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Arne in January
Jan. 4th, 2026 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puddleshark
Met up with C. and her terrier for a walk by the harbour at Arne in the January sunshine. The water silver, still as glass. Cormorants and grebes performing vanishing tricks through a mirror.
I didn't get any good photos, but the light was gorgeous - you cannot take light for granted in January - and the harbour was very quiet, just the calling of the wading birds, or the splash of a rower passing by. Afterwards, coffee and cake at the café, sitting outside, the terrier curled in C.s lap, half-dozing in the sun, waking just enough to grumble halfheartedly at other dogs passing by.
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Moonset
Jan. 3rd, 2026 11:34 ampuddleshark
Had planned to get up early for another expedition down to the coast, but the roads were very icy first thing. Decided I was not brave enough to go far afield, so instead took a sunrise / moonset walk through the forest.
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Winter garden
Jan. 2nd, 2026 12:36 pmpuddleshark
Bought a new season ticket to Holme Gardens for 2026, and took a short wander round the winter gardens in the sunshine, just until my feet grew numb. Only the Witch Hazel and the Daphne in flower. But the garden was full of birds: Robins singing, Thrushes and Fieldfares feeding on the holly and the rowan berries, a tiny Goldcrest, rather tame, seen picking its way along a yew hedge.
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Binx, Gus-gus, and Dumpling
Jan. 1st, 2026 06:53 pmbunn
I have taken the odd photo of the foster-kittens with my proper camera, but most of my photos are terrible phone snaps & short videos which aren't improved by my taking photos indoors in December. Still, the camera you have with you is a better camera than the one you don't.
Gus-gus is the slightly larger kitten with a longer tail, and Dumpling is the kitten with a white tuft under her chin. We think that Gus-gus is male and Dumpling female, but wouldn't want to bet on it.
Here they are growing from 2 weeks to the end of 6 weeks : photos.app.goo.gl/qWiK9rMuBWHCA25U9
New Year's Day, on Flower's Barrow
Jan. 1st, 2026 01:32 pmpuddleshark
Flower's Barrow Iron Age Hillfort. Or perhaps, half of Flower's Barrow Iron Age Hillfort. Or maybe a third of it? It has been slowly crumbling into the sea these last two thousand years. Who knows how big it was originally.
( Cold wind & sunshine, and New Year's Greetings from a raven )
Happy New Year!
Dec. 31st, 2025 07:24 pmbunnI keep thinking of things to post here and then not actually getting around to making the post when I'm sitting at a computer.
Never mind. Happy New Year to you all.
A cheerful apologetic wave to those people who optimistically sent Christmas cards despite my dismal record on that front.
I shall now attempt some bullet points about things I considered posting about in December 2025 but failed to.
- Foster-kitties Tabby and Rosa went back to the rescue having put on a fair bit of weight. They had a potential home offer, but I'm not sure if that fell through, since we haven't heard any more about them.
- Instead we were asked to take in Binx, a black cat with a white tuft, and her two-week-old kittens, Gus-gus and Dumpling. They are now coming up to seven weeks old, have sprouted ridiculous long legs, and learned to climb and prance hilariously.
- The idea that Binx would teach the kittens about the litter tray did not appear to work. However, after a few random wees, putting two very shallow litter trays in locations that the kittens had previously chosen, and plonking them in the litter trays every time we went into the room did.
- I decided that the random shoes that arrived through the post over a year ago with no name on them, which nobody in the village admitted to having ordered, had aged sufficiently that I could sell them on ebay, so I did. (I suppose I could have donated them, but the local charity shops seem very unenthusiastic about donations, and I find I need to be feeling quite strong before I can march in and hand things to a sighing volunteer. )
- since the cold cleared and we have had quite a lot of calm, clear weather, I've been sea swimming a few times with the Hazelbeach group. I went today, in fact, and it was the coldest swim yet: it definitely helps if you've been exercising enough to get warm before you get into the sea, even in boots, gloves and my shortie wetsuit.
- Theo completed his scentwork course, which was fun, but he clearly thought it rather easy. There is an exam, but I'm not sure we shall bother with that.
- Went to visit my Mum; came back over the old Severn Bridge. My family lived in Swansea till I was 12, so every holiday involved that bridge: stopping there for the first time in about 40 years was a strange, nostalgic moment.
