I can’t quite believe we’re at the end of February now, but the milder weather and lighter mornings/evenings have really brought some positivity to what’s been a bit of a challenging week.
And, as a bonus, my wild adventure brought me daffodils, catkins, jogs in the rain and lambs and calves. A lovely way to end the month. Read on to find out more 😊
Monday 22nd February 2021
I haven’t been out for a proper jog for a little while so I was determined to go out early before work today. I hadn’t looked at the weather in advance – big mistake – and, to my horror, I noticed it was spitting outside. When I checked my phone, it said there was an 80%+ chance of heavy rain. If I’d been less determined I would’ve bailed, but out I went and, long story short, I got absolutely soaked. I was a D R O W N E D rat with a capital D and only had a few squawking blackbirds for company. But I absolutely loved it! I must be crazy!
Tuesday 23rd February 2021
My partner very kindly bought me some beautiful daffodils at the weekend and I was very excited to see that they’d all opened this morning. I’m still hoping that some of the plants growing in the garden are daffodils but I’m definitely appreciating these for now. I’m also glad I’ve found a use for my sangria jug…
Wednesday 24th February 2021
Catkins. What are they? I decided I wanted to find this out today after seeing lots of them on my morning walk. This is what the Woodland Trust has to say:
Essentially, catkins allow the tree to reproduce. Catkins allow the female flowers to be pollinated as the pollen from the male flowers is blown by the wind.
So they’re a flower and hazel, alder, silver birch, oak and white willow are all trees that can have catkins. Apparently catkins are also quite helpful for monitoring the effects of weather and climate change.
Thursday 25th February 2021
I enjoyed reading through an article (BBC Wildlife, March 2021) about guillemots and their eggs this morning. Their pyriform shape – i.e. pear-shaped, with one very pointy end – has apparently been quite a mystery. What interested me the most about this article was how a nineteenth century explanation has dominated scientific understanding and yet it’s completely false and was based on a lot of incorrect assumptions. It’s probably what we’d call ‘bad science’ now. I studied the history of science and medicine when I was at uni and this sort of ‘bad science’ has always intrigued me. It makes me wonder what people in the future might think of our understanding of the world…
Friday 26th February 2021
I’ve had quite a bit of interest in the snowdrop picture I wrote about a couple of weeks ago and I decided to start off another one today. This will eventually join the first one on the living room wall. It was all about the yellow ochre and prussian blue again as I created a fitting background for these beautiful flowers. Looking forward to painting the snowdrops themselves next!
Saturday 27th February 2021
I’ve been wanting to take a photo of a specific tree on my Honington walk for the past couple of weeks now and I finally got chance today. I was working this morning – on a very fun online project with primary school children – so a walk was a welcome way to switch off and start enjoying the weekend. Top of my list was this tree. As I was writing this, I realised I should probably try and identify the tree, given how I’m trying to learn more about them! I’m a bit stumped by this one. I thought initially that it could be an alder but now I don’t think it is – any thoughts?
Sunday 28th February 2021
I’m very excited to say that my partner and I had our first proper field walk of the year this morning. We’ve been avoiding most fields for the past couple of months because of the mud and the rain. Now I’m not going to say I didn’t get quite muddy and that I don’t have very wet feet now – mainly because of a pond that seems to have formed at the entrance to one of the fields (photo credit: Stefan Lang 😂) – but it still brought that warm, summery feeling inside. Our wildlife sightings included song thrushes and green woodpeckers and we also saw lots of lambs and calves too! A lovely way to end February.
Ramblings of a (very!) amateur artist 