This week, Spring Crocuses from our garden a few days ago …
Crocuses I
Greenford; March 2015
Click the image for larger views on Flickr
Weekly Photograph
Crocuses I
Greenford; March 2015
Click the image for larger views on Flickr
Category Archives: photography
Crocuses I
Greenford; March 2015
Click the image for larger views on Flickr
Weekly Photograph
More pussy porn again this week. Here’s Tilly doing her Miss Cute act, which she is very good at when she’s not running about being a varmint and trying to knock the cat door off its hinges.
Cute Little Me?
Greenford; February 2015
Weekly Photograph
Meteorologically, at least for the UK, yesterday (1 March) was the first day of Spring. Which means Summer must surely be not far behind. This week’s photograph is another from the archive to remind us what Summer is like and what we have to look forward to.
Hollyhock
Pinner; July 2011
Oddity of the Week: Bats
Bats roost in big groups in caves. Wrong! If you’re a Hardwicke’s woolly bat, you prefer to sleep in a more luxurious — and private — place.
Kerivoula hardwickii roosts inside tropical pitcher plants. These carnivorous plants usually attract insects, but Nepenthes hemsleyana lacks the scents that others have, so few bugs are lured in. Instead, it benefits from the faeces of this tiny bat, which provides more than a third of its nitrogen and may be crucial to the plant’s survival.
These bats found a niche that no-one else was occupying; they are the only bat species known to roost in pitcher plants.
To take [the image above, and others] Merlin Tuttle waded through tropical forest peat swamps on Borneo. Once he had found an occupied plant, he would spend a few hours taming a bat before snapping it from his portable studio, which provided protection from heavy rains. “It only takes a small fraction of a second for a bat to either enter or emerge, so capturing the action at just the right moment is a real challenge,” says Tuttle.
Within a few days, the bats had learned to bump against his nose when they wanted him to give them some mealworms. “We were quite amazed at the intelligence of such tiny animals,” Tuttle says. “Contrary to common misconceptions, bats in general are gentle, highly intelligent and trainable.”
It is the fact that wild bats are so easily trainable that really struck me!
From New Scientist, 21 February 2015 and at www.newscientist.com/article/mg22530090.100-tiny-bat-makes-home-in-a-carnivorous-plant.htm.
Weekly Photograph
This week a self-portrait from several years ago. Taken, with a fisheye lens, in our hotel room when away for the weekend — I was actually going to a school reunion.
Self-Portrait with Chair
Cheshunt; June 2008
Weekly Photograph
This week, time for more pussy porn. Here’s Harry the Cat sleeping the sleep of the just a few days ago! And what a super place to sleep too: a faux sheepskin, at windowsill height on some crates, by the window, in the warmest room of the house and over a radiator. Well wouldn’t you?!
The Sleep of the Just
February 2015; Greenford
Weekly Photograph
This week, another photograph I took some years ago. This Red Shoveller Duck, a native of South America, was part of the collection at Kew Gardens. I love those spotted feathers!
Red Shoveller Duck
Kew Gardens; June 2008
Weekly Photograph
This week another photograph from the archives, taken some years ago at Kew Gardens.
Reed
Kew Gardens, June 2008
Weekly Photograph
On Friday Noreen bought a bunch of flame coloured (red/orange/yellow) tulips …
Tulips
Weekly Photograph
This week a wintry photograph that I took at New Year.
Frosty Leaf
31 December 2014; Greenford