Gangs and Fighting

Do birds come in gangs? This little Blue Tit was part of a gang who swooped into the garden on Saturday morning while I was making tea. I am not sure what there is to eat out there at the moment-maybe the berries on the jasmine or the ivy at the back. They didn't stay for long as the cats went out in their own gang and the birds wisely disappeared. This is Cassie in her tent-or lair as it has so often become. I draped this cloth over the scratchy post when I was clearing up the Christmas tree, and she loved it, so it has stayed-and looks better than the post as it is sparkly and silver. Mostly Cassie just sleeps under there, but every so often she leaps out at Tiger or Lily as they walk past, sometimes taking the whole cloth with her. It provides a bit of excitement in their little lives. Lily usually runs, but Tiger often fights back!

A Walk in the Park

My photo assignement for today involved me going out for a walk which was just what I needed. Below is a mosaic of twenty or so minutes of the walk. The park is beautiful now-just perfect leaf crunching weather. I saw where they were setting up tonight's fireworks on Blackheath-lots and lots of them. We are not going though-we are staying in with the scaredy cats. I took my big camera so it was fun to record some of the park wildlife .
A magpie.

A grey squirrel enjoying his nut.

Crows spending time together.

A jay. I was most pleased with him as I love them and don't often see them.

The zoom lens worked a treat!

An energetic dog who is not exactly wild but is life!

Resting.

Sluggy Mud or Muddy Slugs

Last day of Forest School for this year-lots of mud and small creatures involved.  Under a single and very small log, we found an earwig nest, two slugs, some slug eggs, a centipede, a woodlouse and some ants. I do find earwigs a bit much as they are always in big groups, and they don't just appear, they get uncovered and spill out of places in large numbers-in my experience anyway! I hide it well though.

The eggs are quite pretty I think. I also like the delicate grey colour of the slug's eyes.

The highlight of Forest School this week was showing the children a dead blackbird. Our TA took some equipment out and found it (I had not seen it when doing my safety sweep first thing-don't know how I missed it really!) I asked if it was too gory to show the children and she thought so. When I went round to get it I decided to show them the head only as that was not too bad. So I wrapped the body in a paper towel. Once they sat down in base camp, I explained what I had found, and that it was probably killed by a cat. I gave them the choice to look or not. All but two children wanted to see the bird so I went around the circle.

"Is he a baby bird?"

"Where is his Mummy, Daddy and brother and sister?"

"Has he got legs?"

"He looks like he's sleeping."

"He's got no eyes."

"Where is his body?"

"He was killed by cats and monsters and wolves."

These were just some of the things the children said. It was a strangely moving experience actually, because they were all really interested and somehow respectful. I felt like the little bird gave a lot to the children, sad though his death was. On a factual note we noticed that he had a pointed tongue that followed the shape of his beak. I have never been close enough to a bird to look in its mouth before.

Isle of Sheep

The name Sheppey comes from the ancient Saxon word sceapige, meaning isle of sheep. This information is quoted directly from Wikipedia, but sounds likely. We were off to visit again today, as it is our nearest seaside place and we really like it. It seems so remote from London. It is actually the Thames estuary, but might as well be the sea. The water was very brown today, and there were big crashing waves and it was windy. Not cold though, just exhilarating. As usual I took lots of of photos-my computer picture files are a prime site for a bit of de-cluttering. Rusty metal, small brown birds, a marsh harrier (I think), and the waves.
Lichen on a stump, the bridge linking Sheppey to the world, small succulent reminiscent of the Petronus Towers, and a coconut shell-still with coconut in it.
A mermaid's purse, beach cafe coffee in a polystyrene cup,

a male darter dragon fly

and a dried fish.
A mermaid's purse is an egg case from a skate. I have just found this out-after knowing what they were called all these years, but thinking they were sea weed! I wish I had kept it. I am trying to limit my beach combing, but regret this one. It would be lovely to have the purse of a mermaid.
These flowers look like chamomile, but I am not sure, teasels, bird information. We saw a really big bird of prey which I think was a marsh harrier, then we saw a whole row of kestrels, hunting little creatures.
Below is a video of the coconut shell performing the role of a horse. I love this noise!

Morning

Saturday morning about 8.30, looking towards the Thames Barrier.

It makes me think of the skies in those religious paintings with angels.

This made me think of the phrase 'liquid sky'
A coot and her baby in the wildlife place near the river.
Lucky people have their flats overlooking this water-with balconies! I am jealous I admit it!

Luscious weeds in the depths.

I love...

Little dogs picked up from the street by Andy which are just perfect for the dolls houses and which are the best kind of present.

Foxes around the place. They are out and about day and night and I love seeing them. This one is a school fox,  and was spotted by the children after lunch, enjoying the sunshine.

Finishing things. This is the nearly finished display for the wild things-I just need to get a child to do Max tomorrow and the two girls who painted the fish to stick eyes onto them. It is next to the bed I showed last week.

Blackbirds singing to me after work.

I do feel mainly better now thanks. Just the sore throat.

A child in my class has glandular fever so I am wondering if that is what I have.

Jackdaws

This is a tree full of Jackdaws in Corbridge in Northumberland. I love the noise they make, so unlike crows, so like monkeys. They were roosting, thinking it was getting dark I presume-it was very overcast. Corbridge is really pretty. We went into a craft and book shop for a browse and then into a cafe called Tea And Tipple (I think) for a drink. I had a latte and delicious coffee and walnut cake. The cafe had a lovely old map of England and Wales on the wall that frustratingly cut off Scotland. It had all the ferry distances to various destinations around Britain.

We were still a very long way from home but the map did not magically show our distance to there.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Fabric Flock.

See HeyHarriet here for more shadows!

Scraps, Samples and Spring

These little framed pictures are for birthday cards. They are in little papier mache frames which are only about three inches square. I haven't glued anything, just tucked little layers in. I used snippets of wallpaper samples got for free at the weekend. There are such lovely wallpapers out there! The little birds are from some facsimile Victorian scraps I have had for years and have finally started to use. They are from Mamelok Press.

Spring has sprung in the nursery garden. Though yesterday, a couple of hours after taking this photo, we had a hail storm! Today we went for a Rosie's Walk around the school and the weather held out for that! We jumped in the number pool, walked over the grassy hill and climbed through the fence and over the stile-a bit different to the book but we worked with what we had!

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The rest of this post does not have anything to do with this but I wanted to say it anyway!

I love blog reading. I love the weird journeys it takes you on which you would never otherwise have taken. I now know that there is such a thing as a space bubble-and here it is. Isn't it beautiful? I found it here. I found it through the comments on this post by looking at the profile of this person here . He has a very good idea-or his daughter does about how to control uncooperative traffic lights by saying 'Magic Monkey' over and over again until they turn green.
I have been having a lovely holiday doing lots of creative things and seeing family and friends. I have not however taken photos of my creativity so I have looked through my disordered files of pictures and picked a couple that took my fancy. Birds waiting for some free food on Blackheath pond. (Though I suppose the concept of free may not occur to birds) A robin who had the courtesy to pose for a photo in my garden last year(though again-courtesy?) I am Johnny Morris. Lovely PVA glue with poster paint ready for mixing. It reminds me of Clarice Cliff pottery.
The result with sand added-children (and me!) love sandy glue.