Daily Archives: April 24, 2015

Life and Death (continued)

In my last post I mentioned how peaceful it had been when Dexter and I went for a walk yesterday. Having said that, something was preying at the back of my mind. Usually it’s something vulgar.2901_sharon_stone

But not yesterday and I couldn’t put my finger on what I was missing. Dexter and I have just returned from todays stroll in the country and while we were out the penny dropped. While there is a certain amount of livestock farming where we live, sheep, cows and possibly pigs, most of the farming is arable. Today, we walked a broadly similar route to yesterdays but giving a wide berth to where we saw the buzzards. I am very conscious of the fact that the fields and crops we walk through are someones livelihood and  keep to the tracks made through the crops by the farmers tractors. The fields we walked through today are growing oil seed rape which I think is called “canola” in North America. At the moment most of it is in flower. What was missing yesterday and also today was the sound of bees buzzing about pollinating.

Hardly a bee to be seen or heard

Hardly a bee to be seen or heard

I think I heard maybe 20 or so and saw no more than a dozen. Normally, I would expect to see dozens and dozens of ’em flying from flower to flower but not now. I know the bee in Britain is under threat from a mite that can devastate whole colonies in a year. It seems to be even worse this year. A lot of the trees and plants in the hedgerows are in flower now as well and they should be covered in bees but they’re not.

All these flowers and not a bee anywhere

All these flowers and not a bee anywhere

I like bees.bee:wasp

It’s why PIL and I try to have as many bee friendly flowers in our garden as possible and why we have clover growing in our lawn. I am now going to spend a little time looking into what is going on here because if crops aren’t pollinated by bees then the crop fails. No apples, pears, oranges or cherry. No fruit of any kind. It’s the same story with all crops.

I apologise if I’ve ruined your day. If not, then have a great one.

More Dick soon.auto

Life and Death

In my last post I had a bit of a rant about certain slimy creatures and PIL was a bit put out by the effing and blinding that took place. This post however, I’m sure will be a lot more sedate. Talking of swearing and cursing reminds me of my mate Bunsen. For many years Bunsen was a “chock head” in the British Army.

My mate Bunsen. He looks EXACTLY like this

My mate Bunsen. He looks EXACTLY like this

A chock head is what the rest of the army call the Royal Engineers for a very good reason I’m sure. Anyway, Bunsen finished his career in the army as a senior NCO. He is the only man in the history of the British Army to be reprimanded for the “continuous and persistent use of foul and abusive language towards the sappers under his command.” He is also the only man I know to have mislaid a bridge. I would love to have a been a fly on the wall for that conversation!

This is not the subject I intended writing about.

My working week is a bit odd. I start on a Sunday usually and work until Wednesday some weeks and Thursday on others. Sometimes I’m working away from home for days on end. When I’m home though I think most of the lovely people who read my meanderings know that I like to take Dexter out for a nice long stroll in the boonies and have good look around and a poke about in the undergrowth. You have to be careful what you poke though. I once accidentally poked a wasp’s nest.swarmingwasps_0508_445x260

Big mistake! I ran off screaming like a girl but I didn’t get stung which I think is testament to the speed at which I departed the area. Warp factor 10 and a bit!runningbees

Yesterday, we were just strolling along the edge of a field. It was a gloriously sunny day and it was as peaceful as you could wish for. The crops were starting to sprout, some were already in flower, bluebells were springing up all over the wooded areas and hedgerows. The wild garlic was flowering and stopping vampires from pestering me. It was a truly beautiful day. Then rising out of the trees in a display of the most graceful flying I have ever seen were two large birds of prey. The way they swooped and circled each other made me think they were showing off to one another which in turn, made me think that perhaps they were a mating pair and that they had been on the nest so to speak when Dexter and I came along. They moved higher and further along as we walked along and it made me think and hope that maybe in a little while there will be three or four of them swooping about overhead. I certainly hope so. I’m no ornithologist but I think they were buzzards.buzzard1

A twitcher would know what they were immediately although what Tourettes has to do with bird watching is beyond me. I really do hope that they do breed and there will be a few more beautiful birds gracing the air. As a matter of principle Dexter and I will avoid that area for a week or two so as not to disturb them.

A bit further along and a little while later, a movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention. Lots of spiders are now out and about spinning their webs, catching their prey and scoffing it. What I had seen was a fly caught in a web by one of its legs and struggling to escape. The owner of the web had shot out of its lair and was struggling to subdue the fly.5151 Garden Spiderxx

Now despite all the space, right next to this web was another one and in its struggle to subdue the fly, spider 1 must of touched the other web because a slightly larger version of spider1 came rushing out, bit spider 1 and killed it! Nice way to treat a member of your own species I thought. Spiders aren’t that much different to humans after all. While spider 2 was dragging the body of spider 1 back to its hidey hole it, in turn, must have touched another web because a big, black spider suddenly appeared on the scene, bit spider 2 which dropped the carcass of spider 1 and the big bugger dragged spidey 2 back to its dining room for lunch!spider1

Wow! You don’t get to see that every day. I know I keep banging on endlessly about this but today I saw what I hope will lead to new life. I also saw death and nature at its most savage albeit on a small scale and the reason I saw these things, as well as all the other wonderful stuff is because I was looking around admiring the beautiful things our world has to offer us and taking notice of it. To my mind, walking around paying attention is probably the best way to unwind, relax and to realise just how lucky we are. I know I am fortunate to live in the countryside where it’s easy to do this but even in urban areas it’s easily done if you make a little effort.20140617_135825

The fly? It escaped.

I asked PIL to check through this post for me to pick up on any errors. She was extremely pleased there has been no swearing today. Phew. I might get lucky later.

 

 

Have a fucking great day!

More Dick soon.auto