Zooming in.

 Once a month I clean for for a lady who has three of the teeniest cats I've ever seen. Although they are fully grown they all had a really rough start to their lives and ending up being rescue kittens. One has a thing about helping you out when you're working....in my client's case she hops up onto her shoulder when she's working from home on the computer [even during a job interview she had earlier in the year!] However, this little soul doesn't show any favouritism...it was quite a shock when I was crouched down in the kitchen one day and she did the same to me! It's not something that any of the cats I've had over the years have ever done. One of her absolute favourite work related activities she enjoys is participating in online meetings....when I saw this it reminded me of her antics!

Hope you have a great weekend.

Arilx

Putting it out there.

Normally I don't have too much problem with coming up with blog content. Occasionally I miss a day if I'm not feeling inspired or I'm in a quiet spell like now. However, I didn't want to be defeated by this yesterday so a new positive approach was called for. Being a bit of an old hippy at heart I decided to put in a request for something suitable with the universe and then step back and let the magic happen. Within a matter of minutes this unusual piece of artwork jumped out at me..... a depiction of trees on pieces of wood forming a tree. As it was outside somebody's house I needed to be quick snapping a photo without looking shifty! 

So there we are with many thanks to the unseen powers that be I got given what I asked for. Perhaps I should try this approach more often!

Arilx

 

76 years on.

 

Way back in the depths of lockdown one of the local golfclubs allowed people to roam freely across its course [in those days when the playing of golf was strictly verboten!]. E and I took full advantage....https://gnatbottomedtowers.blogspot.com/2021/02/on-golfcourse.html 

With the recent marking of Remembrance there was a post on FB that spoke of someone spotting a carved name on the pew in front of them and their upset at hearing the same name read out as one of the fallen only moments later. Suddenly that name became a real person. It reminded me of the piece of graffiti that E had spotted inside one of the wartime pillboxes. Beyond speculating that it was most probably one of the Canadian soldiers stationed near here and from the date on it 26th October 1945 likely to have been waiting to be sent home I didn't do much with it once a quick search failed to come with any matches to the name Gordon Bullock.

On a whim I decided to share my photo on one of our local history groups on Remembrance Sunday because I thought it would be of interest and now that the golfcourse is off bounds again [except to members] most people won't get the chance to see it for themselves. As I so often find with these things...once you take a step like this things take on a life of their own and your reward is that you come away having learnt more. One chap spotted that the surname was actually Bulloch and he forwarded it onto a Canadian geneaology site. 24 hours later we had a response and some of his distant family members were traced. I now know that Gordon was born in 1925 and he did return to Canada, married and had two children. He died in 2001. Amazing that you can find out so much from a tiny scrawl and hopefully his descendants will enjoy this little glimpse of his time here in a small village so many miles away from Manitoba.

Arilx

As calm as a millpond.

I think the phrase "as calm as a millpond" would have not been far out for describing the millpond at our local nature reserve on Sunday. From 1247 there has been a water wheel [to power a grist mill], a cornmill and a blast furnace mill for the iron industry on this site at different times. The photo below shows some of the iron stones that have recently been found during recent renovations.

This 92 acre mixed habitat site was bought by the council for the public back in 1987 and reopened in its present form as a reserve in 2006. Even though it's so close to home I haven't been here for over a year and it's undergone quite a transformation during this time. Nothing is ever static here and I enjoy visiting for exactly that reason.

This is the newly opened discovery hub. The view of the millpond was taken through the huge glass viewing panels they've got facing out over it. On such a cold day it was a real treat to be able to watch the cormorants drying off inside instead of sitting there shivering in the bird hide!

The newly created Shelley garden only has the bare bones of its structure to look at for now. Later down the line it will become a wildlife haven for pollinators. All that green is wild turf which apparently consists of native single flower varieties...for reasons I know not they're better at attracting winged critters than double flowers. It's been named in honour of Percy Bysshe Shelley who was a local lad and supposedly learnt to sail on the millpond.

Another of these fabulous bug hotels even if this one is on a much grander scale than the one we have have here at GBT! They've even recycled the old wooden signs that used to be up before the refurb!

