AUTUMN
Cool mists in the morning
The call of wild geese,
Days quickly shorten'd;
End Summers brief lease.
Lying empty, abandoned,
The mud cups that bore,
Young swallows departed;
To Africa's shore.
Bright seasonal colours;
That branches can't keep,
Rainsoaked and trembling,
The Autumn leaves weep.
P. Lunt
Spring is nearly here!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die;
Ever drifting down the stream-
Lingering in the golden gleam-
Life, what is it but a dream?
Lewis Carroll
Had a very successful day fly fishing at Nanerch yesterday, best fish of four; a three and a half pound rainbow.
Last trip there I caught 11 rainbow trout; my best day's catch there over past 5 years, but nothing over a pound and a quarter.
The same day I also managed to fall full length into the lake, precipitated into about four feet of water when the bank gave way under my feet.
Luckily it was a very hot July day so I managed to almost dry my clothes off but drove home just in my waterproof over trousers and tee shirt!
There are some huge horse leeches in this lake I've seen in the recent past so I inspected myself thoroughly I can tell you after my immersion, ugh; just the thought of those huge blood sucking leeches gave me the creeps!
Well we won! our trip down to Cardiff with our neighbours opposite last week by car was pleasant as we travelled via A5 and A49 to Monmouth then A449 and M4
Uruguay initially gave us a scare but scarier still was the takeover of the Millennium stadium by the World Cup Rugby Union. This was very noticeable in the extreme price-wise hikes, minimum ticket prices
£80, £4.20 for a pint of anything!, £1.50 a packet of crisps, £10.00 for a program (normally £5.00)
Just rip-off prices for everything including the hotels, one Cardiff hotel was charging £1000 a night over the World Cup Rugby period.
Worse! no Welsh Regimental Band and no goat paraded, no fireworks, no flame throwers around the stadium, no Welsh Male Voice Choir so, no communal singing of the traditional songs we all go in an hour early to sing like; Delilah, Calon Lan, Men of Harlech, Sospan Bach, Hymns and Area's etc., etc.
The whole program was homogenised and soulless!
The talk in the stadium was that the English Rugby Union had done it to demoralise the Welsh! well, it never worked, it just pissed them of so the following week they went to Twickenham to beat them on their own midden, thanks to Dan Biggars boot!
So, they can swing their chariot as low as they like cos, if they don't beat Australia they are swinging nowhere!
Pond wise I've spent a lot of time outside this last week or so in this welcome Indian Summer and Monday I saw three different dragonflies
first one was one of the huge gold green and black dragonflies followed by a smaller reddish orange one then a more compact blue and black one with large eyes. In fact just by coincidence whilst fishing at the lake yesterday I saw the same first two dragonflies.
With these lovely warm sunny days of autumn there are till plenty of butterflies about as well, several on the last few remaining Buddleia flowers this week.
Another bonus for me this week is I saw my two remaining Rudd swimming around quite happily and feeding for the first time in months since the Heron attack.
The damaged fish has apparently made a remarkable recovery from its life threatening injuries inflicted by the Heron and there doesn't appear to be any visible wounds left around its head.
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die;
Ever drifting down the stream-
Lingering in the golden gleam-
Life, what is it but a dream?
Lewis Carroll
Had a very successful day fly fishing at Nanerch yesterday, best fish of four; a three and a half pound rainbow.
Last trip there I caught 11 rainbow trout; my best day's catch there over past 5 years, but nothing over a pound and a quarter.
The same day I also managed to fall full length into the lake, precipitated into about four feet of water when the bank gave way under my feet.
Luckily it was a very hot July day so I managed to almost dry my clothes off but drove home just in my waterproof over trousers and tee shirt!
There are some huge horse leeches in this lake I've seen in the recent past so I inspected myself thoroughly I can tell you after my immersion, ugh; just the thought of those huge blood sucking leeches gave me the creeps!
