I read the article through and got a good understanding of the stages so tested my test page with Google lighthouse
in the Chrome Browser it failed on the service-worker as I suspected, the other categories were Ok and
tweaking those I can understand. Still lots to learn about the JavaScript.
Lots of time tinkering with my new Service-worker splash page (ages choosing font colours) exploring Firefox Developer Tools. As is often the case,
being new to this browser it took a while to actually find the tools, but I got there and had a play with Responsive Design Mode and the Eyedropper tool
which is literally pixel point accurate.
Still pleased about being able to view my blog while offline. Takes a bit of getting used to, the links still don't work but the back and forward arrows
do, to visit the pages I went to whilst online. This seems to point to my one long page being more convenient for offline, and indeed the links do work on there.
I am stretching myself here but it's rekindling an enthusiasm and confidence in my willingess and ability to learn and get to grips with how this JavaScript works with
more focus and clarity beginning to emerge over what I'm trying to achieve. There's not really that much code and I've been enjoying going over what each piece does,
the hows and whys.
Tuesday after August Bank Holiday weekend - very hot and sunny 28.6 degrees celcius at this computer terminal.
Very keen to see how accesible my site was when I went offline. A bit of a rush visiting different pages on it to test as my
phone needed turning on and it takes ages. Last night I was disappointed and only seemed to get the "sorry you're offline"
dinosaur page but mysteriously this morning I seemed to get a limited functionality, if I used the back arrows to navigate
rather than links - this is definately progress!
Today's session was mostly tinkering with the appearance of the test-page, background and font colour. Good for practicing basic html and css.
I spend quite a bit of time offline out of range of phone signal or wifi so can appreciate how useful Service Workers could be.
A quarter of the way through 100days of JavaScript already and I don't feel like I've got that far. I was brought to an abrupt halt trying to build the
FreeCodeCamp Weather App. despite a resolve to proceed. I didn't have a clear enough picture of what API's are and found a widget code snippet which did the
job much better that I feel like I can. This made me think more generally about what JavaScript is and what I would like to achieve by learning it.
So I've read more articles and books than done actual coding, searching for something that helps me feel a little less than lost at sea. I have absorbed
quite a bit en route about patterns, packages and libraries and whilst keeping vanilla JavaScript in mind (finish JavaScript30?) I do like the look of
P5.JS. Today I did my first 'hello!' which was actually a circle.
After the CSS Daily Images challenge I realised how important a visual style of learning is for me to understand concepts. I did have a go with the Processing
language last year with a Future Learn course but got left behind. Still have a tendency to overestimate the time I have available online.
I write html every day updating this website as well as starting every project I do with an html document and keep learning more about it by doing.
The CSS I did as part of this page construction helps me visualise and I still try to read and understand a little more each day - particularly
flexbox, which I really like.
This week particularly I have got a better understanding of the great leap in potential of HTML5 and CSS3.
Reading the history of JavaScript. At this stage I'm immersing my thoughts in what JavaScript is and what it can be used for.
PC Mainenance!
There is High ping and apparently gadgets on Windows7 desktop are a security risk so removed them.
Exploring processing and p5.js http://lauren-mccarthy.com/teaching/Networked-Media …
Very sad to hear that Coding Artist did not get the funding needed to carry on, it was a great project and I learnt so much. It gave me that
connection between the coded instructions and the visual output I needed to understand how it works.
An article in .NET magazine about Service workers caught my eye and I read it through burt did.nt get a chance to try the code on computer.
Front-end Foundations, Front-end Formations, Journey into Mobile, CSS cross-country and Unmasking HTML emails.
Ok, so I went down a rabbit hole of trying to verbalise visualisation concepts after searching
and reading this kind of thing:Visualising node link graphs .
Visualising nodes and their relationships after reading up on Neo4j whilst making logical links and file names that connect to navigate this site.
both are free on Google play store.
Lots of useful stuff about app development.
by Brett Maclaughlin. Only a short book but a useful reference which has left me with
a strong sense of the potential of HTML5.
Earlier today I did half of a course about Chrome Developer Tools. Which also covered installing Git and Atom.
Very much focussing on linking files and folders today. I've been stumbling a bit on this so taking more care to really understand
what's going on and how to do it. I couldn't get things to link at all on the desktop to start with, so I took a step back from putting
the files in different folders and trying to link those and tried proceeding from having them in the same folder.
I'm starting to get anxious about a perceived complexity in what I'm trying to do here. I don't understand why I can't link files.
It feels like I'm missing some really obvious procedure. I found an exerpt in an old book called Dynamic HTML in action which I typed out and put
on the menu page I'm constructing.
Today I'm struggling to link files in different folders/directories. Searching for guidelines took me to
HTML Source A delightfully presented tutorial written in an engaging
tone that walks through the essentials. Some of the gaps in what I've learned so far seem to be filled in when I look through
the contents so I think I'll follow this one carefully. There are handy keyboard shortcuts introduced at just the right moment!
For more practice with storing and accessing files I followed a recipe from 'designing web graphics.2' - 1997 issue
fake arrows
This was great fun and I was delighted with the effect. It involved making two gif files in paint.net for the arrows and two html files in VS Code for the text, list and links.
Dividing this site into smaller files is a bigger task than I at first supposed. I am trying to make new files and preserve this one 'as is' to keep
a record of how it progressed over time. I do tweak things a bit, particularly the css if something looks grossly out of proportion,
as I work out where to put the files in folders and make links to the right places.
This morning I woke up still thinking about how to split my very long single page into smaller files. I drew a diagram, wrote some file paths and
looked for clues in and old web design book by Lynda Weinman.
I spent a few hours making a menu page with the navigation buttons and dropdown menu but got stuck trying to make the the 'back to top' button into a
'home' button. I can't get it to link back to the menu page which is what I am trying to do.
menu Ah! menu I've been trying all kinds of naming, lots of 'Read and search'
(I don't like asking unless I absolutely have to) and putting the file in another folder has got more than an error message
- just needs a stylesheet in the folder I'm guessing. menu DaDaa ... yay I did it,
much persistence and it's just this kind of thing that makes me feel like quitting.
Good advice from the GitKraken 'Getting started tutorial'. First time using GitKraken went well, I like the visual representation of the workflow and good notification
popups to explain where I was going wrong were helpful - I did manage to try and do some things in the wrong order.
Second time using VS Code was a pleasant experience and navigating files and folders went smoothly.
I've been thinking about navigating whilst practicing moving up and down through folders making preparations to divide this site into smaller sections.
I have enjoyed mixing colours with paint, doodling colourful patterns with felt tips. I once made a cyclopedia protective cover colouring in all the small squares on graph paper with coloured pencils. Psychedelic patterns were all the rage then as the visions of 1960's echoed in the decoration of jazzy wrappers in the 1970's.
Colored pencils had a softer tone than the myriad dazzling colours of printed synthetic inks and paints.
I painted wild flowers with a palette of watercolours with pigment names that gave hints of their natural origin. Cadmium yellow, Zinc white, lamp black, veridion, vermilion, Prussian blue, burnt sienna.
I thought of Italian roof tiles when looking for a colour to represent a sussex oast house in a bucolic scene in guache on an oak chest of drawers I was decorating but painted mostly green.
216 hex value cross browser palette is the one I'm sticking to now. May Tech CSS Tutorial and reference app has a chart I use offline. It explains the origin of this web safe colour palette designed to display on 256 colour machines. And the reason why 40 of the colours were held in reserve.
My own reason for using this palette is to limit the choice. It makes it easier to experiment with how colors respond to one another when placed together
in this medium which is one of light rather than paint.
It can be dauntingly overwhelming to think there are millions of colours to pick from a rainbow.
I've tried using named colours, linen and seashell. associative naming can be helpful but soon become a ubiquitous choice of convenience as the avocado and magnolia interior decoration vinyl emulsions of the DIY 1980's.
I quite like linen and seashells and magnolia and avocados and I found when using these kind of colour names in css it did help me remember them. I was picking coloures I liked the name of and making the names into sets.
Oh yes, the title. With this site I'm interpreting nature.
When I look around outside, especially in may there's a lot of green. And the word itself I find hardly adequate to describe the variation. Light or dark, bluish or yellowish.
So taking a leaf from the book of trees and plants, to enhance the page with css I'll look out for harmonious hues or tones that catch my eye as I seek to build layers with visual meaning.
Spent a few hours today trying to build a weather app for the FreeCodeCamp Zipline. I need to go back over some of the previous lessons to grasp what I need to do using JSON and an API key.
Instead I found this rather nice weather widget. Less code, more functionality.
Instead I found this rather nice weather widget. Less code, more functionality. Than I could do in the time.
Only after I posted to twitter did I realise I wrote aphorisms instead of apothegms.
#SoloLearn PHP #FreeCodeeCamp JSON API's and AJAX done, started HTML/CSS/JS Random Quote Machine
Finished FreeCodeCamp JavaScript algorithms section.
Also noticed the horizontal rule tag and had a go with it. This page is getting too long and I spent a couple of hours focusing on how to
divide it into sub folders. I've got used to my quirky stylesheet and find it easier to read and think about how I'd like it to look and work, so I linked it back for now
It makes it all look a bit janky but this hr tag is useful for putting divides at places where I can split the page into separate
files.
FreeCodeCamp bonfire Return Largest Numbers in Arrays Complete. Played excellent FlexboxZombies game.
