Amazingness

Grove Lane, London, SE5

I found this fella chomping happily away today. 
Apparently this railing is a pretty tasty treat, albeit a little bit crunchy.

Camberwell Road, London, SE5

I always glance up at these windows when I pass by, as we almost ended up living behind them. Happily though, the landlord turned out to be rather disagreeable, so we searched further and found a much friendlier home.

I still wonder who might have ended up living there, but I never see any sign of life inside. Instead, on this particular glance, my heart leapt with excitement at the sight of what was making its home on the outside.

How lovely to wake up one morning and find your windowsill has sprouted such statuesque yellow-flowered beauties all of its own accord! I hope there actually is someone living there who can enjoy them up close.

Vernon Road, London, E11

April showers have really made a comeback this year. It’s so incredibly wet. Just when I think, ‘Surely there can’t be any more rain up there’, along comes another glorious downpour.

I find the force and energy of it really exciting, but the resultant cold and wet shoes, socks, trousers etc, not quite so much fun. Luckily I’ve discovered the joyful combo of a large colourful umbrella and a pair of wellington boots.

Inside these items I feel invincible! And much more able to happily experience any cloudburst…the battering noise as raindrops land on my umbrella, the bouncing as they hit puddles and pavement, the changing angle of rainfall as the wind blusters, the freshness in the air, the ability to safely splish-splash through puddles…

…and, last but definitely not least, the discovery of such delightful things as Zebra Tree.

Lowth Road, London, SE5

Ah! Wonderful Spring! My absolute favourite.

As the days get longer and warmer, where there were bare tree trunks and bare branches, now there are beautiful blossoms, fresh green shoots, buds building up to burst with joy; everything full of new life and potential.

And then there are those noisy birds in the mornings…

But oh, how I love listening to them chirping their little hearts out! They make waking up so much more enjoyable. So full of the joys of spring, chatty and excitable, the juvenile males are out there, learning song skills from their fathers.

Bird song development actually proceeds in a similar way to human language development. First off, the young birds listen to the older birds around them singing. They then start producing quiet and very varied vocalisations, akin to baby humans babbling.

During the next stage they get louder and more confident. They practice using their voice to produce sounds; they experiment, listen and refine, rehearse, and eventually learn the particular songs of their species. In most cases, their potential repertoire of sounds is much greater (and their song more varied) during this stage than it is when they mature, because when they mature, their song becomes fixed (crystallised).

In the same way, human infants up to the age of five have the ability and potential to produce a far greater range of sounds than they will have just a few years later – which sounds remain in their repertoire depends on the language(s) they are surrounded by, and thus listen to, learn to vocalise, and communicate with.

As gorgeous and delightful as birdsong sounds to me, it sounds even better to those birds involved. By experimenting with recording bird songs, and then slowing down the playback, researchers have discovered that, for example, when the human ear hears three distinct notes, the bird has actually produced five.

The reason we miss out on these extra ones, is that birds can sing their different notes in such quick succession, that human auditory perception cannot distinguish each separate note as being separate. In fact, some birds can hear up to ten separate notes during the time that we would only be able to distinguish one!

Endwell Road, London, SE4

Time to get out of this rubbish dump, methinks.

Warner Road (5), London, SE5

Lichens are so brilliant. I love their colours and crinkles.

I found this one adorning the top of my local post box. There are more than 1,700 species of lichen in Britain, so I’m not about to identify it, but I can say that it has a foliose growth form, which means it has leafy lobes which spread out, lying flat against their chosen growth surface. The alternatives to foliose lichen are really crusty ones (crustose), more shrubby ones (fruticose), and ones with tiny scales (squamulose).

Lichens tend to grow best on rough porous surfaces that retain moisture and have good access to light. The peeling paint on this post box, with its cracking bumpy surfaces, will definitely have aided in the colonisation and adhesion of this one.

I have discovered that there are various ways to encourage lichen growth. If, for example, you have a nearby wall which is looking boring and empty of colourful life, the thing to do is to spray it with one of the following nutritious substances, mixed with a little PVA glue to aid adhesion:

Skimmed milk
Thin porridge
Rice water
Yoghurt
Beer

You may need to wait a few months though, or even years actually, before there will be much to look at, as lichen growth does tend to proceed very slowly.

Alternatively, if you find this idea very exciting and want to get serious about it rather more quickly, give this Magnificent Lichen Growth Formula a go.

Allendale Close, London, SE5

This magnificent Silver Birch tree trunk, once young, smooth and white, now old, grisly and exploded, has busted out some Amazingness love vibes for everybody.

Grove Lane, London, SE5

On my way to the shops to buy some carrots (on the off-chance that it will snow again and I shall build a snowman in need of a nose) I discovered these crinkly-edged paving stones, decorated with frilly inside borders, as if inscribed by an unsteady hand.

It got me to wondering. Why would the central sections be dry, as well as the very very edges, but not this highly specific area just inside the rim?

Having discovered no sources of information relating to this particular mystery, I can only guess…

…and I think it must be because the frilly wet sections become the wettest of all when the whole area is rained upon, as they will not only get wet from above but will additionally soak in moisture from the sides. Being the wettest means having the most moisture to lose, and therefore taking the longest time to go about losing it.

Northlands Street, London, SE5

Seems like the snow has caused some problems for air traffic control.

Morna Road (7), London, SE5

As I walked out one morning,
Walking down Morna Road,
The roofs upon parked cars,
Were ice-bergs with frosty nodes.

And down behind some houses,
I found a grassy patch;
To my surprise, a daisy
With delicate frost attached.

“My name is Hoarfrost,
Forever I will grow,
Whilst the ground is so cold,
And the air is so moist,

Whilst the night sky is cloudless,
And the wind is asleep,
From gas to solid,
Directly I leap.

Although it’s a common mistake to make
I didn’t form from dew,
Instead I skipped that liquid phase:
Straight from water vapour I grew.”

But the earth is rotating,
The sun will soon reach you.
‘O let not Time deceive you,’
Warmth will fast destroy you.

It was late, late in the morning,
The sun was shining brightly,
The sky was blue and beautiful,
And the frost had gone politely.

Poem inspired by, and a tribute to: As I Walked Out One Evening by W.H.Auden