Chasing Rainbows

 OK, not so much chasing them as walking in their general direction before having a cup of tea under them.

Walking is my main pleasure at the moment, taking care not to mess my ankle up too much however. Saturday was a foul write off of a day, constant heavy rain, and so I just spent it indoors keeping warm. I do feel guilty about doing this, but you have to realise that enjoying a day watching videos about board-gaming or indeed anything else you enjoy, is a perfectly valid way to spend the day. 

Yes, board-gaming. It's something I've been fascinated by for quite a while, and spend time in a local gaming cafe, but I don't get to do an awful lot of it or indeed any of it, as I spend the vast majority of time on my own these days.

However, I've investigated solo gaming, and there are a fair few options for this and I was able to pick a game up called "Tiny Epic Zombies" (!!!) at a sale at the cafe. I've been working out how to play this over the last couple of days. It's very daunting.

Modern board games are a long way from Snakes and Ladders.

After that, I was able to take a trip to the park and enjoy the aforementioned cup of tea, rather relishing the gentle rain that was falling, allowing the sun to paint a rainbow at the opposite end of the sky. 

I even got to take an evening walk too, happily listening to Stuart Maconie's "Freak Zone" on 6 Music.

That was a different sort of perfectly valid day!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 07.12.21

"Stop the Chop"

 Our local library lies adjacent to the old registery office, which was been bought, leased, resold, leased again and god only knows what else; it's a complex process.

The issue is not with the building itself, it lies with the little green space between the two buildings. Part of the leasehold agreement, indeed a contract, is that this area should be turned into a car park, a car park that the current owners of the building do not want, but if it isn't built the council face a 600K bill for breach of contract with a previous owner. 

I think that's the story; I'm probably miles wrong. It's very confusing. The upshot is that three old trees, a lime and two sycamores, are going to have to be cut down, and local people have gotten very upset. Indeed, they have already organised two daytime protests during the last couple of weekends, and tonight, they organised a third, a candlelit vigil by night. 

They say that the car park isn't needed, there is already plenty of parking space in the town, and it sends out a bad message in an age where we shouldn't be encouraging more cars onto the roads, into a town that is already gridlocked at weekends. 

I went down not long before sunset to take photographs, and told the organisers that I would return later with my bat detector; they have put a couple of bat boxes in the trees, and St George's Bat trust say the recorded 108 calls in 40 minutes a few days ago.

If there are bats roosting in the trees, then that automatically ends the threat for at least until spring. I have to say I'd been twice before and picked up nothing, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. 

I did return after sunset to see that a crowd of around 200 had gathered, holding lanterns and the like. I walked around with my detector, picking up no bats again while the song "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol was played while the crowd waved their lights in the air. 

I hope the bats like bands that make Coldplay sound like Motorhead. 

There was also some chanting of slogans, which was passionate although slightly...something. 

I do wish them well, and I really hope there are bats in there. I've not picked up a sausage. 

Yet.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 30.10.21

The Bees of Winthorpe Village

 On one of the nicer days earlier in the week I was able to walk into Winthorpe for a look around, it's not far and there are various nice ways of getting there from here. 

As it happened, pleasant stroll though it was, there wasn't a massive amount to see - it feels like life is already starting to ebb away as we enter the last month of summer. 

However, the rudenkia are out in one garden, rather a lot of them, and here the bees were making merry, making the day feel more alive as the dread dead months of October and November begin to loom large in my mind.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.08.21

Better than Last Week Anyway

 So, Sunday saw us taking on Travellers with our "Sunday Legends" side, well Legends apart from me anyway. 

I was in a bit of a hurry to get to the game as I'd been unsuccessfully hunting for my white long sleeved base layer, it was that cold. Thus I was in a bit of a tizzy and walked onto the field of play with a black undertop on, which made me look very village, and also my cycling helmet, which made me look very village idiot.

We were fielding first, so no chance of a relaxing first couple of of hours walking around the ground taking photographs. We were straight out there, with me fielding in the Jonty Rhodes position at point, which would be great if I could field a thousandth as well as him.