Well we won! our trip down to Cardiff with our neighbours opposite last week by car was pleasant as we travelled via A5 and A49 to Monmouth then A449 and M4
Uruguay initially gave us a scare but scarier still was the takeover of the Millennium stadium by the World Cup Rugby Union. This was very noticeable in the extreme price-wise hikes, minimum ticket prices
£80, £4.20 for a pint of anything!, £1.50 a packet of crisps, £10.00 for a program (normally £5.00)
Just rip-off prices for everything including the hotels, one Cardiff hotel was charging £1000 a night over the World Cup Rugby period.
Worse! no Welsh Regimental Band and no goat paraded, no fireworks, no flame throwers around the stadium, no Welsh Male Voice Choir so, no communal singing of the traditional songs we all go in an hour early to sing like; Delilah, Calon Lan, Men of Harlech, Sospan Bach, Hymns and Area's etc., etc.
The whole program was homogenised and soulless!
The talk in the stadium was that the English Rugby Union had done it to demoralise the Welsh! well, it never worked, it just pissed them of so the following week they went to Twickenham to beat them on their own midden, thanks to Dan Biggars boot!
So, they can swing their chariot as low as they like cos, if they don't beat Australia they are swinging nowhere!
Pond wise I've spent a lot of time outside this last week or so in this welcome Indian Summer and Monday I saw three different dragonflies
first one was one of the huge gold green and black dragonflies followed by a smaller reddish orange one then a more compact blue and black one with large eyes. In fact just by coincidence whilst fishing at the lake yesterday I saw the same first two dragonflies.
With these lovely warm sunny days of autumn there are till plenty of butterflies about as well, several on the last few remaining Buddleia flowers this week.
Another bonus for me this week is I saw my two remaining Rudd swimming around quite happily and feeding for the first time in months since the Heron attack.
The damaged fish has apparently made a remarkable recovery from its life threatening injuries inflicted by the Heron and there doesn't appear to be any visible wounds left around its head.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Long has paled that summers sky;
Echoes fade and memories die;
Autumn frosts have slain July.
Lewis Carroll
The trees are about at their best this week colour wise as Autumn slowly transits into early winter. The bright yellow ash and reddish brown of the oaks are now showing in sharp contrast to the dark evergreen of the Douglas fir trees in the woods at the back of our garden, temporary; but pretty in the sunshine.
The change will certainly become more apparent when the clocks go back tonight!
I was on holiday last week and an unpleasant job I came home to was having to bury my largest koi a Doitsu Ogon that had died whilst I was away in Madeira, it had been lethargic and not showing much interest in food over previous three months but showed no outward signs of illness. Its one job I really dislike as you do get attached to them especially as I'd had the koi from 1997.
The good crop of apples this year are steadily being converted into juice over the last few weeks and I've just two trees left to pick the apples from.
I noticed that the last few Comice pears had all been picked and eaten by my neighbour George whilst I was away but its a small price to pay as they actually move into our house to mind our dogs whilst we are away which is much preferable to putting them in kennels when we go away; and we get our house minded into the bargain!
Echoes fade and memories die;
Autumn frosts have slain July.
Lewis Carroll
The trees are about at their best this week colour wise as Autumn slowly transits into early winter. The bright yellow ash and reddish brown of the oaks are now showing in sharp contrast to the dark evergreen of the Douglas fir trees in the woods at the back of our garden, temporary; but pretty in the sunshine.
The change will certainly become more apparent when the clocks go back tonight!
I was on holiday last week and an unpleasant job I came home to was having to bury my largest koi a Doitsu Ogon that had died whilst I was away in Madeira, it had been lethargic and not showing much interest in food over previous three months but showed no outward signs of illness. Its one job I really dislike as you do get attached to them especially as I'd had the koi from 1997.
The good crop of apples this year are steadily being converted into juice over the last few weeks and I've just two trees left to pick the apples from.
