Nature notes

I made mention of a fungus that is attacking ash trees and causing a condition known as ash die-back, this proving fatal to the tree in the majority of cases.  I expressed some surprise at the comment in newspaper reports that this could put at risk some 30% of the broad-leaved woodland in England as I had no idea that the ash comprises such a high proportion of our trees.  Yesterday I enjoyed my first walk in Stanmer woods for several weeks.  I have kept out of the woods partly because we have so much rain and the dog attracts mud like pigs attract flies.  Yesterday, however, I decided that the wind would have dried the paths to some extent and off we set.  I took particular note of the variety of trees: beech, oak, chestnut, hazel, ash, sycamore, field maple, holly, yew and several I did not recognise.  What did surprise me was the high number of ash trees in those parts of Stanmer Great Wood where the trees were mixed.  Granted, there are parts - sometimes quite extensive parts - where a good 90% of the trees are beech.  Indeed, there are patches where all the trees are beech.  There are also patches of mixed hazel and chestnut with an occasional oak.

Which reminds me.  Although ash die-back has been in the news recently, the oak, beech and larch are also suffering from fatal diseases even though I can't remember what they are.  I must enjoy our woods while I can.

~~~~~

We do get quite a variety of birds in the garden.  Regular visitors include house sparrows, hedge sparrows, wrens, blue and great tits, robins, blackbirds, starlings, wood pigeons, collared doves, rooks, jackdaws, magpies, jays, herring gulls, chaffinches, goldfinches, greenfinches - and probably others I have overlooked.  I don't spend a lot of time gazing out of the windows, but most days I glance out from time to time and perhaps spend a minute or two watching what is going on.  It is the greenfinches that puzzle me; they are not as green as I seem to recall from days gone by, being more of a dull olive.  Indeed, if it were not for the yellow flash on the wings they could be mistaken for slightly off-colour female house sparrows.

~~~~~

Talking of looking out of the window, I did so while I was at the kitchen sink washing up the breakfast things and noticed that the sun was shining brightly on the fields across the valley.  Every field was a bright green, right up to the ridge.  Even the copse on the ridge was in sun, but the sky behind was a deep purple-grey.  It was a dramatic picture but I knew that by the time I had put the battery back in the camera and got up to the bedroom window, the scene would have changed.  In fact, I might have managed it.  Curses!

~~~~~

When I am working in the garden, a robin frequently serenades me from the cherry tree.  Either that, or he comes to watch what I am doing.  This, of course, is the European robin which, at 5 to 5.5 inches long, is somewhat smaller than its American cousin.

The best duck joke ever

 Well, that's how it was described to me.



A duck walks into a pub and orders a pint of beer and a ham sandwich.  The barman looks at him and says, "Hang on! You're a duck."

"I see your eyes are working," replies the duck.

"And you can talk!" exclaims the barman.

"I see your ears are working, too," says the duck.  "Now if you don't mind, can I have my beer and my sandwich please?"

"Certainly, sorry about that," says the barman as he pulls the duck's pint.  "It's just that we don't get many ducks in this pub.  What are you doing round this way?"

"I'm working on the building site across the road," explains the duck.  "I'm a plasterer."

The flabbergasted barman cannot believe the duck and wants to learn more, but takes the hint when the duck pulls out a newspaper from his bag and proceeds to read it.

So, the duck reads his paper, drinks his beer, eats his sandwich, bids the barman good day and leaves.

The same thing happens for two weeks, then one day the circus comes to town.

The ringmaster comes into the pub for a pint and the barman says to him, "You're with the circus, aren't you? Well, I know this duck that could be just brilliant in your circus. He talks, drinks beer, eats sandwiches, reads the newspaper and everything!"

"Sounds marvellous," says the ringmaster, handing over his business card.  "Get him to give me a call."

So the next day when the duck comes into the pub the barman says, "Hey, Mr. Duck, I reckon I can line you up with a top job, paying really good money."

"I'm always looking for the next job," says the duck.  "Where is it?"

"At the circus," says the barman.

"The circus?" repeats the duck.

"That's right," replies the barman.

"The circus?" the duck asks again, "with the big tent?"

"Yeah," the barman replies.

"With all the animals who live in cages, and performers who live in caravans?" says the duck.

"Of course," the barman replies.

"And the tent has canvas sides and a big canvas roof with a hole in the middle?" persists the duck.

"That's right!" says the barman.

The duck shakes his head in amazement, and says .. . .











"What the heck would they want with a plasterer?"

