Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[RED-DOG]

You've a tech question to deal with in another part of the forum ya slacker.

Sorted. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Have you been out and about around the place yet this morning, or too busy grinding with the kidz?

My place or this place?

Normally I'd say, Your place = been out.  This place = not so much.  

But I'm not sure where 'this place' is.  My brain is thinking on levels I didn't know it had this morning.  

This place - checked out the mod's board & my fave diaries.

My place - had a stroll around outside, checked on the fauna & flora. esp the progress of an as yet unidentified sapling as it struggles to get a foothold in the shadow of an established tree. (Tony & I talked about this subject @ Luto Hoo)

Then went into my shed and lifted a pair of 20lb (ish) dumbells as often as I could in as may different ways as I could think of.  

Have to work on maintaining some semblance of upper-body strength now, back in the day, I used to take it for granted.

Yep - that's the stuff I was enquiring about.  Pics and occasional updates on progress of unidentified sapling, please and thanks.  Once a week should cover it.  Cheers!

I know all about upper body issues.  It's no fun when the northern girls start heading south...trust me.

I'm very familiar with the "My" plants and wildlife. (Not mine really, but you know what I mean)

A Greenfinch cock & hen took up residence last year, and have settled in nicely. I see them most mornings doing the early bird thing with the worms on the lawn.

Over the last few weeks, I haven't seen them both together much, one or the other has been absent, and I deduced from this that the missing partner has been on egg-sitting duties.

Today they pitched up accompanied by five fledglings. (At least I think it's five, the buggars wouldn't keep still while I count em properly).

I felt quite proud. It was like being a new dad again.

Click to see full-size image.

[typhoon13]

Put six bird boxes up in a wood of mine, great tit nesting in one, blue tits in two of the others.

On my daily patrol Saturday morning, i found something had lifted the front flap and pulled the nests out.

Eggs in one just laid on the floor, young uns in the other two, dead.

B@*tard squirrel that's all it can be.

This is where .22 comes into play.


Anyone heard that cuckoo yet??

[Laxie]

You've a tech question to deal with in another part of the forum ya slacker.

Sorted. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Have you been out and about around the place yet this morning, or too busy grinding with the kidz?

My place or this place?

Normally I'd say, Your place = been out.  This place = not so much. 

But I'm not sure where 'this place' is.  My brain is thinking on levels I didn't know it had this morning. 

This place - checked out the mod's board & my fave diaries.

My place - had a stroll around outside, checked on the fauna & flora. esp the progress of an as yet unidentified sapling as it struggles to get a foothold in the shadow of an established tree. (Tony & I talked about this subject @ Luto Hoo)

Then went into my shed and lifted a pair of 20lb (ish) dumbells as often as I could in as may different ways as I could think of. 

Have to work on maintaining some semblance of upper-body strength now, back in the day, I used to take it for granted.

Yep - that's the stuff I was enquiring about.  Pics and occasional updates on progress of unidentified sapling, please and thanks.  Once a week should cover it.  Cheers!

I know all about upper body issues.  It's no fun when the northern girls start heading south...trust me.

I'm very familiar with the "My" plants and wildlife. (Not mine really, but you know what I mean)

A Greenfinch cock & hen took up residence last year, and have settled in nicely. I see them most mornings doing the early bird thing with the worms on the lawn.

Over the last few weeks, I haven't seen them both together much, one or the other has been absent, and I deduced from this that the missing partner has been on egg-sitting duties.

Today they pitched up accompanied by five fledglings. (At least I think it's five, the buggars wouldn't keep still while I count em properly).

I felt quite proud. It was like being a new dad again.

Congrats Pops!!!  Can we call ya Pops?  I did use a capital P after all. 

Very cool.  To be that aware of the nature around you is a special thing.  Pics of the new additions obv.  once they've settled a bit.

[david3103]

We have a Blue Tit nesting just outside our office

Six eggs, the hen sits on them most of the day now

We hadn't realised that we'd put a nest box up until we spotted her flying in...

Now, how do I post a picture on here?

[Rod Paradise]

A Greenfinch cock & hen took up residence last year, and have settled in nicely. I see them most mornings doing the early bird thing with the worms on the lawn.

