Home Nature Reserve
Home Nature Reserve
Our first planning application to build on our current plot required us to submit a detailed plan of planting and landscaping to surround our proposed dwelling. It was all rejected out of hand with words like 'inappropriate to the area' &c.
Ten years later with everything in place for some time, a neighbour submitted building plans showing our site adjacent. I reviewed his plans and discovered to my amazement that our lake area is now officially described as a 'Nature Reserve'.......What a nerve!
Having relaunched our wooden rowboat after months of repairs today, my Granddaughter and I came across a well concealed Coote's nest with five lovely speckled eggs in it. Sited well away from the bank to minimize the likelihood of dog attack. I wish the little Mum every success in raising her family when they arrive, which shouldn't be long now.
Spotted also on the boathouse jetty was a 'lesser spotted skirted male', sporting polka-dot short skirt and revealing his beautifully manicured tree trunks which haven't been shaven for 35 years.
Nature reserve indeed !
Tom
Ten years later with everything in place for some time, a neighbour submitted building plans showing our site adjacent. I reviewed his plans and discovered to my amazement that our lake area is now officially described as a 'Nature Reserve'.......What a nerve!
Having relaunched our wooden rowboat after months of repairs today, my Granddaughter and I came across a well concealed Coote's nest with five lovely speckled eggs in it. Sited well away from the bank to minimize the likelihood of dog attack. I wish the little Mum every success in raising her family when they arrive, which shouldn't be long now.
Spotted also on the boathouse jetty was a 'lesser spotted skirted male', sporting polka-dot short skirt and revealing his beautifully manicured tree trunks which haven't been shaven for 35 years.
Nature reserve indeed !
Tom
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- crfriend
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Re: Home Nature Reserve
Tom, you're a grand storyteller and thank you for it. I hope all is well in Eire.
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- voodoomagic
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Re: Home Nature Reserve
Kirbstone great looking boat and your boathouse looks great, also good looking skirt, maybe you should see if could be the park ranger in your Nature Reserve and get paid for it? Don't hurt to ask.
Re: Home Nature Reserve
Hi VM,
I delivered a book to a disabled friend at her bungalow and noticed her brother-in-law, a local doctor doing a bit of gardening at the front of her house. I said to him that it looked to me like a sideways career move, to which he replied 'Yes, but it doesn't pay!'
I can tell you for certain that the salaries payable to any aspirant Park Rangers on our plot would be lean pickings indeed. Better squatting in the middle of one of Dublin's bridges with a mug in your hand !
Tom
I delivered a book to a disabled friend at her bungalow and noticed her brother-in-law, a local doctor doing a bit of gardening at the front of her house. I said to him that it looked to me like a sideways career move, to which he replied 'Yes, but it doesn't pay!'
I can tell you for certain that the salaries payable to any aspirant Park Rangers on our plot would be lean pickings indeed. Better squatting in the middle of one of Dublin's bridges with a mug in your hand !
Tom
Last edited by Kirbstone on Mon Jul 15, 2019 1:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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- voodoomagic
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Re: Home Nature Reserve
Well it was worth a shot. You still have a nice place though, love the wooden boat!
Re: Home Nature Reserve
The wooden boat is a former Light Craft Graduate sailing dinghy, sail no. G1828, dating from about 1966. Hard chine 12'6" overall. Tricky little boat to sail and designed for lighter/smaller people than myself. In our hands she was never competitive, bought on a gravel pit near Reading Berks UK. Our kids got a lot of sailing fun out of her, though.
Some years ago we retired her from sailing and converted her to just rowing, Her 6mm Marine ply bottom rotted in several places and this year I replaced the lot in 9mm, Vastly stronger and it doesn't need to be light anymore. Down in Kerry we sail an old wooden Albacore, Round bilged cold-moulded ply Fairey Marine Uffa Fox design, Sail No AL709 date 1962 which in 50+ years we have never capsized. Good family boat and manageable off our local beach, launched & retrieved on its trolley.
