Menorca pt3 The rest of the jam

 So, finally back home after two weeks away and already wanting to go back. The reason why is simple, it feels like home. Seriously if you've ever seen the east coast of England* it reminds me of this. An extensive dune system with a few wetland bits including a lot of Ducks and other waterfowl making their presence known on the beach. 

This is representative of  what you can see

 Got pecked by a bastard of a goose when I went to take its photo and it pecked mum when she was giving out bread. That and the storm was the low light of the holiday, though. 

The upside is that there is a lot of great scenery here, thanks to sensitive dune restoration, they've been stripping out the Carpobrotus that normally infests the shoreline and letting the native plants grow. 

Quite a lot of Clouded Yellow and Hummingbird Hawkmoth flying around which was nice to see as both are rare in the UK, and when it rained we saw a tortoise out for a stroll. 

Alongside the cats here, the most prevalent things as I've mentioned before were chickens. Crossing the road as in the old, unfunny joke. Sitting on the roundabout, but mostly situated throughout the dune scape and at any point in the day you can hear at least one cock crowing. 

A handsome boi

They never venture onto the beach, which is the ducks domain, but elsewhere, pretty much rule the roost.

Nice dual set up with our hotel with the main part holding reception, bar and restaurant and our bit the gym and an abandoned reception and restaurant, which I got to walk around, though not sure I was strictly allowed in. 

We looked out over the football pitch and the outdoor bit of the gym so at any given time some one is either hammering the exercise bikes or playing football. 

Pools were cold compared to the sea but at least walkable for those who are tall enough, with a small pool for the kiddies and such. 

The upshot of this is we are seriously considering going back next year when its the high season.

Menorca pt2

 This is just another stupid update. Weather has taken a turn for the worst, we have a storm, well some flashing in the sky and no thunder. Still hate it, mind but as storms go this is about perfect for me.

Menorca pt1

 You have another low quality blog post until we're back. But, can say, I've been enjoying this holiday so much more than the last. It helps that the last time I was here was 30 years ago.

Memories being limited to seeing a Kingfisher for the first time and my first praying mantis. Apart from that... No recollection at all.

Oh and getting bubble bobble PT 2 for Gameboy in Ciutadella (not a patch on the original).

So far, am really enjoying it. A lot of chickens for some reason and cats.

Would revisit 15/10

Blackwing Puzzles.

This is it the last of the British Hardys* and quite the contentious one at that. This is the book I should have started with back then, as it covers another of my special interests. Butterflies. If you're wondering what I did start with, that would be book 7 The Melted Coins. 

Contentious, how you may ask? The boys are called to an old mansion out past Bayport bothered by a flying ghost, the owner was a man called Moray Thaw, an old slave ship owner that bought up the mansion that was a stop on the underground railroad leading runaway slaves to a new life in Canada and the non slave owning northern states. 

I could see this being cancelled by some weirdo lefty types but that would be a shame, as its very good. Also its highly likely he was done in by his former crewmates after ripping them off and running with the money. 

The butterfly angle of course is Chet's new hobby and along with an enthusiast Drexel there is a reward up for a missing Cethosia myrina specimen. The weird ghost machine is based on another butterfly Prepona deiphile and a item of jewellery found is also based on this species. Finally a few species are mentioned none can really tie down the location of Bayport as they have a wide range over the US. These include the Great Spangled Fritiliary, the lovely Great Purple Hairstreak and mentions of the **Camberwell Beauty aka Mourning Cloak which is a bucket list item for me to see. 

You can read the US and UK versions here and here, though there are no differences between the texts.

Edit Links now live, 

*Danger on the Diamond is actually the final book released here.

** One of those species that is said to come in low numbers in the UK but our winters are too wet and mild for them to overwinter. I sub to a few migrant lepidoptera groups and have never really seen them show up. Striped hawkmoths however. . . 

