Showers

Yesterday afternoon, Malcolm and I had a short walk around the lakes with one eye on the clouds. Typically, as we got within a few steps of our front door, the heavens opened and we got soaked in no time. Today, it was a walk in the other direction, around the old theme park lake, but still with one eye on the clouds.  As in the past few days, signs of Autumn are everywhere, not least of which were these colourful fruits... Rose Hips.  Can you spot the Common Green Shield Bug nymph (Palomena prasina) in the picture?  I didn't know it was there until I downloaded the photos from my camera.

Our garden is also a scene of the impending cooler days and as always, at this time of year, you can't step out of the door without getting spiders' webs all over your face. Spider silk is well known for being very strong. In fact, it is about as strong as high-grade steel. It is also very light-weight and 'stretchy', able to stretch by about 140% its length. It can also keep its properties of strength and 'stretchiness' down to temperatures of below −40°C.
This particular web belonged to a Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) which seems to have claimed our grape vine as its own. The web was rather beautiful as it caught the late evening sun.

Rarity

While walking around 'Swan Lake' at Straw's Bridge the other day, there was a plant, growing in the drying mud at the margins of the lake, which was unfamiliar to me. As always with me, this couldn't go by, so I took some photo's and tried to identify it. It has taken a bit of detective work and now I know why. The plant is called Niger (Guizotia abyssinica) and is a native to East Africa.

This alien species is a fast-spreading one which has been introduced to Britain by those of us who feed the birds. Niger seed is quite common in wild bird seed and that's where these plants come from. Very handsome and welcome addition to the British flora (until it starts to take over and dominate all our native species!).
Far more common and another sign of the approaching autumn, is this attractive (?) insect which was on our patio doors yesterday. Daddy Long Legs' are everywhere at this time of year as the leatherjackets which have been living in the ground all year, eating our plants' roots, emerge as adults and head for our homes. Correctly known as Crane Flies, this (I think) is one of our Common Crane Fly species (Tipula paludosa)

Odds and Ends

A bit of a 'mish-mash' of things this morning. With our kitchen watching duties and the wet weather over the last week, we haven't been able to get out much. Yesterday however, the sun shone and we were able to grab a short walk around the lakes of Straw's Bridge. It was beautiful and bright yesterday afternoon and the views from the top of the bank which separates two of the lakes, was well worth waiting for...

Despite the sunshine and warm temperatures, we were surrounded by signs of the fast-approaching Autumn. No clearer sign can be had, than the reddening of the Maple leaves. A welcome addition to the colours of the countryside, but a sad reminder of the Summer's demise.

After the nice day, last evening saw a weather front coming in from the South-West which gave us a great deal of rain again during the night. But, the approaching weather gave us some wonderful cloudscapes as the sun went down. A colourful end to the day.

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!!