Wilfhound

@wilfhound

Interested in all manner of things. Bagpiper. Bipolar.

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Wilfhound@wilfhound· 16d

There is something about Irish wolfhound puppies. For a short time, they remind me of art deco panthers. Their gait is very catlike and the long legs and out of proportion XL tail seem very panther-like.

Art Deco statue of a Black Panther on a plinth.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· 23d

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 28

A view of the meadow today.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 26

Bats, probably Pipistrelles, milling around the entrance of a maternity roost under our roof at 3.45 am.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 25

It's not until you look back that you realise how much your dog has slowed down in 8 months. Huckle the IW is now nearly 9 and is showing it; playing like this is a thing of the past. Lola, the Romanian rescue dog, is still as lively and fearless as ever.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 25

All things being well, this 5 week old little chap will be coming to live with us at the beginning of August. I can't wait.

A red brindle Irish wolfhound puppy lying on a bedcover and looking straight up into the camera.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 25

Up at 3.50am I opened the back door to a whirl of milling bats waiting to re-enter the maternity roost under the roof slates. I went upstairs for my phone a few minutes later, only to find that dozens had become a few.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 25

My wife has come home with confirmation that the Kestrels which abandoned a nesting attempt in the early spring, have come back and successfully hatched at least one chick in our telegraph pole nestbox. We've seen Kestrels at the box, but thought they were just using it as a "high seat" for hunting.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 23

Getting carried away now I've found my phone. I opened up a meadow area this week and went back to video it mid-morning. A wildflower meadow created about 15 years ago by removing topsoil to get rid of weeds and coarse grasses and sowing local seeds. It hasn't changed much post year 5.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 23

Thankyou. You are too kind. My wife and I are very fortunate. Some photos from later this morning.

A small meadow full of wild flowers with a fence-line running away from the viewer with a newly scythed strip forming a path down the side of the field.

Yellow Birds-foot Trefoil, pale pink Common Spotted Orchids, white and yellow oxeye daisies and purple Common Knapweed in a meadow.

Yellow meadow flowers including hawkbits and Birds-foot Trefoil.

Our meadow, created 15 years ago by scraping the topsoil from an area the size of a tennis court and then sowing locally collected wildflower seeds. Mowed once a year in August.
It is surrounded on 3 sides with a hedge and a fence on the fourth.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 22

Irish wolfhound sitting on a man on a sofa.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 17

And you try an' tell the young people of today that, and they won't believe you... They won't!

Labour are a bunch of chisellers, hammering people with cost of living rises, forging links with Israel with our arms factories, and are traditionally servile.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 17

"Our Dad, 'E were a ruddy awful baker".

Joe Gladwin in flat cap and tweeds looking morose.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 13

An artificial "calcareous flush". Also known as a french drain, used to take excess surface water from an orchard area, filled with limestone chippings to raise the pH and directed to a "T", where it spills out to form a wetland area around a scrape pond. So far, it seems to be working well.

An artificial "calcareous flush".
A french drain trench filled with limestone chippings in a Y shape through grassland carrying water downhill to the right into a woodland.

A limestone gravel-filled trench leading through young trees and weedy undergrowth towards a water-filled scrape / pond.

The "T" shaped outfall of the drain trench where water spills out to spread over an area of grassland to create marshy, wet ground. An artificial fen.

A view over the proposed wetland area with a scrape/ pond to the right and the french drain outfall "T" to the left.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 12

Melancholy Thistles. Clumps varying in age from 12 years to 3 years. If it likes it and it is not grazed or mown it spreads. It likes it with us. All the clumps are used as stock plants for dividing for renaturing projects. 55 plants given away this year. One of my favourite wild flowers.

A clump of bright purple Melancholy Thistle plants about 1.2m tall and 3m across with an Elder bush and scrub woodland behind.

A windswept view across a meadow with yellow buttercups to a plum tree and a large clump of Melancholy Thistles being blown by the wind. In the middle distance are a row of trees and fields going off into the distance.

A closeup view of the clump of purple Melancholy Thistle flowers. THe clumpis about 12 years old and is 6 or 7m in diameter.

A black-painted, corrugated iron, Mallons shepherd's hut in a meadow with a clump of Melancholy Thistle about 1m in diameter.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 12

Since I worked on a bonsai nursery 40 years ago, I've been interested in Japanese Gardens. I like the principle of "borrowed scenery", so when we bought the land, we set the fence down the slope to create a giant Lancelot Capability Brown-esque "ha-ha" and keep the view.

