Happy Halloween

Hope everyone has a cool Halloween ... we are going to be watching fireworks this weekend down the road (if the weather holds).   
Just so you understand, I'm no expert on British wildlife, I now have a lot of help from this book:

The National Trust Book of the Countryside is a 383 page hard cover, full colour illustrated book that we got from my Auntie Barbara and Uncle Les - they gave it to me after their trip to Norfolk.   It's a lovely book, crammed with information and detailed illustrations about flora and fauna that can be found in each county in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales ... thanks again for this book guys!

Tyrrels Wood - slight return

As it was such a lovely day today - bright and sunny, with gorgeous full blue sky - I decided that we needed to get out of the house. So we went to Tyrrels Wood again, which is so close to our house, it makes for a nice little jaunt out with the kids and not too far to drive.   Even though there are often a few cars parked there, it's nearly always single people walking a dog, or mums with a bunch of kiddies. So safe and nice to take the kiddies to!

A view up into the canopy on a bright autumn morning.

There are some splendid Rowan trees in Tyrrels, as well as Birch covered in Witch's Broom.  Oak, chestnut, maple, beech, even fir  ... lots of different varieties of trees. 

We were exceedingly lucky today, in that we saw a total of FOUR Grey Squirrels in different parts of the wood.  Either running up trees, or across fallen branches.

Not my shot!   Google image

It was so cool but frustrating for me, as I couldn't get a clear shot of them.  We watched one for a long time as he moved around one of the really large Oak trees, peeping at us, dropping acorn pods almost at our feet.

One of the trees where a squirrel was playing in its upper branches

We took the BBC Wildlife magazine that I brought back for Faye (when I was in Scotland), it featured a page on treasure hunting in woods during autumn and she was on a mission to identify as many fungi as she could.  She has sharp eyes and found nearly all the things on the page in the Treasure Hunt. 

Really cool fungus growing in a line along the fallen tree trunk - I think this is called Chicken of the Woods bracket fungus - this has gone quite brown, now that autumn is upon us.   There is also a large cap type of fungus growing on either side of the Chicken of the Woods

My Macro is playing up on the Nikon, I just cannot get it to take sharp images in extreme close up.  This little pinky/purple fungus was so tiny, it could have been completely overlooked  - well spotted by Faye.

After a quick drink break.

This is Thread Moss (the green with the little spiky bits).   It sends up those stalks to release spores in springtime.  The tiny orange/yellow fungus is really pretty but again, my macro shot was out of focus, so I haven't put it up here.

To show the size of the Thread Moss

 Don't know what type of fungus it is that's growing on the fallen tree stump in this little video, it's a chocolate brown, almost black and looks wet.  Really weird and nasty looking, if you ask me.

There is lots of this type of dirty potato coloured looking fungus - it could be a Wood Blewit, Lilac Bonnet or Clouded funnel.  We don't have a book specifically on fungi.

I WISH this was my photo!   :)  - sourced from Google Images

It was absolutely the most perfect time for us to spot Tawny Owls and I was hoping that we would hear them squawking away at each other as they set up and defend their territories.  October and November is when this activity peaks.  So we were thrilled to see a pair having a right old argument in the lower trees deep in the wood.  Faye and I clearly saw the male bird who was about 20 foot away from us swoop down, land on a log and then fly off after the female.  It was so great!   Later on, we saw another larger male bird flying down from quite high up, through a clearing from the left of us into a clump of trees - the sunlight catching on his wings as he flew past. Quite magical.  No, I didn't get a shot of any of the birds but next time, I think I will go just with Faye (if we can leave Ewan behind) and maybe we'll get lucky and be able to take some photos.  We saw lots of evidence of recent bird kills - dead and partially eaten pigeons on the ground in areas where we had seen the Owls.

The exit

After our trip to Tyrrels ... well, should I say whilst we were walking around after we'd seen the last owl - Ewan decided that he was hungry and it was time we went to the rest a rawn.   So I took them to Goodies Farm Stall restaurant for Sausage, Chips and Beans; I had a bap with bacon and egg.   It was very nice food, all fresh and not expensive.  As we were driving home, Faye fell fast asleep in the seat.   All in all, a very nice few hours spent out in the fresh air and lovely green sparkling woodland countryside of Southern Norfolk. 


Postscript:
Tyrrels Wood is 16.75 ha (41.39 acres) in size.
At the centre is an ancient woodland site, named Boscus de Grischave in records dating back to 1251, and believed to have been around since the Ice Age. Paths wind through dense undergrowth, emerging in open areas that boast big veteran oak trees.

Storm St. Jude in Norfolk

Here is St Jude Storm from my car at work at about 08:15.

A bit of a non-event here in Norfolk...

Kiddies on holiday

We have a week off from school, so Nana is trying to be a good teacher/entertainment centre for these next couple of days.   Due to the age difference between Faye and Ewan, projects that they like to do are not always the same.  For instance, I can't do jewellery making projects or other girlie things all the time, because Ewan gets a bit bored (and rightly so). So we tend to stick to arty type things because they can both do it together. 