I noticed that the last few Comice pears had all been picked and eaten by my neighbour George whilst I was away but its a small price to pay as they actually move into our house to mind our dogs whilst we are away which is much preferable to putting them in kennels when we go away; and we get our house minded into the bargain!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
"Autumn"
A touch of cold in the Autumn night-
I walked abroad,
And saw the moon lean over a hedge
Like a red faced farmer.
I did not stop to speak, but nodded,
And round about were the wistful stars
With white faces like town children.
T.E.Hulme
Wednesday night about 7.30pm Cyn and I saw a beautiful red gold coloured full harvest moon appear over Moel Maen-Efa.
It was such a lovely night, quite mild and clear with just the odd patch of cloud.
We stood in the garden admiring the moonlit scenario for a few minutes as the huge glowing golden orb slowly rose over the mountain top to the backdrop of the twinkling lights of the village in the dark shadows below.
I feel you have got to make the most of these rare magic moments in time.
Moel Maen-Efa is the lower part of the Clwydian range just above Tremeirchion which is the village directly opposite ours across the Vale of Clwyd.
Anybody who has managed the steep walk up there will know it has a large stone 'Triangulation Pillar' clearly visible right on the top.
One unusual bonus? this autumn is the surprising variety of toadstools that have appeared of late; growing in our lawn mainly.
Some like the Shaggy Parasol toadstool appear every summer and autumn but there are some I've not seen before here in the lawn. Examples are, The Miller a common white fleshy variety that grows in grass in the autumn and Field Blewits a common purple stemmed edible variety that's just appeared this year and one of particular interest called Liberty cap that I spotted a few weeks ago growing in a clump in the lawn.
Its quite a tiny insignificant fungi with long stringy pale brown stems around 2" to 3" and little pointy brown caps like a pixies just about a half inch wide.
Normally you would not give it a second glance but this little beauty is one of your so called 'Magic Mushrooms' because of its highly hallucinogenic properties much sought after by the more mind expanding members of our modern society.
This is for its uncanny ability to take you on a foreign trip! without ever leaving your bedroom.
Not tried it, honest; but I know someone who did, many years ago and he's still with us!
Ah miss-spent youth!
Now of course; you just order it from eBay.
In hindsight when I think about it, one possible cause for the rash of new mushrooms and toadstools is this last year we have a new company mowing our lawns and they are most probably bringing new fungus spores on the blades of their mowers!
A touch of cold in the Autumn night-
I walked abroad,
And saw the moon lean over a hedge
Like a red faced farmer.
I did not stop to speak, but nodded,
And round about were the wistful stars
With white faces like town children.
T.E.Hulme
Wednesday night about 7.30pm Cyn and I saw a beautiful red gold coloured full harvest moon appear over Moel Maen-Efa.
It was such a lovely night, quite mild and clear with just the odd patch of cloud.
We stood in the garden admiring the moonlit scenario for a few minutes as the huge glowing golden orb slowly rose over the mountain top to the backdrop of the twinkling lights of the village in the dark shadows below.
I feel you have got to make the most of these rare magic moments in time.
Moel Maen-Efa is the lower part of the Clwydian range just above Tremeirchion which is the village directly opposite ours across the Vale of Clwyd.
Anybody who has managed the steep walk up there will know it has a large stone 'Triangulation Pillar' clearly visible right on the top.
One unusual bonus? this autumn is the surprising variety of toadstools that have appeared of late; growing in our lawn mainly.
Some like the Shaggy Parasol toadstool appear every summer and autumn but there are some I've not seen before here in the lawn. Examples are, The Miller a common white fleshy variety that grows in grass in the autumn and Field Blewits a common purple stemmed edible variety that's just appeared this year and one of particular interest called Liberty cap that I spotted a few weeks ago growing in a clump in the lawn.
Its quite a tiny insignificant fungi with long stringy pale brown stems around 2" to 3" and little pointy brown caps like a pixies just about a half inch wide.