I may have only been out a scant hour and it may have only been a very local trip, but it was the first time [bar for work etc] in over two weeks. Really appreciated feeling well enough again.

Arilx

A bit prickly

 After finding two young hoglets in our garden earlier this month, I've spent the last couple of weeks reading up about hedgehogs and the right way to go about supporting them from people who really know their stuff. I hadn't appreciated just what complicated little creatures they are. I had been labouring under the misapprehension that our prickly friends hibernate all over the winter, but apparently this isn't the case.

At this time of year when natural food is scarce they are in a race to put on enough weight to see them through the cold months. However, not all hibernate and many will need to have a top up feed every few days to build up their fat reserves. There are many things they can't eat, bread and milk being two of the worst things alongside suet, pumpkin and mealworms [some also say fish, but the jury seems to be out on that particular one].  I was concerned that if you "help" them by putting appropriate food out for them on a regular basis you might make them dependent and prevent them from following their natural behaviours, but this isn't the case apparently and they continue to travel and forage. With that worry allayed we have gone for it....one new plastic box [100% recycled plastic though], dishes from the charity shop, wood from home and appropriate complete dried kitten food and we now have our very own cat-proof hedgehog feeding station. We have put it out in the garden well away from the hedgehog house with plenty of clean water outside it so fingers crossed that we might get some prickly visitors!!🦔

As for baby Celia my friend L has been in contact with the wildlife hospital where she was taken in and I'm glad to say that she's doing ok so far. If she makes it then L has said that I can come over and see her be released back into the wild next Spring.

Arilx

One Thing Friday

This dinosaur skeleton cast is at the Natural History Museum. It was found in Hell Creek, South Dakota in 2004 and research upon the bones revealed it to be a new discovery. It is its flat headed skull with the combination of bony knobs and spikes that have got the experts all hot under the collar and its resemblance to mythical dragons has not gone unnoticed....in celebration of this it has now been named "Dacorex Hogwartsia"! [nb this one is real!] If you fancy viewing more highly unusual skeletons then this site might be the place for you....http://www.merrylinmuseum.com/ Sorry to spoil the illusion, but it is actually an art installation [not open to the public] by Alex CF, but there were those who believed it to be true when it was launched.

Have a great weekend.

Arilx

One Thing Thursday

I'm back in Bury St Edmunds today with a rather odd Lloyds Bank sign I spotted. The green is right, but where's the familiar equine? This one with the beehive is its precursor and was the bank's symbol from the 1820s. A quick scrabble round dear old Goggle tells me that it symbolised thrift and industry and the black horse didn't come in until 1884. The bank used both of the symbols until the 1930s.

Arilx

One Thing Wednesday

 

This is one of the doors of the Tudor House Hotel in Tewkesbury. You can still see the gouges left by the Jacobite battleaxes following the coronation of George I in 1714. Sometimes buildings literally do record the scars of history.

Arilx

One Thing Tuesday

 

This rather folorn looking gentleman is known as "Melancholy Man" and is claimed to be London's saddest statue. He stands tucked away largely unnoticed in a niche in Holland Park and I only snapped him in passing as I was leaving. Nothing is known about him except that he's made from limestone and may date from the 16th century. For those who watch "Who do you think you are?" Holland Park was recently featured in the episode about Josh Widdicombe.

Arilx 

One Thing Monday

 Seeing as I've picked up my first cold in over two years I've been confined to barracks these past few days and all plans have had to be cancelled. Rather than scratch around this week for blog content I'm just going to make things easy for myself and show a single photo of something I've seen this year which I haven't shown on here before. Once I can get out gallivanting again normal nonsense will be resumed!

This is the Pillar of Salt in Bury St Edmunds. It is thought to be the first internally illuminated road sign and was designed by the architect Basil Oliver in 1935.  It definitely has an Art Deco look to it, but I'd plump for it looking more like a lighthouse if they'd asked me to name it! Nowadays it's a Grade II listed building.

Arilx

Slip up

This just amused me when I spotted it in London at the weekend....makes a pleasant change from the standard signage warning about slip hazards🍌 Have a lovely weekend.

Arilx