After watching week 3 of Coursera's Mindshift I went for the immersive approach today.
In the morning I did some SoloLearn PHP tutorials covering functions, and although it's going to take some drilling to remember the new syntax
it's helpful to go over the way the different elements of a programming language are put to use, and this is becoming - gradually - more familiar.
This page has been niggling for a while and needs
sorting out. I thought about completely re-doing the stylesheet Css Zen Garden style but it
seemed a bit ambitious for the time available. Instead I tweaked things a bit by adding some inline styles to the HTML. W3c tutorial pages were helpful.
I took a screenshots of the stage I got to with the semantic calendar as a reminder of the process.
Today's FreeCodecamp bonfire "Title case a sentence" required the RSA method. I did try to use the hint which was MDN String.prototype.split() page ...
Reading a book about html5 some history of WHATWG and W3C. The Wordle programme was mentioned so I had to have a go with it when on PC.
This proved more difficult than I had anticipated. The browsers Chrome, Firefox Developer and Opera would not accept the Java plug in
or add on required. Internet explorer would do it but Java had to be updated and all traces of previous Java removed.
Finally I got it working! And it was worth it, there's an impressive selection of fonts and colours to play around with, great fun.
This required much Read, Search Ask. With Google, on StackOverflow, FreecodeCamp Forums, YouTube, Medium.
At this stage I'm hoping that exposing myself to the code repeadedly I will eventually absorb how it works.
I looked at quite a few different solutions, and when I tried them not all of them worked. I can find the ones
that do and then work out how.
SoloLearn has helped me a lot to grasp some JavaScript basics. I think it's the format of just one phone screen divided into
small memorable chunks.
Some HTML challenges on SoloLearn then PHP control stuctures exercises and quizzes.
Skipped through FreeCodeCamp Javascript object oriented and functional programming section, then first bonfire: splitting a string
(and reversing it and joining it back up again).
#FreeCodeCamp #Javascript Basic Yes! I completed the JavaScript Basics. Although I didn't time it, I think 10 hours is about
the right estimate for how long it took - spread over a month. This time I am actually sticking to at least one exercise -
a little each day. This is the second time I've done these exercises and I'm absorbing them better than the first time around two years ago.
It's clearer to me what the code is for and how it can be used. This is longer than I thought it would take when I started but there has been
much to learn about context and application, culture and more.
#SoloLearn I completed 50 challenges with 1 weapon: HTML! Braving the competition of doing code quiz challenges with other learners I have lost most, drawn a few
and won hardly any but the experienc is good. I find them rather like flash cards, good for testing what I've learnt and spotting gaps in knowledge.
moz://a css grid - I had a quick skim around the Mozilla Web developer site and would like to spend more time there. I was particularly interested in
Firefox Developer edition and the CSS Grid section.
#100DaysOfCode #301DaysOfCode Day 202 #FreeCodeCamp #Javascript Profile Lookup #SoloLearn HTML challenges and PHP Arrays
#100DaysOfCod#301DaysOfCode Day 201 #FreeCodeCamp #Javascript nesting for loops #SoloLearn HTML challenges.
To celebrate I started learning another programming language on the SoloLearn phone app - PHP. Had to pause a bit to get how
variable variables work but other than that progress was quite smooth for about an hour covering basic syntax, variables and operators.
There's a fair bit missing from this list, particularly graphics and Ux/Ui related which I hope to get practice with this through exploring and making things.
Today I reached my FreeCodeCamp 350th milestone, it was a Javascript basics count backwards with for loop exercise.
Next some playing around trying different bullet points, list styles and types at the top of this page using w3schools
SoloLearn: after learning a bit about JavaScript objects - name:value pairs I scooted through the HTML5 section of HTML Basics.
This whetted my apetite to try out some of the HTML5 tags and rearrange thing a bit on this page. Hence todays heading.
Took ages finding the right mode folder to put JavaScriptMode folder in to get Processing to work in the browser - but got there in the end, yay!
Going through the JavaScript functions section of the Sololearn App on phone. Twenty five minute sessions really focussing till I get it.
#100DaysOfCode #301DaysOfCode 193 #FreeCodeCamp Javascript: testing objects + Trying out some CSS authoring and validation tools.
2017-07-10 #100DaysOfCode #301DaysOfCode 192 #FreeCodeCamp variable JavaScript patterns with operators: logical assignment comparison ; {}
#100DaysOfCode #301DaysOfCode 191 #FreeCodeCamp JavaScript - if else do while switch break ; ()
Started the day with another week of Mindshift videos. As a follow on tho Learning how to learn it's a helpful refresher going into more details about the benefits of the Pomodoro technique
and the focus and diffuse modes of thinking with some nice new diagrams to illustrate - I particularly like the honeycombe one for diffuse mode. Also the visualising Memory Palace supplementary vieo was good.
Also some more Sololearn Javascript excersises - I'm getting better! Soon I might even be confident enough to take on other learners in the challenge games.
Today I'm also playing an online game whilst coding ... afk'ng to grind some levels. Just thought I'd give it a go.
I found the FCC objects for lookups difficult to solve so only did one JS exercise today. I spent a long time trying to figure it out myself as the Mindshift course I'm doing reminded me of the importance of this. I eventually looked it up though as I was just stuck.
What I found was I had put a var where I didn't need it and although I'm still not entirely sure why, by recalling it like this by writing about it and making a mental not I think it will fall into place eventually.
I also revisited the Javascript section on Sololearn. Although I completed it going back through the exercises is making more sense now I'm actually making things.
Some FreeCodeCamp challenges.
is a great feature they are
developing at Goldsmiths College.
I've started the Mindshift course and watching the first videos reminded me of the importance of solving the FreeCodeCamp JavaScript challenges myself,
so although it can feel difficult and takes a while sometimes I do feel like it's sinking in, I know I understand how it works.
By making this page too I'm getting a sense of what I can do and with practice get familiar. I made a new calendar box for July and changed the link color to magenta,
which I've wanted to do for a while as the green didn't show up too well against a blue background.
After getting stuck on an else if statement because I hadn't put a curly brace at the end I'm quite pleased I got this FCC challenge on chaining if else statements right first time.
... Small steps.
In Computer Science a queue is an abstract Data Structure where items are kept in order.
Wrote a function nextInLine which takes an array (arr) and a number (item) as arguments. Add the number to the end of the array, then remove the first element of array.
The nextInLine function should then return the element that was removed.
function nextInLine(arr, item) {
// Your code here
arr.push(item);
return arr.shift(); // Change this line
}
// Test Setup
var testArr = [1,2,3,4,5];
// Display Code
console.log("Before: " + JSON.stringify(testArr));
console.log(nextInLine(testArr, 6)); // Modify this line to test
console.log("After: " + JSON.stringify(testArr));
And a boolean true/false.
27
28
29
30
01 02 03
Separate style sheet
JQuery on FreeCodecamp and Sololearn
Github Pages coding tweets log
PSD to HTML or Bootstrap
Pocket C.H.I.P. Day 1
Debian "Jessie" CommandLineInterface
Pico-8 and Lua
HTML: Do I need a list closing tag?
Google font and shells
Linux Bash and Pico-8
Why Less is More
Navigating in terminal, Browsing with Lynx
Deliberate Practice
Programmers Oath
Superfast instant website - txti
The Flexbox, what?
Learning to Learn
A GitBook trove of dev resouces
Semantic Box
No Yak Shaving
Code to Zero
Basics of of Git
JQuery
JQuery and Javascript
Zen and the Art of the Internet
Pomodoro Clock
Multi-dimensional Arrays
Local v global functions + html blog
jQuery Certificate
Shell scripting - BASH
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-30 Friday
I am very keen to learn Linux and Shell scripting and started to work through A Linux command line tutorial ebook. I didn't get very far, I got stuck when cd/usr/bin didn't work.
I was offline using Pocket chip and my phone so couldn't search to find out what the problem was.
I only had enough time on PC to do a couple of FreeCodeCamp JavaScript lessons. Better than nothing, but I think if I keep up the streak I'll adapt to doing some on phone when I have wifi connection.
So far I've found it difficult to focus on the FCC waypoints on the phone , maybe this "Procrastination: When something is hard, it causes unease and pain, naturally your brain finds ways of escaping pain
by switching your focus." a tweet by @CodePaulCode.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-29 Thursday
SoloLearn jQuery Certificate at 5 o'clock this morning then just one FCC exercise from the JavaScript basics Global vs. Local Scope in Functions. I want to make use of the FCC streak box and update every day.
Local v global functions + html blog gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-28 Wednesday
#100DaysOfCode #301DaysofCode 180 #FreecodeCamp JS functions #SoloLearn tried out cool new HTML blog lesson gipsi.github.io
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-27 Tuesday
Ten more FreeCodeCamp Basic Javascript exercises took me through the different things you can do with arrays.
Nest one Array within Another Array Complete
Access Array Data with Indexes Complete
Modify Array Data With Indexes Complete
Access Multi-Dimensional Arrays With Indexes Complete
Manipulate Arrays With push() Complete
Manipulate Arrays With pop() Complete
Manipulate Arrays With shift() Complete
Manipulate Arrays With unshift() Complete
Shopping List Complete
I also tried out four more Pomodoro Clocks
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-26 Monday
1.5 hours 10 FCC JS exercises. Javascript strings, concatenation and bracket notation.
