Back on the Greensward

 Cricket is back!

Well, it's been back for a couple of weeks actually, but the games I was due to play got rained off, although I did end up umpring a second team game for several hours, but that victory had rather felt like reflected glory in the bar afterwards. 

I couldn't wait to get back to the real thing.

So, on Sunday, a day of unexpected warmth and sunshine, I threw my now not very whites in my kitbag, and headed for Kelham Road to vice captain or Sunday side against the nice gentelemen from Cheers Cricket Nottingham, one of whom was having a crafty pre-game nap on a bench when I arrived.

Being rather hungover, I envied him. 

Despite the terrible weather our ground staff had done an amazing job on the ground and wicket, and our new club president had very kindly come down to umpire. The skipper lost the toss as usual, and so Cheers decided to bat.

Now, our team was very strong, with several first team players, and Cheers had said they were very week and were worried about the game, and after ten overs, this certainly seemed to be the case. They were four for two after brilliant spells from our opening bowlers, and a hasty tactical meeting between myself and the skipper was convened in order to stop the game only lasting an hour. 

"Let's get the donkey bowlers on" was the new strategic plan, and it worked brilliantly as our leg spinner was hammered into the adjoining field second ball.

Now it was time to really go for it. I was brought on.

Now, over the winter problems with my shoulder and ankle have meant I have given up my left arm swing bowling, which has been rubbish for three years anyway, and have switched to bowling right arm off spin. Nets had led me to be quite optimistic it would go ok. 

Reality, however, has a way of pissing on you and claiming it is rain.

My first ball was short, turned a little, and was hammered over the boundary for six. As was the third, and the fourth. Two others only went for four, and long grass kept one to two. 

The over went for 28 in all, much to the delight of my team-mates who laughed mightily with every hit. 

I did get better after that, although I did throw in a couple of wides, but my three overs went for 33, which was a bit much even for our new tactical plan, so decent bowlers were brought back on.

"You were lucky he didn't take you apart" said one of the Cheers lads afterwards of the batter. What, and going for 28 isn't being taken apart?

The game continued in this pattern...good bowlers for a bit, and then further attempts to give Cheers a few runs in the aim to try and get them up to a reasonable score. However, unlike what happened to me, the Cheers lads weren't able to take advantage and were bowled out for 132 after what seemed a very long 35 overs. 

Am I upset about what happened to my bowling? Naaah, life's too short. I was rather enjoying myself out there!

So, after a tupperware tea break in the sunshine - cherry jellies for energy in my case - it was time for us to bat in what seemed like would be a straight forward chase. Indeed our young opening bats made a bright start and took us to nearly fifty before a wicket fell. 

After that though, we really began to make heavy weather of our task. The Cheers bowlers were clearly rather better than their batting, and we struggled to get a partnership going for a while. Wickets were falling, and the first team captain had to be rescued from watching Arsenal in the pavilion in order to steady the ship.

The first team captain is very good at steadying the ship, everyone says it, and indeed he and the other senior first teamer in the side did just that to take us close to our target, until one got a good ball, and the first team skipper played just a few minutes too early at a slower delivery. We had 14 left to get, and wickets were tumbling again, forcing me as the regular and no-longer reluctant number 11 to put my pads on. 

Enter our first team opening bowler, who on request we shall name. His name is Craig, AKA "Bimmo" and like me he usually bats at eleven, and was not batting at eleven today because I was in the team. It was he who steered us home with some elegant late cuts and dabs, although he nearly forgot to actually, you know, run, when he hit the winning single down to third man. 

So, a successful if slightly wobbly start to our Sunday game, and no I'm not going to stop bowling spin.

I'll get the batters worked out, then bowled out, so there!

Nature photographs included to annoy the chairman. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCRackeredNature

The Nature of Berlin and the Tiergarten

 A few more Berlin photos for you, focussing on the nature I found on my sister and I's long walks around The Tiergarten and Kreuzberg.

Apart from our Kreuzberg day, the weather was pretty chilly and wet and so there wasn't a lot fluttering about, and what there was, was pretty much the same you would find in the UK. However, the honeybees looked different to ours and may be of the carniolan sub-species.

So the hope of finding fritillaries or camberwell beauties I'd seen in photos from Germany ended up being rather dashed!

Enjoy!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.05.23

Berlin - The Obvious Tourist Sights are Obvious

 Berlin is an amazing city, and that was clear the moment we jumped off the train from the airport at the Hauptbahnhof, the magnificent modern building that is the main railway station at the city.

There was so much life on the streets; endless chains of any form of bike you can think of, cars that never need to stop for congestion, and people who answered my attempts to speak in German in perfect English. So many cafes with tables on the pavement, lots of kebab shops, and of course, the clicking pedestrian crossings with the iconic green man in a hat. 

