It was Yokes birthday on the 1^st March so we decided a weekend in Cornwall was called for, not quite as luxurious as the last time I took her for a birthday surprise but a nice weekend never the less. The Secret Garden Café were doing a special evening meal on the Saturday so that was booked as the birthday meal. A Middle Eastern Mezze, lots of wonderful tastes and scents to share, the food was excellent and the presentation was lovely. A most enjoyable evening.

Part of the reason for the trip down was to kit Verity out with cold weather clothing her for her trip to Iceland – mission accomplished in Truro followed by the really pleasant evening in Secret Garden - http://www.secretgardencafe.co.uk/ as before I would recommend this café if you happen to be in Truro – really lovely folk and great food  https://www.facebook.com/secretgardencafecornwall made the day a total success.

No trip to Cornwall is complete without a visit to a garden, we planned a trip to Caerhays Castle Gardens, however on this occasion the weather was not conducive so the other favourite location was pulled into play, Eden. To be honest I cannot see myself going to Cornwall and not going to Eden so it was still a good day even the weather was better than predicted – except when we were in the tropical biome and it hammered down outside, a strange sound to hear, heavy rain on the roof while in warm tropical plantings, rainforest without the rain, just the sound effects – works for me !

A few pictures, each time I go I try to find something new I have not seen or photographed before, started outside as the birds were definitly of the opinion that Spring had arrived

Male Goldfinch

Hedge Accentor - or common name Dunnock

Black Eyed Susan

Cherry Blossom

Spathe of a flowering tree - love the pattern

My mum used to grow these - Bizzy Lizzy - but this one is rare and almost extinct on its native island

Litchen with fruiting bodies

Papaya flower with fruit showing

Peace Lily

name to be investigated !

as above !

white eyed finch feeding on nectar

why is it called white eyed - well here is why !

Verity was so happy to find a tree frog - but it would not turn around to give us a front view photo - ah well 

After this we decided that Yoke and I would have a day in St Ives then head back home. Monday is nice and quiet at this time of year so it was a relaxed walk around before heading for home and the mayhem of work on Tuesday, a few pictures – the weather held even though the dark clouds were visible most of the day.

from the car part - looks nice but may get wet

harbour with tide out

waiting for tide to come in

beach huts

was a great windy wavey day and this guy was really cutting the waves he was having serious fun.

Time, its a sod, creeps up on you when you are not looking and them bam it hits you

Just realised its 26 years since I did a tour in the Falklands, I can still remember the landscape and the people, the wildlife and the scenery as well as the grand guys I worked with.

It was a bit of a strange thing to do, I had spent my early time in the Royal Air Force as an Aircraft Engine Engineer on trainer aircraft for the first 5yrs then a bit of fun on Tornado's, the Tri-national squadron where our pilots and navigators flew with German and Italian aircrew to allow them all to work together. That was a lot of fun. Then off to St Athan in ‘sunny’ south Wales, EROS – Engine Repair and Overhaul Squadron, a damn factory, not an aircraft in sight. One day I got told I was off for helicopter training, Chinooks – Wokkas !

Next stop Falklands. For someone who was keen of photography and wildlife it was a bit of a okay thing to do – there was still a bit of ‘fun’ with Argentina playing silly buggers but most of the 4 month tour was 5 min satellite phone calls home each day, flying to remote outposts to take food, mail and drink to the army guys and keeping the Wokkas flying, keeping sane and getting through the time so as to come home.

They all had names, the aircraft, Timmy was the Tristar that took you there and home, Fat Alberts were the Hercules, we used to go to their site in the evening for later supper in Victoria’s bar, Chinooks were Wokka’s, it’s the sound they make. We had our own bar, Lot 22, that was the lot number for the ISO containers that we bought in the auction to make the bar from – silly but it helped.

The islands are so reminiscent of the Scottish Isles but with fewer trees, the wildlife was something else, Striated Caracaras, Turkey Vultures, Kelp Geese, Penguins of all sizes, Elephant seals, Fur Seals, Sea lions. My favourite haunt on my time off was Berthas Beach. Beautiful silver sand, clear blue sky, warm and sunny crystal clear blue sea, dolphins surfing the waves, then out of the water in front of you 30+ Gentoo penguins power out of the waves onto the beach and casually wander in front of you, surreal to say the least. A trip to Sea Lion Island got me pictures of arguing Bull Elephant seals and Fur seals as well as Chinstrap penguins amongst others. Here’s a tip, elephant seals like to lie out on rotting kelp, it gives off heat as it rots, never go downwind of a herd and breath in – its kinda hard to throw up and breath in at the same time – the stench is awesome.

We worked 12hrs on then 12 off then change shift for two months then you had 4 days off then start again till you fly home. Everything was shipped down that was not urgent so food for all was container shipped, storms in the Atlantic ocean often meant the ships were delayed, so,  whats for breakfast? – rice boiled or fried, the ships late! For a vegetarian it made life interesting.

The weather was grand, we had days where it started warm and sunny – went to snow and sleet – went to rain – went back to warm and sunny for the evening and then it looked like someone set fire to the sky. Just a normal day in the Falklands in April.

Having trips over the islands in the Wokkas was fun, drop the tail ramp – put on safety harness and sit with legs dangling out the back going backwards 50 feet up. Through the valleys over the tops and down the other side, there is no amusement park ride that comes even close to that experience. Saw Goose Green and all the other hot spots from the air.

I have to apologise for the lack of photos, I do have some slides but at the moment I cant find them and once I do I have to transpose them to digital, it will happen and I will post them.