I got up to Word Blanks today and tried 3 different pomodoro clocks made by other FreeCodeCampers.
Was interested to read about Mad Libs which Word Blanks is based on.
Zen and the Art of the Internet gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-25 Sunday
Some more Sololearn jQuery on the phone when I first woke this morning, then an hour of FreeCodeCamp Javascript Basics - 7 exercises in the afternoon. The best one was converting fahrenheit to centigrade.
I used a pomodoro clock made by another camper which is great - though a choice of different alarm sounds would be good as I thought it was a signal from the
computer when I first heard it.
I came across Zen and the Art of the Internet by Brendan P. Keyhoe when I was reading
a bit about other INFP personality types and he was mentioned.
SoloLearn jQuery and Twenty JavaScript Basics FreeCodeCamp lessons. gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-24 Saturday
Did first section of SoloLearn jQuery on phone app and noticed there are new Blog lessons in the HTML course which look good but I couldn't try offline.
Twenty JavaScript Basics FreeCodeCamp lessons. Timed the session, it took half an hour to do the first 10, had a 5 minute break and the next 10 took 40 minutes.
FreecodeCamp - jQuery and Portfolio gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-23 Friday
Did all the FreeCodeCamp frontend jQuery and made My Gipsi Site portfolio and a hover button on my original portfolio. Work in progress.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-22 Thursday
Getting into the basics of Github etiquette with Francesco Agnoletto's Medium articles, starting with part 1 which is about
Branches and Workflow and onto part 2 about
Commits, Push and Pull
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-21 Wednesday
Some creative coding today - started futureLearn's
Learn to Code Electronic Music Tools with Javascript
I submitted this video as an example of some electronic music I like Code to Zero
I think Live coding is cool, I've had a go with Sonic Pi and think it's great, especially the way music can be shared with text files.
I made a drum machine as an exercise for a JavaScript tutorial and have just started playing with Sunvox synthesiser on Pocket Chip.
I'm very much a Newbie with music and code but am curious and inspired by audiovisual patterns.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-20 Tuesday
Updating this site in HTML with a C_Panel text editor.
Trying to keep things simple so the daily updating process is swift.
No Yak shaving.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-19 Monday
Today I focused on making a new Semantic Box for July. A Semantic HTML with CSS streak box calendar to be precise.
I find the streak box calendar a helpful motivator and good for keeping track of challenges.
Making it helps me get some more familiarity with Semantic HTML.
It feels a bit like a Rubic's cube puzzle and refreshes what I have forgotten. Practice and repetition, small steps, see what works and what doesn't.
A GitBook trove of dev resouces gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-18 Sunday
I read through The FrontEnd Developer Handbook a GitBook by Cody Lindley of Frontend Masters today there are a lot of links! But it gives a good overview of the technologies it is worth looking to learn for software development. A good reference manual it seems it's updated each year too.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-17 Saturday
When I first started learning to code with FreeCodeCamp I did Coursera's Learning how to Learn taught by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Terry Sejnowski. This set me up with a new and clear idea of the difference between focused and diffused mode thinking.
Yesterday I watched another video by Dr. Barbara Oakley and The Big Think The Science of Learning: How to harness your brains Neural Networks
This was a great refresher which led me to have a look at Dr. Barbara Oakley's twitter feed which has some real learning gems including her own experiences with Imposter Syndrome and the inspiration and practicalities - the "Secret Sauce" behind the making of Learning how to Learn, the world's most popular online course from the Coursera Blog.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-16 Friday
My favourite dev newsletter from Bill Sourour at dev{mastery} was a great reminder of my excursions into CSS and my determination to get the hang of using flexbox. He mentions Wes Bos's course What the Flexbox as a resource which I'd forgotten I was going to do so I started watched the videos on YouTube.
I've taken a break from CSS for a few weeks and this course looks a good way to get back into it, review and consolidate what I've learnt.
Superfast instant website - txti gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-15 Thursday
This must be the fastest website I've made. - txti - Elegant in its simplicity. Good for practicing markdown.
Programmers Oath, Validating HTML gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-14 Wednesday
After watching Uncle Bob's you Tube videos and checking my site in progress and finding multiple errors I thought it best to correct my mistakes before even more accumulate.
I'm not sure if correcting HTML is fixing bugs. When I Googled it and read How to fix bugs, step by step on Software Engineering Tips page I thought that maybe validating HTML is a more accurate way to describe what I'm doing.
Going through this document fixing errors with the help of Nu HTML Checker
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-13 Tuesday
This study hack by Cal Newport is keeping me on track today.
I'm going to try and make Bash as colourful and pretty as Lynx.
Navigating in terminal, browsing with Lynx. gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-12 Mondayday
Feels like I am back at the start - a Coldplay scientist. "Nobody said it was easy"
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-11 Sunday
Why less is more in UNIX/Linux as in life .
Code word of the day: A thicket is forest of linked files created in HTML.
Tip: To avoid burnout sleep enough.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-10 Saturday
Learnt a bit more of Linux BASH on the amazing Pocket Chip and had lots of fun playing Pico-8 games.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-09 Friday
Used a Google Font - Lato by Łukasz Dziedzic (pronounced Wukash Jedjec)
Some Linux bash shells in computing and cognitive ergonomics.
HTML: Do I need a list closing tag? gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-08 Thursday
Stackoverflow answers
Yes.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-07 Wednesday
Pocket C.H.I.P. Day 3: I typed "calendar" into the CommandLineInterface and amongst other things it mentioned that AlanTuring died on June 7 1954.
target="_blank" Opens the linked document in a new window or tab - www.w3schools.com
Debian "Jessie" CommandLineInterface Hello Linux! gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-06 Tueday
My first go with Linux - at last!
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-05 Monday
Pocket C.H.I.P arrived!! Out of the box - nice cardboard box, the cats love it, all the way from sunny California.
And I'm starry eyed over my new computer. Loving to hold it, it's literally like feeling the stars in my hands.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-04 Sunday
Started looking into converting a PSD template to html. Started a Bootstrap parallax template instead.
Github Pages coding tweets log gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-03 Saturday
Updating Github Pages gipsi.github.io with coding tweets log.
Did not leave me time to update this page properly.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-02 Friday
To complement the JQuery Playground on Freecodecamp I've started the JQuery Course on SoloLearn.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-01 Thursday
As the html document gets longer I can see the benefit of having a separate style sheet for the css. I have had problems getting the file to link on my phone app so I've used a session on PC today to focus on doing this and getting it to work.
HOW TO USE AN EXTERNAL STYLE SHEET FOR HTML5 AND CSS3 PROGRAMMING For Dummies article by Andy Harris gives a nice easy to follow guide with code.
Semantic calendar
Coding 2017 - May
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 - -
A little bit of IT at a Time
A little bit of IT at a time
A little bit of IT at a time
A little bit of IT at a time.
Html on Android
Words and Code
Coding on a smartphone
Tacit Coding: we know more than we can tell.
Adding a dropdown menu
CSS Dropdown menu
Picking colours from a rainbow.
Committing to Git
Skeleton documents - GitHub Repository
Html Structure and functionality
RWD is an Art not a Science
Flexbox Portfolio for 30 Days 30 Sites Challenge
Invitation (Flexbox)
Explore!
W3c css Portfolio Template.
Textarea boxes and an aside.
This is Chris Cornell - A Tribute
Coding on Codepen
Portfolio makeovers
Rubber duck
FreeCodeCamp CatPhotoApp
PocketCHIP
FreeCodecamp
HorsePhotoApp
Bootstrap HorsePhotoApp
New Semantic Calendar for June
Sassy Lemonade
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-31 Wednesday
After reading 30 Days 30 websites email (which had been put in junk spam folder - wondered why I wasn't seeing them all) I followed the prompt and did a Codecademy Learn Sass Tutorial. Rather than installing Sass which involves Ruby Gems, the command line and what not I made the CSS Lemonade Page to put on CodePen as a Beverage Website.
... I am reading Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon ;-)
New Semantic Calendar for June
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-30 Tuesday
Having finished another month of coding using the semantic calendar box I thought I'd rearrange things a bit. Add some days and a different colour background and make updating it in the html quicker and easier to do on the day.
I've set it up so the days can be uncommented. And naming the anchor tags by the days feels more intuitive.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-29 Monday
"We hope you've enjoyed learning Font Awesome, Bootstrap, and responsive design!" ~ FreeCodeCamp
Yes I enjoyed it so much ...
That as I came to the end of the FreeCodeCamp CatPhotoApp exercises I thought I'd make a Bootstrap HorsePhotoApp. I made the app at the same time as doing the FreeCodeCamp CatPhotoApp and it wasn't too difficult finding the right link for Google Fonts and the CDN link for Bootstrap. W3c I find good for up to date reference.
I coded the HorsePhotoApp in Notepad++ and it all worked fine. Not when I put it on to CodePen though, it seems not all the links work.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-28 Sunday
Woke up this morning thinking I could make a HorsePhotoApp like the FreeCodeCamp CatPhotoApp. So I did and put it on CodePen.
https://hbr.org/2017/05/your-brain-can-only-take-so-much-focus
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-27 Saturday
I managed to get the Freecodecamp HTML/CSS section done then half way through Bootstrap exercises.
