Main Categories: | Landscape | Fenceposts | Wildlife | Trees | Mushrooms | Art | Games || All Posts ||
for daily images, visit my ||Tumblr||

Saturday 21 December 2013

Twisted Lizard


A little painting of a viviparous lizard - Zootoca vivipara. I've been looking at a lot of paintings by Keith Brockie recently - he's a genius.

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Caledonian Pines

 Tree-fetish Tuesday #47





A handful of venerable pines in Knoydart - John Muir Trust are nurturing a new generation of scots pines in the area.








 Darranacorachs is a long abandoned farmstead deep in the spruce plantations. When I first encountered it (and painted this picture) there were still several buildings and some accompanying scots pines, but both the pines and the buildings have since been smothered in windthrown spruce trees.



Monday 9 December 2013

Killer Fungus

Monday Mushroom #57

Cordyceps Spp - Caterpillar Fungus
This kind of fungus infects and kills (and lives entirely on) insects. Such fungi are particularly prevalent in the warm, dank interior of the rain forest but similar fungi occur even in Britain.

Sunday 8 December 2013

Knoydart Again

Scenic Sundays #50

For my 50th Scenic Sunday, thought I'd revisit my photoset from Knoydart in May 2011. I still have a lot of amazing images from that weekend away with the John Muir Trust...

Loch Hourn

Friday 6 December 2013

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Galapagos Green Turtle

Wildlife Wednesday #56

Chelonia midas - Green Turtle

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Hazel Coppice

Tree-fetish Tuesday #46



Love my dad, too! Here we are in a mossy hazel thicket on the Isle of Mull.

Monday 2 December 2013

Fungus / Moss / Lichen Fight!

Monday Mushroom #56

 Here is the wrinkled crust fungus erupting from a dead tree, smothering the lichens and mosses that already cover its surface.

Phlebia radiata - Wrinkled Crust Fungus


Phlebia radiata - Wrinkled Crust Fungus


Phlebia radiata - Wrinkled Crust Fungus

Sunday 1 December 2013

Mum on Mallorca

Scenic Sundays #49


Love my mum! Here she is walking the GR221 near Soller, Malorca.

Friday 29 November 2013

Hairy Post

Fencepost of the Week #63



The highland cattle have been enjoying this rather heavily eroded post.

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Flamingos

Wildlife Wednesday #55

Phoenicoparrus jamesi - James's Flamingo
Flamingos on a salt lake in Bolivia.




Tuesday 26 November 2013

Monday 25 November 2013

Dyer's Mazegill

Monday Mushroom #55

Phaeolus schweinitzii - Dyer's Mazegill

This impressive, bright yellow mushroom, with mazey gills, can be used to dye fabric producing various shades of green, orange and yellow depending on the mordant.

Phaeolus schweinitzii - Dyer's Mazegill

Phaeolus schweinitzii - Dyer's Mazegill

Phaeolus schweinitzii - Dyer's Mazegill
The fruiting bodies dry out fairly quickly, but often last all year as a blackened, crumbling mess.

Sunday 24 November 2013

Fionnphort

Scenic Sundays #48

 This is Fionnphort, right at the westernmost end of the Ross of Mull.









Monday 18 November 2013

Bog Beacon Redux

Monday Mushroom #54

Mitrula paludosa - Bog Beacon

I was so excited about finding a patch of bog beacons, that I blogged about them before I'd gotten any decent photos, so here are some better pics to go with this old post.


Mitrula paludosa - Bog Beacon


Bog beacons didn't make it into Skyrim - the follow up to Oblivion, but it does have several very fine fungi of its own including Fly Amanita and Collared Earth Star.


Mitrula paludosa - Bog Beacon

Friday 15 November 2013

Isolation

Fencepost of the Week #62

Cast adrift on the moors, this post no longer has any neighbours, it borders on nothing, is connected to nothing. Alone.





Wednesday 13 November 2013

Froghopper

Wildlife Wednesday #54

Cercopis intermedia - Froghopper
Young froghoppers are the insects that produce 'cuckoo spit' - the little globs of foam you find in the grass. They live inside the foam for protection, but the adults - like this one - do without.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Autumn Colour

Tree-fetish Tuesday #43

Just a little autumn colour...



Chanterelle's Less Showy Sibling

Monday Mushroom #53

The regular chanterelles are over, but the winter chanterelle is still growing strong. They grow in much greater profusion than regular chanterelles, but are so like dead leaves in shape and colour (from a distance) that they are rarely noticed - even when growing in dense carpets.

Cantharellus tubaeformis - Winter Chanterelle


Cantharellus tubaeformis - Winter Chanterelle



Cantharellus tubaeformis - Winter Chanterelle



Cantharellus tubaeformis - Winter Chanterelle



Cantharellus tubaeformis - Winter Chanterelle

Sunday 10 November 2013

Icy Trails

There were some pleasing ice crystal formations growing on my windows this morning:











Friday 8 November 2013

Mooring Post

Fencepost of the Week #61


Mooring post for 'The Barge' a great little restaurant floating on the seafront in Tarbert harbour...

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Oh, Unfortunate Sea Slater

Wildlife Wednesday #53

Ligia oceanica - Sea Slater

This unfortunate beastie had been tossed over the sea-wall on to the road, and wasn't best pleased by my efforts to shepherd it back to brinier parts, either.

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Pines of Formby Sands

Tree-fetish Tuesday #42



Formby Sands to Ainsdale nature reserve was one of my favourite haunts when I lived in Liverpool. Great fungi and wildlife, and beautiful, varied landscapes. The pines in this plantation have been busy carpeting the shapely sand-dunes with needles and cones...

Monday 4 November 2013

Orange Peel

Monday Mushroom #52

A bright, little mushroom that grows on bare, stony ground - often at the side of dirt tracks and footpaths.

Aleuria aurantia - Orange peel fungus

Aleuria aurantia - Orange peel fungus