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Category Archives: environment

Camera, Cloud and A New Book

We made a pinhole camera for the eclipse yesterday and it worked well to see the changing shape of the sun but it was a very small image. Blue Peter skills came in handy here. We were glad of the colander!

Such a strange cloud a day or two ago, not a vapour trail and unlike any we had spotted before.

Perhaps there is a nephophile out there who can explain.

I’ve just started a new book, the new ShelterBox bookclub choice that arrived in the post on Monday. It’s a very powerful read that I am finding hard to put down.

It’s less of a story that a collective diary, written by twenty-one women who are each recording their experiences in Kabul as the Taliban take over again in August 2021.  I’ll tell you more when I’m done. I’m just 80 some pages in.

 

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Colander, Light and Rooks

To see the partial eclipse this evening, we went up to Copper Lane behind us, looking out to St Agnes and the sea and caught it in the holes of a colander! The light went to dusk for a while, a strange, eerie light with sunset still two hours away. The rooks went crazy, cawing and flying into the rookery but came out again only a few minutes later when it all got brighter again.

The eclipse starting

The strange light

The rookery

The eclipse moving on

The last partial eclipse was in March 2015. You can see the post here.

 

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Six on Saturday – Golden Yellow and A Poem

Last week was all our white flowers and this week the golden orange hues have caught my eye. As we in Cornwall move into our 5th heatwave and a hosepipe ban, I don’t know how much longer the flowers will last. They have all been going over more quickly than usual already given we have had no real rain since early June, just a smidge of Cornish mizzle last week.
We’ll concentrate our watering, with watering cans,  on the food we are growing especially the tomatoes and sweetcorn and hope that the leeks, kale and kalettes will survive.  The autumn raspberries are looking very small and really need lots of rain…..and then sun!

Courgette flower

Orange Cosmos

Begonias in a chimney

These were seedlings I was given as volunteer harvest at Community Roots and I didn’t get the name.

California Poppies

Nearly 7′ Sunflower

And today, a very short, sweet poem by Emily Dickinson. I’m not sure that yellow is so rare in nature but like that the sunflower picture gives us blue too.

Nature rarer uses Yellow
Than another Hue.
Saves she all of that for Sunsets
Prodigal of Blue

Jim, over at Garden Ruminations, hosts  Six on Saturday. Pop over and in the comments, find so many delightful posts.

 

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Ferry to St Mawes to Sing

It was late when I arrived home last night so here is a small gallery showing our trip from Falmouth to St Mawes to sing and the ferry ride back again. Click on any photo for the caption and if you like, listen to us singing on the ferry on our way home. It’s ‘Cornwall, My Home” written by Harry Glasson and it’s really the new Cornish anthem.

Sunset on the way home

 

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Tomatoes, Onions and Sunflowers

Tomatoes, Onions and Sunflowers

It’s been a day of harvesting today at Community Roots – all the onions and the ripe tomatoes all gathered in and room now to plant out the winter brassicas and the later salad crops.

Just one of the 7 varieties we grow – these are Costaluto Fiorentino

My job today was to organise a Tomato Tasting of all seven varieties. The favourite was the cherry tomato, Mango Lassi, sweet  and  delicious!

A Sunflower somehow planted itself in one of the poly-tunnels and we’ve been watching it carefully, not clearing it away. It has bent over and sprouted flowering stems  from up and down the stem –  8 flowers so far and at least four more buds to open.

 

Garden Visitors and A New Word

Today was a beautiful summer day, temperature about 23C, blue skies, sunshine and a gentle breeze and we have spent much time in the garden, some reading, some weeding and a lot of birdcrastinating.
We’ve had more butterflies than we’ve been seeing, our squirrel came by and we’ve watched the delightful Long Tail Tits and Blue Tits enjoying the seeds on the Crinodendron Hookerianum.

Squirrel

Long tail tits

Blue tit in the Crinodendron

Close up, getting the seeds

and the new word for you:

 

 

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Six on Saturday – White – and A Poem

I love white flowers in the garden. They lift dark corners and sometimes even catch the light of the moon.

Daisies

And a poem for you, White Flowers by Mary Oliver whose work I always find interesting.

if you want a peek over other people’s garden walls then please pop over to our host, Jim from Garden Ruminations where you find links to many more wonderful garden enthusiasts from all over the world.

 

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Full Moon Photos

Full Moon Photos

Tonight’s full moon is the Buck Moon and last night, being clear, gave us a wonderful view. I managed a couple of photos but they didn’t quite catch the orange glow of the moon and all around it. To the naked eye, it seemed to be more the golden colour of the sun than the silveriness of the moon.

One of our friends also took a photo and it is just glorious, taken by holding his camera to the eye piece of a telescope. He did catch the colour!  I have been given permission to share it with you.

Thank you J.

I’m singing shanties with my choirs tonight at the Eco Park in Porthtowan. If you are local and read this in time, come along. We start at 8pm!

 

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Agapanthus, Cake and Herbal Tea

Agapanthus, Cake and Herbal Tea

We’ve been driving past a beautiful bank of Agapanthus for a week or two and today I managed to get a photo from the moving car.

The cake for volunteers at Roots today was a Lemon and Blueberry with a crusty sugar topping. It was delicious and much appreciated.

The herbal tea made for volunteers from herbs and edible flowers was particularly pretty today.

 

Truro – A Short Walk

I had a spare hour in Truro today and walked some old haunts finding lovely things. The blooms everywhere were remarkable, I found a Chough at the bus station and rediscovered the Victorian post box.

A Cornish Chough and a Gull

A Red Admiral butterfly at the side of the stream