At Last, a Brimstone

 I've commented before that this wettest of springs has not been kind to the early spring butterflies that spend the winters hibernating as imagos. I've barely seen a comma or small tortoiseshell, only the occasional peacock or red admiral, and brimstones, normally one of my harbringers of spring, have barely been up at all.

I've seen an occasional luminous lemon yellow male or white female fluttering by at a distance, and certainly nowhere near mobile phone camera range.

They normally don't let you get within five metres of them anyway. 

Imagine my surprise then, when at work, I came across a beautiful male calmly feeding off rock cranesbill, and entirely happy to let me get close range photographs. I'm guessing that it was still warming up and getting its energy together. 

So here it is, in its lovely vivid glory, just for you!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 17.05.24

Ten Beats Eleven

 After yet another week of trying to flog a team together to take on Wellow Exiles, we took to the field on a glorious Sunday with only ten players, one of whom was myself, a player for whom on some days the term "cricketer" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. 

I allowed my co-captain to run the show today, and as ever there was the pre-match panic of running around like startled cats to find balls, scorebooks and stumps, followed by an inept attempt to put up a pergola that was only solved by the arrival of our resident doctor of mechanical engineering. 

Our captain lost the toss as usual, sentencing us to thirty-five overs of fielding under a broiling sun. But as it happened our opening bowler, nowadays a first team bowler, wiped out the Exile's top order with three wickets in five balls. 

His reward, as is so often the case in friendlies, was being taken out of the attack to stop the game lasting only an hour. Hindsight eh?

He was replaced by the young bowler who had made such an impression the previous Sunday against Upton, and he promptly bowled a beautiful spell of left arm bowling, cleaning up an Exiles batter with an unplayable ball before getting another wicket with a full toss - my usual speciality. 

At 23 for 5, things looked rather grim for the Exiles. But they had a very good bat, whom last year at battered me all round the ground at Edwinstowe, and whom I was fated to bowl at again. 

I had him dropped at slip first ball, and immediately knew it was not going to be my day. I bowled another beauty to the other batsman, but that was it. Could not find a full length, always about a foot short, and this resulted in a barrage of runs. I had my field set right, so not everything went for four, but they ran two everytime on the big outfield. 

Final indignity was the captain, acting as wicket keeper, dropping the easiest catch in the history of cricket off this gun bat, who ended up making 96 not out out of Exiles' 153 for 5. 

I felt rubbish, as usual, especially after winter nets had gone so well. 

But, I was still part of a team I want to do well, and I take joy in the performances of others. Not that I had time to rest and contemplate this while watching the resident whitethroat warbler flying in and out of the bramble bush, but had to go out there and umpire for an hour and half. Luckily, our openers made a great start and I had nothinng to do other than wave my arms extravagantly to signal a boundary. They out on about 50 before one of them slapped a ball straight to square leg, and the other, having made an excellent 40, was plumb lbw.

We now had two youngsters at the wicket, and the required run rate was just starting to climb a little bit. 

No problem to them, they batted sensibly before opening up a little bit to keep us in touch with the game. The young bowler decided he was going to attack, and struck a very handy 24. This is why you need a competitive total to chase in these games, so younger players can have a good challenge and learn something at the same time. 

The fall of his wicket resulted in a father and son combination at the wicket, and with those two out there, we never looked like losing. It was a good seven wicket win, after a great game on a beautiful day, and it was well rounded off with beers as the sun sank lower towards the horizon. 

Two out of two.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 13.05.24

The Glorious Aurora

 Friday night, as I'm sure all my readers know, saw what I suspect was the greatest auroral display seen in this country in my lifetime, with only the event of March 1989 coming close. 

Early in the evening, I'd noticed reports on social media of the aurora being visible in Europe, but hadn't seen any reports from the UK. However, when I left my home at about 1130pm in order to nip across the road to the pub, I noticed what looked like blue clouds directly overhead.

On a hunch, I used the night mode on my phone to take a shot; with the greater light gathering mode, vivid blue arcs were revealed. 

Walking further round the road, a bright band was seen extending across the sky, a photo of this revealed a lurid violet sunset effect stretching across the sky. This was definitely the aurora. Social feeds from the UK revealed picture after picture, most more spectacular than mine. 

It didn't look too good to the naked eye amidst the streetlights, but the photos revealed a lot more. I did a bit of outreach in the pub garden, and soon more photos were being taken. 

I hope you got the chance to see it!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 12.05.24

A Winning Start at Upton

 Finally, after terrible weather and cancelled games, the Sunday season, and thus my season, got underway with what always used to be our traditional curtain raiser against our very good friends from Upton cricket club, on their beautiful small ground up on the hill from the village.

It was a lovely sunny day, to the extent that horrible milk bottle legs could be revealed to the world. 

Arriving early in order to make our new young players welcome, I had time to explore the ground, and the beautiful orchard behind it into which many a ball has been hit. The apple trees are in full blossom, and the bees from the hives at one end were getting busy. 

I didn't make the mistake of going to have a closer look at the hives, as I got chased off by an angry bee when I tried that before. 

Upton batted first, as we thought we were a bit light on batting and wanted to make a day of it. As it turned out, Upton struggled on a tricky slow wicket, and although the boundaries were short, the outfield was slow so runs were hard to come by, especially as our bowling was so good. Events started slowly, but when we brought two of our debutants, one a talented youngster, another a guy who had been talked into coming back to cricket by the chairman but hadn't got round to getting some spikes yet so was bowling in Sketchers.

Within about twenty minutes, they had taken five wickets between them, the young lad taking a stinging catch as well as taking their first senior wickets ever. 

Time for a tactical bowling change. Surely bringing myself on would even the game up a bit, as I fully expected to get hit into the nearby fields a few times. 

Well, as it turned out, that only happened once. I bowled well enough, although my two wickets were as usual taken with my worst two deliveries, and the field I had set myself after observations made at net practice, turned out to be completely wrong. I bowled a little two short at times, but I did get a bit of turn and beat the batters a few times. 

Meanwhile, at the other end, another young debutant was proving to be impossible to hit.

The decision was then "taken by myself" and not at all by the chairman who was acting as a usurper skipper on the grounds of my tactical incompetence, to end the nonsense by bringing on the proper off spinner, who promptly wiped out the tail enders to bowl out Upton for 89.

Talking over an excellent tea, we thought this would be no easy chase in these conditions, and indeed the chairman, reluctantly opening the batting, was wiped out first ball, and other wickets fell rapidly until we were 17 for 6. Luckily, the second team captain and also our esteemed groundsman, and our senior resident geographer on two hour sleep, combined to see us home with a brilliant partnership of 70 odd, one with big hitting - poor old tree at one end took a fearful thwack, and stern defence from the other. 

Good job, as the batters waiting to go in, myself included, did not feel terribly confident of making any runs at all. 

In all a lovely day, capped with a pub visit, which went on all night for some!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.05.24