TauC

Yesterday on the way back from a coffee in Spain, spotted three eagles, a family apparently. Later a large hawk of some sort.

Further south a couple handfuls of swallows, a dozen housemartins, three handful of doves, uncountable tree sparrows plus an unknown feathered beauty.

Today, 8am, haze fading quickly, giving way to another properly relentless pitiless HOT sunshine. No wind no cloud, actually saw two clouds yesterday, one of which was a horrible factory emissions. 34° yesterday dropping to w9° in the evening. Forecast has it for a 12° increase above seasonal average...

Yes, that's Alentejo, where I am taking a well deserved break though not a vacation, given the company. Ah well, can't have it all.

#photography #alentejo #portugal #weather

35° and rising. Very little tad of breeze not enough to cool anything. Shimmer of heat rises from roofs.

Local forecast has it for 38°+ this weekend. Mid September. Swallows and Martins still around. Scores of stork nests of which 2 occupied, one each, the rest empty.

Nearest city is 20 miles away and it has the major oil/facility and port. Pipes, tubes, transporting some sort gas which must be kept at -150° or else the gas will ignite, running above the ground mostly. Just imagine... a tsunami...

#environment #oil #sines #alentejo #birds #storks #nest #sparrow #dove #forecast #photography #smartphonephotography

G'morning... in the shot, top to bottom, Flat Holme, Steep Holme and Anchor Head, from the plane.

Not exactly a holiday really, more like a family meeting of the annoying sort, but then again, older sister bought me a return ticket so...

Tidy weather. Temps around the 32° to 36° mark except in the morning when it barely clocks 12°. Not long now for another roasting lol!

#photography #Portugal #flight #break #holiday #travel #severn #estuary #river

Anyway... at the plot performed the usual irrigation indoors, it needs it, while outdoors all stuff grows madly. As in the carrot shot, is it a one carrots with four tips or a quadruple carrot? dunno, diner will tell.

Tomatoes doing better than expected, they're delicious and tasteful, just like the supermarket ones - NOT! :o)

A bean plant of unknown variety, could be Pinto or Black, only time will tell, also picked some white beans from another plant will use them for next year season.

Picked a bag full of delicious plums, from the community allotment, there's an awful lot of them and hardly anyone wants them.

Left two hours later, forgot to check the track camera, went for a longer cycle return trip passing by alleys, yesterday stopped at a house with a lot of stuff outside, met the person, she said help yourself, so I got two container bins, for i
the kitchen and bathroom, - to replace the two I found in similar situation 3 years ago - one plastic box to make a trailer box with. On this same trip down another alley of all things found... a pasta machine! the sort to make tagliatelle and shaped pasta! in its box,, clean, alongside two large steel pots and a set of cheese cutting tools. And yes, took this and the pasta machine. It is truly amazing what people dumps on pavements. Did I mention a 1960s table with folding wings? It's now being used as painting base....

#photography #smartphonephotography #allotment #tomatoes #beans #grapes #carrots #cycling #recycling #upcycling #painting #table #environment #vegetables

Good morning. I am having an issue - not major - goes like this:

1066 Normans invade Britain, wipe out the Anglo Saxon ruling class, try that on the Britons (future Welsh) and almost did the Scots in.

Tapestry made in France to celebrate that, kept iin France for a thousand years, now loaned to UK which states 'it returns' when it has never been here in the first place.

And what do the locals do? celebrate a massive defeat.

#history #bayeux ##france #UK #invasion #defeat

Been to the plot to do some watering, my own and a colleague's who is on holiday; On arrival met another plotter, has a marvellous Jack Russel by the name of Jack and it is quite lovely despite being a tiny dog which size is not my favourite, I would make a exception with this if I could keep a pet in the flat.

Was taken aback by a flurry on wings and feather in the greenhouse! a dunnock (I think) got in and couldn't get out, so I coaxed it gently towards the door, made it unharmed. Stopped on the ground and looked at me then flew off.

There's a new strawberry crop, oddly enough, I thought they produced one a year. Lots of flowers and three (eaten) strawberries.

As for the grape, a friend who lives 500 metres away has a grapevine I gave him, off a cutting from the very same I have which is not ripening. I think it is because mine faces ESE ad his faces S. Will ponder on this then maybe later in the year will move the vines to a more suitable location.

Will report.

#allotment #photography #smartphonephotography #birds #wildlife #dunnock #grapes #strawberry #jackrussell #dog

Phew! did a dare and been at the plot, trying not to roast myself. Good grief. despite the water shortage and hosepipe ban, the plot looks very very green, outside, needs no watering. everything grows, mostly weeds but also vegetables for food, as by photo.

left the track camera over a couple of days by the old pond, still has some water at the bottom, thought 'something' might show up and be caught on film but the bird is the only decent shot over 890 shots. All the remaining 889 are of moving vegetation. Ah well.

#photography #allotment #landscape #weeds #thrush #pond #wildlife #birds #nature

Shots of La Spezia Castle, italy, taken a couple of years ago during a return trip.

