W is for Wildlife at The Works

I haven't visited The Works much in the last couple of years, what with everything else that's been happening, but I managed a visit the other day and came away with five inexpensive rack-toys which may interest you, especially if you're looking for Christmas stocking-filler ideas that may help nurture the next generation of 'plastic warriors'.

 

 

Three 'standards'; Dinosaurs, Zoo and Sea Life, no Farm, strangely, nor Insects or Reptiles (the other common subjects in these cases), or Birds, but as a Brucey Bonus the fourth set - in different graphics - is Unicorns . . . of course!

 

The first three are pretty self-explanatory and seem to be new models in the 'mini' oeuvre (we may have seen the dinosaurs elsewhere?), while the Unicorns are rather simplistic sculpts, and poorly bagged, so need to be examined to ensure a decent colour spread with both (yeah! Only two) poses, but all good fun for kids.

They also have, unrelated to the previous quartet, a carded set of rubber-jiggler finger-puppet dinosaurs (which have their own page in preparation), but nice to see such traditional fayre available at this time of year. All five in The Works now, ten-quid, the lot!

M is for Many Moulded Malleable Mammals!

Part three of Jon's big box brings us to the Mammals, although a bird snuck-in under the radar while I wasn't paying attention, and the rest are definitely from the Zoo/Jungle/Wild zone, farm and domestic will come later!

Big cats, 1 of 3, cheetahs and leopard'ish critters, I like the big cats but there is a tendency to use the same moulding for different cats, or just not pay much attention to the things at all, so while the Britains one is a 54mm leopard, also found in black as a 'panther' (melanistic leopard), the pair in the next size up look more doglike, as does the orange one to the right, he has quite a hyena'ish head/jaw!

There was a bit of a comedy involved in this image, as I shot what I thought was all five Cheetahs, then reshot 'all' six, before finding another one under the dinosaurs! The big, dark, stretching one (lovely pose) is Triple-A (the 'AAA' mark), the others, all generics, for now.

A pair of colour variations of the same toob' animals, and a larger one which is actually a lighter-weight than either of the smaller brethren, being manufactured of some slightly-foamed polyethylene?

 

Big Cats 2 of 2; hunting! They don't often bring down any but old, infirm, or very young, lost giraffe's, who otherwise enjoy a relatively blessed existence. The larger lion is a China-marked newie, the other, a similar sculpt, is an older Hong Kong toy.

The giraffes are three old HK's, probably from different tranches of the Corgi Chipperfield's Circus giraffe carrier, and two larger modern chaps, one clearly marked KS in a similar oval to Toy Major, the other a generic for now.

 

Three generics here, and the really big one is a Toy Major, probably from a pick-box/counter-display. And when I say 'Generic', the hope is a fair quantity of them will be attributed in the near-to-medium-future?

 

Smallies; seem to match each other with plastic type, sculpting, size, China-mark etc . . . and probably came together in a toob or small-tub, but sometimes the small ones are chucked into tub-sets with larger animals to make-weight, or add to the item count

 

Big Cats 3 of 3; The big orange beast at the back is a Toy Major animal, marked Cheetah! The cub to the right is another AAA, while the flocked guy to the left is just lovely, but of unknown origin, with no dinks or worn-patches, he really is sweet!

 

Three generic elephants, one of which was marked ELEPHANTCHINA and for a moment, just a moment, I wondered if I'd left it out of the prehistoric animals post! And, all three newish sculpts.

 

Thanks again to Mr Attwood for sending us these, they make a nice change from 'armymen', Wild West or space/fantasy, especially as we head into the Christmas season - Fleet had its night market tonight, nothing on the council or Fleet BID Faceplant pages . . . of course!

H is for Hedge Pig

Mentioned earlier, those hedgehogs in full . . . first shot was taken in April, of a quite ginger one, although the camera flash rather hides it, and I think it's in the trio a week or two later, they liked the uneaten cat-food, but then, round here that's sliced ham!

