The garden in Autumn

This weekend, in between rainy and windy days, I spent the afternoon in the garden raking up the leaves, and bagging some of them to make leaf mould - brilliant for improving the texture and fertility of the soil. In a few months time I should be able to spread the crumbly mix under the hedges, and onto the veg patch. 

Under the holly hedge, cuckoo pint (Arum maculatum) has produced bright red berries - apparently, much favoured by pheasants - but since we have no pheasants, they remain a bright splash of colour when many plants have finished their flowering.

We have one apple tree, growing very close to the house, and F cut off all the branches a few years ago, but leaving the trunk.  It needed a more serious saw (a chainsaw?) than Frank has to tackle the trunk.  For  a couple of years it sent out plenty of leafy stems which we cut off promptly to encourage it to die.  I think we have been successful at last.  The tree is surrounded by mushrooms(inkcaps?) and from the base to the top of the trunk a beautiful purple and pink shelf fungus has spread.  I know the mushrooms thrive where there is dying wood and I think it will probably be the same for the trunk.  We may not need to cut it down after all.

Another identification job for iSpot

 

OU news

I've had the results of my recently completed Open University Course on Environmental Science and I'm relieved to say that I passed the course work and the exam - so that means I have now completed Level Two Studies.

This year I have started Level Three work and my first course is Geology-based.  I have decided that it is about time I started taking a more active interest in the practical side of the subject and so this weekend I travelled to Lickey Hills Country Park, south of Birmingham, where I joined other members of the OU Geological Society.

Our task for the day was to identify igneous rock specimens, using a hand lens to look at individual crystals, if they were large enough to be distinguished as separate grains.  The tutor who lead the activity was very knowledgeable and had prepared detailed notes, including a step by step method to identify important features which would lead to the identification of the rock sample. 

Most of the participants worked individually, but I worked with V and we worked through the samples, following the suggested method, and having feedback from the tutor for each sample we worked with.  We agreed on most of the details and were able to correctly identify most of the samples we worked with.

 This sample, a basalt,  had crystals of olivine, and so was aptly named Olivine Basalt.

We finished the day with a walk to a very small quarry on the Lickey Hills site, that had recently been cleared of excessive plant growth so that the rock formations could be clearly seen.  The weather was kind and we enjoyed the walk in the warm, afternoon sunshine.