Frosty start to the day but once the Sun got its act together things began to look up. Afternoon temperature reached near 16C which was a nice change. I spotted several butterflies, a large yellow one when we out walk-about at lunch time. Probably a Brimstone. Quite a few Peacocks fluttering round the garden. A little video clip I managed to get with the Nikon. The same short bit shown three times:
Peacock Butterfly from Midmarsh on Vimeo.
Also lots of bees strutting their stuff:
Bee from Midmarsh on Vimeo.
As you will have noticed I am using Vimeo at the moment. I find that uploads to YouTube are extremely slow and can take two hours for a small file only to be told there was an error and nothing got uploaded. Vimeo is fast to upload but a free account then has a 45min delay before it is processed, but at least I know it has arrived safely.
Oh - and these are the first files I have processed and uploaded using the laptop and Windozy 7. It is not such a big leap from XP as I thought it would be. In some ways friendlier but too nagging in others. I probably haven't found the right settings yet.
Now I'm tearing what is left of my hair out with Vodafone as their site update seems to have screwed up my account. Had to have the account scrubbed and re-register but now waiting for it to fully update. Will know in an hour or two.
Saturday, 20 April 2013
Friday, 19 April 2013
Great Tit - a Few Brief Visits to the Nestbox
Mrs GT making brief visits to the nestbox and still fetching nesting material:
Great Tit Nest Building April 2013 from Midmarsh on Vimeo.
Great Tit Nest Building April 2013 from Midmarsh on Vimeo.
Busy Little Mrs GT
Wow. It's a week or so since I last checked the nest box so it came as a surprise this morning to see how busy Mrs Great Tit has been in that time. It looks as though the nest is finished and contains what appears to me to be two eggs so far.
Will try to get some video later on.
Will try to get some video later on.
Thursday, 18 April 2013
We Have the Technology
One of the final jobs in the summerhouse was to provide power. To that end I installed a couple of double sockets - you can never have too many.
One of my most useful buys for checking the wiring of mains sockets is a little tester. Plug it in and if all three lights illuminate all is well. Any other combination of lights will indicate what is wrong with the wiring.
The yellow cable is Arctic Cable, suitable for outdoor use down to something like -20C. It travels outside to the shed where it plugs in an RCD socket fed from the shed's main fuse box.
Another recent useful buy, for me anyway, was a packet of two large cloths for cleaning screens on tablets, computers, tvs, etc. Also good with spectacles and said to be usable on lenses. The latter I haven't tried as yet. They are not the cheapest of cloths but they seem to do an excellent job very quickly.
I had read some excellent reviews of 'Mobile Cloth' and they seem to live up to the job. As usual I bought mine on Amazon where they are available in a couple of sizes. As always your mileage may vary. I just report things which work well for me.
One of my most useful buys for checking the wiring of mains sockets is a little tester. Plug it in and if all three lights illuminate all is well. Any other combination of lights will indicate what is wrong with the wiring.
The yellow cable is Arctic Cable, suitable for outdoor use down to something like -20C. It travels outside to the shed where it plugs in an RCD socket fed from the shed's main fuse box.
Another recent useful buy, for me anyway, was a packet of two large cloths for cleaning screens on tablets, computers, tvs, etc. Also good with spectacles and said to be usable on lenses. The latter I haven't tried as yet. They are not the cheapest of cloths but they seem to do an excellent job very quickly.
I had read some excellent reviews of 'Mobile Cloth' and they seem to live up to the job. As usual I bought mine on Amazon where they are available in a couple of sizes. As always your mileage may vary. I just report things which work well for me.
Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Green and Brown and Things
Why is it always dull when I see something interesting, to me anyway, I want to photograph? A couple of grainy photos of infrequent visitors to my garden feeders, a Greenfinch and a female Blackcap on the same feeder:
The Blackcap is a fleeting visitor who will probably move on soon. Greenfinch numbers have suffered greatly in this area with many succumbing to finch disease over the past three years.
The laptop duly arrived on time. It is hard to believe it is second hand, not a mark on it. Soon had it logged in to my wireless network and tried out in the summerhouse. Much to my relief it worked perfectly:
Some things I like the iPad for but for browsing / surfing I find a 10 inch screen is too small. Now I am grappling and coming to terms with Windozy 7 as my main PC is still using XP. One of the reasons, besides cost, for buying s/h was that most new ones I was interested in now seem to have Windozy 8 loaded and I have no interest in that. I might have been tempted to go for a Mac of some sort but even used ones seem to cost the earth.
A few signs of Spring - finally there is frog spawn in the pond:
My primulas are flowering, when the ungrateful birds stop pulling them up and today I had the first wasp indoors. I killed a couple today. They were both very dopey and lethargic so I guess they had recently become active. The more early ones I can dispatch the fewer nests there will be later in the year.
The Blackcap is a fleeting visitor who will probably move on soon. Greenfinch numbers have suffered greatly in this area with many succumbing to finch disease over the past three years.
The laptop duly arrived on time. It is hard to believe it is second hand, not a mark on it. Soon had it logged in to my wireless network and tried out in the summerhouse. Much to my relief it worked perfectly:
Some things I like the iPad for but for browsing / surfing I find a 10 inch screen is too small. Now I am grappling and coming to terms with Windozy 7 as my main PC is still using XP. One of the reasons, besides cost, for buying s/h was that most new ones I was interested in now seem to have Windozy 8 loaded and I have no interest in that. I might have been tempted to go for a Mac of some sort but even used ones seem to cost the earth.
A few signs of Spring - finally there is frog spawn in the pond:
My primulas are flowering, when the ungrateful birds stop pulling them up and today I had the first wasp indoors. I killed a couple today. They were both very dopey and lethargic so I guess they had recently become active. The more early ones I can dispatch the fewer nests there will be later in the year.
Monday, 15 April 2013
Macro on Monday - Guess What
Just the two correct answers for the last Guess What. Congratulations and virtual gold stars go to TexWisGirl and Jan for identifying part of a belt. Could definitely be an embarrassing drop without it.
On to a new macro photo
Guess What:
 |
| iPhone4 with add on macro lens |
Clue: No longer flying high.
No prizes, just for fun.
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