Taexalia

wild.life

Solstice Solace

I took refuge for a few days with my family and return with a bundle of stories and thoughts and a sense of feeling refreshed.

My sister has a wonderful new home that is a pleasure to spend time in for a number of reasons, not least bosies and snuzzle time with my perfect nephew.

One of the other luxuries of my sister's new home is the garden which is secluded, spacious, diverse and has the added bonus of a woodland estate behind it. You can imagine how I lap it up given my current situation... and much time was spent wandering around barefoot with a chorus of sighs.

The honeysuckle gate smells like heaven and reminds me of Belt Croft. It requires me to stoop to pass through as if initiating me into the woodland...

... The wonder of summer teases me with bright greens, yellows, purples and oranges... and I am teased again by the warm bark of a fallen tree.

I clamber up but soon decide my sheen are a hindrance and discard them for a better grip as I walk up to look out over a wild meadow buzzing with insect life.

I cannot remember the last time I tasted tree bark with my toes, but the sense of connection with the wild wood was invigorating and necessary.
I could have spent hours wobbling in the sunshine, appreciating that even in death a tree brings shelter, food and regeneration to any creature who comes calling...

Woodpecker Painting

Returning to the domesticated garden I encounter the scent of Tiger Lilies and am thrown back in time again to Belt Croft. My sister says she doesn't like the smell of these bold flowers and I ask her not to remove them until I have a place to plant them...

We potter in the garden watering her veg and filling the bird feeders, discussing possibilities and making discoveries.

We haven't formally identified this true bug found amongst the red currant bushes. The one we think it might be from the insect book suggests it is maybe an acceptable garden guest - I suppose one or two won't harm the harvest as long as whatever predates it is also present.

There are no bad bugs, merely unbalanced circles.

In trying to find an online identification I did discover this is National Insect Week, although I think the definition might fit better as "British Insect week" since we are more than one nation

Another nomenclature problem arises for me with the discovery of this, sadly deceased, female stag beetle (Lucanus cervus).

She is no less of a beauty because she lacks the trademark pincers of her male counterpart - but it is an illustration, to me, of age old sexism that the species was named after the features of the male.

The female stag beetle is actually capable of a sharper bite than the male, whose mandibles are mainly used for fighting other males.

These insects, like many others, are now threatened due to habitat loss.

Sadly so are these special wee mammals, our native Red Squirrel. This precious wee beastie not only has to deal with habitat loss, they also suffer from the intrusion of the invasive grey squirrel introduced by some lunatic some time in the distant past. Red Squirrels are smaller and less adaptive to habitat loss and they are also believed to succumb to the Parapox virus which the grey squirrels carry.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the existence of grey squirrels but I fully support keeping them out of the areas that are populated by reds - lest we lose forever one of our most entertaining species...