Two Matches in One Day

Today I was with both Newark 2s and Newark 3s, two different grounds in a day.

I wasn't in any kind of quantum state of Heisenbergian uncertainty. The reason, sadly, was that the second eleven I was playing for went down rather horribly, the match turning on a moment of misfortune, so I had time to cycle over to the other ground to cheer on the 3rd team, who were putting on probably their best performance of the year.

It was my first ever match today at our Kelham Road headquarters, an attractive setting with a pretty pavilion, with pretty flowers, and very high level teas. Sadly it has a high water table and so with the June rains we hardly had a game there as it took on lake like conditions, although we batted today as if we were still all at sea alas. One of our senior players appeared to be shot in the leg as he ran a second, such was the degree of his agony, and after this muscular dysfunction, we never got going again.

I, like several of us, was given lbw to a young spinner although for the second week in a row I was left scratching my head a little bit, but as ever, I took it like a chap.

Our 35 all out on a belting batting track was always too low, but thanks to our young (very) fast bowler being very straight we gave them a bit of a scare. Me, not being very fast, got hit for 4 when I bowled straight. Such is my cricket life; I'm not being very lucky and I can't buy a run or a wicket.

On the nature front, the best visitors we had were a migrant hawker coming to watch us bat, and a buzzard that sailed over the far end of the ground. Never saw it though, only heard it keening. Plenty of butterflies in passing, but not many pollinator friendly wild plants on the ground.

The pavilion, with luxury teas!

Here we go

Getting to the pitch of the ball

This was the scorebox at Lords until the 1980s

Into the covers

Soldier beetles having a party

Thistle

Hoverfly on ragwort

Little worker early bumblebee

Poppy

Willow tree

Flower bed

Buzzard feather

Drone fly

With it being a really nice day, the decision to cycle over to the other ground to see the third team play was an easy one. They had already posted their best score of the year, and were busy giving the best team in their league a real scare, despite the fact the several of our players were so young they were barely taller than the stumps. Frankly, in this town, I was old enough to be the grandfather of one or two of them. They still made me feel rather ashamed of my own level of ability however.

There was nature to be had at this ground too, lots of house martins on insect patrol, and a flowering bush that was litteraly buzzing with bees, and was attractive to many small skipper butterflies too.

Bee fuzzy with pollen

Small skipper

Another match goes by as a bit of a personal failure, But it was a gorgeous day, and there is another game tomorrow. Perhaps it will happen for me then. I always say that. But someday it must.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 23.07.16

Pokemon Hunting with an Eye on Nature

I couldn't resist it.

I had an excuse, the idea of writing a piece comparing nature hunting with hunting for Pokemon, those ubiquitous augmented reality creatures that only appear on your mobile phone. But really, I wanted to do it since I heard of it, the chance for me to be in at the beginning of a craze for a change, the chance to be a child again and be in the open air.

My flat is in a hotspot for Pokemon activity - looking at this I really can't believe I'm writing this - full of virtual Pokestops and Gyms, and even after midnight there's usually a few twenty somethings trundling around heads down, faces illuminated by the blue Poke-Glow of their mobile phone screen.

And a couple of days ago I became one of them, and immediately headed for Sconce Park, another busy Poke-Place full of children and their parents or elder siblings wandering around excitedly pointing at things that you couldn't actually see.

It didn't take me long to be seeing things either. My mobile phone buzzed, I switched on the virtual view, and there was a Pokemon right before my Poke-Eyes in the car park.

This rodent looking thing is a "rattata". What it does, I have no idea, but I caught it. I found a friend of his not far away.

This is a spearow, and I caught it not far from the start of the Parkrun route. Looks rather stern.

Technology though soon was Poke-Stumped however. The servers crashed, as they always do, and whereas others would perhaps pack up and go home, I had a whole park to still enjoy on a lovely evening.

That being said, I still think it's a good thing. Children are outside walking in the open air in parks - the game incentivizes you to do that by rewarding you for every kilometre or two you walk. Local nature reserves are reporting an increase in visitors, and people are posting pictures of butterflies or birds they have found on their Poke-Hunts so now the reserves are encouraging people to come and play.

Even more dramatically, a bunch of young lands out looking for Pokemon found a guy collapsed with heart failure right outside my flat. They found him a few minutes before I did, and in that time they were able to get paramedics out to treat him. If they hadn't been playing Pokemon, he'd have been Poke-Dead.

Let them play, say I! I'm going to carry on. For just a little while...

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 22.07.16

Mummy's Busy!

Was out in my garden, lazing in the sun, trying to get a short blast of ultra violet on my exczema, when I noticed a bird alighting under the eaves of the roof next door.

You may recall that a few months ago I wrote about how my buddleia was cut down - it is shooting new greenery out but not flowering this summer - and I wondered where all my local sparrows were going to sit, and whether it was going to put them off nesting in their next door penthouse like they had always done before.

Well, I think the answer is  that most of the sparrows moved to the hedges, or possibly under the eaves on another side of the building. But one family decided to stay in their usual nest hole, and the bird I was watching was Mrs Sparrow feeding her nestlings.

