nature – Vermilion Sands

Conkerama

Autumn’s bounty of inedible chestnuts.
Admin1 is reading Telling Tales by Anne Cleeves. Admin2 is reading The Reckoning by Rennie Airth: events in WW1 resonate in a nostalgic post-WW2 world where the characters wait uneasily to see what the Labour government will do.
We scored 10 on the unchanged GWQ in the new-look magazine. So it’s the Guardian Saturday Quiz now.

Conkerona

A virus-shaped chestnut pod collected by Admin1 on the way to an unscheduled spot of work.
Admin1 is reading Too Close to Breathe by Olivia Kiernan, another horrible book with another annoying detective. Admin2 is reading The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas.

Critter of the Day: Speckled Wood

Pararge aegeria. We tried to persuade it to open its wings, but it just stayed perched on a leaf in a dancer’s pose.
Admin 1 is reading A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee. Admin2 is reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.

Fruity Bodies

Moss feeling the joys of spring.
Admin1 is reading The Salt Marsh by Clare Carson.

Autumn Leaves Are Falling Fast

Cold, dark, wet.
Admin1 is rereading Black Widow by Christopher Brookmyre.

Lavender’s Blue

Admin1 is reading Grave’s End by William Shaw, in which we learn a lot about badgers. Admin2 is reading Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell, which was phenomenal.

Cinnabar Eggs

Watched a cinnabar moth laying eggs in precisely spaced rows like a miniature 3d printer.
Admin1 is reading The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin. Admin2 is rereading Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd.

Flower of the Day: Camellia

And another battle-scarred peacock.
Today was the warmest day this year: 22.7 °C. It was also the sunniest: 9.12 kWh.
Admin2 is reading The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman.

Moss

Admin1 is reading The Body in the Mist by Nick Louth — police procedural meets Cold Comfort Farm. Admin2 is reading Mother Land by Paul Theroux; seven squabbling siblings and their 100+-year-old manipulative mum.

Bare Wintry Trees

Admin1 is reading White Hot Silence by Henry Porter. We scored 9 on the GWQ.

Mellow Yellow

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey. We did sod all watts today.
Admi1 is reading Sins of the Dead by Lin Anderson. Admin2 is reading The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.
Khofi wa tsikulo: Zambean

Home at Last

Back in the cold. Here are some colourful critters we left behind:

An amazing bloukop

A tiny baby gecko:

A pretty butterfly open…

…and shut

Spot the butterfly

Admin2 is reading Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff; the supernatural comes to the aid of black Americans.

Monkey Pools

Guida and Fiona’s Chris swimming in a natural water feature.

Admin2 is reading My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Autumn Leaves with Colour-coordinated Cat

Admin1 is rereading When the Devil Drives by Chris Brookmyre. Admin2 is reading A Spy’s Life by Henry Porter.

Beside the Seaside

Morning in Scarborough. We were staying in an enormous flat in the Green Gables Hotel which was huge, gothic, understaffed and virtually empty and had a beautiful cat and a dark park next door where admins 1 and 2 saw the bright stars and listened to the loud owls. Admin 1 has been rereading The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo. Admin2 has been reading Thin Air by Ann Cleeves.

Critter of the Day: Painted Lady

Vanessa Cardui, a migrant from Africa, sitting on the road. Fun fact: it is the only species of butterfly ever recorded in Iceland.
Admin1 is reading The Shadow Killer by Arnaldur indridason.

Flower of the Day: Roadside poppy

Admin2 is reading The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman, a steampunkish story of photography, spiritualism, magic, financial advice and a Victorian weapon of mass destruction.
We scored 12 on the GWQ

RGB

Admin1 is reading Deadland by William Shaw. Admin2 is reading Tuf Voyaging by George RR Martin; a one-man EEC (Environmental Engineering Corps) travels through space solving ecological problems and acquiring numerous cats. Makes a change from horrible crimes in cold countries.

Category: nature