Normally you would not give it a second glance but this little beauty is one of your so called 'Magic Mushrooms' because of its highly hallucinogenic properties much sought after by the more mind expanding members of our modern society.
This is for its uncanny ability to take you on a foreign trip! without ever leaving your bedroom.
Not tried it, honest; but I know someone who did, many years ago and he's still with us!
Ah miss-spent youth!
Now of course; you just order it from eBay.
In hindsight when I think about it, one possible cause for the rash of new mushrooms and toadstools is this last year we have a new company mowing our lawns and they are most probably bringing new fungus spores on the blades of their mowers!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
OCTOBER
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrows wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
Robert Frost
Letting the dogs out for their last constitutional (pee) last night I was impressed by the brightness and clarity of the moonlight on the lawn.
I could see the dogs moving about at the bottom of the garden against the field yet it was only three quarters the size of last Fridays moon, with a chunk missing it's obviously waning.
Excellent advice from Colin regarding winding down to winter in the newsletter this month, I have gone over to Wheatgerm and dried mealworms for now in this milder weather, also been netting leaves out of the pond on an almost daily basis and removing water lily leaves as they yellow. I have also fully flushed the Nexus out at least once a week over the last month to combat the extra autumn detritus.
A caveat to note! rotting leaves/vegetation can quite dramatically alter the balance of your ph.
I set off at nine o'clock yesterday morning on a lovely warm sunny autumn day with good intentions for a long overdue visit to Crewe to visit friends of ours. We travelled in lovely bright sunshine till we got to the other side of Chester and quickly hit fog as thick as pea soup.
We phoned our friends in Crewe and they confirmed my suspicions it was more of the same there so reluctantly I turned back for home.
Luckily the day wasn't wasted though, as it was such a nice day we decided to go to Kinmel Bay beach with the dogs instead.
We've not visited there for some time as dogs are banned from the beach, May to the end of September.
Its amazing how the entire beach has altered shape since our last visit, there are now muddy gullies formed with slimy stony areas with water running through were before it was sand, you have to cross these muddy gullies to get onto the sand bars that now constitute the beach.
Through the summer and up to last Friday we have been taking the dogs to the new beach at Rhos On Sea, I think we will stick with that beach; its much nicer
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrows wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
Robert Frost
Letting the dogs out for their last constitutional (pee) last night I was impressed by the brightness and clarity of the moonlight on the lawn.
I could see the dogs moving about at the bottom of the garden against the field yet it was only three quarters the size of last Fridays moon, with a chunk missing it's obviously waning.
Excellent advice from Colin regarding winding down to winter in the newsletter this month, I have gone over to Wheatgerm and dried mealworms for now in this milder weather, also been netting leaves out of the pond on an almost daily basis and removing water lily leaves as they yellow. I have also fully flushed the Nexus out at least once a week over the last month to combat the extra autumn detritus.
A caveat to note! rotting leaves/vegetation can quite dramatically alter the balance of your ph.
I set off at nine o'clock yesterday morning on a lovely warm sunny autumn day with good intentions for a long overdue visit to Crewe to visit friends of ours. We travelled in lovely bright sunshine till we got to the other side of Chester and quickly hit fog as thick as pea soup.
We phoned our friends in Crewe and they confirmed my suspicions it was more of the same there so reluctantly I turned back for home.
Luckily the day wasn't wasted though, as it was such a nice day we decided to go to Kinmel Bay beach with the dogs instead.
We've not visited there for some time as dogs are banned from the beach, May to the end of September.
Its amazing how the entire beach has altered shape since our last visit, there are now muddy gullies formed with slimy stony areas with water running through were before it was sand, you have to cross these muddy gullies to get onto the sand bars that now constitute the beach.
