94% Roses

As I've mentioned before we tend to take a lot of photos, and our recent holiday to Shropshire was no exception. On the second full day we were there, however, the photos were all pretty similar in content. In fact 94% of the 356 photos we took were of roses!

There is of course a good reason for the vast number of rose photos -- we spent the day at the David Austin Plant Centre just outside Albrighton. It was a perfect day with an almost cloudless blue sky and in the sheltered gardens without even a hint of a breeze it was unbearably hot. We had to have a number of trips to the tea-rooms just for the shade and a cold drink.

The clear skies and heat were certainly helping the gliders though. I'm not entirely sure where they were being launched from but they were close enough that you could see the winch cable drop away as they gained height.

The only problem with the whole day was that we had intended to have afternoon tea at the gardens but hadn't noticed on the website that it suggests booking in advance. There weren't any tables left so we just had to make do with lunch. Mind you lunch was fantastic. We both had a ploughmans, with some of the biggest chunks of cheese you have ever seen, and then I finished with a scone (lots of jam and cream) and Bryony had a lemon cake with elderflower icing (at least I think that's what it was).

I don't suppose I can get away without a photo of roses, so I'll finish with one of the more interesting shots. I know that not everyone likes (can see) the 3D photos, but give this one a try, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Fabulous Beast

As I mentioned in my previous post we have recently had a few nights away in Shropshire. We were actually staying in the village of Much Wenlock just outside Shrewsbury (more on the village later), but we spent our first day dodging rain showers in Shrewsbury. There is a lot to see in Shrewsbury and we didn't make any concerted effort to see everything but we started with the abbey as that was were we parked. Across the road from the main abbey church is one more surviving abbey building (lots of the buildings were removed when Thomas Telford drove the A5 right through the abbey precinct). The building, which dates from the late 13th century, is now known as the Infirmary but was probably a guest house. The Infirmary now forms one corner of a quite green space in the bustle of the modern city and is the headquarters of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust.

Within the courtyard there are a number of interesting sculptures and flower beds, but this statue entitled "Fabulous Beast" caught my eye. At first I thought it was going to be some classical beast of mythology, but I'm beginning to think it is simply the product of a weird imagination!

Driving The Earl

We recently spent five nights on holiday in Shropshire and the Welsh borders. I'm intending to do a few posts on the holiday, but as a taster here is a photo Bryony took of me enjoying Monday afternoon.

Hortus Lepidopterans

Okay so the Latin title might not be linguistically correct, but it has a better feel to it than "Garden Moths and Butterflies" which is what this post is all about.

Ever since we bought our house we have been slowly working on transforming the square lawn, which takes up all the flat area of the rear garden, into something more interesting with flowers and shrubs etc. Last year we used a whole bunch of bricks to mark out where we wanted the borders and a pond to be. Unfortunately we haven't had the time to actually do all the work yet.

The back left corner of the garden will eventually hold the pond and a bit of a bog garden as well as a small patio and a bench. Currently though, we have simply let this corner go wild to produce an interesting habitat for good old fashioned British wildlife. This means lots of tall grass, ragwort, dock and a whole bunch of other plants. One side effect of this is that the number of species of moths and butterflies we are seeing in the garden is increasing.

So far this year I've managed to identify and photograph two new species of moth and a butterfly.

From left to right we have:

Tyria jacobaeae

A day flying moth more commonly referred to as a Cinnabar. This is likely to have been attracted to the garden by the ragwort growing wild in what will eventually be a pond as this is the favourite food of it's larval form.

Polyommatus icarus

Last year we actually saw quite a few blue butterflies flitting around the garden. Unfortunately they either flew over the fence or were eaten by the Robins before we had a chance to identify them. This year, however, I finally found one sunning itself in the border and it sat still long enough for me to identify it as a Common Blue. It's a shame I didn't manage a photo of the bright blue upper wing surfaces but all the identifying characteristics are actually in the photo.

Diachrysia chrysitis f. aurea

I found this Burnished Brass moth in the herb border today while I was mowing the lawn. It was sitting in the marjoram which isn't really surprising given that my moth book lists marjoram as one of the larval food plants.

So I'm sorry if any of my neighbors think that the garden looks a little untidy, it will improve slowly, but until we have the time I'd prefer it to be a haven for British wildlife then a boring lawn.

Cercopis Vulnerata

Have you ever wondered what hides inside cuckoo spit? Well a few weeks ago my father-in-law blogged a photo of a froghopper larva that had been knocked out of some cuckoo spit in his garden. Interestingly just a day or so before I'd actually seen and photographed an adult red and black froghopper, Cercopis Vulnerata, in our garden.

Murder Death Kill

A couple of weeks ago GB blogged about bookcases (actually two separate posts here and here) which generated quite a few comments. Fi from Four Paws and Whiskers got me thinking with this comment:

I guess it pays not to own too many books on poisonings and other murder methods.... or sex guides or even just a collection of bodice ripper novels - all might be embarrassing.

Now I tend to arrange my non-fiction books by topic, and while I don't have a shelf full of sex guides, I do have a shelf all about murder and poisons.

Now I'm not a psychopathic murderer but I do enjoy reading these books. I didn't set out with the intention of reading a whole bunch of books on the same topic. Rather I would read one book, which would make reference to another and I just ended up following the links. Sometimes I'd buy one of the books just because it sounded interesting. The "How to Kill" book is a good example of this -- I needed a book to read on a flight and thought this might get me some funny looks! I doubt I'd have the nerve to do that in todays climate though.

I now actually have more books than will fit on this small shelf. In fact I'm currently reading a very interesting book on germ warfare!

So do any of you have an interesting bookshelf that is maybe just a little out of the ordinary?

The Lights Are On, But Is Anyone Home?

On the door to my hotel room (I'm in London working at The National Archives for a couple of days) is the following sign...

I slept with the lights off but I'm not entirely sure if that was a good idea or not!