Monday Montage

Last Monday I presented this WidsMob Montage for you to identify:



As Ragged Robin and Wilma suggested it was of:



a grotesque carving on the side of a church.

A gargoyle is a carving with some form of hole or spout to drain water from the roof whereas a grotesque is just a decorative carving.

As always my thanks to everyone who had a go at identifying it.

Now for a new one for you to identify:


If you wish to make a guess please leave it in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the original photo, next Monday.

Time For A Soft Lining

The Great Tit has been working very hard to get her nest built.
Now she is bringing in moss to line it:

Black Beauty

No, not a horse.
While talking to my neighbour I happened to spot something black on a metal pole:



The tiniest, blackest, shiniest ladybird I have ever seen.
At 5mm across it must be one of the smallest in the UK:



It was in the most awkward position to get a camera near.
I had to guess when it was in focus as I couldn't see the camera's screen.

At first I though it may have been a Pine Ladybird but discovered the spots were wrong for that.
 In the end I came to the conclusion it was a Kidney-spot Ladybird.

To finish off, a larger black creature.
Penny, catching up on her beauty sleep after another hard day supervising:



I did manage to trim the back lawn so that was one more task off the Round Tuit pile.

Still Busy

The Great Tit nest in the camera nestbox continues to take shape:



Still a long way to go though.

Yesterday we had 95% blue sky all day. Not over warm at 10C but inviting enough to do a bit of pottering in the garden. I had a shuffle round in the greenhouse to make room for the automatic watering system, getting it ready for a couple of tomato plants in the near future.

This is the AutoPot Easy2Grow kit:
 

Outside the greenhouse is the 47 litre water tank. I had to drill a hole in the metal base of the greenhouse to take the connecting pipe to the base of the grow pots. The blue gadget in the middle of the base is the valve mechanism which lets more water through when the level goes down. Last year I used it in one of those tomato grow houses. The watering system worked perfectly but there were many problems with the grow house itself.

When turning over old chunks of wood you never know what you will find hiding there:

 

Not so sunny today and cooler but as more rain is expected over the next two days I may give the lawn a quick short back and sides. It is growing really fast.

Busy, Busy

The Great Tit has been making up for lost time. She spend a short while yesterday and nearly two hours this morning fetching material to build her nest in the camera nest box. This is the second hour this morning. Though speeded up 4x it is still over 7 minutes long:

Anyone For a Paddle?

Sheesh. Talk about wet. Easter Monday saw about 14 hours of relentless rain. Not a tropical deluge, just non stop from around midnight. I  will not have been alone in this. Here are a few screen grabs from the Government Environment Agency Flood Warning pages:

For England:
 

My nearest river is the River Lud which flows through the market town of Louth about four miles away from here though it looked as though some of the dykes surrounding me were in danger of flooding:



Water flows down from the Lincolnshire Wolds and through Louth which is in a narrow valley so the water level can rise quite rapidly after heavy or persistent rainfall:
 

My back garden had started drying out nicely after the last lot of rain and now:
View from the kitchen window:
 

From the back door:


Finally a short video from three of my cameras:



As the path was well under water I had to wear my wellies when topping up the bird feeders. It looks bad but is still a long way from causing any damage to the building. It has been worse than this just once in the past. The state of the front garden? Fine. The only time that started to flood was when a water main burst at the top of the lane and the lane turned in to a raging torrent.

It looks as though recent inclement weather conditions have damaged my weather station. No rain recorded and the temperature it reports looks to be about 7C too high. It got water logged once before. I had to open it up to empty it out when the drain hole for the rain gauge got blocked. Also the rechargeable batteries may need changing. They don't last for ever.

Monday Montage

Last week I presented this WidsMob Montage picture for you to identify:



which JustJill, Wilma and Ragged Robin correctly identified as ...



... my favourite, strawberries.
My thanks to all who had a go.

The next montage to identify, on this very, very wet Easter Monday, is:



(My comment on the weather isn't a clue)

If you think you know what I originally photographed please leave your guess in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

More about the very, very wet bit tomorrow.