A Red Mason Bee

 The weather has been staggeringly dreadful today - seriously I can't remember a spring as dreary as this for years - but luckily we had a couple of warmer days at the beginning of the week.

This means that there's been plenty to see on the hawthorn blossom, and I've been happy to see that my wildflower meadows are now full of buttercups, while birds foot trefoil and ox eye daisy are now starting to emerge.

The red tailed bumblebees are already starting to zone in on the trefoil, they love feeding off that. 

A new species at work, although I've seen them investigating my garden brickwork and ignoring my bee hotel, is the red mason bee. I came across it feeding off the blossom, recognisable because of its hairy body with firey ginger colouring. 

This one was a little bedraggled from earlier wet weather I think, but it was really so vivid and a very pleasing find.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 20.05.21

From "Hero" to a Literal Zero

 Today for me was what they call "A Fresh Air Game."

We were lucky to get the game in. There were so much pregnantly heavy black clouds all around the ground most of the day that we were expecting a catastrophic downpour at any moment. It was raining at the start of the match. We had a hailstorm after about an hour, and then after that we had to go off the field because lightning was seen around the ground. But as it turned out, we only lost about 20 minutes play which was no problem as we were only playing 30 overs.

We batted first, and the skipper must have seen my blog post last week about not having batted because he asked me to bat at number 6. I had said we needed to get some lads in who hadn't batted yet, but I wasn't referring to myself, especially after having been so terrible at nets on Thursday. 

I have to say I was quite pleased, especially as the bowling of our Woodborough opponents seemed to be accurate, but slow on a wicket that although quicker than the wet plasticine of last week, was hardly Sabina Park with Curtley Ambrose bowling. 

Speaking of slow, because the bowling was accurate, so was our scoring initially, and we did lose a few early wickets. Our opening bat stayed strong and patient however, and when the bowling loosened up, so did he, playing some fantastically powerful shots. He did find a partner that could stay with him, and they began to rattle on the score quite nicely until the latter scooped a catch to the keeper.

Thus I strode out to wicket, heltmetless, looking to score a few runs off some of the rather less good bowling that was going on.

I lasted 3 balls, edging behind to the one good ball the guy who got me out bowled. He was lobbing full tosses at the other guy to be spanked to the boundary, but no not me, I got the full length ball that just moved a way a tiny bit. 

I walked off, wanting to throw myself into the hedge. 

"You never took your chance Simon" said the skipper, rather sternly I thought. Anyway, he is a much better bat than me, so it was probably better for us he was in and not me. And he actually gave the ball some very meaty thwacks indeed to take us up to 136  for 6 off our 30 overs. 

Now, for the bowling.

I'd been feeling quite optimistic about that because in nets I had sorted my action out so I wasn't falling away and bowling wides, and was bowling with a bit more snap and pace, if it a little short. But when our two best bowlers opened up, it was clear that Woodborough bats, led by a 68 year old no less, were rather too good. We did take an early wicket and they weren't thrashing us, but numbers 1 and 3 didn't really look in any bother after the wicket. 

And even less so when I bowled. 

Depressed that these days I'm so slow the wicket keeper stands up to the stumps for me, I did manage to produce an ok first over while the bats got their eyes in. But after that, while my reworked approach did indeed mean I was bowling pretty straight and was swinging the ball in a little, I'd bowl 4 good ones an over, and two short ones. 

And the two short ones would be massacred into the fields, every time.

I think I had a nick behind dropped, and beat the bat a few other times, but the bad balls were so badly punished that I was making the cut-throat signal to the skipper to take me off after three overs. Not that his mind wasn't made up already. 

To be fair, other than our opening bat whose medium pace they struggled to get away, all our other bowlers suffered the same fate as me to a greater or lesser extent. 

The nadir of my day was yet to come however. 

I was fielding on the boundary at long off, when the ball was struck high and hard in my direction. I was determined to make a good effort to catch it, moved in line, put my hands up ready...and watched the ball miss them about by at least 2 yards. I had utterly utterly foozled it. 

Our young opening bowler looked at me in total disgust. I threw the ball back in and wanted to die. 

After that, I was banished as usual to where the ball wasn't going to go. It wasn't really time to explain to the skipper that my neurological conditions lead me to have co-morbidities of dyspraxia and bad spatial awareness amongst other things. No, it is easier just to admit to being crap. 

We ended up losing by 9 wickets in about 24 overs. 

Me, I just have to keep practicing. And hoping.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 16.05.21

A Female Orange Tip

 Warmish day today, in so much as this spring we are conditioned to regard 15C as "warm" and consequently a few butterflies were out an about at work today.

Well, to be strictly accurate, 3 butterflies.

The first I saw was a slightly battered looking peacock that I couldn't get near as I had to cast it in shadow as I moved towards it as it rested on the hawthorn blossom, which is just so lavish at the moment. 

Another was a male orange tip, which I was happy to see as I think they've had a hard time during this rather rotten spring, but it never settled.

What I did manage to capture was a female orange tip, which parked itself on some cranesbill and allowed me to photograph it half decently for a change.

I also think I've found my cricket bowling mojo again after practice tonight.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 13.05.21

A Thrilling Game of Cricket

 Today, we entertained Norwell at our home ground, in a game that very nearly didn't go ahead.

After all the rain yesterday, the outfield had dried up, but there had been no opportunity to prepare a proper wicket - the cut strip was saturated and unrolled and some at the club suggested the game should be cancelled because of this.

Luckily our Sunday captain didn't agree, and selflessly went down and sat on the moto-roller like a boss, going up and down until we had something that looked like a wicket. And he painted the lines on and stuff too.

