CHRISTMAS CARDS ARE READY

Here they are at last. I hope you like them. They can be bought on Etsy at:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/166079145/dartmoor-snow-christmas-cards-10-x-a6?ref=shop_home_active

I'll attempt to put something on the sidebar as well. Thanks so much to all of you who voted; these were the top five designs:

I've been scrubbing about in my neighbour's woods this morning photographing fungi but they'll have to wait till later. I have some sidebar action to get frustrated over when it doesn't work and a couple of commissions to start on - very exciting! You know who you are.....

Until next time, I thought you'd like to see my old cats (both long gone) Martin (grey) and Wiggy (black), to prove I'm not just a dog person - I just know any cat in this house would end up as a light snack. They are in what I used to call the roast chicken position. 

RED FILM NOIR SPIDER

I just found this little arachnid on the wall on the way up the stairs. You can tell how small it is by the paint-brush marks. What isn't exactly coming across in the photos is how red it looked. I had to use a head torch to illuminate it, hence the Film Noir look, which seems to have reduced what appeared to be a scarlet body, to a rusty brown. I've never seen a red spider and, after blowing these pictures up, it looks like I still haven't. I'm hoping that Margarethe Brummerman (http://arizonabeetlesbugsbirdsandmore.blogspot.co.uk/) may be able to identify it. Since putting it outside, I've been faced with two more HUGE ones that barely fitted under my removal glass. Autumn is most definitely here.

We all go swimming on Sunday morning, usually at Okehampton pool, which is clean and warm and as lovely as a swimming pool can be to someone who only does it because I know it's good for me. This last Sunday, we decided to drive across the moor to Tavistock, where there lies a pool with a slide and some kind of whirly water arrangement very attractive to nine year old boys. Never again. Not wishing to go into too much detail, I came out feeling the need for a bath in carbolic. The changing rooms were peppered with hairs whose origin I can't be sure of and areas of mud and slime. When the water slide started, doors swung open in the side wall of the building allowing the super-chilled air to blast in over the pool. Said pool is shaped like a splat so you never quite know what direction to swim in and as for swimming on your back - forget it; I banged my head twice. The pipes in the disabled toilet (I couldn't use the other one as the latch was hanging by a thick thread of what I hope was glue), were covered in a strange white crust along with green powder which I really hope was copper oxide. So - a bad experience. I ran out into the air and took some pictures of Mallards, a dove and a pigeon to make me feel better. It didn't work.

A few more pictures from the last week.....

Evening Hawthorn

Happy dogs

Swollen river

Shiny dog

Storm clouds on the horizon

Dodgy Wheatear picture - nice to know they're still living up at the rocks

Wet dog

View from the car window on the way to Tavistock

Pretty cow

Last of the hardy Geraniums flowering 

The Christmas cards are ready to go but I need to put them on Etsy, which means photographing them as a group, which I didn't have time to do today. I should sort it out by the end of the week; thanks for your patience. Lucky it's only October really. I should say that the international postage is horrendous which may well make them impossible for anyone not in this country. I couldn't believe it when the woman in the post office told me how much it would be. So, until next time, here are Snippet and Jack looking very wet after an unexpected downpour yesterday. 

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

This week we have had two brushes with the military, both rather closer than Jack would have liked. On Wednesday, this Sea King helicopter came thundering up the valley just as we were heading out for our post lunch walk. It swung out over the road just above us and poor Jack went into a panic - it couldn't have been more than fifty yards above us. It circled around a couple of times before coming straight for us (see above) as we climbed the hill. I personally love these giant metal birds and find their presence thrilling, but Jack not so much. This morning, I was standing in the field with the ponies in a 7.30am daze, when Trigger suddenly shot off with the others at a gallop whilst Snippet started barking like crazy. I turned to see around forty soldiers emerging from the woods. I managed to grab Snippet and get him on his lead, assuming Jack was cowering behind me but, once I'd spoken to the guys in charge, who were very apologetic, I realised Jack had gone; fled in terror in the chaos. Six of the squadies went off to search the field, and two went down the lane, to no avail. Half of them were limping and looking pretty exhausted - apparently they'd been out on the moor all week. I told them he probably wouldn't come back as long as they were there, so they left, jogging along the road towards home (ours and their's at Okehampton Camp). I now started to panic with no sign of him and phoned home. To cut a long story short, two hours later, after frantic whistle blowing, combing of the surrounding area, tears and a lot of assistance from a very kind neighbour, he appeared from nowhere, tail wagging as if nothing untoward had happened. HUGE relief all round. Snippet just enjoyed  a longer walk. Useless as a search and rescue dog I can tell you. 

