Simples – the beautiful meerkat otherwise known as a suricate

This is an adorable, sweet, lovable mammal that comes from Africa. They are disarming, endearing and engaged with their surroundings. Their lifespan is usually six to seven years with a trade-off in captivity of between ten to fourteen years. Their group which is given the name clan or mob consists of as many as twenty although very occasionally it will sometimes grow to numbers nearing fifty. The meerkat belongs to the mongoose family and survives mainly on a diet of insects. They will as their family genus (mongoose) suggests, also take the occasional snake or lizard to eat and they love eggs. They have litters up to four times a year and the litters range from one to five pups. Although, as in other animals that survive in groups there are a stronger male and female known as the ‘alphas’ who are usually the only breeding pair, most of the remaining females produce milk and will help to feed the youngsters of the clan to assure its success.

The meerkat will sometimes actually share a burrow with other animals. There is a primal guard at the entrance of the burrow usually referred to a sentry, who constantly checks for the safety of the rest of the unit and is ever ready to give a warning call.

 

This little meerkat is from Durrell Wildlife Park (Jersey Zoo), Les Augrès Manor, The Channel Islands

Retired and lonely website where people simply talk

Only a person with a whiter than white reputable background could pull off a wonderful idea such as Silverline. This is the website designed for people who are now retired and in desperate need to talk to another person. Someone who will listen, someone who will respond with the human touch. This website offers them someone to give them time and friendship on the other end of the telephone line.

Silverline is the brainchild of Esther Rantzen (a person who acts on a need, an angel to both young and old), who finding herself with the need to talk to someone, came up with this wonderful idea and slowly developed it into realisation. It offers a lifeline to the lonely. A voice to those who never see or speak to anyone day-after-lonely-day and most of all the means of being able to have a conversation with someone without any fear. It has its own free telephone number so people who need to talk to someone, do not have to worry about excessive telephone bills.

❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀

If you do need a friend to talk to then please do visit the site and see what it can offer you. It is backed by a lovely lady. This is her website, this is your website: Silverline

Free telephone line open 24 hours every day: 0800 4 70 80 90

 

 

Retired and lonely people finding friendship and someone to talk to ..

“Need help? Call us ANYTIME on: 0800 4 70 80 90

The Silver Line is the only free confidential helpline providing information, friendship and advice to older people, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.”

Who is Esther Rantzen’s this is what Wikipedia advises

 

Please visit the Silverline website for more details: http://www.thesilverline.org.uk/

Haunting scenes in Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon

No matter where you venture in Shakespeare’s Warwickshire, there is beauty. Wild, wonderful, haunting sights and scenes that stay with a person forever.

Jersey, the ‘Tardis’ of the Channel Islands

We spent some time in Jersey this Summer. It is the one place that everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime. It is a tiny island of some nine miles long by five miles wide and homes more than 90,000 people. It is full of country lanes and fields and so you would never guess that there are so many inhabitants. It is a true lesson on how to make the most out of space and retain wonderful raw natural beauty, eye-catching scenes, peaceful fields of cattle chewing the cud, a marvellous nature reserve, beaches and coastlines that are either free of tourism or so little that you could almost be on your own private beach. So many things to see and do that it there can only be one word to describe it all and that is ‘paradise.’

The map

The coast

The hill top views

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Country Quips:

• You should rest your bones when you’re coughing or you could well end up in your coffin.

Green, green grass of home

I have always lived in Worcestershire and although it may not fall into the description in a dictionary as paradise, I still think that there are very few places in the world that could ever come close to its beautiful lushness. Most of the year it is green. Whether the weather is cool, damp, wet, misty, dry, hazy or humid the land of this county envelops the senses. There are so many places that hardly change with each and every Century that when your feet softly plod on the bouncy long turf you could be walking in the Twenty-First Century or the First Century. It is possible to walk for miles without encountering another soul.

Green, green Worcestershire … so peaceful, so green and unspoilt as the years come and go – paradise!

To walk in the most beautiful county in England … click here … Worcestershire

The magnolia grandiflora of Chipping Campden

The one magical area in England that holds so many wonderful surprises is the Cotswolds. It is full of old style villages, all of which have their individual charms. Some are slow and dreamy with streams or brooks and gardens over-flowing with paint book brightly coloured flowers full of soft, sweet perfumes. Others have mysterious nooks and crannies that hide tiny pottages of galleries, studios, shops and cafes. There are model villages and bird menageries, fishes, animals and some of the most friendly and helpful people that you will ever come across.

