Sunday 10th of November

After the rain

Tenth of November 2019

I walked up the canal to the top pound to see what the rain had done up there.
A round trip of about nine miles

Map copyright © Google Maps and Mapmyfitness

Après le déluge
Blue skies

Canal west of Worksop

Muscovy at Wood End

A tad prettier than 'our' muscovy. 

Female?

(I like muscovies)

 

The rail bridge at Doefield Dun Lock:

Panorama of Shireoaks Woodland from Doefield Dun Lock.

(I like panoramas)

Lichen

(I like lichen)

Ivy fruit is great food for birds, especially blackbirds, when other sources have gone.

(I like ivy)

Ivy also provides a sunbathing nest for larger animals.

(I like cats)

Fungus - is it dead man's fingers?

(I like fungi)

Bramble flowers

(I like out of season flowers)

Many spotted ladybird

(I like insects)

I think that I shall never see 

A poem lovely as a tree.

Feeder Lock on the Chesterfield Canal

Isn't that beautiful?

Robin at Turnerwood

(Who doesn't like robins?)

Sunlight with midges

So difficult to photograph

Never before seen the overflow so violent

Pudding Dyke leaves the canal

I have walked across here dryshod in the Summer

This is Pudding Dyke entering the canal

Normally it flows in below the level of the canal's water.

After leaving the canal, Pudding Dyke goes on to feed lakes at Lindrick Dale and join Anston Brook to form the Ryton which flows through Worksop and on to join the Idle, the Trent and ultimately the Humber estuary into the North Sea.

Woody nightshade flaunts its toxic berries in the undergrowth.

The top pound is a must see on  the Chesterfield Canal

Autumn might be my favourite season.

Trees across the canal just above Cinderhill.

(I like trees - especially in Autumn)

A tree in the canalside hedgerow picked out by the sun

A kingfisher glimpsed momentarily across the canal
(I love kingfishers)

Panorama of a newly ploughed field at four o' the afternoon.
(I like panoramas)




Pondorama
(I really like panoramas)


And so home.

All pictures and videos copyright © Roger T Bunting except where stated otherwise.

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copyright unknown

2 to 4 Jan 2020

Second of January

Tufties on the pond.

A few years ago there were very few, if any, tufted ducks on the pond, then a few started to overwinter. Now they're outnumbering the mallards.

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Lichen has for a long time been a fascination of mine. This 'blob' has moss growing in and around it - or is it growing in and around the moss. I keep reminding myself to do a little bit of reading and educate myself about lichens, fungi, and other denizens of the undergrowth but idleness takes over.

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This bullfinch was between pond and canal just above Morse Lock.

I don't see 'em very often.

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Third of Jan

Up above the North side of the pond someone's taken to hanging nets of peanuts and coconut halves full of birdy goodies in the willows. I've joined in.  There's blue and great tits feeding most times, often together.
I subsequently found out who that was - more later.

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Saturday the Fourth of Jan

A few of the zillions of blackthorn on the North of the pond are blooming early - very early - remember these pics were taken at the beginning of January.

Lichen will grow (almost) anywhere here it's on the plastic connectors of a wire fence.

I've been playing with shutter speed a bit; here's Stret Lock (above) and Deep Lock (below) bywashes in spate at fast and slow speeds

 

The lock gate paddles are raised and lowered using windlasses on rather splendid mechanisms mounted on the gates. At the 'upstream' end of the lock they're somewhat different.

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The view from Morse Lock's bridge over to Saint Anne's Church across fields and houses.

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Ivy fruits provide food for birds and small mammals throughout winter months.

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Whenever there's a decent Moon I try to get a picture of it

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That's a few more days done, I hope to speed up from now but it's taken me a while to get into making the pics and words look how I want 'em to. Publishing at Midnight Wed/Thur