Wednesday, December 31, 2008

the bowd














Images from two walks taken at the bowd following the lines of the disused railway. The steep hillsides do not allow for much sunlight at this time of year so it is cold and quite dark though there is plenty of water around. Distant owl sounds can be heard here but not much wildlife is in evidence although I did see a deer in the woods the other day. Some of the paths here become rivers for a bit but I like to get off the main paths and follow the deer and badger paths. The only trouble with badger paths is that they have a tendency to go under very low trees so a lot of ducking down or going around is in order. I can't imagine that they like the smell that I leave behind but I try not to bother them too much.
Best wishes to everyone for next year, I hope you all have a good one.

8 comments:

nobody said...

Had I been there, I'm certain I'd never have mistaken this country for rainforest. But I ain't there, and I did! Spooky resemblances.

Otherwise, Tolkienesque! Gorgeous stuff. I could almost smell the leaf litter. As for badgers, not ever having seen one, I immediately thought of Roger Dean, ha ha. Whatever happened to him?

Otherwise that was brilliant, thanks John.

Anonymous said...

Rogers badgers were very black and white, ours are more of a reddy brown colour. They make very alarming noises at dusk which make me want to shout "run away, run away!" There are plenty of badgers around here and can be seen in the afternoon in various places.

We don't see as many hedgehogs as we used too which is a shame. We found one stuck inside our curtains one day probably looking for somewhere to sleep for a bit. They are lovely but their shit is well toxic.

The last I heard of Roger was that he was doing architectural work and also trying to get money for an animated film. He has been pretty quiet for a while though he produces the odd large scale painting, probably worth a few bob.

Cheers nobody

nobody said...

Cool. We were such Roger Dean fans back at design school. That dates me doesn't it? Off I go now to put 'roger dean' and 'badgers' (separately of course) into wikipedia. It's not completely useless, wikipedia.

Anonymous said...

When I first saw Views back in the 70s I had never seen such a glossy and colourful book, difficult to imagine the impact now. His landscapes have a scandinavian look about them and his style reminds me of chinese painting.

I think our badgers are so red because they take on the colour of the local earth though I haven't tested this by washing one.

nobody said...

Views! Precisely. I expect I still have in storage somewhere. And washing a badger. Ha ha ha ha. I dare ya to try!

Speaking of which I don't know if you've ever popped over to Silverfish's blog, but he has brilliant story about him attempting to befriend a pair of owls. Except for the carbide tipped claws, screaming, blood, and mayhem, it all went marvellously.

PS I just checked it out and in order to follow the story you'll need to scroll down the bottom and click 'newer post'. See how you go.

Anonymous said...

I've just been reading Silverfish's roping of a deer story, what a crazy thing to try and do, funny as hell though!

the Silverfish said...

Nice pics. The Badgers here just dig up roads and kill dogs.

Anonymous said...

Cheers Silverfish

Badgers get a bad press here but i have never heard of them doing either of those things before.

The view from your lawn looks really nice but i expect it looks a bit colder now than the foliated photo that is on your blog.

I have met owls a number of times and always consider them special visitors. We hear owls out the back here but in the far distance though for some reason one appeared right outside the window one night and let out the most extraordinary noise, i always thought that going from sleep to suddenly sitting bolt upright in bed was something that only happened in the movies but it turns out that i was wrong.

I like wild animals to be wild animals, they are afraid of us for a good reason and they are not my friends but a meeting is always special. cheers for now.