Wisley
Few more photos from yesterday. As can be seen a grey day and little real plant life of interest. However this is winter!
Apple Trres in Winter
Wisley River
Painting of an old bench at Wisley
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The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world
Archive for the month “December, 2011”
Wisley RHS Gardens Surrey
A grey sort of day with little to do, so a walk was in order at Wisley. Not many flowers and plants to report but I did learn something about Geese who seemingly have broken wings. We used to see an Egyptian goose at Painshill park for 3-4 years who had what we thought was a deformed wing but it seems this is called ” angel wing or aeroplane wing”. they are born with this, cannot fly but survive about the same as normal geese. A little poster in a Hide at Wisley taught me this! Our Egyptian Goose was named Mangle by my son, who had little interest in the biology of ducks.
Wisley is actually a great place for a walk, no-one has to be an expert on plants to enjoy the scenery there, though a fair amount of puffing and huffing and pontificating does go on.
An Egyptian goose with normal wings
Mangle. The goose with Angel Wing it seems
Angel wing Defined
Xmas
xmas seems to have zoomed by fast. Silly amounts of food and wine. Little exercise. An appalling game of football on boxing day Brentford v bournemouth 1-1 which made me seriously wonder why I am a Brentford fan. However all presents seem liked! Tonight we went on a whim to the Rose Theatre in Kingston and saw the Snow Queen. this was fabulous. Well acted and in a great little theatre, so small that non-one is far from the front.
Swans in Painshill Park
The Animals of New Malden
New Malden is becoming more like a zoo each day with the various animals living here or thinking that they do. In an average day we would see a fox or two in the garden seeking sustenance from the waste bins , far too many evil minded squirrels , various cats, and now we are blessed with a hedgehog and a hamster. The Hedgehog was initially on a sort of holiday visit, but is now a permanent fixture. The Hamster, called Houdini, as he always manages to escape, must be almost 2 years old. Enjoy, meeting these charasmatic animals.
houdini the hamster
Hedgehog emerges
Hersham Rain and odd behaviours
As per the last post the rain in Hersham was extensive and whether this addled the brain of someone to leave an old sofa outside the Hersham Greyhounds Welfare place and adjoining the cemterty who knows but anyway they did. Bizarre.
Not a sofa
The poor lonely sofa of Hersham
Raindrenched Hersham
The weather has not been pleasant in the Uk this last week and most nights one is greeted by a horrid frost. Today was no exception however the sun also rose and burnt off the frost early on meaning it was a great day to go and walk the rescue Greyhounds at Hersham. The work done by the mostly unpaid volunteers never fails to impress me and indeed today they were saying ” come and walk a hound on xmas morning”. The fields and lanes demonstrated admirably the recent rainfall and were literally full of water.
Sodden fields of Hersham
More sodden fields of Hersham
Singing Razorbills
Today has been a nothing sort of day really so nothing to report. So instead here is one of my favourite photographs from the Farne Islands taken in 2009 I think. Enjoy
Singing Birds
Dolphins
One of the best things, arguably the only good thing about gibraltar, was the dolphin trip. Apparently we had a huge slice of luck in that more than 100 dolphins were feeding that morning, and normally 3 pm was the time to see the most dolphins. Beautiful creatures.
Dolphins in the Gibraltar Straits
Things that should not be grown in December in England
Although not exactly a farmer it is still challenging to grow things in a small garden a few yards from the A3 and in the inclement weather that the UK provides. But I must report some success. Some potatoes harvested today planted a few months back that claimed to be ready for xmas. Daffodils also made an early apprearance, not sure where from but purchased in the Co-op in New Malden for £2.
It was deemed by the head chef and main servant in the household that these were too good to put inot the oven tonight so will be eaten and relished tomorrow with some other more appropriate fare.
December Potatoes from the field of New Malden
Hungry for Potatoes?
Potatoes and Daffodils in December. It is not right in UK!
Brentford 2 Hartlepool 1
At last something to make the football part of the brain feel better. Last week Brentford against Wrexham were shameful frankly. Hence I refused to go to Barnet making my personal and quiet protest. Today was different. For 80 minutes this was a real 0-0 game and then suddently the last 10 minutes exploded making one wonder why this might not have happened in the first 10 minutes. Brentford got a lucky goal in that a decent lob should have been caught by the keeper but it seemed to drift over his head and into the net. 30 seconds later Hartlepool equlaised with a low shot from outside the box that maybe the keeper was slow going down to, but i would like to see that again. then another 30 seconds later a penalty for Brentford which Gary Alexander took, not a great penalty, was saved but the rebound came back to him and he pushed it into the net for 2-1. but this 10 minutes was frantic end to end stuff and more than made up the preceeding 80 minutes.
The Bill Axbey stand at Brentford where I am proud to have 4 season tickets
A Great Place
The rants and warblings of an active and some would say disturbed mind. A Brentford Fc supporter and a psychiatrist and photographer. Welcome to my musings and rants.
chris1957