Friday 30th June's Scavenger Photo Hunt list

Another interesting list of topics reflecting June's 30 Days of Wild.  Not been out much this month so have again had to rely on old photographs. 

1.  The setting sun

Contrails reflecting the colours of the setting sun.  Picture taken from our lounge window.

2. Your local wild place 

(anything from a dusty corner with spiders to nature reserve covering acres of land!)

I'm cheating here.  This is no longer my local wild place but was some years ago.  We lived a few kilometres from the nearest gate into the vast Kruger National Park and we spent many happy days there.  We would book into a rest camp for a few nights.  

The picture below is of a group of young Impala females standing in some welcome dappled shade of a thorn tree.

3. Mug of your favourite drink in the garden

We love sitting in the sunshine having an afternoon cuppa.....so far this summer that has not been as often as we would have liked as our garden is a 'wind tunnel' and the wind makes it unpleasant sitting there.  Hopefully in July summer will come  back again minus the wind.

4. My kind of beautiful

I love peonies.  They are not something I grew in Southern Africa but always associated with  an English summer.  So I am thrilled that mine flowers each year, even though they grow in a pot.  I never get many flowers, not enough to pick anyway, so I treat myself to some from the supermarket each year. 

5. Look to the skies

We live under the flight path of planes to and from Manchester, Leeds/Bradford and Liverpool airports so on a clear day have lovely criss-cross patterns made by the contrails. I often wonder who is aboard; are they going on holiday, or perhaps on a business trip.   Then recently I read in the paper that the clouds that form from the drifting contrails have an official name....homomutatus or cirrus aviaticus. I looked it up and found the following which I though interesting. 

 Persistent contrails are of particular interest to scientists because they increase the cloudiness of the atmosphere.The resulting cloud forms are formally described as homomutatus, and may resemble cirrus, cirrocumulus, or cirrostratus, and are sometimes called cirrus aviaticus. Persistent spreading contrails are suspected to have an effect on global climate

6. Mini beasts

A Bulgarian Tiger Moth looking for a garden perhaps.

I could not resist using this picture too. 

A bee recharging it's batteries on a solar rock in a tub on our neighbour's decking.

7. Rain

I don't like grey days but the rain does not bother me.  Perhaps because it was so special when it only fell in our  short 'rainy season' in Central and Southern Africa from November to April each year. 

8. Something summery

I love this section of my garden......really summery. Since taking this photograph a week ago (when the sun was shining!) the lilies on the right of the picture have come into bloom. B very kindly made wooden staging on three levels so I could get this effect. 

9. Urban wilderness

We have an unusual garden. Our flat is the last in a row of four so we are able to have a greenhouse, shed, two large compost bins and a garden made up entirely of  small trees, shrubs and annuals in pots of various sizes on the tar driveway without restricting access to the other three residents. But as the building was constructed in the side of a hillside which was cut away and our driveway goes up the hill and round to the back of our flats. our driveway and front door seem to be on  ground level even though from the front we live in a first floor flat.  There is a bridge from our driveway to the front door which crosses over the gap where originally shrubs and trees had been planted but most had been strangled by wild honeysuckle.   We opened up a bit of the railings to make a gate and with the help of a step ladder we are able to access a sort of hidden garden, all green and shady. We had to bring in masses of soil and compost as it consisted of heavy clay and subsoil.  It was on a steep slope so it had to be terraced as well.  Here is a collage picture of our 'urban wilderness' with the bottom right picture showing our bridge and the sheer drop down another eight feet to ground level.  B put up a wooden fence to keep me from falling down that last drop!!  With the help of B and Hawthorn I  have now got a lovely garden with winding paths, steps and an arch that earlier this year was covered by a lovely yellow honeysuckle all irrigated by hidden mist sprays. This is my hidden urban wilderness.

10 My own choice

Keeping with the wild life theme this picture was taken outside the side window of our lounge.  A large Goat Willow (Salix caprea) tree had been growing there and we hung bird feeders from it.  We had regular visitors from a variety of birds and the squirrels would come to the window demanding nuts.  The mother squirrel used to bring her babies here and they would nibble the bark, I liked to think they were after the salacin from which Asprin is derived  to  relieve teething pains as the adults never chewed on it. Sadly the tree was damaging the fence around the school playgrounds so the council came and cut it down.  It is regrowing again at great speed. Perhaps one day we can hang bird feeders up again.