Confirmed: I’m off for a few days to Amsterdam next Monday. The booking failed at the last moment on the first attempt so I didn’t get the hotel I really wanted, no disaster- the one I did get should be OK. The idea is to do the galleries, and walk and walk. If there is net access in the hotel, I can post more here next week (it’s more likely that they provide wireless access but no machines).
St. Kilda: 513 downloads in one day!. That’s faster then the Chernobyl scenery in its first day. I’m really surprised at that since it seems like a more obscure area.
Dorset: I came back early, the weather was poor and the county rather crowded at this time of year. I wasn’t quick enough to get a video like this, but here is Portland lighthouse’s for horn. They switched it off just as I was getting the camera out.
Very strong Westerlies all day, though warm & dry. It must be tough in the northern apporaches, sinkings happen on days like this.
Oh what now- another picture of Mugwort. It’s becoming more obvious which are mugwort and which are wormwood. As the mugworts mature, the top surfaces are getting darker, while the workwood keeps that silvery green on both sides. they will flower soon, one is white the other yellow.
/unramble.
Absinthium: after stopping by the road for a bike adjustment, there it was – a clump of Wormwood. It really does like sandy soil, by the roadside away from other plants; or is it stiffling the others with that Thujone? I brought a piece home to make sure of the identity. You know what it’s like, after spotting one, seeing them everywhere is easy. I want a sample in the garden.
Willington Power Station: only has 5 cooling towers, and nothing else, no generator hall, no chimneys no other buildings. No wonder it looked so ugly last time I passed it- it’s being demolished. It looks like there are plans to put housing on there (as there is everywhere in the UK).
Beautiful day; 79 miles but not very fast.
Longest trainride: 15 hours by train yesterday from the Canigou region of the Eastern Pyrénées. Pictures and comments may follow, you never can tell though. More reliably – view my Flickr pages.
The Rip:
As she walks in the room
Scented and tall
Hesitating once more
And as I take on myself
And the bitterness I felt
I realise that love flowsWild, white horses
They will take me away
And the tenderness I feel
Will send the dark underneath
Will I follow?Through the glory of life
I will scatter on the floor
Disappointed and sore
And in my thoughts I have bled
For the riddles I’ve been fed
Another lie moves overWild, white horses
They will take me away
And the tenderness I feel
Will send the dark underneath
Will I follow?Wild, white horses
They will take me away
And the tenderness I feel
Will send the dark underneath
Will I follow?Well wild horses they will take me away
and the tenderness I feel
will send the dark underneath
will I follow?
Climbing a sunken lane, there was a crow perched in the left embankment. Strange place for a crow so I stopped. He looks injured but didn’t fly away when I approached. See the photo. Poor creature seems to have a head injury, perhaps he was concussed. The other worry is that he has a disease, West Nile virus affects crows in the USA.
He stood there for a while, looking around and blinking but otherwise quite still. So I picked him up and took him over to a nearby field. Like other biords, he was quite calm once covered in a raincoat, even wild animals seem sedated by darkness. On letting go, he flew a short distance but crash landed in the undergrowth. I left hime there, at least he couldn’t get run over there. I wished him well and continued my journey, there really is nothing I could have done.
Good luck…
Micycle 