No one would ever let me drive the roller, because they'd have deaths on their hands. 

So we had a game to play, but we knew that the wicket would be a real pudding - you could almost put your finger through it, it was like plasticine. Hence we shortened the game to 30 overs a side from 40, because turgid wickets supposedly make for turgid cricket, and no-one fancied 6 hours of that even though the weather was ok.

So it proved when we batted. The ball scarely got over ankle high and came on so slowly it was impossible to time. The ball was hitting the back of the bat, the toe end, the edge...but hardly ever the middle. It took us 16 overs to hit a boundary, I think we only hit 3 in all, and only two of our bats got more than 20 it was that much of a struggle for them.

I had a good view of a lot of this as I was on waving my arms around umpiring duties, which I do very well. I like signalling 4, even though I only got to do it once. This of course is my only contribution to the batting side of things as I seemingly always have to bat at 11 and never have to go in. Hopefully I'll get a crack at some point. 

We were never able to put pedal to the metal, and finished on 105 for 7.

Naturewise, chaffinches were giving it some hammer singing in the trees, and there were some interesting solitary bees kicking about on the dandelions. I got some good laps of the ground in, got to get to 20000 steps on match days!

We went out into the field with no idea of what the opponents were like as a batting side. However, you could quickly tell by looking who was going to be any good or not, and indeed one of the openers we all instinctively knew would have his stumps splayed by the first straight one he got.

It took him 4 balls, but our opening bowler proved us right. 

Another wicket followed to our youngest player, who bowled extremely well on the day, but the two decent bats - one of them plays for Caunton in Division G on Saturdays where he recently scored 65 - dug in and eventually began to score a few runs.

The scoring of runs was largely aided by the appearance of yours truly coming on to bowl. I started horribly, unable to pitch the ball up, and the pea rolling balls were slapped into the outfield although thankfully the fact that the boundary seemed to be 200 yards away on one side stopped me from going for loads of boundaries. And when I did get the ball up, they were swatting the ball across the line for runs and when I threw one up outside off stump it got blattered for 4 through mid off. 

I'm always a horribly slow starter at bowling, especially when I'm still very underbowled early season. 

However, I did improve over by over, although frustrated at the lack of pace I have these days I was still able to swing the ball a little bit, and the best bat nearly inside-edged onto the stumps 4 times, adding to my frustration. 

They needed 28 off the last ten overs and the game looked dead and buried.

It was my 5th over where it all started to happen. The gun bat out of nowhere, perhaps his own frustration at being unable to hit me out of the park, chipped me to mid on where our opening bowler took a great catch as the ball dipped on him, and then a few balls later I got the other good bat finally LBW as he swung across the line yet again.

He was really pissed off at the decision, but it was taking his middle stump out of the ground. I was pleased with my appeal as well, it was a down on one knee prolonged yell. It had to go on for a long time as it took an age for the umpire to get his finger up even though it was as plumb as a plum.

I thought that was my last over. I was wrong...

While all this was going on, and I was going for a few runs, the other bowlers were keeping it very tight. And as it turned out, I had prised the gate open, for our opening bowler returned and tore through the middle order who really did not look like cricketers at all. Our youngest did the same, and they weren't scoring any runs at all hardly. 

There was much yelling and excitement on the pitch from us; I hadn't been involved in game this close for a long while. 

At 97 for 8, they needed 9 off the last over. And guess who had to bowl it.

I've never bowled a "death over" before, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to bowling this one either. I'm not what you would call a "two spells" bowler, as I tend to stiffen up after bowling. Also, nerves. 

I was bricking it, basically, and rightly so. My first ball was feeble and short and went for two. The batsman, who was their captain, then tried to launch one over the rope but only skied it mightily, but the catch was dropped. Next ball, yorker, just went for a single. 

Then things all went to hell, as I bowled two horrible no ball full tosses in a row. I felt horribly resigned at this point, thinking I was going to cost us the game. Next ball however was just about ok and went for no run.

Last ball. 4 runs needed to win. The fielders scattered. I ran in, the batsman walked down the wicket, swung mightily...and missed the ball completely. 

I had got away with it. I don't recall ever being congratulated so much on a cricket field. 

So there you go. I'll never be consistently good, or indeed any good at all. But I have my moments on the cricket field here and there...

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 09.05.21

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

Just Some More Insects

 We've gone from it being dry and cold, to wet and cold as this most un-springlike spring continues, so consequently there's not been a lot of insect life about - I haven't seen a butterfly for what feels like two weeks. 

At work, I can watch the carrion crows that have nested next to the lorry park. And take my lunchtime walks past the gorse and hawthorn bushes by a traffic island, where we have had a few buzzers kicking around.

Take today, for instance, where I was lucky enough to accidentally get my best honeybee photos in a little while, as well as a ladybird. 

Tonight I took my fat self to cricket practice, where it got wet and windy very quickly and left me rather bedraggled when I went off to vote. 

Rain stops me not from exercising my democratic right, even in a council election.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.05.21

Just Taking in the Flowers

 Been a cold old weekend, with not a lot to see, but today was a little less cold, so I took myself through the cemetery, and around the two lakes, just to see what was out. 

Meadow saxifrage in the cemetery is the latest new addition, these pretty white blooms adding to those of the wild garlic - my sister has foraged some of the stuff to make pesto down in Bristol apparently. Plenty of bluebells too, but in general a hybridised mess of native and non-native. 

The nicest sight I've had today was in my own garden. The tiny pipistrelle bat who lives in the roof somewhere has woken up for spring, and was fluttering about at twilight. 

It's an incredible flyer!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.05.21