Month: May 2024

View From The Conservatory


I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK
I sleep all night and I work all day

He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK
He sleeps all night and he works all day

Well, thank you Monty Python.

Today, we have the guys taking down a dead tree, which is threatening to fall in mine and my neighbours backyard.

The tree doesn’t belong to us but we couldn’t cope with the bureaucracy of dealing with the Highways Agency, who moved their boundaries, and the local council, who have not “adopted” the remaining, abandoned, strip of land.

So, we have taken matters into our own hands.

The tree is a goner.

View From The Conservatory


The slow worm (Anguis fragilis) is a reptile native to western Eurasia.

 These legless lizards are also sometimes called common slowworms.

I disturbed this one whilst mowing my lawn.

View From The Conservatory


Grey squirrel with an albino in the background. The albino has been hanging around for a few weeks now.

Thirsk


This is a post that I intended to publish last year. But, as is often the case, time and stuff got in the way. This is from April, 2024.

Last year we were invaded by a contingent from our Australia based rellies. They arrived mid April and we elected to take a trip up to York for a few days.

We spent a lovely few hours in Thirsk, a pretty market town located about a forty minute drive north of York in the Vale of Mowbray. Thirsk is the hometown of renowned vet and author James Herriot. Thirsk is depicted as Darrowby in the TV series.

Clock Tower – Thirsk Market Square

We parked in the market square and were immediately immersed in a friendly, genteel atmosphere harking back to past times. A reflection of rural england at its finest.

We were, however, pulled back to modern times, surrounded as we were by numerous knitted or crocheted “toppers”, a much more historically recent creation.

These toppers are knitted or crocheted. I think they became popular during the Covid pandemic. Initially appearing on top of pillar boxes.

They were originally designed as a tribute to NHS workers.

Subsequently, they have been installed as a form of commemeration, or even just for public enjoyment.

A new name has become popular for the folks that create and install these pieces of art.

They are known as “Yarn Bombers”

Although a couple of years ago a Daily Mail jornalist branded the perpetrators as “Wooly Delinquents”

Personally I think we should embrace them as a bit of fun. They do no harm and some of them are really quite intricate. They truly are works of art.

I think the last word should go to this creation.