S is for Spring!

Well, although it's getting colder by the minute this afternoon, and we've had two-and-a-half days of intermittent rain mist and drizzle, we did, back on Monday/Tuesday have the most glorious days of warm sunshine, bringing the Mirabelle plum out in a thick shock of ivory-cream blossom and getting the blood stirring in the wildlife...

This young Blackbird came right up to me as I weeded the rockery, looking for little bugs and things to breakfast on, bold as brass!

There were several Brimstones flying around but they didn't land long enough to catch on film, but this Tortoiseshell, was sunning itself for quite a while on the lawn and I got some nice shots.

It's funny - I think the brimstone is probably my favourite butterfly, or equal with the orange-tip, while the Tortoiseshell is usually only photograph-able at the end of the year when his/her wings look like the one that got away from  Manfred von Richthofen's flying-circus, all shattered and bitty! So there is a symmetry in not getting a shot of my favourite but getting the best shot ever of one I usually don't shoot!

Finally a moth that had the appearance of being fashioned from bits of sun-bleached bracken...as it emerged from a clump of er...sun-bleached bracken; there is the cleverness of nature in all her wonder summed-up in a little thing less than an inch across!

 

 This little mouse looks a bit damp as I had to rescue him from the mouth of Frodo, who was having a wail of a time not killing him for sport! I then had to engage in a great deception with Frodo, helping look all round the wheelbarrow for the 'escaped' mouse, so that he didn't blame me for loosing it.

As I was doing so, I saw the mouse had not gone far before stopping to groom cat-slobber off it's whiskers, so I then had to distract Frodo further, in the hope he wouldn't spot it. In the end the mouse disappeared down the back of the privet hedge, Frodo got to kill my bootlace and everyone was happy!

H is for Hampshire Wildlife - August 2012

One or two of you may have noticed I have now imported all the old posts from the gardening and moaning blogs, so from time to time you'll have to put up with the odd bit of wildlife or plant life on this blog from now on. I will try to finish re-tagging the 'Index' (preferably before the final imposition of the 'New Style' blog layout - as it's much easier in the old version) and bring over the last of the links in the next few weeks.

I also have about 30 articles in preparation, some of which I've already mentioned, but there's a lot going on in 'real life' at the moment so they are not going on-line as quickly as I'd like. For now here's some of the visitors to my flat in Enham (Nr. Andover - an old stomping ground from my Army days!) and my mothers garden in North Hampshire.

This little chap - or chap'ess - came calling just after midnight on Thursday and I would have given it some milk but the caterers here had given us yoghurt disguised as milk (for our self-catered breakfast) which I figured would not go down well with a house guest, so I just took some pictures for the visitors book and saw it on it's snail-hunting way.

Creepy-crawlies are always a favourite of mine and these are all from the last 30 days, the slug was even longer, but he started to shorten as I focused, a phenomena I have noticed before with slugs and snails and I suspect they somehow detect the beam from the camera, as you can always approach them (with care) but the moment you press first pressure on the shutter button they freeze up/shrink.

I don't know what the ants were finding so interesting, I inspected the stick after I took the shot and it was a stick...just a stick! The snail was so small yet so beautifully constructed it would drive a simpler mind to religion!

Flyers - after a couple of really good years for butterflies, we have now had two bad ones and this year they have been so thin on the ground (and the Buddleia!) that I try to shoot them whenever I see one. While I continue to fall for moths, who are so much-more pretty than a quick glance ever betrays, their buffs and grays, browns and fawns being actually patterns and designs as complex as any butterfly.

These three little voles came out of a bank on Saturday afternoon and sat around on the grass together, so tame we could stroke them, although they did tend to rush back into their hole after a couple of touches!