Kew and the Titan

 Don't know if I've posted this but, its been an exceptional year for plants, here, especially at Kew, where they've had not one but two Titan Arums flower. 

I've seen both but came too early for the first, as I could only get the day off a few days before it opened, but a Facebook notification got me to see the second bloom, as they posted on a Friday and said it'll be open for the next 24-36 hours. 

So we decided to head on down to West London and have a look. A disclosure for those, I also wanted to have a butchers at their Agave montana which was also going to flower, but am far too early for that, its in the same general area but outside near the alpine house. 

Love that this is marked as the Agave Death bloom

There's another Agave in bloom this one is marked as X Leopoldii and Wiki has it as a hybrid between filifera and schidigera. You can see that outside the front of the Princess of Wales conservatory.

x leopoldii in bloom

The Titan itself is of course inside the tropical zone and while over now, is huge. I'm guessing at most 3m / 10ft 5 tall but can see it easily over 2.5m 8ft. I couldn't determine a smell but supposedly its bad, and the typical rotten meat stench to bring in the pollinators. More on that below. 

Amorphophallus titanum 

You can't go all this way and not check out the arid zone, especially if your a cactus nut like myself. A few mesembs are out including a Lithops and one of the shrubby Cephalophyllums but the two I'm singling out are the popular starfish flowered Stapelia grandiflora and the unknown Pyrenacantha malviflora.

Couldn't smell this one either, but you get the idea.

I'm guessing this is what was going on inside the titan arum, but made more clearer to see from this Asclepiad (and on a much smaller scale). The flower attracts flies to pollinate it and while it doesn't have the size advantage of the titan or broadcast range, this will still bring them in the dry South African desert. 

Not to be confused with Pyracantha or firethorn

This Pyrenacantha was also flowering, but this weird caudiciform hasn't got much in the way of flowers, those long catkins are what passes for its bloom. You can see the fruit form in the corner and from what I've read could be viable. It may need a male and or female or its flowers could be Bisexual (having male and female blooms on the same plant) its not clear.

With the main halls done, I had a look outside before taking the long bus ride home back to the suburbs. 

Jackdaw, not common in London

Some Mario's for you

 For some reason there is a Sega Master system version of Mario now, as part of the SMSPower's summer of Homebrew, the original Super Mario Bros has been ported over in either enhanced mode or original flavour. 

While not being quite the insane port that the C64 version was, this is still quite the feat, and it means that the humble SMS gets a quality platformer to join Wonderboy 3 and Psycho Fox.

Oh and if you're wondering about the other direction, there's also an Amiga version of Sonic in the works as well as Somari for the NES. The latter had a thread on RHDN where they were slowly turning it back into an actual Sonic game for the NES.

World 2-1 SMB SMS.

I'll leave you with a screenshot of it running in Ares.

Croyd- gone

 Took a trip down to Croydon yesterday for the first time in ages, and damn if it isn't a ghost town now. 

I can understand the antisocial behaviour and vast amounts of immigrants and that which made it look like it was Africa with trams, but I've never seen it so empty before.

Going through the Whitgift centre and noticing that half the shops are boarded up and closed down. I know the rain kept most people of the streets apart from the Hare Krishna lot who gamely set up a drum circle to preach. But this used to be busier, we had Kangz before along with ever flavour of weirdo Christian and Ispamist. The only nice thing I've seen was a mural of birds you'll never see, including a Shrike, Dartford Warbler and Goldcrest, along with the more attainable Grey Wagtail and Ring Necked Parakeet. 

Full birb mural for you.

Left there empty handed and didn't even check Beckenham because of the rain. 

This is a Saturday it should be packed.

The thing is, back in the day it used to be amazing, posh and upmarket. Went to see Father Christmas in Allders back in the day and in the 90's was a place to buy stuff in the sales. You could get there from Woolwich with either a 54 or 75 both services are much shortened now. I can't understand why this is not on par with Bromley as a hot location in South London.