No more Heron-cam

There will be no more Heron-cam.

A crisp, sharp photo of a beautiful male newt in breeding 'plumage' disappearing into the jaws of the large male heron is not something I want to see each day. I have just reviewed the photos from yesterday and witnessed the death and consumption of at least three different newts. I realise that moving the camera to a less graphic part of the garden is burying my head in the metaphorical sand and possibly akin to turning off the telly because of an unpleasant news report, or crossing the road if you see a person up ahead who is in need of help, but there you go . . . I know my limits and they have been reached.

So instead, here's some much prettier pictures from yesterday. This is only a tiny slice of the garden, the bits I am not showing are a mess; a big, weed covered, falling-to-bits-in-places mess. Defintely not Instagram-worthy 😆

Chalk and Cheese

Sorry it has been a bit quiet here: ghastly, ghastly never-ending rain, strep throat, technology issues.

The first two I can do nothing about, but the third has been fixed. After my last mutterings about a heron visiting the garden I caved to the inevitable and put out the wildlife camera. I stopped doing this years ago because in a 24 hour period it could capture so many images that the time taken to quickly review them all could be substantial and it became quite a chore.

However, binoculars had identified two different heron - a smaller one with black feathers on (her?) lesser coverts and a larger creature with virtually no black on this area. As I currently have no desire to stand at a window for hours with a large camera it made sense to use the Bushnell to get a better view. Trouble is, that was not happening and it took me a while to learn/realise/find out that a 10-year old camera which has seen a lot of hard service had finally failed. The last straw was standing at a window watching a heron stomping around the pond, going to the camera immediately to check the memory card and finding not a single image had been taken of the visitation I had just watched.

Bit the bullet and bought a replacement camera for significantly less than the price I paid for one a decade ago. It has just had its first sleepover:








Many years ago I had to learn not to be upset that a sparrowhawk was hunting in the garden and taking small songbirds. I came to see it as an indication of the health & biodiversity of Bag End, a measure of success in creating a garden that was of benefit to local wildlife. I've not yet fully made that mental adjustment in respect of Ardea cinerea but as I cannot stop these beautiful creatures visiting the garden I might as well try to embrace them.

Chalk and cheese - there is no comparison between the new and old cameras, wish I had done this sooner.







For Marlene - this is the camera I bought at the weekend: Wildlife camera

Somewhat unexpected

It was inevitable - I dug out one of the Bushnell wildlife cameras and set it up at the edge of the Big Pond. This is what it was meant to capture:



However, THIS is what I got:






The date and time are correct, in American format, so 'someone' had a very nice breakfast at four o'clock this morning.

I have not worked out why there are no pictures of regular visits yesterday afternoon. I need a Plan B.

I am not sure how I feel about this . . .

For reasons which do not matter, this morning I did a search across my entire hard drive using the term "POST". I have a Mac computer which is running Ventura (I know that Sonoma is available . . . just not got there yet). I did not find the document I was looking for. However, my search results included:

A photograph taken nearly 20 years ago on the stunning island of Iona -



A fabulous memory from last year in Scotland which has already been published on this blog -



And an almost forgotten little bit of pure Americana, photographed at the Botanic Gardens in St Louis, Missouri, many many years ago -




None of the photographs have any tags or keywords. None have anything in their file name which relates to a postbox. This is just a sample, there were many others.

My operating system has not just searched for file names but clearly is actively scanning the file content. I am really not sure whether this is a good thing or not, and if it is happening on my little desktop machine, what the hell is happening on state-of-the-art systems running all sorts of incredibly clever recognitition software?

It is also extremely likely that I am the very last person in blogland to realise this happens . . .

A wildlife garden?

Many years ago does anyone remember my announcing grandly that I wanted to create a wildlife garden?

Be careful what you wish for - there is now more wildlife in this garden than I could have ever dreamed of creating a home for. There are the billions of tiny unseen life forms in the soil. There are tiny little insects, bugs and worms which provide food for so many birds. There are loads of slugs and snails providing food for birds, frogs and toads. There are mice which feed the owls I hear screeching outside the bedroom window at night. Occasionally I still see a sparrowhawk take a small bird and now and again a large female hawk has a big lunch of wood pigeon.