Tom
Some years ago we retired her from sailing and converted her to just rowing, Her 6mm Marine ply bottom rotted in several places and this year I replaced the lot in 9mm, Vastly stronger and it doesn't need to be light anymore. Down in Kerry we sail an old wooden Albacore, Round bilged cold-moulded ply Fairey Marine Uffa Fox design, Sail No AL709 date 1962 which in 50+ years we have never capsized. Good family boat and manageable off our local beach, launched & retrieved on its trolley.
Tom
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Re: Home Nature Reserve
Here's our form of nature preserve for you...Cottonmouth water moccasin I happened across as he crossed a road not far from home. Yes, poisonous.
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Last edited by dillon on Mon Jul 15, 2019 4:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
As a matter of fact, the sun DOES shine out of my ...
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Re: Home Nature Reserve
And more nature from down here in eastern North Carolina... I have canoed this stretch of river. Happily, plans are underway to save most of it as the valuable natural area that it is, on a world heritage scale. If Trump doesn't screw us, that is.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science- ... 180972134/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science- ... 180972134/
As a matter of fact, the sun DOES shine out of my ...
Re: Home Nature Reserve
Thanks for that info, Dillon and I knew a bit about ancient still-living trees. Under the heading 'Disappointment' I chronicle an arranged conversation with General Sherman (the tree) for last April, which did not take place. Core samples of him say he's about 2700-odd years old. We have a specimen Sequoia Gigantica which having been planted in 2000 is just 19 years old and all of 40 feet high just now.
On the island of Ireland we have nothing remotely poisonous in Nature, so you are welcome to that snake!
Tom
On the island of Ireland we have nothing remotely poisonous in Nature, so you are welcome to that snake!
Tom
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Re: Home Nature Reserve
Sequoia National Park is a real treasure, but too often overshadowed in California by Yosimite.
Sometimes I wish St. Patrick would have blessed us. NC has had a huge rash of copperhead bites on pets and their masters, and plain old folks pulling weeds in their gardens, this year. Due to the intense heat we had early in the season, the hatch-out of copperhead eggs was an all-time high. It was over 100F here at Memorial Day, a holiday in late May, for several days. That's the first time for those temperatures in recorded history. I'd share my opinion of the reason, but the Trumpies here would just complain.
Sometimes I wish St. Patrick would have blessed us. NC has had a huge rash of copperhead bites on pets and their masters, and plain old folks pulling weeds in their gardens, this year. Due to the intense heat we had early in the season, the hatch-out of copperhead eggs was an all-time high. It was over 100F here at Memorial Day, a holiday in late May, for several days. That's the first time for those temperatures in recorded history. I'd share my opinion of the reason, but the Trumpies here would just complain.
As a matter of fact, the sun DOES shine out of my ...
Re: Home Nature Reserve
Yes, I was due to visit Yosemite as well, but all that is currently on ice now, so to speak.
The St Patrick thing is myth, of course. At the end of he last Ice Age as small animals migrated Northwards in Europe after the retreat of the ice, some snakes &c made it into Britain before rising sea levels flooded the English Channel. The Irish Sea is much deeper and was already flooded, so Ireland was already cut off by the time snakes &c got that far North. 'I remember it well' (Maurice Chevalier)
The Irish population when polled about Climate Change and Global Warming want a bit of both, but in moderation, of course. Ireland could do with being a bit warmer & drier !
Old folks getting bitten by copperheads isn't much fun, so one must garden with caution in SC. by the sound of it.
Tom
The St Patrick thing is myth, of course. At the end of he last Ice Age as small animals migrated Northwards in Europe after the retreat of the ice, some snakes &c made it into Britain before rising sea levels flooded the English Channel. The Irish Sea is much deeper and was already flooded, so Ireland was already cut off by the time snakes &c got that far North. 'I remember it well' (Maurice Chevalier)
The Irish population when polled about Climate Change and Global Warming want a bit of both, but in moderation, of course. Ireland could do with being a bit warmer & drier !
Old folks getting bitten by copperheads isn't much fun, so one must garden with caution in SC. by the sound of it.
Tom
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- denimini
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Re: Home Nature Reserve
Looks to be a very pleasant spot for habitat of both spotted species ..... with the sun shining.
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- voodoomagic
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Re: Home Nature Reserve
Tom you did an awesome job on that looks fantastic!