I posted myself in charge of navigation, and after a shaky start, managed to get us to our hostel in Mitte by the Natural History Museum without too much difficulty. The room my sister and I were allocated was perfect; the Alt Bar in the courtyard, complete with sections of Berlin Wall, even more so.

Originally located in another part of the city, the bar's interior was moved in its entirety in 1993, and was once a favoured watering hole of David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich. This also brought us face to face with something British readers no longer experience; the fact that in Berlin, everyone smokes like chimneys and smoking is allowed in bars. 

The moment you walked into a bar, the sting of smoke is blinding. Although the bar was so dimly lit you couldn't see anything anyway. 

The next day had been allocated as the obvious tourist day. We set out from the hostel, and headed south along the Chauseestrasse trying to avoid being run over by trams. Lost amid university grounds, we did manage to extricate ourselves and find our way on the Unter den Linden.

The Unter den Linden is THE tourist drag. Lots of tat shops advertising tours by Trabant. Street cafes in the middle of the road selling kebabs and prosecco. Young kids buying fast food and religiously putting their litter in the bin - Berlin is spotless and seemingly actually respected and cared for by its inhabitants. 

Aside - we only saw four pieces of litter that day. All of which my sister put in the bin. 

After a stop at a cafe where I was shat on mightily by one of Berlin's ubiquitous hooded crows, a bird we don't see in England but do in Scotland, we trundled down towards museum island, but never really fancied going into any of them.

Museums take a long time, and ours was short. 

So, we went through the Brandenburg Gate, a magnificent edifice, before making our way to the huge park that is The Tiergarten, former hunting grounds of the Germanic royals. Sadly there were no wild boar about - just lots more hooded crows - and the cold weather meant there were no butterflies to see. Luckily Mozart and Beethoven weren't bothered about the weather. 

There are lots of little gazebos and things in the park, and each one of these had a homeless inhabitant. Poverty is perhaps less visible in Berlin than London, say, but it is still very much there. 

Another reminder of the darker history of this city is the Soviet War Memorial on the road that cuts that Tiergarten in half. The T34 tanks preserved there had leaf cutter bees living in their wheels. 

We began to head back now, taking in The Reichstag and its various memorials, before having a splendid cafe stop on the way home before stocking up with provisions - and Berliner beer! - at a Lidl. 

Where else?

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 30.04.23

A Stunning Orange Tip!

Hello!

I'm just back from Berlin, where I had a wonderful time in wonderful city. More of that later though. 

For now, I just want to show you something that was shown to me just before I left for Germany. I was sitting on a bench at Rumbles cafe when a little girl walked up to a plant, and deposited an orange tip butterfly on it. 

I've never seen an orange tip sit so still for so long, I'm guessing it was newly emerged and still waiting for its wings to properly dry out when she found it. Hence I was able to finally to get decent photos of one of these beauties for you. 

I hope you like them.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.04.23

Some Solitary Bees

 There's been plenty of solitary bees about this spring - when the weather has been ok! - mainly feeding off dandelion, which I've recently learned is not as amazing a source of pollen as many people think. 

However, this time of year, it is clearly still important as it so abundant compared to other food plants round here. 

I'm not sure of the species id of the non honeybees here; the tiny one is a lassioglossus of some kind, while another is an andrena mining bee. My bee identification skills are not up to the task and neither is Google lens, it seems!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 13.04.22

And my First Butterfly Photo of 2023 is...

 ...A comma!

So, all of a sudden on Monday Spring sprung in a big way on a cloudless day full of sunshine. It wasn't particularly warm, but all that buzzes and flutters locally decided to take to the skies.

Gaudy female tawny mining bees patrol the ground at high speed, all russet and gold, looking for suitable nest hole sites to make their little volcanoes. Hairy footed flower bees feed manically off drooping star of bethlehem, far too fast to photograph, and in some locales the chiff chaffs are singing almost deafeningly. 

But more significantly, in my aesthetic view at least, like neon leaves being blown on a breeze, was the appearance of brimstone butterflies at last. It is my firm belief that until you see one of these beautiful butterflies, Spring cannot be said to have started. 

Too bad they rarely settle, and the one that did was far too skittish to be photographed. But a gorgeous fresh out of the packet comma was a more obliging subject, settling on a plant by the cycle track for a sunbathe.

I think this is maybe the second year in a row the comma has been my first fluttering capture of the year. I wonder what will be next?

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.04.23

The Treecreeper

 I've been housebound by a combination of both terrible weather and a terrible back spasm. Really not happy about my exercise level lately and diet too; feel rather chubby with my trip to Berlin upcoming. 

On a day when I was able to get out I was however fortunate enough to have a rare good view of a treecreeper in the Old Oak Wood by the River Devon. They are incredibly hard birds to see against a tree trunk, only the flash of white belly giving the bird's appearance away usually.

As ever, it was spiralling up the tree trunk with it's almost claw like tail acting as a third leg. 

Not rare birds, but a rare sighting!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.04.23