Over the last few weeks, I haven't seen them both together much, one or the other has been absent, and I deduced from this that the missing partner has been on egg-sitting duties.

Today they pitched up accompanied by five fledglings. (At least I think it's five, the buggars wouldn't keep still while I count em properly).

I felt quite proud. It was like being a new dad again.

Click to see full-size image.

That's lovely stuff Red, no fledglings up this way yet but I'd expect us to be about a month after you folk dahn sarf , the mayflower isn't even fully out yet.

We're sure the Blackbird's nest is in young as we've seen him wrestling worms so big he's had to hop back to the hedge , no joking it's like watching Tarzan fight a python!

One of the swallows took a wrong turn the other day & I had to catch it and evict it from the kitchen (I don't know if it was a male or female, not sure if it's easy to tell with swallows), got a picture in which the swallow looks very indignant.

Had a funny one while walking the dog (Kerry) a couple of days ago, walking up a long straight road with ditches & drystone dykes on either side, when I saw something running down the road towards us, as it got closer I realised it was a big brown hare. Kerry's nose driven and didn't notice it as we were upwind of it, it ran down to about 20 yards away when I think it smelled us (they can't see directly in front of themselves) turned and had a good look & hared off back up the road. The bugger was so big I think Kerry would  have had a real fight on if it had got a bit closer. Typically I'd left my new camera in the house

[boldie]

Typically I'd left my new camera in the house

Did you have your old one with you?

[Rod Paradise]

Typically I'd left my new camera in the house

Did you have your old one with you?

Revenge for having to pay for a hotel in Manchester wee man? 

[boldie]

Typically I'd left my new camera in the house

Did you have your old one with you?

Revenge for having to pay for a hotel in Manchester wee man? 

  Ya madman...what MrsB didn't say was that I have to get up at 5 every morning to go to work and will now therefore have a ridic long day.

I can't believe people said "Drive down the Thursday night"...nothing wrong with Friday morning FFS.

[RED-DOG]

Had a funny one while walking the dog (Kerry) a couple of days ago, walking up a long straight road with ditches & drystone dykes on either side, when I saw something running down the road towards us, as it got closer I realised it was a big brown hare. Kerry's nose driven and didn't notice it as we were upwind of it, it ran down to about 20 yards away when I think it smelled us (they can't see directly in front of themselves) turned and had a good look & hared off back up the road. The bugger was so big I think Kerry would  have had a real fight on if it had got a bit closer. Typically I'd left my new camera in the house

That's true Rod, they can't see directly in front of themselves, but they can see directly behind themselves. That's how they manage to evade the chasing lurcher's jaws so often.

A good lurcher is faster than a hare, and would catch it eventually if it ran in a straight line. But the hare watches the dog and turns sharply at the last possible moment. The dog can't turn as quickly and so loses ground.

I've seen loads of hares run into a tree or a gatepost while concentrating on the dog behind.

The mark of a good dog is how many times he can turn or "Put a bend into"  his hare.

A really good experienced dog will close on a hare and then, instead of striking immediately, will drop back to see which way the hare is going to go. Some dogs have perfected this to the point where they turn first and the hare runs into their mouth.

The Waterloo cop made it fashionable to run two dogs on one hare. Here's some footage of one dog one hair coursing.

With one dog, the hare escapes about 60% of the time.

Please don't watch if you're squeamish.

[tikay]

The Waterloo Cup is now banned, iirc.

It was the most famous coursing event in history, & huge sums changed money there, & there was tremendous kudos for the winner.

It was much promoted by a very prominent racehorse trainer, whose life I studied & followed for many years, Sir Mark Prescott, & I believe he & Clarissa Dickson-Wright were both charged with illegal hare-coursing after the ban, in about 2005 or 2006.

Sir Mark, who has trained over 1,000 winners, is a quite extraordinary man, very personable & outwardly warm, & at one time, he used to list his recreations as hare coursing, cock fighting, & bull fighting.

Interesting character.

[RED-DOG]

The Waterloo Cup is now banned, iirc.

