Your happy memories Online Radio | BlogTalkRadio

The topic this week: 'Gott ist tot.' - A look at my favourite atheist and this week's news that religion will disappear forever.

You can listen to the archived show here:

Your happy memories 08/11

Thank you

London Souffle is one year old this month and has reached proportions that I never anticipated. Thank you for dropping by and most of all, tolerating my musings and me. I will eventually get 'round to inserting a visitor counter on the main page - please bear with me on that.

Photo and oil painting copyright SvD.

Things I saw in the woods today, part 41

Another bird feather mysteriously laying dead center on a burdock leaf. Burdock, incidentally, is the most difficult plant to remove from the ground. The tap roots can grow to three feet in length! I have never been able to remove a root by hand as it always breaks. Like half eaten carrots which badgers famously eat the tops of and leave the bit that is still in the ground- of no use to any man or animal. Burdock has many medicinal properties and I have yet to eat the roots which are considered a speciality in Japan. We are very fortunate in the UK to have burdock growing in abundance but we do not eat it, sadly. Instead the leaves catch falling feathers (from errant magpies):

On the subject of leaves, these need no description as it is plainly obvious:

The meadow flowers and grasses were turned into bales of hay last week and dried stubs are all that remain. Well worn animal trails and paths disappeared when the tractors scythed the meadow down. The animals however kept an imprint in their minds of where they must travel and their tracks are re-emerging. The cycle never ends.

Photos copyright SvD.

Mysterious radio bursts

I've been versatile in my life- to say the least (more a case of do or die :)). Typical Aquarian, we rise to any and all occasions. I was fortunate to be offered my own show at Ridge Radio which I present every Friday and on Sundays I ramble on about life at blogtalkradio.  Here I am, warts and all. Have a listen. If you can bear it.

Wind Down Fridays 02/08/2013 Ridge Radio
http://www.mixcloud.com/samanthavandalen/ 

Switch your view

This idea of turning a photo on its head is not mine but I think it makes a valid point: look at things from a different angle occasionally.

In the secret meadow today.

Photo copyright SvD.

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie

It is unusual to see a blackbird at a bird feeder. Blackbirds prefer a diet of worms dug up in the ground or snails that they bash relentlessly to 'loosen up' before extracting the dazed molluscs from their shells. I have observed a blackbird come to sleep every day in this buddleia outside my kitchen window. I also receive a visit from a blackbird- impossible to know if it is the same one- who stands and looks at me as if to say, "excuse me but the bird feeding arrangements are somewhat unsatisfactory. You see, I hate perching on that damn thing you call a bird feeder." The blackbird has a thick beak that is not best suited to extracting the suet balls from a feeder clearly designed for smaller birds.

I have eaten many blackbirds during happy years spent in France where my best friend, Madame Bue, would frequently stuff them with sultanas, drizzle with cognac and roast in the the oven. I was a bad guest mostly and would arrive late for lunch every Sunday when the blackbirds had waited a bit too long in the oven and were, ahem, let us say, singed. I was told off frequently for my tardiness. It is customary to eat the bones and all in one sitting. For the faint-hearted, I offer no apologies. Food is not entertainment but rather sustenance.

Photos copyright SvD.

Cochinelle

Lady bugs are beetles with huge appetites for aphids in particular. Like the horse fly, the female lady bug needs a substantial meal before she can mate (in the human kingdom the same seems to apply especially if he's buying dinner). Here is a lady bug feasting in the secret meadow. These latest photos I have posted on insects have proved extremely popular, perhaps because they have faces that are strangely mesmerising.

Photo copyright SvD.