Whilst on a little trip there I came across a Magnolia grandiflora that is often called the Southern Magnolia. It stood regally outside a beautiful hotel called Cotswold House in the square at Chipping Campden. The tree had the most unusual perfume trapped in its pretty cup flowers.

Magnolia grandiflora or Southern Magnolia

Chipping Campden is a place to visit in June as they hold their very own 'Cotswold Olympicks' at Dover’s Hill which overlooks the Vale of Evesham. The very first event, it is claimed, was held in 1612 when special permission was sought from King James I. Not the usual fare of sports is to be seen here but ancient English events such as: shin kicking, cannon fire, wrestling and other rustic activities that culminate with a merry fireworks display and end with a cheery torchlight procession.

For visitors who cannot manage to pay a visit to the area in June - then at other times of the year they may be lucky enough to see and hear the jingle of bells and thwack of sticks as the Morris Dancers cavort their ancient rituals and songs.

Great Reedmace at Twilight

For people who enjoy rough beauty, there is an area almost at the edge of the Worcestershire boundary called Ipsley Alders Nature Reserve. It is a beautiful stretch of land that is wild and rambling with all sorts of features for a naturalist to enjoy. One of the many plants that I found growing there was extremely tall Great Reedmace otherwise known as Bulrush … when standing close I had to crane my neck to see them against the skyline.

 

Great Reedmace or Bulrush

The female part of the plant is the fat sausage that sits towards the top of the long stem – the male is the rough area above her … when pollinated the female part of the plant releases beautiful, soft cotton silk like down which carry the seed. The plant likes to root itself in fresh water edges of lakes, ponds, rivers, canals, streams and brooks. The Latin name for this wonderful primitive looking plant is: Typha latifolia.

It has a cousin that is similar but this plant has a large fat sausage female with a short gap followed at the very top by a smaller narrow leaner sausage male – one on top of the other. This plant is called Lesser Reedmace or Lesser Bulrush. Latin name: Typha angustifolia.

Lake island

I took a stroll around Arrow Valley Lake and happened to glimpse one of the two islands that lie somewhere near to the centre of the lake. There are very few spots when they actually look like islands rather than part of the far bank landscape. This is the smaller of the two islands and the sun came out and kissed the view just in time for me to capture the beauty of it all.

Small lake island at Arrow Valley Country Park

Ye olde English pond

One day whilst walking through a densely wooded area I came across an ancient pond. I had heard about it many times but until now had never actually seen it. Often locations of such treasures are kept secret. As others that have accidentally stumbled upon it (if not into it) have done in the past, I too will keep its hiding place sealed.

  Ye olde English pond – somewhere in Worcestershire

This pond is set in quiet rural beauty with birds singing in the surrounding trees. Despite looking almost stagnant in appearance the pond water smells as sweet and fresh as a mountain stream. It is the home of local amphibians and a water hole to the mammals that roam on the long grassy carpeted floor.

Worcestershire walk

Have you ever stumbled across a place that feels as though you may have tumbled straight into a children’s fairytale? I have found such a place. It is quiet, secretive, beautiful, enchanting and peaceful. I walked along its trail and felt as though I had entered into paradise. It is so magical that for once I think I’ll keep you all guessing and will lock its location away … as a secret …

Worcestershire walk

Dusky, dark daggers

The lovely, light evenings are slowly getting shorter as each day nightfall begins slightly earlier. A few days ago I visited Arrow Valley Lake in Redditch, Worcestershire. The lake holds two islands, one slightly larger than the other. Whilst strolling along the edge of the lake I spotted a few Grey Herons. I always used to think of Herons as being friendly waders who occasionally jutted their beaks into the dark, murky waters to catch a small fish now and then. In actual fact they are quite large birds having wingspans of nearly one-and-a-half metres. They have eagle-like eyes for spotting food whilst they often perch aloft, quite still on a sturdy branch or dead tree they pose as a stone statue. When they spot the possibility of a meal whether it is a fish, a chick or even a baby rabbit they will usually manage to take it in their firm beaks and swallow it whole. They will take anything that will pass down their throats (these are mostly the young of other waders, or rodents). They will also take the occasional frog or larger insect. They have a propensity to congregate their living quarters in a similar fashion to rooks.

