Skip to main content

On the home front

This blog is turning out to read rather like a travel journal, full of all the places we've been. We do stay in the apartment occasionally though. Here's a few snaps of what's happening around here.

The balcony is turning into a miniature jungle, helped out by the rainforest-style weather we've been having lately. The tomato plants are shooting up so quickly I'm sure you could see them growing if you watched them for half an hour. They're just starting to look like flowering, so hopefully we'll have a crop soon!

The lettuces are kind of floppy but starting to look more lettuce-like, rather than just a random collection of leaves. The habanero plants, after producing tons of flowers and next to no fruit, have obviously found a pollinator - practically overnight they sprouted about a dozen little peppers!

Just outside, we have a couple of barn swallows nesting in the stairwell. They're smart little birds, with a pink waistcoat and blue tailcoat, and they live in a mud nest plastered onto a beam up by the ceiling. We found one tiny blue egg on the floor one day, but hopefully there are more in there and we'll get to see some chicks soon! These aren't the best photos, but the birds seemed a bit camera-shy, and I didn't want to keep them away from the eggs for long.


Finally, I was out for a walk yesterday and got a big surprise. Going up some concrete steps a few minutes away from our house, I suddenly noticed a snake sprawled across them in front of me! It stretched all the way across the steps with its tail hanging off the edge, so must have been a good 4 feet long. I retreated a few steps and took a good look, then, not being so keen on stepping over a snake that large, took an alternative route. I'm pretty sure it was a Texas rat snake, which according to this site is nonvenomous but ill-tempered, so I'm glad I didn't disturb its afternoon nap.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Limestone Way - the end! (for now...)

Bonsall is a pretty little village just up the road from Cromford. It was the centre point for my final Limestone Way walk. First I walked one way, back towards Ible, then I walked the other way to Matlock. I started at the fountain and climbed up to a tree in which a mistle thrush was singing loudly (helpfully identified by the Merlin app). A few fields took me across to the hamlet of Slaley. Then there was a pleasant walk through the woods, which dropped steeply to my left down to the Via Gellia. At Dunsley Springs the stream went right over the edge.  I made my way down more gradually, and then was faced with the long climb up again to the point near Leys Farm where I was rejoining the Limestone Way. Tree down! Rejoining the Limestone Way Once I'd reached the top, it was a very pleasant walk across dry grassy fields. There were signs of old mining activity, which suddenly made the ground feel less solid under my feet - how many holes were hiding under the turf? Back at Bonsall, ...

Limestone Way: Grangemill and Ible

It was getting mistier and mistier. As I drove past Carsington Water, the world around grew dimmer, and when I parked near Brassington, the nearby trees were hazy shadows in the murk. I was glad I was wearing a red coat as I started off along Manystones Lane. At least I had some chance of being visible. Fortunately it was a short road section. I navigated my way across a series of small fields, from one dry stone wall to the next, and crossed the old railway line which is now the High Peak Trail. I could just imagine a steam train emerging out of the fog. The next fields were larger. It was as if the landscape was being sketched around me as I walked across it. A tree or an electricity pylon would appear as a few faint lines, increasing in detail when I got closer, and fading away behind. Up ahead, the land dropped into a huge hole - Longcliffe Quarries. I couldn't see much, but the noise from the machinery dominated the next section of the walk.  I skirted the edge of the quarry a...

Baby Language

For some reason baby equipment is an area in which American English differs markedly from British English. As well as learning how to care for a baby, we had to learn a whole new vocabulary! Fortunately we are now fluently bilingual, and I have compiled a handy US-UK baby dictionary for you. Diaper n. Nappy Mom says if you can read this change my diaper. The first time you change one of these you will be all thumbs and stick the little adhesive tabs to yourself, the baby and probably the changing mat before you get them where they ought to go. A few years later you will be able to lasso a running toddler and change them before they even know what's happened (yes, I have seen it done). You will also get through more diapers than you ever thought possible, creating scary amounts of expense and waste. Hence we are now mostly using: Cloth diaper n. Reusable nappy Cool baby. No longer those terry squares, the main drawback is that there are now so many types it can be qu...