Still Flowering

This Faucaria has been flowering for nearly a month.



As with many succulents the flowers only open when there is sufficient Sunlight on the plant.
Today they didn't open until mid afternoon, once the thick rain clouds had moved away.

Grub Up

On Monday I had to visit our nearest village Post office and general store.
I always have a good look at the chilled area where produce from local butchers can be found.
The packaging not only gives a use by date but also the date it was packed.
A reassurance of how fresh the produce is.
Along with my favourite chicken and steak pies I spotted a pack of lamb steaks which I couldn't resist.

Today was the day to do something with them.
Out with my old, heavyweight deep frying pan.
Fry briefly in Olive Oil to seal them.
Then cover with with a 'gravy' made with chicken Oxo and Bisto beef gravy granules.
Cover the frying pan with a perforated lid.
Simmer while potato chunks and mixed veg are cooking in the steamer.
Sliced carrot, green beans, peas, cauliflower, etc..

The enticing, mouth watering odour was making us both drool while we impatiently waited.

I am getting a share, aren't I?
 

Not to worry. Plenty for both of us.

My share


Penny's share


Needless to say her share disappeared in no time


I finished off with a Sainsbury's individual strawberry trifle


As Dell Boy would say - lovely jublby.

Sunrise, Moon and Venus

Yesterday morning dawned cold and frosty with a fairly clear sky.
Ideal to see Venus which was shining as bright as the Moon.
Both appearing close together in the morning sky.



Venus is the tiny white dot near the top, right of centre.
To the naked eye it looked really bright.

With the temperature at 0C and an icy lane it was time to use my shoes which have ice spikes fitted for the first time this back end.

Frosty Bin



Wheelie bin lid covered in frost.
Canon 50D + macro lens. 11 stacked photos

The Blob (video)

The common experience of all microscopists confirms the assertion made by Dr. Goring, that the most fascinating objects are living creatures of sufficient dimensions to be easily understood with moderate magnification ; and in no way can objects of this description be so readily obtained, as by devoting an occasional hour to the examination of the little ponds which are accessible from almost any situation.

The above quotation is from Marvels of Pond-Life by Henry J Slack F.G.S., second edition published in 1871.

In the same drop of water as the rotifer shown a few days ago was this almost transparent blob which appears to be an amoeba. The video was tinted to show it up better. No sound track this time.




This is a single cell creature with a nucleus (the dark dot) contained in a membrane. It captures its food by changing the shape of its membrane, surrounding and assimilating it. An activity I haven't managed to see as yet.

I count myself lucky to have spotted it. I have examined various drops of water over the past few years without seeing one. Optical magnification was around 400x.

Monday Montage

Last week's WidsMob Montage photo was



which started out as



and identified by Adrian, The Weaver of Grass, Ragged Robin, Wilma and Mick.
An activity which seems to have various names.
This is a photo I took some years ago on a visit to Covenham Reservoir in Lincolnshire.

For this week a non moving subject



but what is it?

Please leave any guesses in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the original photo, next Monday.

Micro Video

Spent a while experimenting capturing microscope video clips on the iPhone6s.
The Apple photo app does a reasonable job but I found the free version of 'Moment - Pro Camera' gives plenty of manual control over still and video recording. The second section of the video was shot in 4K. Uploaded as 1080p



I put one small drop of water, from some old rain water which was full of green algae, on a concave blank slide. The largest living thing seen was the rotifer - still far too small to see with the naked eye. Magnification was around 250 times.

Colour fringing at the edge of the video can have two causes:
Phone not perfectly aligned.
The standard for objective lenses says that the centre 60% should be sharp but the outer 40% will show signs of softer focus and possible colour fringing.

Sunbeams and Sunset

Sunbeams across the sky while the Sun is hidden by dark clouds



Short lived colourful Sunset to end the day