They look about ready to go from these pictures, and are making a heck of a racket whenever mum shows up every five minutes or so. Mr Sparrow doesn't seem to be doing any work, so she is really working hard.

I would imagine they'll have probably gone at the time I'm writing this, so I'm glad I caught this little scene.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 20.07.16

Harebell Hills

The Harebells seem to be out very early at Sconce Hills Park this year; I normally associate them with August - September flowering. I noticed them yesterday, small bright blue carpets, usually on sun facing slopes on the fortification itself and nowhere else on the park.

For a long time, I had no idea that harebells were a species in their own right, thanks to an erroneous wildflower book I had that said that "harebell" is what bluebells were called in England. And when I say a long time, I mean until about four years ago.

Same as I believed that Jimi Hendrix sang "Excuse me, while I kiss this guy" in Purple Haze for years and years. Yes, I was one of those "really was that stupid" stupid people.

The harebells themselves of course don't have to worry about such things. They can just get on with being pretty in the dazzling sun we've had for the last three days.

As long as they don't mind that a Pokestop has sprung up right on top of them...

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 19.07.16

Still Working on My Butterfly Shots

Well, after yesterdays Summer warm up on the cricket field, the warm season decided to really finally arrive today.

I've been outside in it most of the day, reading in the garden in the afternoon while watching a big migrant hawker investigating the greenery up my drive, and waiting for a little of the heat of the day to drop  before heading out on a run at 630pm.

But the morning was spent in Sconce Park, where lots of butterflies had come out to play. I've now figured the best way to get them is just on straight 1 to 1 shots, no macro, nothing.

Hmmmm. Lets see how I've done with my small skippers, meadow browns and speckled woods...

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 18.07.16

Meditation and meadows at Long Eaton Cricket Club

Double cricket for me today, a long trek to the far side of Nottingham to play Long Eaton, a team so flash they even have an overseas professional. What they thought of the motley assortment of very obviously amateurs pouring themselves out of cars when we arrived, heaven only knows.

We're not 11 Usain Bolts that's for sure.

We were playing in West Park, a lovely and evidently very popular expanse of green space overlooked by the towering chimney of the impressive Industrial Revolution era Harrington Mill. I was excited to see as we went in that there was a nature reserve in the park. And as usual, with us batting first and myself well down the order as usual, I took off straight away.

Today was the first truly hot and sunny day we've had here for probably two months; we certainly hadn't had any sunny cricket since playing Colston Basset in May. As well as the families and the cricketers, it brought out the wildlife too, and I'd barely gone ten metres before a glittering in the grass caught my attention; a small greenish damselfly, possibly an emerald. Of course, such a creature is far too ephemeral for me to catch its glint on camera.

I wandered around, past a flooded meadow where the black headed gulls were feeding in the puddles, stabbing for goodies with their powerful beaks. Here I was excited to find a sign indicating that the reserve, called Fox Covert, was nearby, so I followed the path round, past a white butterfly feeding off bramble, past happy children playing on a "Splash Pad" while their parents predated on magnum ice creams nearby.

I crossed a small bridge, headed for a faded old sign, and found myself in the reserve, a reserve where chiff chaffs and blackcaps were singing, and beautiful wildflowers coloured the greenery. There were lots of thistles in flower, I figured a sure spot to find skipper butterflies; skippers of the non cricketing kind. And sure enough, small skippers were fluttering about from flower to flower.

Much more menacing, huge southern hawkers were patrolling the skies above the paths like the steampunk monsters they are. They zig zag about, effortlessly munching up smaller insects as they fly, and have no qualm about bring their bright yellow and green bodies right up to you for a close look.

Meanwhile we weren't batting very well on a low slow deck, and when I went in at number 10, quick runs were needed. They didn't get them from me; after hitting a few powerful hacks straight to fielders I was given out LBW to a spin bowler bowling from way around the wicket. Hmmmmm.

Tea was strange. As I finished my cuppa and made to stand up to go back to the dressing room, I heard the third team captain announce "Si, don't move! There's a pokemon sitting on your shoulder and I'm trying to catch it!"

I thus had to sit for several minutes while he made a big fat fail of attempting to capture the "pidgey" with his pokeball thing. I got my own back later on, when I accidentally maced him in the face with my right guard anti perspirant. He should have thanked me, it meant he didn't have to see the bodies of our team mates as they changed.

I mentioned yesterday how I never felt right, and fielded and bowled like a drain. Today was totally different; the sun and setting brought out a completely different me. At 43, I'm not going to be able to dive about like a madman, but I can still un and chase hard, and by filelding well it meant my bowling, which yesterday was so filthy there wasn't a word in the dictionary for it, was generally gun barrel straight on a full length.

No wickets though. But surely one day that will come. It was still a super day, and even though we lost, we worked very very hard.

Si

Here we are!

And here we go!

Harrington Mill stack dominates the skyline

Meditation

Juvenile gulls stab the mud

green veined small large white. I can never tell.

And again

Band stand

Entrance to Fox Covert

Small skipper

Shield bug

Birds foot trefoil

Thistles

Couldn't get a good capture of this bee

Fox Covert meadow

Ummm, fuzzy stuff

A field of fuzzy stuff