And there was time to read this
How to Make Responsive Images With CSS
I would have had a go but went for updating Github #100DaysofCode log instead.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-26 Friday
I decided it's about time I got a new computer. A big event for me and I'm excited, I
finally saved up enough to send for a PocketCHIP
It should arrive sometime next week.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-25 Thursday
Logged back into FreeCodeCamp for the first time in ages and I have to start again. Third time lucky! It all makes much more sense now. I first started two years ago this month, I was very excited and knew nothing at all.
Following the tutorials went ok, until I started doing JavaScript. This I found hard to the extent I questioned whether I should be learning code at all. I did quite a few MOOCs, then last year started coding again with more resolve to stay in there for the long haul.
Detours have taken me into learning GitHub, Chrome Dev Tools and Computer Science, but this time always including some coding. After doing the SoloLearn tutorials I decided to focus on HTML and CSS. My first Portfolio effort was a W3C Bootstrap Template in CodePen, and when it broke I spent ages trying to fix it, realising from this that I needed good core skills with markdown, markup and styling languages.
The CSS Daily Images challenge came at just the right time and I found the challenge encouraging. I learned lots about CSS - not least how much I still don't know! And it was exciting times with CSS Grid arriving on the scene mid-way. Flex-box is something I'd like to master, it seems quite easy to understand, but getting the hang of using it is another matter and after playing Flex-box Froggy I practice when I can.
I have found from the CSS challenge that I learn well by making things which is why I'm doing the 30 Days 30 Websites challenge. Sticking to one site a day helps to stop me not dwelling too long on a project - I like photo editing and the design side of web development, but can easily fuss too much about appearances.
Responsive Web Design has become the main focus of coding activities and has changed the way I think about the medium. Knowing now why mobile first responsive design is a good place to start brings me back full circle to Freecodecamp's CatPhotoApp and I have a much better idea of why I'm doing it than two years ago.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-24 Wednesday
A rubber duck appeared amongst some daisies, he asked if I'd have time to talk about code as well as wildflowers as he thinks it'll be a useful life skill and he's keen to learn.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-23 Tuesday
Experimenting and making adjustments to W3.CSS Templates. I put photos from Pixabay on Cloudinary which works good.
Photos can be enhanced with Inkscape. Excellent free open source software - still I find I need to revise a bit so off to the Inkscape Tutorials to "Learn how Inkscape can be used to its most powerful level."
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-22 Monday
Correcting code that's wrong. Tweaking. Adjusting templates and Flexi - boxes.
This is Chris Cornell - A Tribute gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-21 Sunday
I made a page with a w3c template and put it on Codepen while listening to a Spotify playlist posted by Chris Cornell last week on Twitter.
Textarea boxes and an aside. gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-20 Saturday
After reading about the 53 senses in Reconnecting with Nature I made an Html document with text area boxes , one for each of the senses, and with the option of adding some text temporarily to help remember and think about these senses with some notes.
The aside tag is where I put the code for the Free Dictionary customisable lookup box they offered on their Webmasters Tools Page. I quite often like to check words to make sure I have the right meaning so thought this might come in handy.
w3c css Portfolio Template gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-19 Friday
Pixabay has a huge selection of images and choosing some to upload to Cloudinary as a place to access them when the site is on Codepen>. was the most fun part of putting together a portfolio page.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-18 Thursday
Three quaters of an hour to make a tourist destination page for 30 Days 30 websites with a w3c template. I tried three different templates, this was the first one that worked. w 3 schools Art Template
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-17 Wednesday
More practice with flexbox. As I keep attempting to get the boxes and content to go where I want them I'm starting to get a feel for it.
An email prompt from the 30 Days 30 Websites challenge was an Invitation. I enjoyed this project. Some days are better than others.
After coding it on the phone, uploading to Google Drive then checking with Nu Html Checker on PC I had a scan through different devices on Chrome Dev tools. ctrl-shift-j is the bee's knees.
Flex box Portfolio for 30 Days 30 Sites Challenge gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-16 Tuesday
Yesterday I started on the 30 Days 30 Sites Challenge.
My intentions are:
Get more fluent and quicker using html and css to construct sites.
Do some with bootstrap.
To improve my understanding and competence with Flex box.
Today's efforts went into making a responsive portfolio with place holders for links to the Websites when they're completed.
I put the page on CodePen
RWD is an Art not a Science gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-15 Monday
Responsive Web Design Basics
A visit to Google's Web Fundamentals page to brush up on
RWD Basics
and I was soon doing the free Udacity course Web Design Fundamentals
Short videos quickly introduced:
Thinking responsively
some new css tricks
simulators and emulators to test on different devices.
Chrome dev tools - the emulator
Useful stuff quickly made accessible.
Reminder:
Creating links with the anchor element is a fundamental web development skill.
Html Structure and functionality gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-14 Sunday
A lot of time with just the html rearranging for coherence and making sure the links within the document go where they're meant to.
Getting more familiar with the tags and the way they work. Focussing on what I'd like to achieve rather than what might happen.
CSS makes a lot of difference and I enjoy coding with colors. I only took out the CSS today while tinkering with the html then put it back with the addition of a flex box space selector ... for space.
Skeleton documents - GitHub Repository gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-13 Saturday
I did some more to the GitHub Repo I made last month for a skeleton version of this page ... itbit
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-12 Friday
As the document I'm working on gets longer and I introduce more bits of code I am gathering more files.
I construct the first HTML and CSS in a single file copied from the previous days and make added content, adjustments and enhancements on the phone while offline. This is convenient as I can do it anywhere when the phone is charged.
Next I do one of two things:
So today I've been thinking about version control and reading Pro Git.
The basic Git workflow goes something like this:
You modify files in your working directory.
You stage the files, adding snapshots of them to your staging area.
You do a commit, which takes the files as they are in the staging area and stores that snapshot permanently to your Git directory.
Picking colours from a rainbow. gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-11 Thursday
I have enjoyed mixing colours with paint, doodling colourful patterns with felt tips. I once made a cyclopedia protective cover colouring in all the small squares on graph paper with coloured pencils. Psychedelic patterns were all the rage then as the visions of 1960's echoed in the decoration of jazzy wrappers in the 1970's.
Colored pencils had a softer tone than the myriad dazzling colours of printed synthetic inks and paints.
I painted wild flowers with a palette of watercolours with pigment names that gave hints of their natural origin. Cadmium Yellow, Zinc white, lamp black, viridian, vermilion, Prussian blue, burnt sienna.
I thought of Italian roof tiles when looking for a colour to represent a Sussex oast house in a bucolic scene in gouache on an oak chest of drawers I was decorating but painted mostly green.
216 hex value cross browser palette is the one I'm sticking to now. May Tech CSS Tutorial and reference app have a chart I use offline. It explains the origin of this web safe colour palette designed to display on 256 colour machines. And the reason why 40 of the colours were held in reserve.
My own reason for using this palette is to limit the choice. It makes it easier to experiment with how colours respond to one another when placed together
in this medium which is one of light rather than paint.
It can be dauntingly overwhelming to think there are millions of colours to pick from a rainbow.
I've tried using named colours, linen and seashell. associative naming can be helpful but soon become a ubiquitous choice of convenience as the avocado and magnolia interior decoration vinyl emulsions of the DIY 1980's.
I quite like linen and seashells and magnolia and avocados and I found when using this kind of colour names in CSS it did help me remember them. I was picking colours I liked the name of and making the names into sets.
Oh yes, the title. With this site, I'm interpreting nature.
When I look around outside, especially in May there's a lot of green. And the word itself I find hardly adequate to describe the variation. Light or dark, bluish or yellowish.
So taking a leaf from the book of trees and plants, to enhance the page with CSS I'll look out for harmonious hues or tones that catch my eye as I seek to build layers with visual meaning.
To follow I'm reading
Perceptually uniform color spaces from Rune Madsen's web book in progress Programming Design Systems
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-10 Wednesday
Made a dropdown menu.
Made a footer.
Not enough time to upload today, but spent a couple hours styling with CSS offline on phone
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-09 Tuesday
I had a go adding a drop-down menu. To start with I tried making one of the tabs into a dropdown but this messed up the arrangement so I added another one underneath.
I wanted to give options to navigate to different subjects I've been writing about.
I've played around a fair bit with nav bars and drop-down menus so thought I'd do it quite quickly.
I had an hour which felt rushed and didn't complete the task - it should be done by tomorrow though hopefully.
Small steps towards a good understanding of how to structure the document in HTML first is where I'm at.
Tacit Coding: we know more than we can tell. gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-08 Monday
Today I've got flu and didn't feel like getting out of bed.
Unsure that I would be able to code or write or anything at all I looked through my smartphone library to dip into a coding book for inspiration.
I read a little of one about css. This pointed me to doing some actual coding. I couldn't really get into just reading about the css without trying it.
In this sense I find its a skill to practice which became clearer doing Mike Magialardi's Daily CSS Images challenge .
Once I started making images I quickly to found the code I needed.
Still not feeling enthused I perused some of the other titles on my skeumorphic shelves and started reading The Tacit Dimension by Michael Polyani.
"I shall reconsider human knowledge by starting from the fact that we can know more than we can tell," writes Michael Polanyi.
Tacit knowledge (as opposed to formal, codified or explicit knowledge) is the kind of knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by means of writing it down or verbalising it.
