Surrounded by Rocks: An Exploration Series, Chapter 3

It’s time for the next Chapter in Nightjar’s series.

Chapter 3 – East Hill: Fauna of the Past

Fossil hunting!

I’ve had more luck in other trips, but it’s always easy to find some fossils, especially of ammonites. These are Early Jurassic sediments, laid nearly 200 million years ago. In primary school, I remember participating in a few school trips to this hill. I either imagined or saw a classmate discover a fish fossil, but the rock was too big to carry with us. We went to call the teacher and the rest of the group but when we came back, we couldn’t find the rock we had seen. At least that’s how we told the story afterwards and it still occasionally comes up in get-together dinners. Did that really happen or was it the result of the fertile imagination of a group of 7-year-olds? I’m afraid we’ll never know, but I always remember this story when I visit this place and I’m still secretly searching for that mysterious fish fossil. Sadly, I didn’t find it this time either.

©Nightjar, all rights reserved

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Jack’s Walk

©voyager, all rights reserved

Yesterday’s walk by the river was a little more challenging than I bargained for so today Jack and I chose an easier walk and went to our quiet little path in the forest. This spot is another of my happy places. Ive been coming here for 15 years, initially with our first dog Lucy and then adding Jack to our pack. I know every bend of the path, each tree and stump and if I close my eyes I can walk the entire path in my mind. I know where the trilliums grow and the special spots where the red trilliums hide. I’ve walked this path with only the light of the moon and my every sense was heightened, I know it in each season, the ebb and flow of green, white, yellow, orange and red. I’ve watched young trees grow strong and old trees grow weak and I grieved the year that 18 grandmother trees toppled together from the weight of ice. It’s familiar and a comfort and today it was a welcome break from being a voyageur.

Jack’s Walk

©voyager, all rights reserved

Jack and I put on our voyageur berets this morning and went hunting for beavers in the wetlands of Canada. The morning air was frosty and a constant westerly wind bit at our cheeks as it blew past us. Conditions on the ground were challenging with large muddy areas lightly covered by a wafer thin sheet of snow and ice that easily buckled under the weight of the dog. We picked our way upstream with me slipping and sliding and Jack looking anxiously over his shoulder to  make sure I was still upright. We didn’t get too far though when the route became     clogged with tangled brush and reeds that ultimately forced us to retrace our steps in retreat. I think we were getting close to the lodge in this area. We found several gnawed trees and a whole patch of gnawed off saplings. At first, I thought the sapling patch would lead straight to the den, but nope. The beavers haven’t set up shop here, but I think they’re close by. Maybe tomorrow we’ll try the other bank of the river to see if we can get farther.

YouTube Video: CASTING A BRONZE SKULL!!!

Marcus has mentioned Alec Steele a few weeks ago, but at first I did not like his over-the-top presenting style. Well, he is young and full of vim and vigor, and I am getting old and full of bile, what can you expect.

However Alec seems to be a genuinely likeable guy – his career is essentially built on helping others to learn the blacksmithing trade. And that is something I really cannot object to. I got over my initial dislike of his whooping and now I am binge-watching his videos and learning new stuff. Maybe I get to try some of it in real life.

I am a bit envious that he has found a job he loves, is good at it and it puts bread on the table at mere 16 years age, I managed only two out of three when I was twice that age. Grumble grumble grum….

Surrounded by Rocks: An Exploration Series, Chapter 2

Welcome to the next chapter of Nightjar’s series about exploring the hills near her home in Portugal.

Chapter 2 – East Hill: Limestone Rocks!

Limestone may not be the prettiest of rocks, but I really like rocks, and images such as this make me happy. The other side of this limestone formation, facing a neighbouring village, is currently being explored for cement production. On “our” side there is only evidence of the work of stonemasons who used to sculpt the rock in place and carry their works downhill. Word has it that some people have found sculptures among the piles of rocks on the top of the hill, but I never found anything. Just rocks, really.

©Nightjar, all rights reserved

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A Field of Marigolds

I thought that Nightjar’s sunny Marigold photo from yesterday couldn’t be beat, but today she’s sent us an entire field of bright yellow Marigolds. I love the way the focus fades and the flowers start to look like bright yellow balloons bobbing in the breeze.

Marigolds (Calendula arvensis), ©Nightjar, all rights reserved

Thanks, Nightjar

Tummy Thursday: Book recommendation

I got a baking book for Christmas from, my brother in law. we might start a tradition of giving each other cooking books and baking books, though he doesn’t actually like baking much. He#s somebody who follows certain cooks and Yotam Ottolenghi is definitely one of his favourites (he asked for several of his books on other occasions.)

baking book

Interestingly, the international cover is different from the English one…

Now, cooking books are like other books. They’re for you to read, but they have the added benefit of also containing recipes. What I instantly liked about it was that it had a lot of cakes and cookies and such that looked absolutely doable. Now, as you know, I’m not one above spending three days in the kitchen to make a CAKE, but most occasions are for simple cakes that you make in an hour and then enjoy.

Of course I had to try one out as soon as possible and decided to go for cakes baked in a can for New Years Eve.

cake

Caaaaaaake, caaaaaaaaaake

These ones are with butternut squash, almonds, raisins and orange peel. I slightly upscaled the recipe because I only had medium eggs. Often recipes call for large eggs and if you only use medium eggs the cake gets dry. So I added an extra egg and a bit more of everything else. that way I ended up with three cans and was I glad.

That’s two of them cut into slices.

I thought I’d save the third so it wouldn’t become dry… After a while our host asked if there was anything left. I cut the third. Suddenly our other host said: Shit, my parents aren’t here yet and look at what we left!

Not much…

The cake was delicious in taste and very moist. We could have kept eating, obviously.

Which is why I decided to make it for my birthday breakfast at work, that’s why my kitchen currently looks like I was planning to open a stall at fun fairs…

cans

Three throws for a buck.

Perfect

Just goes to show, Estonians are show-offs. Even their rivers make perfect circles of ice (article in Latvian, but it’s the visual that’s important).

Video here, I can’t seem to embed it, except like this: .

At any rate, it’s another interesting natural ice phenomenon known by various names, and observed in various parts of the world. Here’s National Geographic:

While the Russian ice circle is rare for its large size, the phenomenon isn’t quite as unusual as it might seem. Ice disks have been filmed in North Dakota, Washington state, and Michigan.

Early theories of why the disks formed centered on erosion. Ice disks observed in 1987 and 1994 were in the path of flowing river waters. A paper published in 1997 by the Royal Meteorological Society theorized that flowing river water created a whirlpool effect. As the ice spun, researchers theorized, the borders eroded into a circular shape.

Published in the journal Physical Review E, researchers from the University of Liege in Belgium found that temperature changes—and not flowing rivers—prompted the spinning. As water warms it becomes less dense, and as it’s cooled by surface ice, a vortex forms.

Neat!

I was stuck between two songs, but this seems the most obvious choice:

(runnerup)

 

Jack’s Walk

Well nested, ©voyager, all rights reserved

This tree sits at the crossroad of several paths and is obviously well-favoured by some type of smallish bird. Jack and I pass this way often, but we’ve never seen an actual bird here only the nests. Maybe the birds are tucked up inside or maybe they’re out searching for food or maybe they’ve gone to Florida and won’t return until spring. We’ll keep looking, but something tells me I won’t see birds here any time soon.