~~~~~

The Upper Lodges, Stanmer Park, are surrounded by trees.

We did remember, remember the fifth of November

So that's all over for another year - bar the shouting.  The weather was fine and the display went ahead with no real problems.  As always, there were minor hicccups;  as always, these were caused by the cricket club imposing changes without consulting us.  Having been on my feet selling tickets from 3.00 till 8.00 (although the display had already started by then) I did my knee no favours, although I did not notice until I got home.  This morning, a couple of paracetomol and a 45 minute walk with the dog seem to have sorted things out.

We had our first real frost of the winter this morning.  I say "real" because we did have a slight touch of white one morning last month.  Today's effort was enough to cause me to slip as I walked to the park but I managed to stay upright.

I finally got around to checking who is standing for election as Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex.  As I fully expected, none of the candidates is known to me.  There are five of them; one independent and one each representing the major political parties - Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and United Kingdom Independence.  And this is supposed to be an apolitical post?  I'm not at all sure I will be bothered to vote.

~~~~~

A picture I took yesterday illustrates perfectly the description by Hilaire Belloc: "And along the sky the line of the Downs so noble and so bare".  The pointed hill on the left is Firle Beacon while on the right is Castle Hill.

Grandchildren

I suppose I could start by saying that it was a grand weekend but that would be a really diabolically poor attempt at a pun.  You see, we have had the pleasure of seeing all three of our grandchildren over the last couple of days.  On Saturday afternoon I came home from delivering the last of the fireworks tickets (of which a little more later) to find my elder son and his two boys sitting at the table with the Old Bat playing happy families.  Given that Max is not quite six and until recently had the attention span of a dormouse, he really does get on very well with this game.  Indeed, I was told later that playing it was his idea.  Mind you, with hands the size of his, he does have a problem holding his cards.  After happy families we moved onto snap with me playing as well.  Then it was pairs, but by now Max was starting to get fidgety.  Ben, at 9, was perfectly able to sit still to play.  Max eventually succumbed to tiredness and we had tears but he stopped crying when it was suggested he should find the dog's one and only indoor toy and give it to her before he left for home.

Yesterday we were delighted to have younger son and Emily (5) visit us for dinner.  She is a proper little chatterbox and really keeps me amused very well.  Her delight is in helping me to feed the dog and yesterday, for the first time, I let her put the (heavy for her) food bowl on the floor.  The problem is that Fern (the dog) always wants to start eating before the bowl actually reaches the floor so I had to hang on to her until Emily was clear.

I appreciate that the foregoing is entirely egotistic - but what blog isn't?  Anyway, I threatened more about fireworks tickets.  It was a few years back that I signed Brighton Lions Club up as a PayPal member so that we could sell tickets for our fireworks display through our web site.  The first year we sold over £1200-worth that way but since then our on-line sales have dwindled, falling to between £200 and £300.  This year they have shot back up to over £1000.  What surprises me is the adult/child ticket ratio.  I would have expected this to be about 50:50 but for each child's ticket sold, I have sold 4 adults' tickets.  It is noticeable, too, that we get many young adults - in their 20s - come to the display, as well as families, groups of teenage schoolchildren, and even old age pensioners!

Fortunately, the weather forecast appears to be right.  We have a fine day with little or no wind.  I just hope it stays that way.

~~~~~

As this is Bonfire Night I'll show you a picture I took at the display about three years ago.

Old crocks

And no, although it may well be appropriate, that title does NOT refer to the Old Bat and me.  I am, instead, talking - well, typing about veteran cars.  Today sees the annual London to Brighton old crocks run, or Veteran Car Run to use its official title although everybody I know still calls it old crocks.  Remember Genevieve, the film with the Larry Adler harmonica theme music?  I can't say I do as I never saw it.