Grey Heron

Herons – moving sculpture at Arrow Valley Country Park Visitors Centre, Arrow Valley Lake

The above metal sculpture is positioned in a pond that is sited outside the Arrow Valley Country Park Visitors Centre … there are two herons which move upwards and downwards alternately in the reeds. They keep peeping out at the visitors as the enter and leave the visitors centre – a really charming piece of sculpture that captures the essence of a nature reserve.

Monkey Musk – Monkey Flower – Mimulus

A very long time ago when I was a young girl my mother came home with a bag. Being curious, I asked her what the bag contained. A wide smile beamed from her face as she pronounced it was some ‘Monkey Musk.’ She opened the bag to show me quite a large root of a soft-green fleshy plant with beautiful bell like flowers. Each flower was bright yellow and marked with red spots – indeed both the shape of the flower and the spots did appear to resemble the face of a monkey. From that very second – I have always loved ‘Monkey Musk.’

The spots on this particular specimen are not quite as large as those that were on my mother’s plant. This particular version, although widely available in Garden Centres and Nurseries is predominantly wild and is often found beside water.

There are also many dwarf versions that are usually brightly coloured but are all either red, orange, yellow or watery red as a background petal colour. Some of the dwarf versions contain spots others are just one colour.

Earlier this year whilst on a visit to Little Heath Nurseries, I found an Orange Sorbet Monkey Musk plant and thought that this would make a nice addition to my garden.

Orange Sorbet Monkey Musk

I usually try and visit these particular nurseries when I can as not only do they often have some unusual plants but there is a shop attached to the nursery that is like an Aladdin’s Cave. It is full of unusual and wonderful household and gardening items and is worth a visit for anyone who may be in the vicinity or nearby.

West Midland's Safari Park

There is no way I could ever explain the feeling of excitement that welled up from somewhere deep within when it was first announced that a new concept was being tried out to display wild animals in natural surroundings. Up until then the only place such animals could be seen was either at the cinema, on television or in a zoo. Although, in some instances, zoos are what could be described as a necessary evil as they are the ultimate ark of the animal kingdom. Most zoos sadly show man up for thinking that it is all right to keep creatures in tiny confined spaces, no matter how large or energetic the species.

So … the Safari Park was born. Although, animals are best left in the wild if we do have to keep them in captivity at least they have more room in a Safari Park. I have paid several visits over the years to West Midlands Safari Park and each time is different from the last. This time I took my camera in the hope of getting a few unusual or at least, hopefully, some good pictures of the animals that reside there.

We were greeted by a young male giraffe standing majestically on a slight rise in the distance …

Group of Albino wallaby

A few reindeer wander around the white wallaby enclosure …

We moved on and into the ‘White Wallabies’ or Albino Wallaby enclosure. These beautiful pink-eyed small animals share their paddock with Reindeer. The one pictured above was so tame that he lightly plodded over to the window of the car … (I couldn’t see any sign of Santa Claus, however!)

Long legs big mouth

There are so many different sorts of birds in the world that sometimes it takes a few photographs to really appreciate how very varied they are in size, shape and plumage.

 

  Long legged birds found at Birdland, Boughton-on-the-Water

~ Crane ~

  

~ Rhea ~ 

 

~ Golden cockerel ~ 

 

~ Flamingos ~

 

The sculptures of Birdland

Dotted around Birdland, at Bourton-on-the-Water are a series of sculptures made from horseshoes, old engineering components and other pieces of scrap metal. These have been made in the forms of giant insects and birds.

 

Sculptures at Birdland made by Alan Jack

 

Peacock sculpture

Call of the Cotswolds

As a young child, the one village that I would love to visit was Bourton-on-the-Water. All of the Cotswold villages are very pretty and picturesque with warm stone cottages and neat, tidy gardens festooned with bright dollops of vegetation, hanging baskets, window boxes and tubs. In fact, if it wasn’t for the modern cars you could quite happily believe that you had stepped back in time to a wonderful slow period where time itself had all but stopped still.

Bourton bubbles with all kinds of nooks and crannies filled with things to do and see. Today we decided to visit Birdland. Several years ago this was moved from its original site to a larger plot further up the River Windrush. It is now a truly must visit place as it rambles around with wonderful surprises around each bend and twist of pathway.

King Penguins

Humboldt Penguins

Little note: Alan from Birding in the Falklands, blog would like to add a message at this point - he has asked whether some of you might like to consider adopting a penguin. If you would like to find out more information then please visit Alan's blog or this link and see whether you might be able to help: Adopt a penguin - Thank you.