Christmas 2013 and New Year 2014 - say hello to a grand new year

Well Christmas and New Year was a bit messed up – work got in the way. Ah well it does not happen all that often and while the timing was lousy – that’s how it goes. My apologies to all my family for my absence on numerous occasions and the late night conf calls that disrupted our holiday.

So apart from that, we had a lovely time. We went to Falmouth to pick up youngest to bring her home for Christmas, travelled to Lincoln to drop of Hampers of home made goodies, saw family and then came home with Yokes mum to have some time here with us over Christmas. Having Eleanor home on Boxing day with her boyfriend plugged the final family gap so we had a day with all four of us at home, all in all a great family time despite the interruptions.

We managed to get out for a walk at Southerndown on Christmas day to show Yokes mum the sea, bit of a tradition, it was pre ‘storms’ so took a few photos with Verity. 

                          Shooting into the sun - gives a great black and white effect 

                            Big waves - seriously impressive, the power of the sea

                      Always some nutter who likes to play - think he had lots of fun that day

                                        The Ice Tower in the walled Garden there

 Honey Fungus - this is under the bark and what kills the tree in the long run, by the time you see the fruiting bodies its way too late

                   Tresillian bay in the distance, the rock formations are great - Lias Limestone

We took Yokes mum home to Lincoln for her birthday party with her friends. Then we took Verity back to Falmouth. A long drive done every weekend from the week before Christmas until the week after Christmas, loads of miles, but worth every one of them to see everyone and be close for a short time.

Decided to leave Verity to re-connect with her friends on the Sunday of the weekend we drove to Falmouth to drop her off at Uni, Yoke and I went to Eden before driving back home, might have mentioned this before but, we love Eden there is always something to see and photograph, we have gone there every year since 2002 looking at my photo records, I think we did go in 2001 but cant find any photos on my computer so will have to search my archive. On this day I finally managed to get the classic tree frog in a bromeliad shot. You always see it on wildlife programmes but never really expected to get it but here it is, how cute is that ? 

Then there are all the usual suspects - there was story telling going on in the Med Biome, the children love it and to tell the truth I think a lot of the adults do as well - reminds them of when mum and dad told them stories - this guy was the 'support' he sang background songs and played the incidental music, it was really nice

The Roul Roul's top one is Female - bottom one Male, there used to be three of them when we first spotted them - i think today there are 8-10 of them at least as they are free ranging and breed in the biome.

Part 1 of the aerial walkway is in - the photo was taken from the highest vantage point, not for those that dont like heights it is a walkway suspended on wire and is grating type of metal so you can look down between your feet to the tree tops below - oh and it sways as you climb the steps up to it

A couple of flower studies and as its a new year - New Life 

New life need the nutrients of old life so here are some of the team that put the food back into the cycle for the next generation - these micro fungi are so important and so overlooked normally

and finally no visit to Eden is right without at least 1 lizard 

The weather for the drive back was torrential rain so it was a bit of a ‘stormy’ evening, we have not suffered any flooding where we are but I can see why lots of people have, all that rain has nowhere to go as we seem to delight on building houses on floodplains. Hey guess what, they are called that for a reason ! Ah well it’s the future, all these years and yep its global warming, remember we said so 20 years ago, no one listened except the ‘nutters’, and eco freaks, smile and say I told you so !