It was the most famous coursing event in history, & huge sums changed money there, & there was tremendous kudos for the winner.

It was much promoted by a very prominent racehorse trainer, whose life I studied & followed for many years, Sir Mark Prescott, & I believe he & Clarissa Dickson-Wright were both charged with illegal hare-coursing after the ban, in about 2005 or 2006.

Sir Mark, who has trained over 1,000 winners, is a quite extraordinary man, very personable & outwardly warm, & at one time, he used to list his recreations as hare coursing, cock fighting, & bull fighting.

Interesting character.

I like hare coursing with certain proviso's.

One dog.

Only kill what you're going to eat.

No in kindle or "milky" does.

No leverets.

No kicking up / soft lays.

[Rod Paradise]

The Waterloo Cup is now banned, iirc.

It was the most famous coursing event in history, & huge sums changed money there, & there was tremendous kudos for the winner.

It was much promoted by a very prominent racehorse trainer, whose life I studied & followed for many years, Sir Mark Prescott, & I believe he & Clarissa Dickson-Wright were both charged with illegal hare-coursing after the ban, in about 2005 or 2006.

Sir Mark, who has trained over 1,000 winners, is a quite extraordinary man, very personable & outwardly warm, & at one time, he used to list his recreations as hare coursing, cock fighting, & bull fighting.

Interesting character.

I like hare coursing with certain proviso's.

One dog.

Only kill what you're going to eat.

No in kindle or "milky" does.

No leverets.

No kicking up / soft lays.

Sounds far more sporting, giving the hare the advantage.

Was talking to the woman who lives on the road I saw the hare on - she says they have problems with hares eating the plants in their garden, I asked why it wasn't rabbits, her answer - they've got stoats living under the shed so the rabbits are scared, hares are too big for the stoats to go for.

[RED-DOG]

The Waterloo Cup is now banned, iirc.

It was the most famous coursing event in history, & huge sums changed money there, & there was tremendous kudos for the winner.

It was much promoted by a very prominent racehorse trainer, whose life I studied & followed for many years, Sir Mark Prescott, & I believe he & Clarissa Dickson-Wright were both charged with illegal hare-coursing after the ban, in about 2005 or 2006.

Sir Mark, who has trained over 1,000 winners, is a quite extraordinary man, very personable & outwardly warm, & at one time, he used to list his recreations as hare coursing, cock fighting, & bull fighting.

Interesting character.

I like hare coursing with certain proviso's.

One dog.

Only kill what you're going to eat.

No in kindle or "milky" does.

No leverets.

No kicking up / soft lays.

Sounds far more sporting, giving the hare the advantage.

Was talking to the woman who lives on the road I saw the hare on - she says they have problems with hares eating the plants in their garden, I asked why it wasn't rabbits, her answer - they've got stoats living under the shed so the rabbits are scared, hares are too big for the stoats to go for.

Once I was ledgering for chubb on the the river Trent. It was very early in the morning and I noticed a big buck hare settling himself into his form in the middle of a harrowed field about 200 yards away.

About half an hour later, I saw a young fox crossing the far end of the same field. About halfway across, the fox caught scent of the hare and began to zig zag upwind toward it.

The hare, as they sometimes do, sat tight, either unaware or hoping that the danger would pass.

The fox pounced, and the big ol hare exploded out of the form like a mortar shell, knocking the fox for six in the process.

I don't know who was the more surprised, the hare, the fox, or me. I was so caught up in the drama, almost fell into the Trent.

[typhoon13]

Being a past master of a pack of harehounds, it was no good if we got on an hare that had been coursed because they

then tended to run in straight lines.

Strange but true.

Harehounds work on scent not sight.

I used to enjoy the beer and singing afterwards, plenty of characters just like Red and Tikay.

[RED-DOG]

Being a past master of a pack of harehounds, it was no good if we got on an hare that had been coursed because they

then tended to run in straight lines.

Strange but true.

Harehounds work on scent not sight.

I used to enjoy the beer and singing afterwards, plenty of characters just like Red and Tikay.

They can run in straight lines from harehounds cos the harehounds aren't fast enough to bend em.