leaf beetle

....a leaf beetle with red legs and thorax (gastrophysa polygoni) which usually lives on knot grass rather than french windows; a beetle's Everest pehaps.

life

Spot
A brief splash
In the pond of life
Think a while
Log off
Farewell

holidays

My owners (aka mum and dad) are off on their holidays. Fiona and John are coming to look after us, this usually means long walks, staying out late at night and generally heaps of fun. However, it also means no access to the computer. It is almost a year since I started writing this blog, and I have enjoyed doing it but I want to spend more time doing my own thing, getting lost and bullying rabbits. I have learnt a lot in the last year, not every day is my birthday and I don't always get the presents I deserve. I can now count up to 420. Also the number of people with the time to visit my blog is getting very small. I will probably post a few pictures of autumn in deepest Cornwall next month but then I plan to say farewell, adieu to all my fans and lurch off into the future.

I may make a year book of all the pages and put it on a CD available on request, or I may not!

lots of logs and kisses

Spot

Admin note:- Spot may be confusing fans with fan.

with lots of logs and kisses

...and in celebration we got together for this little montage to say thank you and keep up the good walking and feeding. 

autumn

...we know what's coming even though it is still very warm and humid. Mum was 420 years old today, but she is still full of the joys of Spring. 

more fungi

these fungi look like fried eggs but are best not eaten by dogs. 

brotherly love

.... on a happier note, I suppose sisters aren't so bad. 

road rage

Killed by contingency, run over today on this quietest of quiet country lanes, by someone on the school run or going to the hairdressers, or the golf club, or the pub. Tail degloved. It is ironic that you have banned hunting and yet continue to mow down tens of thousands of small mammals and birds on the roads. Vermin, of course. Like badgers. Wipe them all out and return the country side to cattle and maize as it should be, in acres of grass desert. And keep the speed limits at 60 mph.

more mysterious fungi

why is it so difficult to identify these organisms? Found in mixed deciduous and conifer woods by side of path, probably growing on dead wood.

cornish vultures

young buzzard enjoying the uplift on the edge of the valley in the strong southerly wind. 

Harriet

Harriet needs more food, and was cross that she wasn't allowed to eat the caterpillar. 

she caterpillars

...it has been rather dull recently apart from not very windy ex Hurricane Gordon passing us by and blowing a few caterpillars out of the trees. I am not sure which species this handsome chap belongs to; on reflection I suppose it could be a female, do caterpillars have a sexual orientation, and how would you tell? 

and what is this?

...it is nothing to do with me. It could be an early puff ball, but it feels very solid. It has not been attacked by anything yet.

gymnopilus

Was this the mushroom that Erik Satie had in mind ? Deep in the beech woods, far from the light. OK I know, but how do these things get their names (naked hair of junonius)??

heron fishing

this heron was fishing by our favourite spot on the Tamar; unusually it took no notice of us at first and then lazily flew off up to a small perch high in the trees. The last picture gives a good impression of the true size of this scene and the cathedral like effect of the tall trees by the river.

Hawthorn

another shrub with profuse berries this year. 

come down and fight me

one of whose berries may well be in the jaws of these cheeky chap who insisted on running through the branches over my head. They never come down for a fair chase and punch up. Is it my imagination or are grey squirrels turning white, brown and red?

guelder rose

these brilliant red berries are the fruit of the guelder rose, whose oddly asymetrical white flowers appeared earlier in my blog (I think, see http://tamar-valley-life.blogspot.com/2006/06/guelder-rose.html).

Stoke Climsland

home as never before seen 

Trojan

horse

these striking sculptures were exhibited at the Eden Project when it first opened. It is the antithesis of wooden.

cassie

one happy dog, in the woods, thinking about eating.

site of the Holy Quail, Pempwell

outside the quail house. Of note is the Victorian letterbox, and the owner of the finger below.