Through the summer and up to last Friday we have been taking the dogs to the new beach at Rhos On Sea, I think we will stick with that beach; its much nicer
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Forgot to mention but its club night tomorrow night the 4th of November, bring along your raffle prizes (except coffee makers)
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Flushing out my Nexus filter this morning and while the central K1 was on 'rinse' I started to clear up a lot of fallen leaves in my greenhouse and came across a very large fat green frog hiding behind one of my peach tree tubs.
Its good to see them going into the winter hibernation so fat and healthy looking, this one was a whopper.
I found a full grown toad last week inspecting my filter house, no doubt weighing it up for the winter kip, that's the second I've found in two weeks.
If you haven't done it already its a good time to clean and overhaul your bird feeders for this winter.
Also, clean your nest boxes out of all old nest material and then wash them out with a strong solution of Jeyes Fluid as avine ticks and lice can build up and actually kill the nestlings.
There's no need to start feeding the birds yet as there is still a fair bit of live food about for them in this mild weather.
I'm still finding the odd caterpillar in the garden and there are still plenty of other insects about as you saw on Autumnwatch this week.
And whilst on the subject of insects!
We saw an interesting site last Monday morning walking the dogs down by the river Elwy.
On a Sycamore tree trunk and an adjoining wooden fence at the back of the library car park we counted over 40 quite dark ladybirds slowly crawling about in the pleasantly warm sunshine, obviously preparing to hibernate collectively as they do.
Footnote
Today was one of those dank horrible dark days that in the Northern Hemisphere always gets November voted consistently as the most miserable least liked month of the year.
But, look on the bright side! its just 45 days to the shortest day; then-
Its Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its good to see them going into the winter hibernation so fat and healthy looking, this one was a whopper.
I found a full grown toad last week inspecting my filter house, no doubt weighing it up for the winter kip, that's the second I've found in two weeks.
If you haven't done it already its a good time to clean and overhaul your bird feeders for this winter.
Also, clean your nest boxes out of all old nest material and then wash them out with a strong solution of Jeyes Fluid as avine ticks and lice can build up and actually kill the nestlings.
There's no need to start feeding the birds yet as there is still a fair bit of live food about for them in this mild weather.
I'm still finding the odd caterpillar in the garden and there are still plenty of other insects about as you saw on Autumnwatch this week.
And whilst on the subject of insects!
We saw an interesting site last Monday morning walking the dogs down by the river Elwy.
On a Sycamore tree trunk and an adjoining wooden fence at the back of the library car park we counted over 40 quite dark ladybirds slowly crawling about in the pleasantly warm sunshine, obviously preparing to hibernate collectively as they do.
Footnote
Today was one of those dank horrible dark days that in the Northern Hemisphere always gets November voted consistently as the most miserable least liked month of the year.
But, look on the bright side! its just 45 days to the shortest day; then-
Its Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Is there a moment quite so keen;
Or memory so bright,
As light and fire and music sweet
To warm the winters night?
In between the torrential rain showers today we dived out at lunchtime to take the dogs for a quick walk along the river and found the ladybirds still massed on the fence and sycamore tree and spilling onto the black bin alongside.
There looked to be more than ever and more mixed varieties in size and colour, some orange with black spots and some black with orange or yellow spots.
Just amazing that they have been there all week presumably.
The river was very high up its banks close to overflowing and running fast and khaki coloured, the highest I've seen it since early in the year and lots of branches and logs hurtling seawards.
As we walked back to the car we saw a very large black tree trunk at least 30 foot long pass under the stone road bridge and swiftly heading downstream toward Rhuddlan.
That's scary! standing on the bank on The Roe seeing all that floating timber flying past, especially when you think its just three years on the 27th of this month to the devastating floods that hit St Asaph on that fateful tragic night.
It couldn't happen again! could it?
Or memory so bright,
As light and fire and music sweet
To warm the winters night?
In between the torrential rain showers today we dived out at lunchtime to take the dogs for a quick walk along the river and found the ladybirds still massed on the fence and sycamore tree and spilling onto the black bin alongside.
