Sunday, 26 October 2008

autumn's coming


It hasn't been a good year for mushrooms so far. Unfortunately, we can never sort out what sort of mushrooms we are looking at, milkcaps, honey fungus or something deadly. Every year we try and identify them, and we have always forgotten by the beginning of next autumn.

spike's place


the sun always shines on Spike's house, home of Venterdon's second most famous canine blogger

Saturday, 18 October 2008

a visit to eden project 3



I love the imagery of the Bacchanalian orgy in the mediterranean biodome (nothing new then on the planet), and the torpid heat and steam of water vapour in the jungle

a visit to eden project 2




I love the mixture of real and surreal throughout the project, and the juxtapostion of the materialist landscape with the floral landscape. It reminds me of the work of an artist friend called John Howlin. he would have loved the man of parts

a visit to eden project 1



the first view of the biodomes at Eden Project is always impressive simply because of the sheer scale of the site. The middle photograph shows the site on our first fleeting visit in September 2000. We take our visitors there quite often. It has transformed the local economy. And one of our neighbours is on the poster welcoming you to the site. I think the logos might well be just as apt for our blogs

cyclamens in bloom


the garden is full of cyclamens; our dog bronze was clearly modelled on Harriet.

Thursday, 16 October 2008

St Agnes in Cornwall

we spent a very pleasant day in and around St Agnes (another name on the long list of obscure Cornish (celtic) saints. St Agnes (see link)seems to be a very busy village, with a carnival that goes back a long time, and in our opinion a place that manages to look after one's spiritual needs very satisfactorily.


There is also this fascinating mining landscape (see top picture above) with mine workings all over the place. Perranporth beach is in the far distance (to the left). In the lower of the two pictures one can just make out some giant wind turbines on the horizon. Wind turbine farms are starting TO dominate our local landscape; we are not sure if they are for good or bad.


And a very pretty comma, there are two generations each year, and this butterfly will probably over winter looking like a dead leaf hanging on a twig. The second generation is darker. Usually they look a lot more tatty than this rather smart specimen.