Posted in Nature, Uncategorized, Wildlife through the Year, tagged birds, fungi, mosses, Nature, Summer, Trees, wildlife on June 28, 2010| 4 Comments »
A baby great tit (Parus major) in the garden in June 2010...
Throughout 2010 I am revisiting the little green nature book that accompanied my childhood and seeing if I can still spot the plants and animals featured in its monthly sketchbook pages.
The book is “Wild Life Through the Year” by Richard Morse and it was published in 1942. You can read about earlier months here.
I have to admit it now seems rather bizarre trying to (more…)
Posted in History, Words, tagged Words on June 22, 2010| 7 Comments »
The River Piddle at Affpuddle in Dorset, by Trish Steel - in Old English 'pudd' means a ditch...
I’m fascinated by words and their origins, so here I am going to muse about the words paddle, peddle, piddle, poodle and puddle.
Partly this is because as a journalist I use Teeline shorthand, in which we usually leave out all the vowels, so those words would all be rendered the same in Teeline, as PDL. In transcribing, I would naturally say paddle, peddle, piddle, poodle, puddle as I go through the possibilities in my head.
There is also (more…)
Posted in Archaeology, Non-digital archive, Nostalgia, Photography, Uncategorized, tagged archaeology, Nostalgia, photography on June 16, 2010| 16 Comments »
Stonehenge in Spring 1974...
As we draw near to the northern hemisphere’s summer solstice, I thought I would post some old black and white pictures I took of Stonehenge and other West Country prehistoric monuments during an archaeological field class in Spring 1974.
Those were the days! Such monuments were not the tourist attractions they are today and they were often in isolated spots with no visitor centres nearby.
This weekend the (more…)
Posted in Art & Design, Science Fiction, SFF illustrators, Uncategorized, tagged art, design, Sci-fi on June 13, 2010| 7 Comments »
Mythopoeikon by Patrick Woodroffe (Dragon’s World 1976)
In the 1970s I started to collect books on the art of science fiction and fantasy. I am now using my blog to review some of the beautiful imagery and tell the stories of these craftsmen from the days before computer-designed art – in the (more…)
Posted in Nature, Uncategorized, tagged foxes, Nature, wildlife on June 6, 2010| 8 Comments »
A fox in the neighbour's garden...
We live in a part of the city on the edge of a park and our back gardens have some wild, wooded areas, so it’s not surprising we often see urban foxes around. These are of the red fox species, Vulpes vulpes.
I have to admit that (more…)
The Squirrelbasket 