Why do cows all point the same way?

Autumn dog-walking

This morning’s walk was a bit of a quiet one.

The colours of Autumn were great, particularly the blood-red thorns on this bramble – very appropriate!.

The only real noises were from the crows shouting at each other for no apparent reason, intently watched by Nippy, our local stray cat, who has so many adoptive homes where she gets fed that she never needs to hunt, though I’ve seen her carrying mice along to some hiding place.

Nippy overseeing the crows' argument

Walking past the new allotments with their numbers, just waiting to be occupied, I was struck by the old conundrum – why do cows all graze in the same direction? Apparently Google Earth has confirmed that this is the case though they were unable to distinguish head from tails; it was still apparent that many groups of cows were aligned north/south. I confirmed this myself this morning; all these cows are facing South and presumably when they reach the end of the field, they’ll turn and munch their way north.

Molly enjoyed the walk

Molly the Spaniel enjoyed the walk though I can’t break her of the habit of giving a wide berth to the gateway where Izzy the St Bernard lives.

Passing Izzy's gateway

Unlike New York, our weather is still surprisingly mild and we’ve been suffering a plague of flies. It’s eased off a bit now, but I think we’ll have to wait for the really cold weather to get rid of them completely. We tried a couple of fly sprays but they are immune, unlike the wasps that came in from the nest under our floor. They died within a few minutes but we had to pay to get the nest eradicated.

The warmth is a bit incongruous as the city’s stores put up their Christmas displays.

John Lewis windows

Inside John Lewis - a bit 'Galeries Lafayette'?

The Shires Mall

Inside, there’s snow, Christmas trees and baubles while outside we’ve had a Moroccan market full of hot colours basking in the sunshine.

Leicester's Humberstone Gate

Great fossil sink

The Luggage (Discworld)

Mehndi (Henna)

Golden October

When I was first a young technician in the Department of Museum Studies, there was a series of adverts for Goldener Oktober Leibfraumilch. Each month there was a new top design with a different colour variation but the bottom half was supposed to be consistently the same colour. I used a full 12 month set to demonstrate to the students how much printing ink colours varied according to the skills of the printer. This was about the time that Pantone was beginning to be promoted and I used the adverts to demonstrate how much the Pantone formula was needed. Now everyone uses it and colours of inks are consistent.

Apologies for the resolution of these 2 pictures but you can see what I'm getting at.

All of that has nothing really to do with this blog which is about the October we've been having so far and the end it is coming to....

Across the road, the sun glows through the hawthorn hedge and everything is touched by gold. The beginning of the month has been unseasonably warm and not feeling like Autumn at all. Across the fields towards Croft Hill, the sun gives everything a warm glow and all over the valley is the same.

Along the footpath, the sun catches a Robinia behind the thatched cottage and in their garden, the Hollohocks are still in full bloom. The beasts are happy - there's plenty of fresh grass still.

Hay bales back up the site of the new viillage allotments which have been cultivated and rolled ready for planting.

 

I've been waiting anxiously to see whether the sweet chestnut will broduce any nuts this season. Last year was disappointing and the Summer this year has been generally cloudy and dry - the worst of all worlds.

On the tree, they look good but what will they be like when they open.

The haws have filled nicely - supposedly a sign of a hard Winter to come but everyone seems to be forecasting a very cold end to the year anyway. Beneath the Chestnut tree there are certaily some good nuts, but only one in each shell with a tiny shrivelled one each side. Not all those that have dropped have good nuts in them but I have managed to gather a few.

 

In a day, the weather changes from this golden picture to cloudy and cold. The new elms are turning but looking very healthy and over the hill the clouds are gathering.

Birds gather on the wires ready to fly off to the sun. thicker and thicker, undaunted by the model raptor and, as we pass, they start from tree to wires and back again. Autumn is here and the cold is coming.

 

 

Autumn projects

One of the new elms at the entrance to the village

Autumn, and there’s lots to do. In the village, the ‘new’ elms are just beginning to change colour and the field set aside for new allotments is almost ready. A team of men rotavated it and then stone-picked right across the site.

The new allotment field

At home, I’ve been laying a new oak floor in the bathroom. It’s very awkward because of the narrowness of the room and the need to cut around the pedestal and washbasin.

The planks fix to each other with blind metal clips on the backs but, if there’s anything to restrict the angle of tilt when a new plank is inserted, it’s almost impossible. Pipes around the edge of the floor are a real nuisance. I seem to have spent most of the week on my knees, rather like when I was a window-dresser in the ‘60s. Still, it will look good when it’s finished.

Earlier in the Summer, we visited the Salvo Fair at Knebworth http://livingvillage.blogspot.com/2011/06/salvo-fair-knebworth.html and was rather taken with some flashed blue glass starbursts on the Cox’s Reclamation Yard stall.

Unfortunately, they wants about £17.50 each for them. Not a bad price but more that I wanted to afford. In discussion with the staff, I found out that they were having an auction at their yard in Moreton in Marsh early this month so I went down with Marea and had a look around. The stained glass had been divided into 3 lots and I decided to bid for at least one of them. Also, there was some new limestone, cut into slabs, 1” thick that I thought would do nicely for me to practice letter carving. http://www.coxsarchitectural.co.uk/index.htm

Lots of lovely limestone

It turned out that there was rather more stone than I thought (about 10 m2) but I bid and got it for about £120 (plus commission – 10%). The glass wasn’t due to come up until the late afternoon (there were over 1000 lots) so we decided to take the stone home and bid online for the glass. We loaded the stone into Marea’s car and limped home, though without incident. I sat through quite a lot of the auction live online and eventually won the third lot of glass for £45 (+10%). When I picked up the glass and saw how much there was, I valued it (using Cox’s retail prices) at £488, so quite a bargain.

Bristol pattern glazed doors

The glass is designed to fit a Bristol pattern door but I won’t be using it for that – just happy to have it in my studio at the moment.

Because there was so much limestone, I’m going to use it to replace the dilapidated steps up to the back of the garden. I’ll probably carve some letters on the steps as well. Maybe more about that in future blogs.