The Tapestry

The tapestry of life is made up of multiple threads
Which intertwine to create earths' picture.
It shows the past, that what has been, history,
And is built from the present, that what is,
And eventually even what will be.
Threads start, join together and build a picture.
Threads drop out, moments of sadness,
And some just fade away, teased out ends
Of faded glories, forgotten and unnoticed as
The tapestry grows on.
A stitch in time saves nine they say,
But a stitch is but a moment,
And a picture is made of thousands,
And the tapestry even more.
The tapestry remembers, everything's there,
Threads that change directions showing decisions made,
Warfare's efforts cause others to fade.
But the best part of all are those threads that appear,
Moments of joy that let the tapestry live on.
Each new threads' journey unknown,
Their pictures to be built.
Threads will bind together, strengthening the picture,
But none go on for ever.
For that is the sadness that is the tapestry of life,
But also its strength - everyone has a record,
Everyone has a stitch in time.

Tufted Duck

A pair of tufted duck have been observed on the Three Brooks lake, and seem to have been there for a couple of days. Perhaps the presence of a male/female pair means that they might breed?

Gadaffi

Gadaffi's first long outburst on TV covering the protests in Libya can be summarised as follows:-

Gadaffi: Leaving power and the country - over my dead body!

The opposition: That can be arranged.

Return of the redwings?

With the return of the cold weather, perhaps we have the return of the redwings - Disgruntled noticed one in his front garden this morning amongst a group of blackbirds.

2010 Rainfall

Rainfall during 2010.


Average of the rainfall over the last three years. Despite the snow, December actually had a very low rainfall total. For the year, the total was 701.5 mm, which compares to 880.5 mm for 2009.

Unknown birds

The unusual weather is causing some more unusual birds to turn up. Disgruntled saw the following little brown thing today - it is sparrow sized, but not a sparrow - wrong beak type. Not a dunnock either - wrong plumage. Any ideas?



Likewise on the reserve (and the ducks are hungry - the cold weather is keeping people away, and they got through two loaves of bread today. If Tesco is selling off any old bread at 5p a loaf as they sometimes do, buy it and go and feed them!), the following two unknown ducks were seen:







They dabble, and Disgruntled thought that they might be female shovellers, but the plumage is wrong. Any ideas?

Definitely winter again

Definitely winter again - flocks of redwings and fieldfares have turned up in numbers over the course of the week. The hard winter is having an effect on the reserve, with the lake largely freezing over. The ducks have kept part of it open as they are forced to congregate in one area.