October 16, 2017

Spiders and Storm Ophelia


All of a sudden there are spiders everywhere you look and don' t look and more to the point huge cobwebs in the most inappropriate places, between the back door and the bin, across the garage doorway.  I am sure if I sat long enough in the garden I would become a major anchor point  from the washing line 4ft away for some tiny spider mega mansion. The webs  seem totally out of proportion to the creature making it. Early morning the dew rests on millions of tiny little webs created overnight  in the grass.  There must be an awful lot of spiders around !!


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The trees have started  to turn, the autumnal setting sun casting a final golden glow on the underside of the fading lilac leaves.   Sycamores seemed to go first closely followed by  Silver birch which has already shed all their yellow leaves  like the yomping willow in Harry Potter, so maybe we will have a shorter autumn than last year.  Whilst some trees are naked others have hardly turned golden.   After the storm there will be definitely nothing left and the best of the Autumn will be over for another year.


This has been a great year for the Red Admiral Butterfly and they can still be seen floating about well into October if not November. Even saw one in the high wind this morning.


Red Admiral

From the top of the bus today I saw an amazing scene of hundreds if not a thousand seagulls of various shapes and sizes wheeling about in an enormous cloud over the Dee Estuary.  Is this a warning of the weather to come, mind   the amelioration of the sea may save us from the worst.  Seagulls always give good warning of any unpleasant weather heading our way  and  can indicate whether the tide is high or low.


After a very eerie yellow glow in the  dawn of the day of the storm, the peach ball of the sun came through to remind us it will be  still there when it was all over.


St. Johns Wort

There are still a few stoic wildflowers about, the multi seasonal  Herb Robert named after a french botanical illustrator.  Random outcrops of Hog Weed and late flowering St. Johns Wort. Carpets of green leafed  wild geranium are already preparing for spring.


It is very upsetting to know that more  hedgehogs die as a result of eating poisoned slugs, than are killed on the roads.

Thanks are sent to 2 new nature watchers who are sending their photos from other parts of the Wirral.