This is the only one I can find at the moment a Striated Caracara, now very rare, it was common a bit like the Red Kite. Gone down in numbers for the same reason – morons with guns and poison. I got within 10 ft of this one.   

Apologies – this is a really bad copy via a flatbed scanner from ages ago.

Ah well, I have lots of memories of the trip and would go back on day if I could it is a really interesting place and the light and wildlife are awesome. I guess this was my key time in the Royal Air Force that will always be with me.

February, wet and windy as normal – or in this case way more than normal. Have to say our position here is good, we are not flooded out and while a few trees are down on the local roads they are soon cleared.

There have been a few gaps in the weather where we managed to get out to go for a walk and of course my trusty camera was with me.  We visited a local nature reserve near us called Coed y Bwl. It is well known for the classic true wild daffodil narcissus pseudonarcissus this normally flowers late February or early March – over here in Wales they like it in flower for 1^st March, St Davids day. Me I like it in flower that day as well, but for Yoke's birthday. 

So first week of February and while a lot are showing in early bud no nodding heads ready to open or any actually open. So no luck on that occasion. Fall-back to my favourite subject this time of year Fungi – first time I have seen this to photograph it – common name is Witches butter, Latin name is Exidia glandulosa. 

Then there was this little fella, all on its own and very small and dainty – no common name but while they are notoriously difficult to ID we think this is Mycena galopus var. candida

Then found a patch of these, quite a lot of them in a curve of a large tree that had fallen, I guess it formed a micro climate where the wind went around the curve and back on itself so the spore stayed and the fruits multiplied, a couple of shots – a puffball but one with a stem, Lycoperdon pyriforme

If any of the IDs are wrong, apologies – I sent my ref books to Verity in Falmouth a while back to assist her in her course work, so she did the identification for me from my photos. Thank you Verity

Given how close a few daffs were to opening a return trip this weekend was in order, and lo and behold a single Wild Daffodil in flower – they are very dainty compared to the commercial ones.

And of course there was fungi – Scarlet Elf Cup - Sarcoscypha austriaca

 

Weather started to close in again – so off home to get on with the decorating that I was avoiding while there was a bit of sunshine

Saturday 25th Bath, a Retro day

Had a great day out today, we decided to got to Bath, Yoke, Eleanor and myself. Its a lovely city with lots of very tourist things to see and do - most of which has been photo'd to death but i took a few slightly off beat to the norm shots.

                        Bath Minster from a different view to the standard happy snap

                        
                        Rooftops often get overlooked, but its worth looking up sometimes

                                  

The circus on the way to the Royal Cresent  Its nice and features in many classic dramas

Then you have the Royal Cresent - shame but the Hotel has a lot of plastic up at the moment where the stone is being cleaned - but this sort of says it all really

Around the back of the Roman Baths there are a few nice shops as you head around to Sally Lunns - this was a 1st floor window that had been bricked up - someone had used a ladder to get up and paste this into the frame - why ? dont know, no signature, no slogan, just this. I like it.

It turned into a bit of a Retro day overall with some classic transport seen along side the new rich with their Mercs, Rollers, Astons and Range Rovers

This Lambretta was one of a pair parked up - but this one had the classic two seats, an italian flag coloured wheel cover and helmet - nice 

We went to Ask Italian for lunch - this was the table in the corner - very Sixties - just had to take a shot of it, really great looking in its place

There was some classic dining and some classic music, you really do get a better class of Busker in Bath ! it started out with classical guitarist next to the minster - he was really good, then a brass trio on the way up to the Royal Cresent, they were nice and very uplifting, then this gentleman, classic Rat Pack with a superb voice, he could have been alongside Dean, Sammy and Frankie with Louis playing away alongside.

Really, really good, while I was standing and listening one young lady stopped and when he finished a song she told him she was getting married in June and asked him if he would do a gig for her at her wedding, I hope he does, it will make it a very special day for the guests as well as her very special day that bit more special.

We decided to leave after a last walk about the alleys and headed back to the car, the weather picked up with high winds and driving rain/hail so a good call as we got to the car just before it started.
All in all a really nice day.

Sunny Sunday

So today it was sunny, bit of a surprise after yesterday, heavy rain all day. We took the opportunity to take a walk to the coast, along one side of the valley through the nature reserve and then down to the beach and up the other side and back along the top. The catkins are out now looking fab in the sun

The seed pods of the stinkig Iris - Iris foetidissima are really eye catching with the bright orage seeds against the brown case

Some nice fungi, the first is a common sight, ‘Wood Ear’ – no longer pc to call it Jews Ear, to be honest, Wood Ear sounds better anyway as it grows on wood and under the right circumstances looks like ears on a tree, I cant ID the others as my youngest now has my reference book !

 This one was tiny as you can tell from the club moss growing on the branch with it 

The valley is starting to drain now but it was very flooded and the car park etc. was battered by waves and rocks - oh and yep its an estuary not the sea - thats England on the other side

A lot were taking advantage of the sunshine and the doggies were in heaven, this is a bit of a trial shot, sorry Verity, had to try it – yours is better but I quite like this

Then home to clear up and start on the garden to get ready for the coming growing season, the Hellebores are doing well with lots of buds, we have snowdrops open as well as cyclamen at the moment so some good colour in the garden and the birds have found the feeder out the front – its on a rose arch to help keep the cats away and next to a tree so they stage in on the tree – grab seed and then decamp back to the tree. I will be trying to gets some shots later. That’s it for now.

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 !