Sunrise to Sunset

I don't usually talk about my job on the blog, but what a day! Having been party to 3 redundancy initiatives in 4 years, this last one has taken it's toll on everyone. No one has come out of this without feeling battered and mentally bruised. So as happens many times, once the management team have done their stuff, who's next. Yesterday, our boss announced she was "being asked to leave" and so the future is not bright, nor is it orange.

I'm quite excited in a way as I'll be free to do whatever I want, but sad that it's an end of an era, both for me and dear old Auntie. It had to happen, television as we know it is a dying media; content provision, the internet, multimedia, and radio are all the future now. Many of the changes are vital to the survival of dear old Auntie.

So as this is the very last time the team will all be together, we de-camped to Rucolas in Bristol's "fashionable meeja" area of Clifton for a long reflective lunch, lasting from 1.00 until 4.30pm. This restaurant provided wondrous goodies of the Mediterranean region, so what did the boy Border have? ....... Sunrise Sunset : Grilled Lincolnshire Sausages, Back Bacon, Tomato, Potato Waffles, Two Fried Free Range Eggs, Toast, Butter + Preserves. A marvelous way to celebrate!!

So after lunch, drove down to Dorset, which was planned as Thelma has her bi-monthly oncology check up today. I needed fresh air, and to be a million miles from work. So Bulbarrow Hill it was after a cup of tea, and to take in a sunset.

Not much wildlife up here last night, nice Yellowhammer, above, a few Kestels, a Buzzard and other than Hirundines, that was about it. Lovely to be up there though. However driving home at 10pm. I said to Thelma, keep a look out for Little Owls on the top of posts.... 2 miles further on at Bagber a Little Owl (149). My first of the year and Thelma's first ever "oh aren't they small she said".

What a wonderful way to end a strange day. Puts it all into perspective!! And so to the sunsets!

What you looking at?

Took about 30 around this time, this just gives a flavour

Border Reiver is on the road to nowhere!!

And it's a full moon tomorrow!

2 Post Trailway Day

A man about to tackle the trailway......

Following on from Snowgoosey's report of the Barn Owl near the S&D Trailway;

http://snowgoosey.blogspot.com/2008/06/evening-on-a-walk.html

Border and his latest squeeze, decided to go for a walk this morning and a bit of a recce. I've posted a walk along here before in March. However this is the first time we've walked from Sturminster Newton to Shillingstone, as this part was only opened up a few weeks ago. About 3 miles each way. Don't worry I'll not describe the walk, which I tend to find involves one foot in front of another, in a fairly regular forward motion. Maybe best just to let the photos do the talking of some highlights seen (as ever enlarge for a better view).

Left : Water Figwort, Right : Marsh Thistle

Left : Goatsbeard, Right : Comphrey

Male, left and female right Banded Damioselle

Left : Peacock larvae on nettle, and Right : "False Oil Beetle"
Oedemera nobilis (note the enlarged hind Femora, only found on males)

Left : Common Blue Damselfly and Right : the Hover-Fly Erisyrphus beleatus on Agrimony

Latest Squeeze

I have to say the 3 hours or so we took to walk the 6 miles was a great way to sharpen the appetite for luncheon. Most noticeable were that Chiffchaffs were still in good song, but there were very few butterflies around. I saw three during the whole walk, a very tatty Red Admiral, a Large White and a brown job. I also located the Barn Owl spot, so one evening in the not too distant future, I may be seen there. The one other notable was a female Yellowhammer carrying feed, followed by a singing Male further on which flew into a wheat field. Great summer birds.

So it's been a busy old weekend blogging wise, that's 1 posting yesterday and 2 today. I need a rest and a cup of tea. Mind you we did stop for a half a shandy at the Saxon Inn Child Oakford on the way back. Seemed churlish not to as we were passing.

An evening stroll around Stalbridge

After yesterdays posting about the William Barnes book I'd been given, in the evening we (or should I say I) sat discussing what to do. Glorious night, sun cracking the paving stones, wind had finally dropped.

