the bulk of winter is still ahead of us, there are ever more signs that plants are preparing for the spring.  There are seedlings appearing of annual flowers and weeds, and the tiny buttons of next year's sedums by the dead stalks from this year.  The polyanthus that John rescued from a bin are also starting to prepare flowers to brighten up January - and in a clever bit of planting, I got the purple ones in by the shrub with the spookily purple berries.

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Well, that's all for today - there really is very little new going on at the moment, other than laying bets as to when curfew will be reinstated and when travel within France will be limited (my personal bet is for the 29th December).  The next instalment is likely to be on the 27th and hopefully will include more wildlife photography from the trail camera.  In the meantime, Happy December 25th.

 

Short, wintery days

Still no images from the trail camera, after a week at what I thought would be an interesting spot.  What I actually captured was a still and a video of a cat following my trail around the meadow, a still of a blackbird, and numerous images of my legs as I went to check the camera.  Ho hum.  It has been moved and now to see what crops up at a different site - annoyingly, after I'd moved the camera, I found evidence of something having been in the area, which I think is jolly unfair.

So back to more classic ways of capturing images - and during the week we caught first sight of the new moon over the roof of the house.  It was a classic clear, cold evening and a tiny slip of moon like a toe nail clipping!

Of course if it is like that in the evening, you wake up to a winter wonderland of ice the following day, but frost crystals on leaves do make for interesting images.

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Cold mornings also mean that the small birds are keen on the fat balls I put out for them.  As well as remarkably critical tits of various sorts, there is a flock of sparrows that haunts the feeder.  At one stage I reckon there were a dozen on or by it, until Zola the cat trotted around the corner from annoying the chickens and they scattered.  That was also the time when I was trying to get a photo of them on and around the feeder, so typically I have a number of photos of nothing much.  But greed got the better of them and before I had put the phone away, a couple were back.  Not the best photo, but you get the idea.

We were in the One Acre Wood this morning, so I spent some time planning where the trail camera might go, looking at where the leaves have been disturbed or where there are clear trails that aren't us.  I have some ideas!  I was also able to spot the other beech trees in the parcels next to ours, as at the moment, their leaves are mightily conspicuous.

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Checking out the Meadow, after it has had its annual mow, and looking for evidence of wildlife as a target for the trail camera, I took some time to notice the new growth coming up.  It strikes me it would be interesting to do a quadrant test to see how many species there are in half a square meter, as looking at the photo below I can make out two types of orchid, clovers, plantains, moss, grass and others that I am not familiar with.  And therein lies the problem - I am not enough of a botanist to distinguish between clover types, or different trefoils, or different plantains.  Perhaps I need to buy a student for a week!  Anyway - here is a photo - how many can you spot?

I can see at least 9 different things in there.

 

The challenge of wildlife photography

Last week I had little to say and felt very sorry for myself, as a victim of The Cold.  But if the week to 28 November was dull, the week to 5 December was even more so.  I have had to resort to photographs from the archives to explain why I have little new to share.

Photographing plants is relatively straightforward.  They are mostly pretty photogenic in any case, and they don't move particularly far or fast (in most cases), so the main challenges are getting a good angle, focus and lighting.  Almost anything can look quite good!

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Animals aren't so easy, not least as the blighters move around a bit.  You can catch a dragonfly at rest, but it is a bit dull, and can be lucky with a calculating lizard too.

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In Guadeloupe I did get lucky with basking terrapins and a high resolution photo that could be cut down, and that is more than I have ever achieved with Nessie the errant terrapin at the Lake!

Sea birds can be helpful, although a pelican at rest looks more like a badly placed cowpat than anything else to my mind.

Flying pelicans can be dramatic - again with high definition to be able to hone in - and frigate birds are very easily recognised.

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My biggest frustration is trying to capture humming birds - so beautiful and jewel-like, and so damn fast!

All of which is an excuse to say that as yet, I have had no luck with the trail camera and the badgers, foxes and deer it is supposed to be capturing.  Perhaps next week!