That might be distressing to some but I have to accept it is part of a wonderful food chain which nature designed so beautifully and mankind is busy destroying as fast as he can.

And my latest visitor is not exactly the most welcome because their food is in the pond, and I do so love all those little creatures who have made my ponds their home.



I have a sneaky feeling we actually have two heron because this one looks a lot smaller than the usual suspect who visits in the afternoon at this time of year. I know they are taking frogs and newts and I wish they wouldn't . . . but they do (shrugs shoulders), it is the way of the natural world.



As I am no longer using my big Canon camera pictures through the window with an iPhone is best you are going to get, sorry.

Not giving up blogging - but . . .

Thank you so much Rambler, for kicking me up the bottom and asking if I was still blogging.

Err, yes I am blogging, sort of, but only in my head, nothing has got as far as the screen. I do not really want to stop because over the years blogging has been a balm, a joy and a mostly wonderful experience. I really miss the interaction and companionship. So why have I not published a new post since December ? (YIKES, I truly did not realise it had been that long 😡 🤯 😱)

There are so many reasons, none of which can really be explained. Firstly I guess I stopped feeling I've anything useful, new or relevant to say. I know I am not the only blogger to feel like this, 'Bag End' began in March 2008 and in the intervening 16 years a great deal has changed online and I seemed to be repeating myself with not much new to add to the never-ending stream of internet pages. Not helped by it starting to rain last October and barely feels as if it has stopped yet so there have been very few outings in Blue Bus.

And then there is privacy: something else I cannot discuss is the reason why the Bag End blog has been hidden from view. I think I shared too much - too much house, garden, Daisy, quilts. That metaphorical cat has been out of its bag for too long but I am now nervous about sharing anything very personal.

And then there is: a health issue in Himself's family which I cannot discuss. I am OK (in fact, probably now free from long-Covid side-effects and stronger than I have been in years), but this situation is one which will not go away quickly and lurks at the back of one's mind, constantly, and will affect us more in the coming years. It is tiring & wearing and not something which can be blogged about.

So there you are - a blog post about why I cannot blog?

Last week Blue Bus had a very expensive service and is now pronounced fit and well to travel in the coming months. Evidence of how ghastly the weather has been is that it took until yesterday to find a dry spell during which I could take all the camping paraphenalia back to the van and reload. Psychologically it does feel marvellous to be ready to go, even if I currently have no trips booked. I definitely will not be leaving home over the Easter weekend when the already limited parking in the Lake District will be filled with visitors.



I had hoped to spend the Bank Holiday giving my dear Bus a thorough clean and pre-season detail & polish but (once again) I suspect the weather forecast will not be co-operating with that idea. So instead I'll leave you with a couple of garden photos from the last week when it DID stop raining long enough to do a little weeding.

Oh, I needed that

A break in the clouds, the only one we are forecast to get all week. I knew it would be so good for me to make the effort and get outside. Even so, I nearly managed to talk myself out of it and turn the sewing machine on instead.

But I kicked myself hard up the bottom and took Blue Bus out rationalising that I could just park up, make a mug of tea, turn around and go home . . . but I am so glad I did not.

Surprisingly cold, not nearly as sunny as I had hoped (the weather forecast was wrong, quélle surprise) but just lovely to be outside. Not even two miles BUT it was still more than I walked on a forest path yesterday, so that's brilliant.






And any day I get to see and smell gorse is a good one.










Back at Blue Bus I had my lunch with me but postponed it in favour of a cuppa and a few minutes with my book thinking how lucky I am, how lovely it was to be warm, dry, comfortable and surrounded by trees and (near) silence.



I have struggled to return to Whinlatter on my own, but today by making a deliberate decision to go to a different part of the forest I had a lovely time and am actually looking forward to going back again.


Having now seen the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday (40 - 50mph wind) I am rather pleased I extracted the digit.