Border Reivers top choice for the evening was to go and watch Nightjars; boss lady was not so impressed. Apparently it would be cold and dark and think of all that patrol you'd use she said. I pointed out it could also be very romantic, wandering the hilltop at dusk, azure sky with flicks of crimson, great company (me), and she could be astounded at my flap a white hankie technique as I attracted the birds overhead.... though I did have to admit it would be dark by the time they flew..... BUT after 20 minutes of bigging up a nightjar walk, I'd broken her nerves of steel and won the argument.

So we then went for an evening walk around Stalbridge, sadly a locality bereft of nightjars, that will have to wait for another posting. I am a slave to domestic peace !! (enlarge for better views).

Left: Looking towards Marnhull, Hinton St Mary and Wiltshire downs. And the area William Barnes was born in. Right : The spire on, well land belonging to Spire Hill Farm/Thornford House.

But saying that, I never tire of the Blackmoor Vale. Dramatic it may be not, gloriously quiet, pastoral farmland it is. Even though it was only 8pm when we set off, it was very quiet. Where was everyone? The rough route (Thelma chose for me) was up through the town, out to Thornford, hang a right up Wood Lane, back via the Church and the Trailway. About 2 miles ish.

Left : There's bound to be loads of wildlife in here. Right : Err Pet, look behind you, at this deer

Thelma wanted me to go into the dark scary woods, I stood my ground so while watching her peer into the trees, out of the side of my eye, something shot out. A Roe Deer. Sadly the photo on the right isn't great, it was shifting over the maize field, but a record shot anyway. Quite a few deer around here. Almost guaranteed. I was watching the deer, when my ears said, "yellowhammer". It's funny how all of a sudden a bird song hits the conscious. Sadly I never found exactly where it was as at this point a man walking a dog walked down the lane and the bird was off. This man and dog, were the only people we saw during the walk.

Well apart from the boy-racers doing doughnuts in the trading estate carpark when we got back...(ahh that did bring back memories of an ill spent youth) - I was a bit wild as a teenager, not awful, just a real pain in the neck rebel. This may tickle you. At 15 I had a beard, not a wispy teenage thing, a full blown Brian Blessed style beard. And ginger!! My year master called me into his office. Dawes he said, will you be shaving that off. No Sir, I replied and gave him the stare. It's quite remarkable looking back, but he just shrugged and said, okay, go away. I proudly became the only chap in class with a beard. The best thing that happened to me was leaving home at 16 to work on a Hill Farm in North Northumberland - removed me from myself and influences. Living in on a farm miles from anywhere, with no means of escape I spent my little free time walking the hills and fields, and my passion for wildlife grew.

Left : Come on, hurry up. Is that the cat or Thelma talking? Right : I wish this was smelly-blog-a-vision, the scent from these roses was absolutely glorious.

Back to the walk. Further down the lane, a small group of newly fledged blue tits entertained us as they crash landed in a tree. We then seemed to gain a cat as we walked past the Cricket Ground but after 2 minutes boredom took over and it sat down. By the way this wall, above left, is a medieval wall and encircles Stalbridge Park for 5 miles. Wonderful for wildlife. Instead of the Church route we walked down Gold Hill, and I'm glad we did. The scent from those roses hit us as we turned the corner. On a still summer evening can anything be more luxuriant than the heady scent of flowers in the air. And above us, 20+ screaming swifts. What a way to end a glorious day.

Or maybe end I should end it with the sun setting over the church

The Dorset Poet - William Barnes

This week I had a wonderful surprise from a friend of mine. His wife had bought me a copy of This book. Published 2 years after William Barnes died, it is the three volumes of his "Dorset Dialect Poetry" in one volume. And it is a glorious read.

So why have I put this on my wildlife Blog? Well, William Barnes was one the most accomplished and intellectual poets of his time, and like Thomas Hardy, a good friend of his, deeply worried about the old traditions, customs, rural way of life and language of Dorset being lost forever. However because of the huge popularity of Thomas Hardy, Barnes has mostly been overshadowed, if not overlooked. Which is a real shame. So in my small way, I'd like to put him on the map.