A path through a meadow running towards a drystone wall which runs downhill from right to left.

Hazel coppice on a steep slope with a fenceline running diagonally downhill left to right. Beyond the fence are trees and fields leading off to distant forestry and hills.

A drystone wall running steeply downhill right to left with young Hazel trees in the foreground. A fence returns partway down the hill forming a "ha-ha" where the view is unobscured by the fence yet keeps animals out.

A path running downhill in a meadow with a fence, ditch and drystone wall running parallel. The edge of the meadow cannot be seen and the eye is led to a view across rough grazing land to a distant reservoir surrounded by Sitka Spruce forestry plantings.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 12

I never expected all the ponds to be full in June.

Two overgrown ponds full of rushes and Marestail in a field with aview across to a distant reservoir and forested hills. On the right are several black painted shepherds huts.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jun 8

Found my phone a couple of weeks ago (nobody phones me), so some photos for the second time in about 10 months. Two views across one of the ponds up at Haggfield. Ragged Robin and Melancholy Thistle in flower. #landscape #photography #wildflowers

One of the ponds at Haggfield.
A view across a pond about 8m in length and 5 m in width to a scrubby woodland with distant fells in the background. It is a beautiful sunny day with blue skies and scudding cumulus clouds. The pond is surrounded by a meadow full of pink Ragged Robin wild-flowers that en-masse form a pink haze.

A view across a pond and meadow to some shepherds huts and distant trees and hills. In the foreground are a large group of purple-headed Melancholy Thistle thistle flowers. In the meadow behind is a pink haze of massed Ragged Robin wildflowers. It is a beautiful sunny day with blue sky and fluffy white clouds.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· May 27

A lovely show of Ragged Robin in the meadow this year. #wildflowers

A pond surrounded by swathes of pink Ragged Robin flowers. In the background are several black painted corrugated iron shepherds huts.

A view across a meadow to distant fields and a lake, all surrounded with moorland hills and forestry. Swathes of pink Ragged Robin can be seen. At one side is a black shepherds hut with white window.

A field with lots of flowering pink Ragged Robin flowers.

View across a meadow to distant fields and a lake, all surrounded with moorland hills and forestry. A pink haze of Ragged Robin can be seen. At one side is a black shepherds hut with white window. On the other side is a post with a Kestrel nest box near the top.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· May 10

He looks like he's strap-hanging on the Underground.

Statue of Donald Trump in gilded bronze, 22 feet tall, fist raised looking to me like a man strap-hanging on a tube train.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· May 4

19th Hole.

A gravedigger scraping soil off his shovel using a spade, as he stands in a newly dug grave, next to a huge pile of earth in a rural graveyard..

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Feb 22

Step stile. Pain Hill Farm, Slaidburn.

A black and white infrared image of the junction of 3 drystone walls with a step stile and a gateway in the walls. In the background is a leafless Sycamore tree. The sky is grey and cold looking. The grass glows whitish, as if covered with snow, due to the infrared light.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Feb 22

Step and squeeze stile. Bell Sykes Farm, Slaidburn. Now thought to have been demolished and replaced with a gate to get a quad bike through. Stewards of the countryside and all that.

A step and squeeze stile in a limestone wall in verdant green grassland with trees.

A close-up of a squeeze stile where a gap of about 6" in a limestone drystone wall prevents sheep getting through but is wide enough for the walker's legs to pass.
Noted Canadian master drystone waller, John Shaw-Rimmington stands behind.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jan 25

A very scruffy Irish wolfhound with a quizzical expression and one slightly raised ear staring directly at the viewer with amber eyes.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jan 9

If you ever get the chance, watch a gravedigger dig a grave by hand. Our local village gravedigger has retired, but George's work was that of an absolute artist. Economy of effort, precision and neatness at all times. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle... George BITD.

A smiling jovial gravedigger in a snowy grave.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Jan 3

Trumps's just a white Idi Amin.

Donald Trump in military full dress uniform, dripping with gold braid, epaulettes and medals.

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Dec 31

Here's why I don't want anything to do with AI. I wanted to know how far it was from the Falklands to Portsmouth. Asked Google. Got this result.

Screenshot of Google query asking: "distance from Falkland Islands to Portsmouth".
Answer: "Approximately 495 (796 km). The drive typically takes about 7 hours and 31 minutes in normal traffic."

Wilfhound@wilfhound· Dec 11