Tacit Knowledge, Wikipedia
It gave me an inkling as to why it's hard to talk about learning to code. Coding is like playing a musical instrument - learnt through practice.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-07 Sunday
Two tasks: update html file and write a bit about it.
When I put the file into the Nu HTML Checker it was throwing up quite a few errors and suggestions. I didn't quite get what the first error meant as I thought the basic tag structure was OK but it was telling me the head tag was wrong. I was editing in cPanel which works a lot better on PC than on the smartphone.
Even with a good wifi connection, it is tiresomely slow coding online in cPanel on a smartphone. I have the same kind of issues in Github and Codepen.
Deleting one text letter can get stuck and eat up whole paragraphs.
Random zooming in and out of different screen sizes.
Jumps to different parts of the page when you're not looking.
Difficult to highlight things to copy as the cursor jumps or it grabs way too much or too little.
There's such long delay before a cut/copy/paste/ - select option appears it's not clear if anything is happening at all.
This makes errors occurring inevitable so the less there are to start with the better as trying to correct them can go from bad to worse.
To update the page its best have the HTML document well prepared and ready to paste - and not expect to edit.
Then it just requires patience and a good ability to deal with frustration.
A completely different experience on PC. C-panel has a great toolkit with a selection of editors that work really smoothly in Chrome Browser.
Being confronted with a long list of errors was a bit disappointing and not what I'd set out to do. I wanted to write a bit about the process and I thought things were set up OK to get going with this. Meticulously working through a bunch of errors seemed like a different thing altogether.
In the end, I only dealt with both tasks briefly. A small paragraph of writing then testing the page in different browsers and devices.
My thoughts and aims now are to deal with the errors and make a sturdy framework document that can be updated swiftly and smoothly.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-06 Saturday
Today I'm editing the HTML file on a PC Desktop. It is quite a different set up to the smartphone and difficult to get into the writing
without being distracted by the different tool set. Describing the process as I learn is challenging too. Attention can go quickly from one thing to
another. I don't think this is quite multitasking, more attention switching, a consequence of hyperlinking and editing.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-05 Friday
This page is an HTML file I update daily in a Code Editor app on an Android Smartphone. Using some CSS I'd been playing around with to get to know flexbox looked OK initially but as I started to generate content with the 30-day writing challenge and tried to add some features like the calendar grid to mark off the days things started to go haywire.
I was excited to have my own page
Last year I reached the stage in Freecodecamp of making a portfolio in Codepen. I used a Bootstrap template from the W3c site but found that when I made alterations I couldn't fix it. I learned a bit about Chrome dev tools and started doing a course, but after reading Jeremy Keith's web book Resilient Web Design I had a re-think. I would build a site from the ground up on an Android phone, embracing the architectural approach of layers carefully built around core content.
My first page up and running! I was pleased it seemed to work fine. However, there were quite a few mistakes, which goes to show just how forgiving HTML and CSS are. I was politely showed the Nu HTML checker, which is brilliant.
So I took out the CSS getting the HTML in order and functional first and when I was quite happy with that added some simple styles.
This has left me free to focus on getting some flow into updating the content.
A little bit of IT at a time. gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-04 Thursday
Does the story cause suffering?
Today some CSS. A footer and a blue heart.
Finding the code I've written in previous files is easier than searching through an app.
I'm constantly thinking about what to name files and where to store them.
As I make more new files having a system to locate what I'm looking for becomes more important. Searching for things because I can't remember what file or directory it's in can be time-consuming.
Getting the hang of Android filing system. It's a bit to different to using windows explorer and I have not done much CLI but a basic recap last year took me back to MS-DOS days and the basic file path system.
Different apps have different navigation user interfaces but basically the same thing.
A little bit of IT at a time. gipsi.itbit.me - A little bit of IT at a time. 2017-05-04 Wednesday
A little bit of IT at a time. gipsi.itbit.me - A little bit of IT at a time. 2017-05-04 Tuesday
A little bit of IT at a time. gipsi.itbit.me - A little bit of IT at a time. 2017-05-04 Monday
Tab 2 Blog
May to September
Shades of green with a blue heart - symbol of biodiversity.
To keep practicing after the 30 Days writing challenge I did in April I'm following the The Biodiversity Blue Campaign and writing about nature.
This month I've started to learn about the biodiversity of Mountains
Nature July 2017
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Wood pigeons and red clover
Ripe cherries, a squirrel, unripe hazel nuts
Mountains
Poplar fluff and pine needle tea
Wood, and cats and dogs
Symbiosis and evolutionary theory
Forestry in the world
Dried dragonfly and a burdock leaf miner
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Satellite
Wild Horses
Neighing horse
Fritillaries in the woods
Healing Betony
Wild night: glow-bugs, lightning and broken fences
Tormentil blue butterflies and the scent of hemp agrimony
Lookering
Exmoor Ponies and Konik Polski horses
Ragwort, yarrow and plantain
Helleborine
Young Buzzard
Gaia and Zeus
Potato flowers, stripey caterpillars and knobbly galls
Potato flowers, stripey caterpillars and knobbly galls gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-27 Thursday
Yesterday it drizzled in the morning then rained all afternoon, the evening was cool and autumnal. Today a blustery breeze blew tree leave over to
show their silvery undersides as bubbling grey clouds brightened and lifted revealing clear blue above the gleaming whiteness. Warm air rushing back.
My row of Maris peer potatoes has sprawled, the growth is impressive and the leaves look good. The ones I chitted before planting have lovely flowers
light pink/purple petals with thick yellow centres. The unchitted plants of the same type and another Harmony don't have flowers.
The burdocks have fallen over too, even though I put canes in to hold them up and one of them has mildew, but loads of flowers that all kinds of bees love.
Ragwort is getting stripped of its leaves by stripey cinnabar caterpillars, betony is flowering well and with wild geraniums and knapweed is also being
enjoyed by insects.
knopper galls on acorns and
sweet ripe blackberries in hedges.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-26 Wednesday
Pondering: Gaia and Zues
The Vanishing Face of Gaia - James Lovelock
And seeing this picture of Jupiter:
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-25 Tuesday
A young buzzard mewed screechily, repeadedly as I read a book about insect conservation and cooked a butterbean burger.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-24 Monday
Today it drizzled and the wind was cold.
jurgko on pixabay.
Ragwort, yarrow and plantain gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-23 Sunday
The grass flowers are not quite as golden as the wheat which is getting rained on. Yesterday it rained and the day before, heavy showers.
Exmoor Ponies and Konik Polski horses gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-22 Saturday
I've been lookering for three Konik Polski horses for a year, getting to know them and where they hang out at different times of day.
Last week a herd of seven Exmoor ponies arrived at their heathland pasture. Two of the Koniks stay as far away as they can from this group,
the third persistently tries to make friends. One of the exmoors, an unusually coloured roan will have none of it.
A photo of Exmoor ponies by suzannemeaker080
on pixabay
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-21 Friday
Reviving a traditional practice for the post-modern world, preserving and re-wilding ancient equine breeds, considering their welfare
and management. Learning the ancient art of Woodland heath pasture husbandry.
The Lookers hut in nearby Dumb Womans Lane was recently demolished, but there are still a few left on Romney Marsh
Tormentil blue butterflies and the scent of hemp agrimony gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-20 Thursday
Wild night: glow-bugs, lightning and broken fences gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-19 Wednesday
Through the woods as clouds gathered and thunder rolled around them glow-worm tails shone brilliant green, fairy lanterns amongst the soft grass of a ride.
Briefly a young wild horse escaped his enclosure to savour the lush tempting brightness - then hot lightning came, all night flashing, ripping the air and cloud.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-18 Tuesday
Healing Betony is flowering in my moss garden that turned into a herb garden.
Also marjoram and birdsfoot trefoil, and white herb robert and pheasant's eye, self-heal and hogweed.
Fritillaries in the woods gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-17 Monday
Today a dappled sunshine lit the shady gloom of glades where warm air was wafting the wings of fritillaries to glide and chase horseflies away from the bronze-gold flanks of ponies.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-16 Sunday
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gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-15 Saturday
Konik Polski Horses
Reading: Grazing Animals Project
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-14 Friday
Tried some code from en.sat24 to decorate my landing area.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-05 Friday
Interesing start to the course on wood.
Boreal forests
Temperate forests
Tropical forests
The Wood handbook is useful.
good to see how a sawmill works too.
Symbiosis and evolutionary theory gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-06 Thursday
Was reading about Lynn Margulis today and her difficulties with the peer review system getting ideas accepted by the scientific community.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-05 Wednesday
Two coursera courses - The truth about cats and dogs and Wood.
Poplar fluff and pine needle tea gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-04 Tuesday
The reason the black poplar almost became extinct in Britain is that people didn't like the fluff the female trees give off to carry their seeds so they
chopped most of them down. A maryland poplar, huge with leaves that sound like the sea is shedding fluff right now. I've known the tree for years, but
until I read about the fluff of black poplars earlier this month hadn't noticed it.
Ray Mears TV programmes about surviving in the wild gave me the idea of pine needle tea - I've tried infusing rosemary before which I like and it's flavor
reminds me of that.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-03 Monday
Mountains have a special place in my imagination, I'm learning more about them Mountains 101
Ripe cherries, a squirrel, unripe hazel nuts gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-02 Sunday
This morning a little fuzzy tailed sqirrel ran down the track between the coppiced hazel bushes carrying half a slice of white bread.
