A blog on gardening, life by the sea, photography and wildlife

Saturday 11 November 2017

Brodie F1 Brussels sprout

We tried these for the first time as they were recommended to us for their sweet taste.They have been picked whilst small to improve the flavour and reduce cooking time.
We have eaten the small amount of Brussel tops but sadly the snails on the allotment plot had most of them.
The effort to net them was worthwhile to keep the large white butterflies off, so all in all a successful but small crop with beneficial health properties.


Friday 3 November 2017

Goldfinch

We use to get lots of finches in our garden, sadly that is no longer the case. The general bird numbers visiting our garden in Eastbourne East Sussex are down in significant numbers, even starlings, herring gulls however are ever present in large numbers driven inland by the plentiful amount of food waste giving them lots of free offerings.
It was therefore a surprise to have a goldfinch visit albeit fleetingly today.
My friend Sue at glallotments here  recommends sunflower hearts here for all birds especially goldfinches, I intend to try those in addition to small bird seed mix and fat balls.






sunflower hearts here

Thursday 2 November 2017

A very surprising 50p purchase and its not the goat

I've had a Nikon D200 digital camera for some years but haven't used it for a long while since changing over to Canon cameras and lenses.
I happened upon, in a junk shop, a very early first model Nikon 18-55mm plastic bodied lens with fungus inside and a scratched front element for 50p not expecting much I popped it on the camera and got this frankly surprising sharp and well defined picture of a goat and fishing lake at our local farm shop.
A closer look revealed the fungus and lens scratches were towards the edges of the glass, so at f7.1 (the aperture of these pictures) wouldn't appear but wide open at f3.5 they probably would, so the lens will likely be of limited use for indoor work........still, I now have a usable lens/camera combination.








Monday 30 October 2017

Thursday 12 October 2017

Shingle replacement and school children on Holywell beach



Contractors have been doing the annual task of shingle replacement due to longshore drift 

Children on the beach doing geography lesson on the shingle losses due to longshore drift

Longshore drift, the erosion of shingle due to wind and tides (see above)

Wind surfing on Holywell beach

                                                         

I gather its harder than it looks

This looked to be the hardest part

I cant see what all the fuss is about

Sunday 8 October 2017

Dragonfly

         Macro lens reveals a ugly but wonderful creation of nature the wings are so delicate