- Mum, Theo and I went to the Christmas Tree festival at St Eustachius's. It was a very good one. I think I voted for the tree celebrating the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site, which had a really good mining chimney. For a Christmas tree, anyway.
- Pp has hurt a finger, bending it backwards in a manner that seems likely to require minor surgery to fix. In the mean time it is strapped up in a brace, which is annoying rather than painful.
- We bought Nordmann firs (one for upstairs, one for downstairs) from Pen Parc Festive Trees this year, which meant we got to trek through a chilly field and pick out the trees. They certainly seem to be holding their needles a lot better than in previous years. Nordmann is a fine wood to carve, too, though I didn't take a chunk off to carve over the festive season. I'll have to wait till 12th night to take my carving wood for this year's decoration.
- there are flowers on the rosemary bushes, and today I found some primroses despite the frosted ground.
Never mind. Happy New Year to you all.
A cheerful apologetic wave to those people who optimistically sent Christmas cards despite my dismal record on that front.
I shall now attempt some bullet points about things I considered posting about in December 2025 but failed to.
- Foster-kitties Tabby and Rosa went back to the rescue having put on a fair bit of weight. They had a potential home offer, but I'm not sure if that fell through, since we haven't heard any more about them.
- Instead we were asked to take in Binx, a black cat with a white tuft, and her two-week-old kittens, Gus-gus and Dumpling. They are now coming up to seven weeks old, have sprouted ridiculous long legs, and learned to climb and prance hilariously.
- The idea that Binx would teach the kittens about the litter tray did not appear to work. However, after a few random wees, putting two very shallow litter trays in locations that the kittens had previously chosen, and plonking them in the litter trays every time we went into the room did.
- I decided that the random shoes that arrived through the post over a year ago with no name on them, which nobody in the village admitted to having ordered, had aged sufficiently that I could sell them on ebay, so I did. (I suppose I could have donated them, but the local charity shops seem very unenthusiastic about donations, and I find I need to be feeling quite strong before I can march in and hand things to a sighing volunteer. )
- since the cold cleared and we have had quite a lot of calm, clear weather, I've been sea swimming a few times with the Hazelbeach group. I went today, in fact, and it was the coldest swim yet: it definitely helps if you've been exercising enough to get warm before you get into the sea, even in boots, gloves and my shortie wetsuit.
- Theo completed his scentwork course, which was fun, but he clearly thought it rather easy. There is an exam, but I'm not sure we shall bother with that.
- Went to visit my Mum; came back over the old Severn Bridge. My family lived in Swansea till I was 12, so every holiday involved that bridge: stopping there for the first time in about 40 years was a strange, nostalgic moment.
- Mum, Theo and I went to the Christmas Tree festival at St Eustachius's. It was a very good one. I think I voted for the tree celebrating the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site, which had a really good mining chimney. For a Christmas tree, anyway.
- Pp has hurt a finger, bending it backwards in a manner that seems likely to require minor surgery to fix. In the mean time it is strapped up in a brace, which is annoying rather than painful.
- We bought Nordmann firs (one for upstairs, one for downstairs) from Pen Parc Festive Trees this year, which meant we got to trek through a chilly field and pick out the trees. They certainly seem to be holding their needles a lot better than in previous years. Nordmann is a fine wood to carve, too, though I didn't take a chunk off to carve over the festive season. I'll have to wait till 12th night to take my carving wood for this year's decoration.
- there are flowers on the rosemary bushes, and today I found some primroses despite the frosted ground.
Sunset on the Heath
Dec. 31st, 2025 06:45 pmpuddleshark
A bright icy afternoon, frost lingering on the grass, and a thin layer of ice on the puddles. Set off down the farm track to Middlebere, with the setting sun at my back, casting a long shadow. ( Read more... )
Along the drove roads
Dec. 27th, 2025 03:04 pmpuddleshark
West of Wimborne, the Stour Valley is crisscrossed with old drove roads, some of them gravel tracks, and some of them green lanes (or lanes of mud, depending on the time of year). They are not spectacular from a photographic point of view: flat tracks running between high hedges. But they are a quiet place to walk in winter, sheltered from bitter north-easterly winds.
( Read more... )