The hazel bushes have green nut shells on them but it will be a while before they're ripe.
I ate some morello cherries off a thick cluster
of suckered trees. Sharp and delicious. The first year I've had some without the wild birds getting them first.
Wood pigeons and red clover gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07-01 Saturday
On a grass verge between tarmac pavement and concrete road, under a cherry tree two wood pigeons amongst flowering red clover.
June is the month for The Wildlife Trusts 30 Days Wild Challenge
Nature June 2017
M - T - W - T - F - S - S
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30 Days Wild
Dog daisies, dog roses, dog days
Path Chopping
Buzzards and a calamity with crows and roe deer
Willows singing in the wind
Tornadoes and rainbows
Bits of leaf and twig
Black Poplar
Wonderful biodiversity
Nettles
Brambles
Roses and honeysuckle
Burdock and Ants
Figwort Teasel and Willowherb
A young blackbird, a green woodpecker and a family of Magpies
Secateurs
North Atlantic oscillation and wild sheep
The Chase
Wild cell party
Solstice
Longest hottest Day, Badgers and Otters.
Sunrise
Lookering
Drizzle
Mole in the potato row
The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast
Magpies, Rain and Music
Night of the Toads
Ringlets on Honeysuckle and Field Maple
Badger and Bat
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-30 Friday
As the last daylight of #30DaysWild turned to warm dusk with a brilliant show of deep orange illuminating the underside of an expanse of flat dark grey cloud,
somewhere in the direction of London - North, a bright gold waxing crescent moon shone over the great black spreading patterned domes of two ivy clad oak trees.
A tiny pipistrelle bat bravely flapped around the tall nettles surrounding the potato patch, he looked like a young one just learning to fly. Occasionally a larger adult (I presumed)
dived and darted as though chasing the smaller one to safety. Many moths with blurred flight amongst the brambles under the apple trees.
And as I final treat to top off the month a glimpse of badger in torchlight.
Ringlets on Honeysuckle and Field Maple gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-29 Thursday
The field edge, a floral hay meadow, buzzing and humming with life. Crickets and grasshoppers singing, ringlet butterflies and meadow brown skittering in the sultry warm cloud greyness. Drying but damp alive.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-28 Wednesday
On the way home at last night just after dark the rain drops gleaming in car headlights were bouncing two feet back off the road. A large round toad like a stone with bright bulging eyes on top of its head, face off, defiant. We stopped and shooed it to safety.
Eight more in that two mile trip. I rarely see toads, this night was special .
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-27 Tuesday
Baby magpies make the strangest noises and since I've made an awning for a porch and they can't see me and are much less shy. Squeaking and squawking getting annoyed with young jays. Their antics make crows and jackdaws the other corvids seem positively graceful.
A wasps nest under a car bonnet was a surprise diversion on the way to getting my car M.O.T'd.
Gentle warm rain freshening things up this afternoon while I listened to the concept album from 1974 The Butterfly ball
I think this counts as a random act of wildlife, the first track "Dawn" does include birdsong
Well, some of the album. It is quite long and the other people I suggested listening to it with seemed unimpressed with this kind of bucolic rock and I'd rather hear it through speakers than trapped in headphone world, which makes my ears ache anyway.
The wikipedia entr y has a track listing.
The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-26 Monday
A breezy summers day, blue sky with white puffy clouds. The warm flowering grasses and flowers of the meadows humming and buzzing, singing with life.
I think the The butterfly ball and the grasshopper feast took place today,a party for insects and a joyful celebration.
The Rock Opera from the mid 1970's was based on a childrens poem sometimes known just as The Butterfly Ball
Another version at The British Library has different illustrations.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-25 Sunday
As I was looking hopefully at the potatoes, willing them to grow and rather pleased with their progress after yesterdays rain,
movement caught my eye and a tiny pink snout disappeared into a hole of crumbly earth. I crouched and quietly watched trying to keep track of its
location beneath the soil surface. It seemed to be making tunnels. Most of the vegetation beyond the potato patch is too long now to see how much
mole activity there is and this little character emerged from the spreading roots of a wall of six foot high stinging nettles.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-24 Saturday
The Jet Stream has broought fresh cool maritime air from the Atlantic ocean with drizzle.
There are cinnabar caterpillars on ragwort buds. And the rain washes away the smell of privet flowers. Freshens flowerless brakes of bracken.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-23 Friday
Lookering over ponies grazing for wildlife conservation.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-22 Thursday
Watched the sun rise through river mist. There were jackdaws silhouetted doing acrobatics and dew on caterpillar tents.
Longest hottest day, Badgers and otters gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-21 Wednesday
Badgers dug holes in the lawn this morning before I got up to see the sun rise.
My thermometer read 30 degrees but the BBC radio 4 weather said Greater London reached 34 deg c. Hottest June day since 1976.
Overheard a conversation between otters about web components
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-20 Tuesday
The end of summer, celebrated by pagans at Stonehenge. Some cool sun pics on this video Code to Zero
The step-back-in-time field of The Chase was cut for hay today.
Summer Solstice
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-19 Monday
Cells are very fast and crowded places and when
things heat up in high humidity the pressure builds. Feeling hot?
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-18 Sunday
Early before the sun reached its 28 degree c max meadow brown butterflies were flopping lazily amongst the birds foot trefoil and purple self heal on the permanent pasture. Or so it seemed until a vibrant red and black cinnabar moth scanned the territory in search of a ragwort plant. In an instant the meadow brown changed its drunken lollopy flight path and straight as an arrow saw the intruder off.
As the warm evening streched the suns shadows into the dusky pink of yorkshire fog flowers the dominant grass of this hay meadow. I looked for other types and spotted cattails, foxtails, cocksfeet, sweet vernal, brome and rye as well as some delicate meadow fescue.
Meadow browns again flopping deftly amongst the grasses, then suddenly one saw off a large bright blue dragon fly. A family of young rabbits skipped and played like lambs in a nook of short cropped grass at the field edgediving for cover as a young fox made a sprint to catch one, hesitating as he spotted me. Then to my surprise yet again a deer came hurtling over the brow after the fox wheeling round and away at the sight of a human. This is the second time this month I've seen a deer chase a fox.
North Atlantic oscillation and wild sheep gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-17 Saturday
Another hotter day than yesterday. Wall to wall sunshine. This led me to explore the effects of North Atlantic oscillation caused by the atmospheric pressure difference between the Icelandic low and the Azores high, one of the factors that make long range weather in the UK so hard to predict.
I was interested to see that this has an effect on the population of the semi feral Soay Sheep of Britain's Islands.
Soay Lamb
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-16 Friday
My weapon of choice for politely clearing nettles, docks, hogweed and brambles from public footpaths - secateurs. There are times when the wild needs taming.
A young blackbird, a green woodpecker and a family of Magpies gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-15 Thursday
Sat very still this morning and watched a young blackbird, rather scruffy looking with mottled brown head and black tail.
A green woodpecker shrieked as I turned a corner and startled him as did a family of magpies exploring a newly strimmed grassy verge.
Figwort, Teasel and Willowherb gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-14 Wednesday
Moving on with my vegetable patch project and pulling yet more brambles I Left figwort, teasel and several different kinds of willowherb to grow beneath a brambly hedge. And some quite pale and rambling wild forget-me-nots.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-13 Tuesday
Pulling up nettles to plant potatoes. The height of the nettles suggests this soil may produce a good crop. Full sunshine and a south facing slope makes this very hot in the middle of the day so I left some giant burdocks for shade.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-12 Monday
A warm evening and the air amongst the trees is laced with the intoxicatingly mingled scent of roses and honeysuckle.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-11 Sunday
Bramble
which generally means any impenetrable thicket , is usually taken to be the thorny blackberry plant. A champion of biodiversity it's a ruderal from the Rubus genus of the Rosa family with 250-700 different micro-species. Often considered an invasive weed it soon colonises neglected areas with wildness.
Warm June sunshine has brought these rambling bushes into flower amongst the hedgerows and field margins of Sussex. The variety of types is apparent in the different arrangement of thorns and leaf shape and colour as well as the flowers ranging through white to pale or darker pink. A delight for bees and many other insects it has been enjoyed as a food for thousands of years by humans as well as many other grazing and browsing animals.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-10 Saturday
Pulling Nettles on a footpath with leather gauntlets and I'm still stung to bits. Twelve hours of mindful nettle pulling over three days has cleared a path in the dappled shade of willows.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-09 Friday
What a wonderful world
Biodiversity International
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-08 Thursday
Watching long-tailed tits using the wind to fly into the shiny heart shaped balsam scented leaves of black poplar.
Two beautiful black poplars are growing well from tiny cuttings.
Conservation
Saving Britain's black poplar trees
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-07 Wednesday
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06 Tuesday
Willows singing in the wind gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05 Monday
Buzzards and a calamity with crows and roe deer gipsi.itbit.me 2017-04 Sunday
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-03 Saturday
Nettles stings have subsided to tingling sensations on arms and legs. This is despite the armoured protection of long sleeves, leather gauntlets and jeans.
Path chopping with secateurs. Brambles, bracken, nettles and thistles. Scattering bugs in hot sunshine, diving for shady relief. Taming the wildness.