It is one of life's undeniable pleasures to encounter wildlife close-up, commune with it (on any level) and let it carry-on with it's day. I'm not sure if a 'Greenie' wouldn't cry "foul" at the stroking of voles, but they were gentle little one-finger passes (these things are about 45mm nose-to-tail-base, and the animals were back out in minutes - so obviously weren't that bothered, I guess you'd be nervous if a 600 foot giant came and patted you gently on the head!

Mookies

"So, er, what you doin' over there mate, cutting the hedge huh? Don't spo'se yer'd like to wander over 'ear a mo and pop some of that grass over the wire fe'rus wouldja? We're gern'na make cutlets yer know? Yeh, we're being trained up ter make cuttlets...sumin like fairy-cakes in'ey, sumin you eats any'ow!

Still More Wildlife

Mike Beale over at the Norfolk Wildlife blog, link to right, writes in answer to my query about the white moth bottom right "That's a White Plume Moth you have there, Its wings are deeply divided into several 'fingers', each of which is finely feathered, or plumed."

A bit of seasonal wildlife!

Well, that Hedgehog I woke in November while re-building the sheds, came and forgave me the other evening, just as I drew up in my new (old!) car, so I jammed-on the anchors and shot out with the camera ready and got a couple of good shots off before he/she (I'm sure it's a 'she' but have no idea why!) dived under the hedge behind!

Driving up the lane the other lunchtime these lot were crossing the road, so again; Brakes on, pocket, camera, and got this half-decent long-shot as they followed the hedge-line at the other side of the field.

These were all over the place about a week-and-a-half ago, most were hanging out of Holly trees in a heavily wooded area. while several ended-up on my jumper! One was on a lime tree having a good nosh, and the other was climbing an ash, don't know what they are - could be a moth, or one of the Whites? Looking at the book it could be a Small Heath or one of the Browns...

These are the calves of a rare breed a Farmer has in a field over by one of my clients places near Brightwalton, they did look even sweeter three weeks ago, little four-legged baby-bears, but they are starting to look like cows now! Couldn't get a photo the first time I saw them. I think they are 'Highland Long-horns' but I'm no cattle expert...

...except to say that Aberdeen Angus raised on natural pasture above island cliffs make the best roast I've ever tasted, marbled with crispy yellow veins of fat...mmmmm, not Matterson's!

Recent Snow

With reports of more snow tomorrow, I guess I'd better get these images up before they become dated, taken last week during the first cold snap...Global Warming...what global warming?

Lone tree lit by the setting sun.

The double Hornbeam likewise.

Ratty is still at it despite my best efforts to send him to a better place! I think the fresher the poison, the more he likes it!

Contrast!

H is for Hog

Clearing out one of the sheds today and woke this up! I then did a frantic search on Google to see if I had to do anything, and apparently - I don't. They wake during hibernation anyway and just go back to sleep, although if you force them awake too early in the spring, they can starve as there's no food about. Sadly I had left the camera on the eBay setting, so it's not too clear.

Winter Wildlife

I've seen Earwigs in Autumn apples, but this was buried deep inside a pine-cone from the Cedar of Lebanon which lost a branch in the recent heavy snow. I was crushing the cones in my hand to break them down for the compost heap when low and behold, the twin pincer of an Earwig!

Ratty raiding the bird-table, when I rap on the window, he feigns fright, leaps of the platform, climbs down to this little step waits a few seconds and then - when death fails to become an immediate likelihood - climbs back up again! What with the fox, the poor birds are getting a raw deal from this table...

Not sure if this was happy being woken in the middle of winter, he/she...it? was hiding in the moss I've been clearing from the Tennis Court, I suspect a moth rather than a butterfly, just by the time of year, anybody recognise it?

Last Night's Visitors

So who was in the garden last night? Easy;

Next door's cat.

A fox, who took the fat-ball off the bird-table.

A pigeon who took a look at the raided bird-table!

A cock-pheasant who let everyone know he was around in the early hours, they're almost as bad as peacocks at this time of year!