Yesterday I had my first close encounter with the wild ponies. If you've been following a while, you'll remember how close Snippet I got to the youngsters last year but, up till now, the new foals have remained elusive, mostly unrecognisable and fearful.  These two and one mother (below) came right up to me as I was tying my shoelace, which was lovely. I've really missed last year's relationships.

Last weekend, I took some pictures of Candle Snuff fungus (another fabulous name I'm sure you'll agree), which I've always wanted to capture; they were a disastrous blur. Then, as I chucked the food waste onto the compost heap yesterday, I noticed some very much closer to home on one of our log piles. Here it is:

Over the last few weeks, the top Dartmoor madam, the bigger of the two bays, has decided I'm okay and will, like the grey, allow me to scratch and stroke her and remove the endless bits of stick and gorse that accumulate in their manes. It makes fending her off a lot more pleasant. 

Here they all are together. I still haven't decided exactly what to do with Trigger over winter. More on that at a later date. 

During our walk this afternoon, where I was keeping a very close eye on Jack, I spotted this Golden Plover and I managed to get much closer than I expected. These were on full zoom so they're not brilliant but what a beautiful bird. 

A few more pictures from this week..........

Dawn light

I scoured the fungus book but I'm still not sure

A lovely crop of tiny Devil's Matchsticks

Perfect clouds

Grasses in the wind today

Windy wall

The Christmas cards have arrived so I just need to check with the post office how much they'll cost to send before officially putting them on sale. Very exciting, for me anyway! So, until next time, have a great weekend and here's the one who was nearly lost, chewing on a stick. 

TURKEYTAIL AND DEVIL'S MATCHSTICKS

This should really be another bits and pieces post, but with such brilliantly descriptive names that we have for our flora and fauna, I couldn't resist using them. I've only just found out about the Devil's Matchsticks, having struggled to identify the various red tipped Cladonia lichens, I can now go colloquial. I managed to find the lichen book I've been wanting for over a year now but have not been able to afford, for £5.00 plus the postage, and it should be arriving in the next few days. It's an ex-library copy. Very exciting and I hope to be boring you rigid with it very soon. 

We saw these fabulous Turkeytails on a very unsuccessful blackberry picking trip yesterday afternoon, along with lots of other fungi and lichens, and here are those Devil's Matchsticks - two different types:

Very early Fly Agaric before its white spots have appeared or the top spread out:

These next two fungi were impressively big:

I should really have waited for the book for these two but they were so stunning. I should also have put something to show the scale of them. They are absolutely tiny. 

Strange plump heart-shaped fungus:

A huge Dung Fungus:

No idea but the gills were so beautiful:

Dew on Gorse:

Foggy scenes from a few days ago:

Wet Jack:

Chink in the cloud:

Cloud hills:

View on the way to the river today:

I think Jack may be more of a water hound than Snippet...........

......who hates getting in - he was whimpering when I took this and I had to lift him off the tussock and dump him in:

I'm hoping my mothy friends will be able to identify this tiny character I found dead on the kitchen worktop this morning; less than a centimetre long. An Antler moth - thanks David and CT!

A Speckled Wood basking on the washing on Saturday. My first butterfly this year to keep still long enough for me to get really close:

Today, having failed to have beef tomatoes delivered in my internet supermarket shopping last week, I asked for them in our very tiny greengrocer's in Chagford (see below - it's about three feet wide inside).

My request was greeted as if I had asked for caviar with the comment that:

"We don't get much call for them these days" (with a raised eyebrow).

I should point out that Chagford, by rural standards, is extremely cosmopolitan. Am I missing something here? There were none when I rushed into Exeter's branch of Sainsbury's over the weekend either. Any theories received with interest. 

The Christmas card choices are very interesting and I'll be ordering them this week. Not the ones I would have chosen so I'm very glad I asked you or no one would have wanted them by the look of it. I'll Keep you posted. Until next time, here's lovely Snippet in the grass.