Spring is nearly here!

Advice on Koi,Ponds and Equipment
pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

The colder, wetter weather of autumn brings its attendant problems and one is the inevitable head cold of winter!
I started mine off on Thursday morning after our Koi club meet, held on a cold wet Wednesday night. By the following Tuesday I had graduated to Pneumonia, duly treated with Doxycycline antibiotics that made me very nauseous and giddy, not a good fortnight this last one!
A strange combination of weather this autumn has led to some strange phenomenon of late, the remnants of hurricane Ophelia has just raged through leaving more chaos in it's wake.
As it swept through on Monday morning, the combination of smoke from raging bush fires in Portugal and red dust from a desert storm in the Sahara led to a strangely leaden purple sky and a red haloed sun, see pic. below.
This photograph was taken at 11.45am on Monday morning, almost mid-day without a filter! that's how murky the sky was.

I picked the last dozen Marjorie's Seedling plums yesterday and the last 6 Comice pears of the season, still plenty of apples left unpicked though, I've a feeling the birds will get most of them now.
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pollygog
Posts: 617
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Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

Still not shaken off my persistent cough and still don't feel 100% despite various tests and visits to Drs surgery, I suppose its the inevitable penalty of old age.
Life at times seems filled more with downs than ups and this past month appears that way.
Another one of those inevitable, unavoidable and extremely unpleasant decisions was made this morning when we had to take our very sick little dog Hamish to the vets to be 'put to sleep'. He just made 14 years old this month!
"Grasping the Nettle" was hard!
Despite his relatively short stay with his first owners before being dumped at 6 months old on the M58 Motorway, our comfort from this is that from that traumatic day for him in April 2003 when I found him, he has had a good life in a caring home.
The last picture of him below is happily wading in one of his favourite spots in the Elwy with his little mate Lottie this summer.
Such as memories are made, they give you unconditional devotion regardless and tangle themselves irrevocably around your heart!
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Hamish and Lottie August 1917.jpg
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roselanekoi
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Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:38 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by roselanekoi »

Sorry to hear that you've had to have the dog put to sleep, it's always very upsetting when you've had a pet for a long time.

Good to hear that you're recovering if slowly, I'd hate to hear that Cynthia has had to take you to the Vets.
pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

Thank you for those kind words Colin, much appreciated just now, only a fellow dog owner can understand that close connection, the bond forged over the long years through hundreds of walks and hundreds of pats and strokes and appreciative licks.
Nostalgia, from the Greek; literally means, 'the pain from an old wound,' it's a twinge in your heart that's far more powerful than memory alone!
And that's all we are left with, memories, and the blue lead and halter left hanging in the cupboard!
pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

OCTOBER

Across the land a faint blue veil of mist
Seems hung; the woods wear yet arrayment sober
Till frost shall make them flame; silent and whist
The drooping cherry orchards of October,
Like mournful pennons hang their shrivelling leaves
Russet and orange; all things now decay;
Long since ye gathered in your autumn sheaves,
And sad the Robins pipe at set of day.
Siegfried Sassoon

IN MEMORIAM OF SUE; A VERY SPECIAL LADY.
pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

October has to be one of the most fickle months!, the weather can be so changeable, below are pic's I took on the 28th Oct.2008. We were caught out coming back from a trip to Betws-y-Coed, having gone to see the Swallow falls in spate after heavy rain. Toward lunchtime the sleet suddenly turned to snow that got thicker and faster as we travelled back across the Denbigh moors via Llyn Brenig. It was so unusual to see so much snow so early, we sent in the pic's to Derek Brockway the BBC Wales weatherman and he used the Llyn Brenig picture as a background on the weather forecast that night, so, a few million people have seen it already! Look familiar?
The second pic. of the still occupied Sportsman's has a pregnant? snow woman outside, its a sad site today when you drive past, neglected and abandoned!
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Llyn Brenig 28th October.jpg
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Sportsmans Denbigh Moor October.jpg
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pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

Hither and thither along the ways
I and another used to know
In backward days.
Thomas Hardy
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Lottie and Hamish.jpg
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Last edited by pollygog on Wed Nov 08, 2017 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

Hither and thither along the ways
I and another used to know
In backward days.
Thomas Hardy


Another uncomfortable task accomplished last Sunday, scattering our little dog Hamish's ashes by the viewing platform in the Elwy (pictured above). He spent many happy times wading there so we thought it an appropriate place.
A round trip to Sandbach to have him cremated the week before was not pleasant either but needs must!
Posted below is my favourite picture of him, an alert, intelligent, loveable rascal! with his little mate Lottie.
roselanekoi
Posts: 307
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:38 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by roselanekoi »

I see some of our winter visitors are back. This afternoon I've been watching a small flock of fieldfare stripping all the berries off the holly tree at the bottom of the garden.

If you go by the old saying that lots of holly berries forecast a hard winter, yesterday we were going to have a hard winter but tomorrow it's going to be a mild winter.
pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

Very strange coincidence you should post your article about the holly tree in your garden Colin but we have had the biggest crop of holly berries by far this year on the holly tree growing through our hedge, literally masses of berries. However and surprisingly early this year, the birds have stripped every berry off through October and early part of November.
They finished them all off just a week ago. The usual suspects! about a dozen Fieldfares, the same in Starlings and Blackbirds and three Redwings that turned up the last week in October during a particularly rough and windy week. I was feeling rough myself then so didn't get any pic's. For a couple of days the Redwings moved on to the masses of Cotoneaster and Viburnum berries in our garden closer to the house, but next doors noisy grandkids visited and played out in the garden, that soon moved them off.
Last night about ten thirty we let our dog out for her last pee as usual, it was a particularly mild night with just a hint of rain about and just by the back step sauntering across the damp flags was a very large plump newt, a Great Crested to be exact. I rushed in to get my camera and discovered that both my camera batteries were flat! oh well, you win some.
Down at the Elwy St Asaph last Friday I saw a rare sight, two male Goosanders and three Females in company with twenty six Mallard and no camera with me!
It was this time last year the Waxwings turned up on the Rowan berries on the Roe St Asaph, in company with the rare Black Throated Thrush that had the twitchers entranced for quite a few weeks right through Christmas!
What ho this year, I'll be pleased if just the waxwings turn up.
Good year for butterflies this year, anyone noticed? I have one of their favourite flowers in the garden, Buddleia; they also love over ripe plums, plenty of those about this year too!
Below is a newly emerged Red Admiral, a lovely sight to see.
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Red Admiral on plum tree 2017.jpg
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