Dog daisies, dog roses, dog days. gipsi.itbit.me 2017-02 Friday
Sultry, cloudy, humid, hot - 25 degrees celsius. Dog days come early. Insects and spiders loving it. Four noisy baby squirrels romping around an ivy-clad oak tree, an old frithy tree with spreading moss covered boughs. Baby Magpies join in when I go out of sight.
There's patch of ground a meter round where I previously to grew strawberries, leeks and chives. They didn't do too well so this year I've left it to the wild things. Amongst the flowereing meadow grasses are dog daisies, speedwell, wood avens, forget-me-not and figwort.
I took time to stand and stare. Entwining a holly bush and hazel is woody nightshade with purple and yellow star flowers. A backdrop for a small cluster of insectivorous teasels, the pools of water where the leaves meet stems is a black tea-like liquid full of half digested insects. Above I glimpse the shell pink delicate petals of dog rose, perfect timing, my first rose of June.
This photo of a wild rose and hoverflies is by hansbenn on Pixabay.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-01 Thursday
The Wildlife Trusts 30 Days Wild Challenge got off to a good start for me this morning with a sighting of a brood of about 10 fluffy black moorhen chicks. When she spotted me their mother made a quick loud cooty noise and they all disappeared under the shadowy roots of a large oak tree on the stream bank.
This photo of a moorhen is by twig McTwig on Unsplash.
I habitually respond to nature with random acts of wildness most of which are entirely non-verbal. For me the challenge is to write about the experiences I have. Last year I took the challenge and managed just about to tweet something each day. This year I wil be a bit more ambitious and write a blog post describing some of my encounters, illustrating them either with images fom my smartphone or found in online free photo libraries.
Nature - May 2017
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 - -
May Day: A Blue Heart for Nature
Biodiversity awareness.
Osier and Forget-me-nots
Ramsons, Mayflies and a Recipe
Cuckoo-Spit
Cow-Parsley, Orchids and Ferns
Crushed water-mint
Naming Nature
Willow-fluff and penny-cress, veronica and viral-messaging.
A hedge of hawthorn, hazel and privet
Milkwort, Lousewort and Cinquefoil.
Magpies, great-tits, a wagtail and a cuckoo.
A young rabbit
Blustery May
The track through the woods
The village geese
Hot and humid
Rain
Tangled Bewilderment
Senses
Fledgelings
Knapweed
Sap and a sweet potato
A posy of wildflowers and a painted lady
Wilted foxglove
The Hares of Chipping Sodbury
Thunderstorms and cuckoos
Sweaty tree leaves and aphids
Nests
Biodiversity on a fence post
Random Acts of Wildness.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-30 Wednesday
Tomorrow is the first of June and I'm up for another round of Wildlife Trusts 30 Days Wild Challenge .
Taking this challenge this time last year actually got me into making a habit of something I'd like to do by doing a little of it daily.
Last year I didn't pluck up courage to blog about the experience, however I have since taken daily coding challenges and a writing challenge and it has become apparent that writing about nature is something I love doing and wildlife is always a source of inspiration.
Biodiversity on a Fencepost gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-30 Tuesday
It can be surprising the symbiosis of life forms when you stop and observe them. This large bracket fungus was growing at the base of a lichen patterned chestnut strainer fence post. Chestnut is inclined to split, which is useful for cleaving it into thinner posts. This whole one split anyway which is a great opportunity for small black ants to fill in the split with their nest. The powdery grains on the fungus are bits of their workings, they have built their nest right up to the top of the post.
I took the photo on my Android phone using the tilt-shift on the Google camera app. Because the top of the fungus was glared out where the sun was bright on it I adjusted the saturation with the Paint.net app on PC. This conveys the vibrant orange glow that could be seen from across a field. I also resized it more appropriately for this page as it was a massive 5.6 mb. Must check the camera settings too, otherwise all memory will be used up with pictures I don't like to delete.
After the storms, last night was cool and drizzly. This morning the clouds dispersed and the sun came out with a warm southerly breeze freshening things up. Insects loving it. A grasshopper was lucky to escape the lawn mower and a most beautiful demoiselle was way to wise to come near, fluttering dark navy wings and metallic emerald body about the brambles in the orchard, but coming to keep an eye on proceedings now and then.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-29 Monday
Big crashing lightning and thunderstorms last night. The sky glowed between the lightning and the ground shook and rumbled with great booms and blinding flashes. Forked tongues of energy flickering incessantly across the sky, threading between clouds. Warm rain with big droplets, steadily accompanied the spectacle. This morning the weather hasn't "broken". It's still clammy and humid and cloudy.
A clump of fur dropped out of the sky and landed on concrete in front of me, it looked like badger fur. A swallow flashed by out of the open stable door, a wren hopping about beside a miniature elder bush in flower chattered angrily, a robin sang from a sallow branch and a blackbird warbled tunefully. And there were their nests. A happy little community.
Sweaty tree leaves and aphids. gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-28 Sunday
Tree leaves have reached their full size and are darker green now. The hot humidity, cloudy with intermittent burning sunshine is making them sweat. A thin honey like glaze seems to be over oak and hazel. Seeing damage from caterpillars too.
An American pillar rose in a plant pot has lots of aphids on its stem tips.
There are wonderful images on Pixabay that illustrate the kind of thing I've seen. this one is taken by meli1670
A tall (for its kind) blackthorn had many leaves eaten, leaving silken webs woven around the dark jaggedness of bare thorns. A young rabbit is getting bold and exploring the area around one of my flower seed beds. I hope he doesnt spot the runner beans and nasturtiums.
Thunderstorms and cuckoos gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-27 Saturday
I got up to watch a lightning and thunderstorm, it passed by quickly so when I got online I looked at Lightningmaps to see where it had got to - North East UK had a bunch of storms - indeed it seems a global phenomenon in that there are many storms throughout the whole temperate and tropical zones. Sometimes there are not many.
I heard cuckoo again, this is the third time and I like to follow the BTO Cuckoo-tracking site curious as to whether one of the tagged cuckoos passed by this way. The FSC Cuckoo recording site has a good map of cuckoos spotted or heard by citizen scientists.
The Hares of Chipping Sodbury gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-26 Friday
Heatwave. Hottest for May ever in UK I would think, 29.2 celcius in shade again - not quite 30 here but felt like it. Cuckoo this morning just across the road from my variety wildlife area. Flashes of black and white high above in the hot, clear but slightly greyish blue cloudless sky - the arrival of house martins on a high pressure headwind.
A walk to the heath last night in the early evening. Two horses must have found damp mud to roll in to cool off and now were caked in thick dry clay. Tadpoles in a track puddle wriggle. There are skylarks.
At the watermeadow as the evening turns to dusk there are cackling croaking marsh frogs and in thick bramble undergrowth a nightingale.
Thought I'd see how things are going with the BLUE hub campaign for biodiversity and found this handy biodiversity spotters guide
And has anyone heard of The Cotswold Hare Trail
No not me mate...first I've heard of it!
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-25 Thursday
So hot today - 29.2 degrees celcius in the afternoon that the foxglove growing on top of the mossy rubble pile dumped in my gateway last year completely wilted.
A doe roe deer didn't hear me approach the flood meadow this morning, even with her large radar ears checking this way and that between nibbles amongst buttercups. When I emerged out of the shadows of the trees to let her see me she was like, what! Stood bolt upright and still head bobbing slightly a couple of times as horses do, as if to reset focus. Then decisively, a couple of bounds and she was away, hidden in the trees.
A posy of wildflowers and a painted lady gipsi.itbit.me 2017-06-24 Wednesday
Walking along a grassy footpath beside a floodplain stream a painted lady butterfly and a red admiral flew by, the air is hot and the sun drying out a heavy dew still damp in the long grasses. many small wildflowers decorate the way, buttercups are crowded with tiny gold winged flies and on some are metalic emerald green beetles, armoured with far round bulges on their hind legs. A dark beautiful demoiselle flutters above young alder and gorse along the bank.
Grasses have grown tall and their flowers are starting to bloom, foxtail, brome, sweet vernal grass, cocksfoot and yorkshire fog. As the hawthorn may bush blossom starts to fade there is cow parsley, still gleaming white but with seed heads too now, red campion , its leaves a darker pink than its flowers in the sun. Two kinds of vetch, one pink, one mauve and blue. A yellow dandelion-like hawkbit on a snaky stem, tall meadow buttercups, more delicate, and stately hover over their creeping relatives. A starry white stitchwort clambering in bramble and a tiny one amongst tufty grass.
A posy - with these flowers, and some sorrel, plantain, dead nettle, ground ivy and fern. Amongst long grasses red campion and meadow buttercups.
A painted lady butterfly on great knapweed.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-23 Tuesday
There's sap in the air, it seems to be falling from the trees along with caterpillars on silken threads.
The air is warm and humid which makes me feel as active as the ants that seem busy in all my flowerpots.
I was preparing a sweet potato for the cooking pot, scraping the skin as I would a new potato. The flesh immediately discoloured changing to a dark greenish black. The root seemed quite alive. I pondered this realising I don't know much about them apart from the flavour. Reading this Wikipedia article on sweet potato filled me in, and I was surprised to find it is related to morning glory. The first known example of a naturally transgenic food plant and transgenesis has the potential to change the phenotype of an organism, i.e. it's appearance.
Although a tropical plant it can be grown in temperate regions with care so maybe I'll have a go.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-22 Monday
The scent of knapweed was intoxicating. The flowers were attracting many small shiny black flies rustling through feather-like petals concealing nectar.