#LaSpezia #Italy #photography #landscape #travel

Splendid!! Human rescues dolphin.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WhatIsTheTea/s/WkCbaJo1R3

#ocean #environment #fishing #rescue #wildlife #dolphins

Plotter asked me to do her plot, OK.

One hour cutting very high and thick grasses of various sorts, including hogweed which I spotted before hitting it so ok.

Large bin full of stuff, mostly charcoal which I will recover. Also a large spider, as in photo, no idea what sort but that white cross and the size made me fidgety so let it be.

#allotment #spider #gardening #photography #smatphonephotography

Can't sleep. Not. Forty winks no longer for as long as.... a few years, since CV19.... not a proper stretch of deep sleep, just maybe 3 hours; go to bed at 11pm, get up about 1am, go for a piss yes - back in, exited REM about 4 or 5 am, bothered, back into Morpheus arms for a while till 6am or so.

Aware of daylight through gaps in the window cover - three gaps - stretch, get up, go to the kitchen, check the clock, have a drink of lemon in water juice plus two or three cloves; in the empty stomach; go back in, fidget about a while then fall asleep.... then - after dreams I can't remember, up and walking. no running here.

Breakfast, two scrambled eggs with sliced mushrooms or sliced tomatoes, pinch of salt, pitta bread made into a pocket stuffed with omelette of some sort.. Then coffee. Then, wake up.

Bothering not being able to sleep properly. Perhaps because am getting old - and I don't like it - perhaps because maybe or not.

Annoying overall. And can't sleep.

#sleep #dreams #breakfast #Morpheus #Cv19

here's a little short story about aliens. picked it off the net.

https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/TheyMade.shtml

#story #aliens #scifi #brilliant

Am now wondering... can't remember if it was here I read that buttercup flowers are no good for pollinators, including bees... now... if that is the case, and there being several score buttercups at the plot, have seen ONE bee, two mosquitos and a fly, over a few weeks, am extrapolating that buttercups could be emanating some noxious chemical which keeps pollinators away, so... what if.. I chop off all the buttercups, leaving marigolds, dandelions and the pollinator friendly blue/purple flowers such as marsh lily and bee lily?

Only one way to find out. will decapitate buttercups.

will report.

#allotment #nature #pollinators #flowers #buttercups #marshlily #gardening

Duh! I ask you! Donned all wet gear, went to the plot and... it stopped raining. Bah!

Two hours trimming the plot and adjacent area, this one to get rid of all yellow flowers, on the grounds that they are presumably not bee-friendly, so went around slowly carefully to keep lillies and orchids which are bee-friendly. So far so good but haven't finished, more tomorrow.

Phew!

#allotment #weeds #buttercups #gardening #photography #bees #lilly #orchids #flowers

Am using 'Plantnet' app, good enough for me. Today spent half an hour in the field taking shots and feeding them to the app with the following results:

Tall yarrow
Small white clover

Wild parsnip

Red osier dogwood

Bee orchid

Meadow buttercup

undetermined species

Oriental iris

common dandelion

Owl head clover

Broad leaved marsh orchid

creeping cinquefoil

creeping buttercup

oak seedlings (bird drops - 3 of them)

a few more to identify. Some are natives, a few are undetermined species so will have to try again tomorrow

Will report.

#allotment #plants #environment #vegetation #trees #flora #orchid #buttercup #clover #dogwood

Am having an argument with a female blackbird... it plunders my strawberries sneaking under the net! Which being old has some gaps.

Feels like it waits for me to show up , gets in through a hole and pecks away, as I approach it goes in and exits by another hole... grrr...

Maybe does it for fun as I left a few plants outside and she just won't have them...

Had one hour trimming session under rain and wind, going carefully around marsh lillies and marsh orchids, and not very close to the ground to avoid chopping frogs and toads.

Yesterday heard, clearly, a toad. In a few days I'll trim it some more.

#photograph #allotment #lilly #orchid #flowers #blackbird #toad #frogs

RE: @euronews@flipboard.com

Here's a paranoiac corporate stooge trying to frighten us; Hardly anyone realizes that if China is producing an awful lot of stuff we use is because EU/US companies have sold them the contracts to do that, they didn't steal anything or forced us to do so.

Have one sunflower, late flowering, one seed came up with 8 - eight! - flower heads! and it is hardly 2 foot high! neighbour has one as well, also many heads and 10 foot tall... this just 20 metres apart....

Otherwise easy as it goes, grapes are slowly ripening but I noticed that blackbirds are at it and eating it before I get to it, so covered the plants with a green netting.

One bean plant of unknown as yet variety is growing as if it were the last day of life on Earth, huge it is and beginning to show bean pods. Another - butter beans - hardly anything, maybe I have 6 or 7 butter beans off it so will keep them for next season.

Spud Report: yay! half a dozen found potatoes, cut in half with rootlets, planted a month ago and they are showing signs of life. Have another bag of potatoes -- off lidl -- in the shed just about right to be split into as many pieces as there are rootlets and soon to be planted outside.

Tomatoes in pots also ripening - and I just can't help it to pick them as they ripen - delicious - have moved them indoors greenhouse for temperature's sake. ( photos later).

A suivre

#allotment #beans #sunflower #birds #tomatoes #environment