There looked to be more than ever and more mixed varieties in size and colour, some orange with black spots and some black with orange or yellow spots.
Just amazing that they have been there all week presumably.
The river was very high up its banks close to overflowing and running fast and khaki coloured, the highest I've seen it since early in the year and lots of branches and logs hurtling seawards.
As we walked back to the car we saw a very large black tree trunk at least 30 foot long pass under the stone road bridge and swiftly heading downstream toward Rhuddlan.
That's scary! standing on the bank on The Roe seeing all that floating timber flying past, especially when you think its just three years on the 27th of this month to the devastating floods that hit St Asaph on that fateful tragic night.
It couldn't happen again! could it?
Re: Spring is nearly here!
I heard him then, for I had just
Completed my design
To keep the Menai bridge from rust
By boiling it in wine
Lewis Carroll
Walking the dogs yesterday we found what looks like the 30 foot tree trunk we saw on Saturday jammed against a tree root about 2 miles downstream near the bridge into the static caravan park at Rhuddlan.
The river is still high and running fast and coloured, so just two or three of these long logs could cause mayhem again in another storm here.
Another interesting thing we spotted was the ladybirds again still gathering on the fence at the back of the library, not as many as Saturday but its now 11 days since they started gathering there.
The warm weather is still bringing wasps and bees out in the garden and my koi are feeding voraciously.
Completed my design
To keep the Menai bridge from rust
By boiling it in wine
Lewis Carroll
Walking the dogs yesterday we found what looks like the 30 foot tree trunk we saw on Saturday jammed against a tree root about 2 miles downstream near the bridge into the static caravan park at Rhuddlan.
The river is still high and running fast and coloured, so just two or three of these long logs could cause mayhem again in another storm here.
Another interesting thing we spotted was the ladybirds again still gathering on the fence at the back of the library, not as many as Saturday but its now 11 days since they started gathering there.
The warm weather is still bringing wasps and bees out in the garden and my koi are feeding voraciously.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Because of the predicted storm "Abigail" about to flatten and soak us on the BBC weather last night I went out about 11.00pm with a torch to double-check everything was battened down, ship shape and Bristol fashion.
It was a lovely crisp clear almost cloudless night and moonless,
one of those evenings when the stars seemed to twinkle brighter than normal.
Leaned against the pond balustrading gazing up at the stars and trying to identify various stars I heard a 'plopping' sound so I shone my torch in the direction and there's a frog swimming across my Koi pond; they're still active in November!
Still not a lot of the wet stuff fallen here overnight, there was just a steady drizzle at daybreak this morning so much so we drove fairly dry to Warrington early on and it only rained really heavily on the way back at about 12 noon.
And still my koi look for food each mild day but, any day soon I will remove the last of my water lily leaves; they are looking 'end of season' tatty.
I thinned the watercress yesterday, hopefully for the last time this year in the veg filter.
Its grown at a prolific rate over last two months thanks to the unusually warm autumn so I had a good clear out to my compost heap.
It was a lovely crisp clear almost cloudless night and moonless,
one of those evenings when the stars seemed to twinkle brighter than normal.
Leaned against the pond balustrading gazing up at the stars and trying to identify various stars I heard a 'plopping' sound so I shone my torch in the direction and there's a frog swimming across my Koi pond; they're still active in November!
Still not a lot of the wet stuff fallen here overnight, there was just a steady drizzle at daybreak this morning so much so we drove fairly dry to Warrington early on and it only rained really heavily on the way back at about 12 noon.
And still my koi look for food each mild day but, any day soon I will remove the last of my water lily leaves; they are looking 'end of season' tatty.
I thinned the watercress yesterday, hopefully for the last time this year in the veg filter.
Its grown at a prolific rate over last two months thanks to the unusually warm autumn so I had a good clear out to my compost heap.