Ummm?

[Ed]

My wife was sitting reading the village newsletter, and suddenly exclaimed, in a Chandler Bing type way, "Oh -- my -- God."

Which prompted the reaction, "What?  What?  What is it?" from me, because the village newsletter doesn't ordinarily provoke more than a lengthy yawn and, depending on your age, sudden loss of consciousness, or possibly a bout of flatulence.  The latter may well be down to nothing more than sychronicity, though.

Anyhoo, it turns out that her outburst was caused by reading 'Notes From the Observatory' - kindly written and sent in by one of the good people of the village - nay, the world.  And was in response, it turns out, to the fact that somebody could be so concerned with branches, slugs, snails and birds to actually find time to do these things, let alone write a report about them

And now, without further ado, I give you the 'Notes From The Observatory'   Woo-hoo...

NOTES FROM THE OBSERVATORY


~
.
I


Vernal Equinox - 20 March 2006
The New Year opened with a few mild weeks. 18 January was particularly mild at 11.7C (53F), but Winter returned a few days later. 3 February was a thoroughly miserable day, dull and grey with the temperature staying below freezing point all day. Apart from a few warmer days, a persistent cold Easterly wind made this Spring a late one. We have had 14 days of frost so far this year with a minimum of minus 5.98C (22.8°F) on 10 February. Rainfall this year has been about half that for the same period last year.
Fortunately our village did not have the snow of other parts of the realm. The sun is getting higher in the sky. Out of the wind it is now quite warm, but we are well below last year's temperatures. In rnid-March 2005 the daytime temperatures climbed to over 15°C or the mid 60sF. Despite the cold, Hazel catkins opened in profusion and were a brave sight along Bunford Hill and Hollow in late January. A few Celandines opened in the coldest spell but other signs of Spring are still to be seen. Hedges remain in their winter brown with little sign of greening so far.


In the garden I have had visits from Coal Tits, a flock of Long-tailed Tits and a Green Woodpecker. A wader, possibly a Jack Snipe, paid a brief visit. I have had a report of a flock of Siskins, accompanied by a Redpoll, in the village. Collared Doves and Wood Pigeons descend every morning to have their share of bird food.


Birds feed in very different ways. Blackbirds seem to spend more time in chasing each other than feeding whereas Starlings descend in a crowd onto the scraps, ignoring each other and getting on with the important job of eating. Robins and Dunnocks emerge from cover, peck a few times and then retire to the safety of a hedge. My Robins are more wary of humans than Blackbirds. A Blackbird came to feed from my hand last year. The temptation was cheese.


The first lot of frogspawn appeared in my small pool on 18 February. Some very cold weather froze the frogspawn but on 20 March frogs appeared in the pool and replaced the first frozen mass. I was astonished at the number of frogs that had found their way to an enclosed pool.


Slugs and snails are not most people's favourites. A few years ago I marked some wintering snails with a dab of paint to follow their progress in the garden. Later in the year I was surprised to see that some had moved about fifty yards from their winter quarters. Some large slugs have quite beautiful markings, especially those that live in damp houses. I had a family of such creatures living under the kitchen sink of a damp cottage. At night they would emerge, sail across the kitchen floor and drink from the cat's milk bowl. They were a pale fawn in colour with dark brown and pale green specked markings, quite attractive and harmless.


In a January gale a large Elder branch was blown down. I wondered if it had a low water content, as the sap had not risen. By weighing pieces of the branch over several weeks I found that it had water content of 50%, a surprisingly high figure for winter wood.


Saturn is still a prominent feature of the sky at night, in the south at bedtime. It will steadily move west to be replaced by Jupiter over the next few months. Mars and Saturn will come together in the South-Western sky in early June. The sun is climbing to a June summer high of 62° compared with 16° in December and 38° at the Spring Equinox.


AN ADDITION TO THE POST BOX ARTICLE


/


A year ago when the Post Box was rather peremptorily removed from the wall near Wyvern Close, local 'Parishioners' had a lively exchange with the Bristol Office before a pole-mounted replacement was sited on the grass area just opposite. Last collection is now scheduled at 16.00hrs (4 OOpm) but the box is also regularly cleared at 12 noon. Saturday is also 12 noon.

[Ed]

The scandal of it all

[canadian]

Slugs and snails are not most people's favourites. A few years ago I marked some wintering snails with a dab of paint to follow their progress in the garden.

In a January gale a large Elder branch was blown down. I wondered if it had a low water content, as the sap had not risen. By weighing pieces of the branch over several weeks I found that it had water content of 50%, a surprisingly high figure for winter wood.

Oh, the joy of having so much time on one's hands, eh?

Reading this reminded me of all those Vicar of Dibley episodes I watched this past winter. Bucolic countryside days when there's not much else to concern yourself with than what time the post gets collected. 

[SharonBell]

This is the part that sent my pulse racing:


"...The first lot of frogspawn appeared in my small pool on 18 February. Some very cold weather froze the frogspawn but on 20 March frogs appeared in the pool and replaced the first frozen mass. I was astonished at the number of frogs that had found their way to an enclosed pool..."

Not only lots of time on one's hand, but also a rather low threshold for astonishment. This person would have a heart attack in my neighborhood!

[Ed]

Funny, isn't it - on the same day Donna's neighbours are turning up shot dead in the woods, Ed's are wittering on about painted snail migration, frogspawn and the weight/water content of fallen elder tree branches

This most definitely is England around here   Pastoral, or what?

[NaNa tear doll]

 :scratch:well that was pretty retared