Fieldfare

Fieldfare
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

Housemartin nest

We've had a slightly different nest this year - housemartins

Housemartin lining nest
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

more photos on flickr 

Closing the Cumberland Gap!

I am unfeasibly excited! The new motorway opens today!

I've been travelling this section for work and pleasure for many years now, and this will take at least 5 minutes every day off my journey to work, I've calculated that as 42 hours a year .... oh I am so chuffed!!

All that plus it will be massively safer than the old situation, the one I felt strongly enough to rant about almost three years ago.

I've seen it develop slowly over the last two years, and all credit to the scheme managers because I think I've only been held up twice and I think that was nothing to do with the roadworks.

I'm so excited I might even go to work early today!!!

New goodies in my shop!

Throughout the horrible wet summer (and current horrible wet autumn) I've been dabbling with making earrings and some other stuff, and I decided this morning that the time has come to put some of it up for sale.

I've started with earrings - and why not. They are my favourite thing to make - it's where I started and I keep coming back to it.

Enjoy!

Seasons, Skylines and Stone Circles

We spent an interesting day at Tullie House on Saturday, taking part in what was billed as a "day-school" but was essentially a series on lectures on a subject we love. The title "Much more than Stone Axes" was obviously dreamt up by someone who thought we wouldn't want to know about axes (we did, really) so we were sad to hear the stone axe man had cancelled.

Firstly, Aaron Watson gave an animated talk about stone circles - what they are (they're not all the same!) and why they might be where they are. The most interesting bit for me was where he showed a series of images taken as he climbed a Lakeland fell, and as he became more elevated the distant Mull of Galloway seemed to rise up out of the Solway. This we know now is as a result of the perspective changing to account for the curvature of the Earth; but what must prehistoric people made of it? Did they think that mountains had special powers because they called up entire other mountains out of the sea? And what about the fact that it can be sunny and warm down at low levels but as you climb upwards, the air gets colder and there even might be snow on the peaks? Did they think they were travelling through seasons, through time?

Next there was a lecture by Kate Sharp about prehistoric rock art, a subject we are very familiar with and even so because some of B's images were to be used in the presentation! There were a few sites I hadn't seen before though, and I'd like to check out, especially one reused as a gatepost which looked great. B had to stand up and take a bow for his photos ...

The lunch came next; carrot soup and plates of sarnies, too many sarnies and no cake! shocking. I had to go buy a brownie.

B placed some of his business cards on the top table and they all went almost immediately - each a little artwork all of its own. Some people must have been collecting the set...

The talk after lunch was about fieldwalking in the Eden Valley. This was fabulously interesting to me and made me amazed to think this had been going on so near to us and we didn't know. They had found loads of flinty tools and arrowheads; just imagine being the person to find those - we might do some next year, it sounds amazing.

Finally, the last lecture was about the Brampton Lunula, an item we'd seen pictures of before in a previous talk about Prehistoric Bling! It was a gold fragment first thought to be a gold spoon but soon identified as a lunula, the true purpose of which is unknown but it's shaped like a necklace so is often portrayed as such.

So afterwards some delegates took advantage of the offer of free entry into the museum - something we are already entitles to as locals, so we headed home, our minds buzzing.

Autumn = Blog Update

Bless me father, it's been a while ...

Well the summer is over, and what have you done? Nowt much. Rain has been terrible, obviously, plus my feet are giving me jip hence preventing me from walking far if I wanna be able to walk at all the next day.

So a lot of my flickr shots have been taken from car parks and lay-bys and in gardens and not far from the car. I'm been semi-creative but somehow not been inspired - although visiting the Bead Fair at Rheged on Sunday was fabulous. I could have spent hundreds of quid ...

I've been reading other people's blogs - like me they sometimes have crises of confidence where they think no-one's reading it and are they wasting their time - well in my opinion they are sometimes the equivalent of the penpal letter to a stranger, only not always necessarily getting a reply. The doesn't make them any less interesting, and a sometimes so well-written they could happily be at home in a perfectly good book. Perhaps that's why I don't read books much (well OK that's not the only reason)

So what else has been going on -well some good friends of mine came oop norf from dahn sarf, the plan being to walk the Hadrian's Wall Path. Well that was the idea when the planning started, it soon became a portion of the interesting bit in the middle, but once they got here, Rain + Heavy Bags = Plan C. They are now experts in museums and the AD122 bus timetable. I think there must be some walkers out there that complete the wall in one go, but they must be pretty determined and also completely anal, let's face it. My friends took the better option of enjoying everything to hand when the opportunity arose, and found such a wonderful caravan they decided to stay there for the last 3 nights!

I visited them for a day and took them up to Kielder to see red squirrels, and lots of moss. They couldn't get enough of the moss, oh and the trees. That's two things we have plenty of up here ... and marshy bogs. They now know how the recognise the types of grass which like to grow in bogs (learned the hard way no doubt)

While at Kielder,we went to the Bird of Prey Centre at Leaplish. Now I've been to quite a few of these places now, and this was one of the best; they even had a vulture as part of the display team, and we were encouraged to pet a little Scops Owl called Tilly who just sat there like an adoring toy. She and her feathery mates were fantastic - well the pelicans were impressive but rather scary if I'm honest, and bloody huge!

For pics of the Kielder trip see here.

L8trs!

Race For Life 2008, with XL crisps

Race For Life 2008, with XL crisps
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

Forgot to say, completed the Race for Life again.

Well, we did well to resist the burger van beforehand, but hey there's no way we could walk past the crisps, man

Juvenile blackbird

Juvenile blackbird
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

... possibly?

maybe a fledgling from the nest about 8 feet away from this fence ...

Benny and the Birdfeeder

Mine, all mine!
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

Benny brought us a sparrow this morning.

