Bigroot Geranium

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This is called a big root geranium. I didn’t know this when I got it, thinking it was just a normal geranium like my grandma used to have. Nope, this one is different.

Starting as just an ordinary small plant i bought for my wedding anniversary a couple of years ago. It’s growing and spreading. Creating a small little patch of green and pink. It’s lovely. Smells a bit weird when you touch the leaves, but the bugs like it.

The bees however, love it. There were 3 different types yesterday, but they move quickly so not the easiest to catch!

I have now taken a section of it and planted in another pot, so I can move some of that awesome pink colour around the garden.

(c) K Wicks

It’s strange you know… (poetry)

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It’s strange you know

I can’t deny

How those that chose

To blindly comply

Think it is

Even mildly ok

To force their will

And what they say

Upon those folk

Who choose to hold

And wait to see

If what’s being sold

Is in fact

Another lie

There’s been so many

And how they try

But desperation

Becomes the theme

To embolden the flock

To be extreme

Instead they sound

Like pushers of old

Repeating themselves

Until they are told

~

To fuck off

Hawks Tor, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall

Rhyme and Reason

(c) K Wicks

Strawberry patches

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I bought two strawberry plants a couple of years ago. One with white flowers, one with red flowers. I didn’t realise the red one was just ornamental, or must be as no strawberries on it last year. And so far this year, no red flowers on it either. Maybe the other one took over, as per the picture further down.

These are three different patches of strawberries now flowering. If you didn’t know, strawberries spread, going as far as you let them.

One box now has them all the way along. And, although I didn’t plant any potatoes in this one this year, we have potatoes coming up! I guess I didn’t find all of last years and they’re coming back. Funny because I’ve planted potatoes in the next bed along this year.

At the end of the strawberry box, we also have a mingled corner with rosemary, parsley and winter jasmine.

Lots of green at the moment in the garden with small spots of colour coming through. Another couple of months and I am expecting a lot of colour 🙂 One of last years strawberries below, so I’m hopeful of at least a few more this year!

(c) K Wicks

While looking down… (poetry)

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While looking down

They just can’t see

And seems a shock

We want to be free

From their weird

New medical rules

We are not sick

And are not fools

But playing the game

They are in deep

So much on the line

We need to keep

Our wits and senses

As sharp as knives

More than now

It’s about our lives

And what’s to come

The future’s near

And shouldn’t be dark

Or framed with fear

~

But that’s how they are making it

Rhyme and Reason

(c) K Wicks

Jumping Spiders

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I have been trying to work out what all the little jumping spiders are. I knew there were lots of different ones, I just hadn’t realised how many I had seen. Once I started looking closely at my pictures, I started to notice quite big difference.

In Spain they were very friendly little spiders. In the UK, so not much and they are, well, jumpy. I figured the heat out there slows everything down, wildlife included. But I have still captured a number recently, they don’t stop for long if at all, so only a few UK ones included.

Some of the names may be off, but I think they’re mostly correct.

Corythalia – it’s hard to tell with this one, so it’s a maybe?
Evarcha
Heliophanus
Red backed jumping spider (phidippus johnsoni)
Aelurillus
Menemerus Semilimbatus
Sitticus Dorsatus
Colonus
Plexippus paykulli
Male Zebra jumping spider
Female Zebra jumping spider

I just used to think there was one type of jumping spider, the little black and white one I called them as a kid. Now I know better!

(c) K Wicks

New Cover – Meeting in the Middle of Nowhere

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Although the original cover was ok, it never really sat quite right with me. It was too colourful and didn’t quite seem fitting. An odd thing to say you might think for someone who adores colour, and constantly posts bright and colourful designs and photography. But for my book covers, I am drawn to black and white still. So, although so far this is my most popular book, I am hazarding a guess that it is because of the content, not the cover, and have decided to change it.

Also, while I was there, drafted in a professional eye as a direct response to one an online reviewers making the following comment –

“A good reprint following a proofread would go a long way”

And do I did, engaging the services of Julia Proofreader to go through the book and spot those issues I had missed (on a number of occasions it would seem!).

Hopefully you all like the cover too, but given I have had mixed feedback for them over the years, I don’t mind if it isn’t to everyone’s taste.

If you would like know to more about Hyperphantasia and Aphantasia, then check out Meeting in the Middle of Nowhere.

(c) K Wicks

Noble False Widow

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For days now I have been trying to identify a spider hidden its its home in a hole in the garden wall. I scared it at first with the camera flash, but after a couple of weeks it seemed to be less afraid and stayed put as I tried to see in the hole enough.

I suspected it was a noble false widow but needed a better view (I had posted the above pic on Twitter asking @BritishSpiders for some help, and that was the suggestion with only a limited view, but the white stripe gave it away it seems). Today, I noticed it was a bit further forward, and while I was trying to get a shot some flies landed near and tempted it out.

It didn’t seem to mind me being there, but also didn’t seem that motivated for the food either.

It came out for long enough for me to get a good shot for identification though, so I was rather pleased. Patience paid off (and just happening to be there with my camera in hand, so timing helped).

(c) K Wicks