As it happened I was feeling pretty good, and was able to field sharply and energetically, not that anything really difficult came my why. It may not sound much, but it is important for me to field well, it seems to give me more confidence for my bowling later on. 

Indeed I had to do quite a lot of fielding initially, and to get praise for what I was doing was rather helpful. Even though my throwing in from the boundary is terrible; my throwing arm being so gone it would be quicker to call a taxi to get the ball to the wicket keeper.

Travellers, as it turned out, had some good batters if thankfully not on the standard of Woodborough last week, and it took us a long time to make a breakthrough. But when it came, it happened quickly, as our opening bat took three quick wickets with his medium pace stuff. 

At the other end one of our very young bowlers was taking wickets too, using the shock tactic of aiming beamers at the batsman's head before cleaning them up with a length ball. Our catching was good as well.

I came on to bowl in the 20th over, nervous I'd be rubbish again. But as it turned out, I was good, if luckless apart from the one bad ball I bowled that was smacked into a hawthorn tree 100 yards away. I beat the bat, had edges go through the vacant slip cordon, and shaved the stumps several times for no reward. 

Typically all the action at the other end, where my fellow Sunday specialist went through Travellers lower order like a dose of salts to take 4 for 7.

That's the way cricket goes! Although there was a comedy tun out off my last ball. I ended with 5 overs for 24, with most of those runs in singles as the field was pushed back on the boundary as I was bowling the death overs again. We had bowled them out for 133.

So, batting time. Although not for me as I was back down the order in my rightful place. As it was so wretchedly cold I ended up spending a lot of time walking around, and as we started safely but rather steadily, there didn't seem to be any need to panic. It was so chilly however that outside of the cricket there wasn't a whole lot to see.

However, panic mode seemed to set in, as the opponent's canny medium pacer suddenly took a hat trick to devastate our middle order and leave us 5 down for not many. 

However, our opening bat and our skipper now settled in, and began to take the game away from the Travellers, who weren't helped by having a couple of fielders who made me look like Usain Bolt when it came to mobility. They gradually reduced the deficit down, until our opener sportingly retired at 50 and his son went in with us needing 25 off 5 or so.

This is when the skipper took control. The young chap was never going to monster the big hits, so his job was to keep the ball out and run like hell to try and keep the skipper on strike. No doubt the sight of me padded up waiting to come in helped focus their thoughts, as I knew I'd struggled to score against the fast bowlers who were on at the time.

Luckily the skipper is in a rich vein of form, and he saw up home. With a ball to spare!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.05.21

More Workplace Insects

 Friday was slightly better weatherwise, in marked contrast to today where it rained pretty much continually until about 7pm, although not so badly I didn't get out for a two hour walk. 

I wasn't due to play cricket today, which is just as well because every match in Nottinghamshire was rained off, but am in action tomorrow, hopefully not being too rubbish. 

With the weather being rubbish, my photos are from sunnier times yesterday, where a blossoming hawthorn has been attracting a lot of buzzy customers.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCRackeredNature 08.05.21

Nothing but Flowers and Covid Dreams

Alas, not much to report from today's Boris Walk, even though it was a long one of nearly two hours. Didn't see a single insect, which was odd as conditions were rather better than they have been the last few days.

Coronavirus dreams have now started affecting. Three nights in a row I've had them, culminating in last night and this morning featuring three different dreams all involving the bloody virus.

As ever, dream memories are hazy, but one of them involved a colleague at work accidentally spitting in my face.

I'm surprised it took so long for these dreams to happen, to be honest.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.05.20

A Very Wet Boris Walk

The endless merging of the hours and the days continue, like something JG Ballard talked about in his novel "The Drowned World" it sometimes feels like I've entered what he referred to as "Deep Time."

Today however I did know what day it was so that was an advance on the weekend. This was helped by the rain arriving for the first time in a while, and staying the whole day.

The Boris Walk today took me to the cemetery and around the two lakes; the cemetery absolutely full of flowers with the carpet of wild garlic in the ditch particularly striking. But the best thing was the surface of the lake was being patrolled by about 20 swallows and martins of some kind, skimming the water at high speed before slamming the brakes on in sharp turns in order to make another run.

So good to see, but I still haven't seen a swift yet!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 28.04.20