Hammering Rain

Hammering Rain
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

I love weather like this!

So glad we were inside, unlike my neighbours who got a bit wet walking the dog

Three chicks!

Three in the bed ...
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

Trying really hard to keep the cats distracted as much as possible .. time will tell ...

Beady Bird Eye

Beady Bird Eye
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

She's still there... it's 11 days since the first egg was laid ...

The blackbird's nest

Nature is daft sometimes.

Remember that egg I found on the wall recently? It's been followed by a nest in the daftest of places - two feet from the ground above the place where the catmint used to be. It's been built inside a buddleia plant I've been trying and failing to keep under control. The egg I found was on the wall just beside the bush, so at least I know why it was there now!



So on Monday, there was just one egg in the nest, yesterday another appeared, now there's a third. I think that white bit is cat fluff.



So either the female blackbird is very very clever and has worked out that our two cats are slightly decrepit (until they hear baby blackbirds I bet) or more likely it's her first nest.

She's hardly ever sitting on it, either. Hmmm time will tell!

The nest is beautifully made, though.

Race For Life - The Second Sequel!

I've just signed up to do the Race for Life again!

So here's an unashamed plug.

And this is an unashamed pug.



Here's my sponsorship page

Here's what happened when I did it in 2006 & 2007

Blackbird Egg

Blackbird Egg
Originally uploaded by pinkpebbleperson

I got home yesterday to find this lone egg on top of my garden wall. There is a tree nearby but it would never have a nest.

I wonder how on earth this egg got here? Did a bird just drop it off while passing?

How bizarre.

10,000 holes in Silloth, Cumbria

Or at least one big one. Have you seen this picture?? It's amazing what the sea can do!


(from the bbc website)

Unsolicited Speeding Stressing Fascists - another rant

My Dad got very upset this week because he'd had a letter that called him a criminal and warned him that he couldn't evade being caught and then tried to help him mend his evil ways. He was, quite rightly, completely sickened and got very very narked.

What was this letter? Who sent it? It was the police notifying him he'd been caught speeding. 37 in a 30 zone. Now, driving is his living, his occupation. He spends the largest proportion of his every working day ferrying old grannies home from the supermarket. On this particular time in question, he was frantically trying to find an address which he had been given incorrectly, knowing that the customer was waiting... in full daylight, on a wide open road (Brampton Road, for those who know Carlisle)

Now my Dad is a very experienced driver, very responsible, does lots of mileage, and prides himself on knowing the highway code inside out (albeit the 1965 version) so how someone with almost divine rightiousness can have the NERVE to send such a HORRIBLY worded letter virtually calling into question his ability to be a decent hardworking citizen is beyond me.

I can completely sympathise with him - now bear in mind this had him panicking into how he could afford to still live in the house, my Mam would have to go back out to work after retiring, they would have to not go on holiday and sacrifice any idea of getting the roof fixed. All this in a few seconds flat, upon opening and reading the letter.

HOW EVIL. If anyone EVER drops dead from a heart attack THE FAMILY SHOULD SUE THEIR ARSES

Yeah I know, I know, folk shouldn't speed... and no-one's denying that he did. But the criminalisation of people by the opening of a letter is plain wrong. And I've gotta be honest, right now I could happily drive a bulldozer right through the nearest BMW saleroom. The number of illegal drivers, those without insurance or a license etc .. those are the risky ones, the drivers that should be locked up and their fingers cut off so they can't turn the key in the ignition. I am so angry right now!

grrrrrrrr




PS My 6 points finally ran out last month - so it's over 5 years since I felt this kind of anger. But it all comes flooding back. BASTARDS!

Gretna Green Starlings part 2

The next day, I remembered my camera. There were loads of cars parked up, two police patrollers and a TV van with big dish and twirly antenna pole!

I got this short film and the photos below....
I love the way the traffic noise seems to compliment the bird's flight!
If you watch closely, there's a bit where a small flock swoop low across the field.

Gretna Green - Swarming Starlings!

On my way home from work I come down the southern-most stretch of the A74 past Gretna. From there you can get wonderful views across the Solway to the Lake District Fells, at this time of year it's just sunset when I'm on that stretch and there have been some incredible pinky skies during this recent clear weather, tonight included.

While obviously keeping my attention completely on the road, and the skies, I am also watching out for those black swarms sometimes lurking above trees and fields in that area ... swarthy alien-like shapes created against the darkening skies... they are of course huge flocks of starlings!

Tonight I saw an amazing display. I came off the motorway at the tourist trap junction and headed slightly back north, just near the new Smiths hotel. There were already about 3 cars and two minibuses parked on the side of the road, their passengers all out standing by the fence watching the unbelievable swooping and dancing. I stood there watching until they all decided en masse to land somewhere towards the back of the field and the one next to it.

Why? How? Well one's thing for sure - it turns out that starlings are good at something, and are not just those noisy leather-jacket mobs that inhabit city centre trees just waiting for unsuspecting passers-by...

I'm gonna try to remember my camera tomorrow.


Here's a video taken last month

Check this web-page out: this was today!

Swinging in the new job

Yeah, so it's day two and I still feel a complete spare part. It's starting to remind me vividly of the two days work experience I spent at Robert Ferguson's Printers in December 1986. I filled most of the time spinning on a wonderfully free-moving spinny lab chair, but also managed to get a tour around one of the last Victorian factories left in Carlisle. It was worth it for that. I watched the huge fabric-printing machines and visited the design room and peeked inside the director's office, all this impressed my Mam no end because she worked there as a telephonist in the 1960's and was amazed it was all still there for me to see. It's been converted into flats now.

I suppose should make the most of this quiet time, while I can still go home at 5pm without feeling guilty.