Ewan copies Faye most of the time but he does get the basic principles behind each project and enjoys it, he concentrates and tries his best to make a good job of whatever it is we are making.  They are both fun kids to do projects with.  Of course, Ewan's creative mind is always coming up with even more outlandish things that his Nana has to conjure up out of the blue sky.  I really need to get me one of those 3D printers for Christmas, that would be used every day in our household.  

Yesterday, we did mainly girlie things, making pumpkin Halloween earrings and then later on, I made a little crochet bag out of string and some left over wool for Faye. 

Today, Faye read a bit of The Three Musketeers to Ewan and he spent the first half of the morning, running around in his D'Artagnan outfit that he put together himself ...

I'm this Musketeer, Nana

Later on, we got dressed and walked down the road to the Leisure Centre to book for Thursday's activities that they have planned there - making Halloween treats to eat and bring home.   There only seem to be two other children who are booked for this, so it might end up being cancelled, we'll have to see.
After the walk to the Leisure Centre (with Laila in tow), we negotiated the precarious bit of un-pathed road past Faye's school into the fields and onto the public path.  

There are poppies growing alongside the hedgerows and the borders of the fields and it would have been fun to try and get into one of the woods, because there are a few in this area- but we didn't have our Wellies on and it started to spit a bit, so we had to hot foot it back home. 

This afternoon, we did some arty stuff - making wax resist paintings - a la Starry Night by Vincent VG (we're nothing if not ambitious):

Ewan's paintings are on the left.   I was quite pleased with Faye's nice attempts - Nana stuffed up a bit with making the paint a bit thick - next time we'll use better quality paper and I'll make the paint the right consistency. 

Faye is busy designing a new logo for her school.  I had to draw the central flower and get the line drawing of the Church off my old pal, Google, which she copied and puti n the banner.   The drawings of the children on the left and all the other embellishments are all her work. 

Concentrating on getting his creation just like the picture on the box

Of course, I've also had to design and make a Pirate Spy Glass today as well - thinking of getting him one for a Christmas present, cos this is the third time he's asked me to make one.   Again, Uncle Goog gave me a cool 'pattern', using readily available materials that we had in the house.

You might also see letters and words dotted about the walls in some of the photos - this is because I printed these out and put them up all over the place, using prestik.  These are all the letters and words that Ewan has learnt so far - s, a, t, p, i, n, m, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u, r and the words the, and and to

Lekkerrrrr soos a krekkerrrr ....

We've booked our flights today for our SA trip next February.  We are flying British Airways, the itinerary is:

Leave Heathrow at 2045 on the 9th February, arrive O R Tambo at 0940  on the 10th February (Monday morning)
Leave OR Tambo at 2245 on the 23rd February (Sunday evening), arrive Heathrow at 0750 on the 24th February.

Cool.  So now we need to sort out accommodation and who's staying where, when and what not.   We will also have to look at car hire or borrow one from somebody or use Aftaxis ... har har. 

Two little poppits (for a change) ...

Autumn Highlander - completing our trip - Monday 21st October.

After our trip out to Dunrobin Castle on Sunday, we also went up to Thurso, which is the most northerly town in Scotland.  I expected this place to be very desolate and sparse but not so, Thurso is quite a big place.    We didn't hang about much there, preferring to go back to our carriage for the trip back down to Inverness.   The people who were sitting opposite us took a turn for the worse in Thurso however. Jean and I were standing outside our coach (after being dropped off from Dunrobin), milling about deciding what to do, when an ambulance came screaming past with sirens blaring.  Jean turned to me and said 'I wonder if it's those people on the train' and sure enough, it was.  The woman had had a heart attack whilst out walking in Thurso - not surprising really because she couldn't walk along more than two carriage lengths on the platforms.   So she ended up in hospital and her husband stayed with her.  I understand that the tour company did quite a lot to help them, organising to pick up their luggage and arranging transport back for them.

So these photos are from the end of the Thurso trip and our travelling back from Inverness to Ludlow.

On the road to Thurso - I had to stand up in the coach and aim over people on the other side to get a shot of the sea.

Little choo choo on Thurso station

This doesn't really show it, the light was honey gold when it touched the trees and undergrowth.

So much pretty.

The coach windows were a bit grubby by the time we started to go home, so the photos got more and more grainy!

Lost count of the amount of beautiful rivers and streams we passed in the Highlands.

 William Wallace Memorial - him of 'Braveheart' fame.  This memorial stands proud and can be seen for miles around.  This is my shot but I've also taken one from Google and posted it below, so give you an idea of the perspective. 

All ready to go back to Ludlow.   We had a long day on Monday, only getting to Ludlow at around midnight.  Anne (Jean's friend) collected us and whizzed us back to Knighton, where I had a couple of hours sleep.  Then at about quarter to nine on Tuesday I drove the 4 and a half hours back to Long Stratton. 

Travels with my Aunt

Thank you, Jean.  This was really something special and I will treasure the memories of the time we had together forever.  I hope that I can reciprocate at some point but I doubt I'll be able to match this one!