Barnes produced something in the region of 800 poems, with his first volume of Dorset Dialect poems being published in 1844. He was born in 1801 in the Blackmoor Vale, at Bagber, about 2 miles from where I'm sitting. And during his 85 years, was a schoolmaster, poet and in later years ordained. When he died in 1886, the Saturday Review read:

'There is no doubt that he is the best pastoral poet we possess, the most sincere, the most genuine, the most theocritan; and that the dialect is but a very thin veil hiding from us some of the most delicate and finished verse written in our time.'

Which may explain why Jane Olivia Foot bought this book in 1889. I love inscriptions like this in books. Who was she? What did she think? Did she enjoy the book? I also have this sense of her sitting on May 17th 1889, with her new book, (maybe it was a present from a suitor?) dipping her pen in ink and writing her name. Little would she know that when sadly long dead, someone she never knew would read her words 119 years later, and most importantly remember her!

Far too many poems to show you, so I've chosen a "bird" subject. The Lark. Best to enlarge the photo to read, as because it's in dialect, not the easiest read. But just read it as it looks on the page. I hope you enjoy my drift through the mists of time to Victorian Dorset.

Up with the Larks

Can't believe I was awake at 3.30am. I do love this time of year when the sun never really sets, the sky never darkens and life is buzzing everywhere. I once watched otters feeding off the sea at 11.30pm on the Isle of Skye, apart from being cannibalised by the midge, that was a glorious piece of wildlife watching.

Back to this morning though, I tried, and completely failed to record the dawn chorus. That glorious warbling birdsong became an asthmatic cough and grunt. Note to self, buy a parabolic microphone...that attempt was absolute rubbish, so not on the blog.

So in the absence of anything to photo, I spent an hour messing about with images, and uploaded this "dead centre of Town" image. This is Bradpole Churchyard, and what a wonderful setting. Why is this on a wildlife Blog? Partly I like churchyards, and this photo in particular. But also they are a wonderful refuge for wildlife, whilst the headstones are a botanists playground, if one is into lichens.

I may well write more about this in a later posting, particularly Puxton Church in Somerset. Now what shall I have for breakfast... well it is 5am?!?!

Is this a Magpie I see before me.....

Arising from my slumber, I popped downstairs to make a cup of tea to be greeted by this Magpie Moth Abraxas grossulariata on the window. This photo was taken with my old camera, as the new one is on charge, the difference in quality is interesting.

Well best get on, but what marvellous wildlife watching; still in my PJ's, cup of tea, slice of toast and a house awash with wildlife. Okay that last bit is pushing it a bit. Must spend today on my art, but the prospect of Large Blue Butterflies near here is tempting.

Plus she who must be obeyed is back from Italy tomorrow night. I better behave, she'll be asking searching questions. Can I truthfully say, oh never left the house, of course the cleaning and list of chores are all done darling!! Just hope I can get the cider cans recycled before she's back; where have they all come from, I think it must be the hedgehog pixies having a party.

It will be great to have her back though, not been a good holiday apparently, she left her famous red coat in a hotel in France (it would have been easier to pay the bill, not do a moonlight flit?) and Italy has been rain, cold and she fell over on Saturday. Honestly it must be drink!! So the photo above is homage to the coat and to welcome her back.

Postscript

As a postscript to this mornings butterfly excitement, see below, after tea, popped to Shapwick Heath NNR to see if the Osprey was still there. It may be but I didn't see it. Did have a nice Common Tern (147) though (that white blob in the centre of the picture below!!). The place was alive with warblers though, with a lovely view of a Sedge Warbler just feet away.

And of course the Grey Herons, always there, but I do like them

Well it's been a long day, a hot day too, and I seem to have grown 30 feet since breakfast. So as Zeberdee said, "time for bed everybody, time for bed"