It was way back in 1896 that a law was passed raising the speed limit from 4mph to 14mph and removing the need for a man on foot to precede any "horseless carriage".  (It was two years later that the requirement that the man on foot carry a red flag was abolished.)  Anyway, to celebrate this marvellous new freedom, a group of motorists set out to drive from London to Brighton, thus establishing the annual tradition.-

All cars taking part - and the number is restricted to 550 - have to have been manufactured before 1905.

I did feel sorry for the participants when I saw the weather this morning - wet and windy.

Luckily - provided it is accurate - the forecast for tomorrow evening is good with a less-than-5% chance of rain.  Tomorrow, of course, is Bonfire Night when we celebrate the fact that a terrorist plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill the King was discovered before it could be put into practice.  That was in 1605.  Brighton Lions hold our biggest fund-raiser on Bonfire Night, a fireworks display.  I hope I'm not tempting providence when I remark that during my 25 years as a member of Brighton Lions Club we have only once had to cancel the display because of rain.

~~~~~

I'm still posting pictures from my walk across the Downs some days ago.  After taking yesterday's photo, I turned round and spotted a hang glider, albeit one with non-standard equipment.

Some of his antics looked quite scary to me - this picture doesn't lie!

First Saturday

Being as it's the first Saturday in the month, Brighton Lions have their book fair this morning and I'm scheduled to be on duty.  I'm going to take the fireworks tickets just in case.

~~~~~

That walk I had over the Downs the other day produced several pictures.  Just to the left (or roughly south) of the copse we saw both yesterday and Thursday is the Chattri, the spot where were the funeral pyres for the Indian soldiers who died of wounds in Brighton during World War I.  (The white blobs are sheep.)

Spam

Up until just a couple of weeks ago I could reckon on receiving 20, 30, 40 or even 50 or more spam emails every day.  Granted, my ISP managed to sort them pretty well and only the odd few would not go straight into the spam folder.  Although I knew that occasionally, just very occasionally, an email that was not spam could end up in the spam folder, I seldom bothered to look there.  But now, all of a sudden, I find that the quantity of spam has diminshed and I receive only a handful, usually fewer than five, a day.  And not one of them offers me free money to use at a casino or a fake Rolex watch or the solution to all my problems in the bedroom or pictures of bored housewives.  Almost without exception they are comments which have been posted on my blog by somebody called Anonymous.

Now, I do find it a bit of a drag having to go to the right place to delete all those spam comments.  OK, I know it's not difficult, nor is it exactly time-consuming, it's just a drag.  And I know I could quite easily stop Mr (or Mrs, Miss, Ms or Mx) Anonymous by requiring people posting comments to use word verification.  But that irritates commentators, so I won't go that way.  I'll just live with the spam.

Talking of spam, or rather Spam, reminds me that I haven't seen it around for a long time.  Is it still produced, I wonder?  Ghastly stuff, but we were very grateful for it when "proper" meat was either too expensive or just not available.  I can still remember my mother serving a meal of it: Spam, boiled potatoes and (I think) tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce.  Did we really think of it as a substitute for ham?  Which leads me to another memory.

It was in 1950 - or maybe 1951 - that I contracted pleurisy and was, quite literally, at death's door.  When I started to recover, I said I would like a ham sandwich.  Back then, ham was a luxury and quite why I asked for it I cannot imagine.  Did I really recall the taste of such a rare delicacy?  I doubt it.  Of course, there was no ham in the house, nor any chance of buying some.  My mother must have asked neighbours if they had any but none did.  One, however, who lived on the other side of the road and several houses along, had a chicken which was offered.  In those days chicken was as much a luxury as ham so it must have been quite a sacrifice on her part.  Nowadays chicken is considered a cheap meat.

Ah well, such is the passage of time.

~~~~~

The same copse as yesterday, this time as seen from the bedroom window this morning.