Work in Progress

As we have not been able to get out and about in the countryside for a few days, I thought I would chart the progress of my mother-in-law's kitchen. The workman started at about 9am on Monday morning, ripping out the old kitchen..

and preparing the room for the incoming parts of the new kitchen.  By Monday evening, the room was empty and ready.  Tuesday saw a whirl of activity with new bits coming in, old bits going out and a lot of banging, sawing and sweeping-up.  At 'close of play' on Tuesday, the bulk of the new kitchen was in place with the oven, washing machine, fridge and freezer all in situ.

At this rate, we are hoping that the work will all be done by the end of Thursday.

Archives

After last night's heavy rain, it was so wet under foot that Malcolm and I have had no walk today - except a short walk down to Malcolm's mum's house to check on the progress of her new kitchen. So, a few photos from the 'archive' will have to do for today. Firstly another picture of the Starlings which are so energetically in evidence at the moment. This one is showing the white spots on it's newly acquired plumage rather well. These spots will fade as the Winter goes on and the feathers begin to wear away before the Spring moult.

Much smaller and far less attractive (depending on your point of view I suppose), is the Harvestman which was found on our patio yesterday. It was struggling a little as it had lost one of it's legs - not devastating in itself as they can shed legs in self defence, but this one seemed to have other, less obvious problems too. There are several different species of Harvestman in Britain, this one is Leiobunum rotundum and not a very good-looking creature. Although it has no poison, fangs, web-spinning capabilities, it can protect itself by secreting a noxious substance from scent glands at the front of it's body, which repel other animals.

Another small creature seen in our garden a few days ago was somehow familiar to me. Although it was new to me, I couldn't help thinking I had seen something like it before. It looked like a small Lacewing, but it was brown in colour, not bright green. It turned out I was right, it was a Brown Lacewing (Micromus variegatus). A fierce predator of aphids (despite it's diminutive size), it is therefore a welcome visitor to anyone's garden.

Flyers

A few flying things today. Firstly, a small, but beautiful insect which was seen flitting around the drying grasses of the meadows near our home. This is a female Common Blue Butterfly (Polyommatus icarus). The males are generally more blue and lack the attractive spots along the edges of the wings. Common in Britain's grasslands, the adult Common Blue feeds on many different species of the pea family of plants, especially Bird's Foot Trefoil, Restharrow and White Clover. The caterpillars are also fond of the leaves of these plants.

Flying around our garden a few days ago and taking a particular interest in our small holly plants, was a rather handsome little fly. It was a Picture Winged Fly or Gall Fly (Tephritis formosa). The names come from it's patterned wings and it's habit of laying it's eggs in the stems of various plants causing 'galls'. This is a female again, as can be seen from the ovipositor at the end of the abdomen, which it uses to insert eggs into the plant stems.

A more familiar flyer next. This one was causing havoc in our front garden yesterday along with a large number of it's family and friends. Starlings (Sternus vulgaris) are well known to us all and as such are often overlooked, but they do demand closer inspection. Their plumage is an amazing combination of shiny, glossed colours. When the light shines on them in the right way they reveal violet and green colours which would rival any exotic species.

Highly intelligent, Starlings are excellent mimics of other birds and even man-made sounds. Their repertoire of sounds include very intricate songs and calls including whistles, wheezing sounds, piping , rattles, clicks and a host of others. They have calls of alarm, calls for flocking, threats, attacks and 'intimate' calls when mating. Captive Starlings can even learn to talk, leading to them being known in some pars as a 'poor-man's Myna Bird'. What a little charmer!

Mapperley Circular

Yesterday, because the weather was so nice, we decided on a good walk around Shipley Hill, towards Mapperley Village, before returning along the old West Hallam Colliery site. Our route is here...

The hike up Shipley Hill can be quite steep, depending on which path you take and our route back down the other side of the hill was even more precipitous. Taking us down through the Beech tree woodland toward the old (and unused) burial site for the Miller Mundy family who once owned the Hall atop the hill. On old maps, this woodland is shown as 'Shoulder of Mutton Wood' for some unknown reason.  From the edge of this woodland, the views open up towards Mapperley village across the fields of cows.

The cows were grouping together in the middle of the field, getting ready to settle down and chew the cud in view of the six tall Poplar trees which seem to punctuate the landscape with their exclamation marks!!!!!!

Our route down the hill towards Mapperley took us down the tarmac roadway which once formed the drive up to the hall - quite an impressive approach to anyone's home I should think and equally impressive in it's present state.

There is one 'blot' on this charming, rural landscape. That blot takes the form of the open-cast mining which was begun a couple of years ago, close to the nearby village of Smalley. What started out then as a fairly unobtrusive hole in the ground, has increased and increased until it now forms a great scar amid the green fields around. Oh well! We all need electricity, but what a shame it is to ruin (albeit temporarily) a beautiful aspect.

Returning via Head House Farm, the views are in the opposite direction, across the farmland towards our estate and home. A great walk on a lovely, sunny day. It's a good job this isn't a 'scratch-n-sniff' blog entry, as the whiff from the cows here is - shall we say - a little ripe!!

Berry Collage

Just one picture this morning, but a big one. A collage of some of the berry pictures I have taken around Shipley Park.

You will no doubt notice that I have duplicated a couple, but here they are, listed 1 - 20 as follows:
1 - Bittersweet
2 - Rowan
3 - Cotoneaster
4 - Pyracantha
5 - Blackberry
6 - Black Bryony
7 - Shrub Rose
8 - Lords-and-Ladies
9 - Pyracantha
10 - Dog Rose
11 - Fig
12 - Holly
13 - Blackthorn
14 - Snowberry
15 - Yew
16 - Spindle
17 - Guelder-rose
18 - Cotoneaster
19 - Hawthorn
20 - Guelder-rose
Quite a collection and there are many more...... But that's for another day!

Sun Dog

Sun Dogs are rather common, but usually missed or overlooked. Yesterday, as the sun began to set behind the houses of our estate, we were treated to the sight of this phenomenon in the clear skies. Evenings are usually the best time of day to see Sun Dogs as the brightness of the sun, when higher in the sky, can obscure the Sun Dogs altogether. So, what are Sun Dogs? Well, are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin....

Sun Dogs are patches of refracted light, often coloured like diminutive rainbows, in the sky on either side of and at the same height as the sun. There are usually two - one on each side of the sun - and they are at an angle of 22° from the sun. Sun Dogs are formed by tiny, flat, hexagonal ice crystals which form the very high, whispy Cirrus clouds, seen in these pictures. These crystals act like minute prisms, splitting the sunlight into the familiar 'rainbow' colours. The principal is much the same as raindrops refracting sunlight to produce a rainbow in the lower atmosphere, but this happens at much higher altitudes, where the air is very much colder. Quite beautiful and so tenuous.

Hover

As I have mentioned before, our Pyracantha seems to be a major meeting place for many different types of fly and wasp. Among the most numerous of these are the Hover Flies. There are about 270 species of Hover Fly in Britain and here are two of them. Firstly Eupeodes luniger

A slightly larger species next, this is a Epistrophe grossulariae. They have catchy little names don't they?

More will no doubt be featured here at a later date as I try to identify them (not an easy task).