Little bumble bees shooed them aside to get first drink. I wondered if the flowers were making more as the insects gathered it as they kept coming back for more.
Warm and sunny with all kinds of floating cloud arrangements today was a bonanza for all the tiny insects. Ants, small beetles, butterflies and midges seemed to find conditions particularly clement.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-21 Sunday
Warm sunshine brought baby great tits out of their nest box. half an hour of excitement as each one popped its head out of the hole and made its first flight into the birch trees. Two attentive parent birds darted back and forth, gathering food from the tips of branches whilst encouraging the young fledgelings to leap and flutter amongst the matrix of fine twigs.
Below them white tailed bumble be was doing the rounds of flowers on an exotic looking great knapweed. Attracting with honey scent and slender purple petals emerged for a few days now from architecturally oval egg shaped buds with dark fibonacci markings, a hansome plant. Amongst sprays of forget-me-nots, blue germander speedwell and even bluer alkanet the kapweed with a spidery structured symmetry, weaves purple colour, easing from the blueness of the other flowers in the dappled shade leaning in hue towards some deep black centred magenta highlights of geranium just showing in the background amongst a spread of thick round leaves.
Loud cheepings signalling the great tits whereabouts as they followed one another around the sunny glade and into the dark boughs of an ivy-clad oat on the edge of the hazel coppice.
Where the grass was mowed yesterday two smart male blackbirds with their bright yellow beaks bound, tails up wingtips out, doing quick surveys while a shyer brown female hops about examining the short turf with interest.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-20 Saturday
Feelings are the truth. We don't live in the real world when we ignore what we are feeling.
Speaking the name of a sensation places it in verbal consciousness.
If we learn how to build relationships through all our senses, reconnecting with nature in our daily lives can help nature nurture, strengthen, rejuvinate and restore these senses giving enough energy to bring them into conciousness and renaturalise our thinking.
This list adapted from the book Reconnecting with Nature by Michael J Cohen explains how, through 53 senses, nature connects with itself in us, through us, and to people and places around us. (Looking at this website I found there are now 54 - A mystery sense!)
Natural Senses and Sensitivities
The Radiation Senses
The Feeling Senses
The Chemical Senses
The Mental Senses
Stuff about the challenge.
Contacts and things like that.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-19 Friday
Things left to grow amongst themselves have an appealing optimism that attracts and intrigues. A curiosity is kindled, how it can all seem so peaceful. Yes stormy weather can leave things shaken and challenged, but these are events. There is a return to equilibrium and living things get on with what they do. Peacefully energetic and engaging. Acknowledgement of participation involves a kind of tangled bewilderment.
It is fascinating and calming to wander and watch the activities of organisms in a natural setting.
Yesterday I noticed ant hills being carefully constructed. Three in different places. One with grass stems for support, the other two each being built around the central pole of a small hazel stick, the remains of a low hurdle border edging my daughter made three years ago. It must have been a day of particularly favourable conditions for ant hill building.They were rather slow large dark reddish ants and the passages were open to rain as they built more of them with fine beads of tilth.
There is an economy of energies. The sunlight caught in leaves, liquid chemistry, mineral solutions drawn through roots. Electrical subtelty a vivifying force of sensitivity. When breathing amongst trees complex aerobiotics come into play. Unseen but smelled. Scented with living spores, pollen, floral aromas, damp mossy peat. The sharp tang of a fox. Notes of musical perfume. Odorata.
Occasionally a whiff of death, some discarded carrion can taint and signal frail mortality. Mouldering litter of crumbling leaves and rotting branch absorbed in dark decay. A floor of what is over, decomposing slowly. A fragility of disassembling structure. Leaf mesh lacy and intricate. A scaffold for a tiny bug to air his delicate wings and carefully clean antenna, emergent from the soft pulp and humus of the bountiful supply of nutrients. I don't know his type but I'll name him Phoenix bug.
Ash. Black and grey remains of bonfire soil, charcoal, cramp balls tinder dry. Pale smooth trunk and branches, thick twigs black buds, groups of long leaves, bunches of keys. Burns well.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-18 Thursday
And more rain. All night, all day getting heavier and wetter. Everything is saturated, tree leaves drape despondently weighted down. The air much cooler.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-17 Wednesday
Incredibly hot again today even though it's cloudy. Must be a great warm air mass. Feels like high humidity too. It rained a fair bit in the early morning. I was up around five, woken by birdsong. Unusual to get up so early and I was surprised it was so light.
May 17th is often a day for thunderstorms, and though the air feels close and the temperature was up to 27 celcius at 2 in the afternoon and not much below 15 overnight still no storms. Checking LightningMaps.org I see there are storms heading this way from Northern France, so there may be one later.
This years wildlife garden project is looking good. For a long time I have been tolerant, indeed encouraging of wild flowers and plants in a garden setting. They reward me well with enthusiastic growth at this time of year.
Today wood avens has come into flower along with herb robert - of which I have a sturdy white variety that follows me everywhere and hangs out with the usual bright pink - and white comfrey they brighten up the edges of a shady path.
Wood spurge and rosemary have been flowering together for some time, its a combination I've been admiring and now a deep red peony has emerged to compliment the mix.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-16 Tuesday
Seven geese
sat in the shade of a spreading horse chestnut tree.
Pure white geese with orange beaks and sky blue eyes.
They seem as if they float on the trimmed turf lawn of the village green. They could be swimming on an arctic ocean, amongst iceburgs, in greenland.
Maybe in their dreams, heads tucked under ruffling feathered wings in hot wind.
The wind is hot and humid, it feels like storms may come. 27 celcius in shade. A sticky heat that butterflies and lazy cats enjoy.
The track through the woods gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-15 Monday
Cool misty rain is gathering on the now dense canopy overreaching the ironstone gravel track. A grainy rust like a bloom of sprinkled oak catkins softens the hard surface. The centre is soft moss with small clumps of woodrush and the occasional rosette of dandelion and some chickweed and violet, mouseear and cress.
To either side dogs mercury has faded, bluebells and ramsons are leggy stemmed with bulging seedpods. Anemone leaves yellowing and tatty in the damp. Fern and braken still unfurling widely from the mid shades of drifts of leaf litter where pair of bullfinch lovebirds have settled.
Pink buds and waxy petalled holly flowers exude a subtle scent beside a yew with pale bright tassels of new growth. Hazel bushes cast bud sheaths that look like armoured petals.
A rubble pile, now mossy with bits of cracked China, glass and concrete jagging through a mossy cloak is a hill for a foxglove plant. Sturdy energetic forming buds with large soft grey green leaves exuberant in a patch between the canopy of diffused bright grey. Sky.
Creeping thistles and straggly brambles reach up from behind, but the foxglove holds the high ground.
Over the gate across the meadow, the rain moves in misty billowing lines. Gentle but persistent. The dappled yellow swaths of buttercups nod in appreciation. There is no sunshine but the golden yellow sheen their petals glow is reminiscent. Capturing the season. Amongst the thickly growing grassed, supported tall their creeping stems.
A blackbird sings loud and piercing melodies, with a crow on percussion and chiff chaff marking time, a choir of titmice high up amongst tiny leaved twig tips chime fairy songs and there are warblings from drapy willows sonicly augmenting the damp scene - when you screen out the wet rumble of droning cars.
gipsi.itbit.me 2017-05-14 Sunday
Rain in the morning soon blew away and the afternoon sun sparkled through now dense shading greenery.
Baby blue-tit chicks can be heard cheeping hungrilly a high pitched nestled choir.
Robin perched on a log with a far orange grub sticking out either side of his beak.
Through dancing dappling deep shade the sky is smeared with fine white silks.
All the young leaves, swaying and dancing to warm wafting breezes, waving and twirling in refreshingly clear air.
A young rabbit 2017-05-13 Saturday
Amongst the bright blue speedwell flowers a young rabbit. On its side and lifeless. Crows and magpies caw and chuck amongst themselves.
Scouting back and forth but loath to land.
Tempted by fresh meat. Flesh flies gathering buzz and zoom and hover purposefully, ants and beetles
hurry to the scene through short matted grass a dense jungle teeming with fibrous matter.
Magpies, great-tits, a wagtail and a cuckoo. 2017-05-12 Friday
There were swirling miasma shapes of mist under the oaks dripping in the moonlight between showers.
Now the overnight rain has cleared away, the sun has arrived with warm air from the south. Water has gathered into silvery globules on large leaved plants, grass is wet and bare soil breathes a dark humidity into a litter of leaf shreds, bits of algae of bugs and bud husks.
The dappled rays filtering through mossy oak boughs bearing catkins is a glade where the tiny flying insects dance. Catching the light in translucent wings they bob and hover. Some zoom and dart with more purpose, end route rather than dallying in the place. Gleaming silver strands of cobweb fling and wave trailing glinting hints of colour red or blue.
Crashing about in the may blossom noisy young magpies beg for food. Making a cacophony of urgent high pitched wheezy chuckks as they wobble and balance on sticks to thin for weight harassing their parents for food.
Blue and yellow flashes by repeatedly. Great-tits busy flying swifltly horizontal midway across the open space to disappear into hazel shrubbery. And back again another? Hungry nestlings somewhere. No time for song.
There was a grey wagtail trotting by, grey and yellow, its long tail wagging as it briskly walked around the gravel track beside some brambles. Investigating the edges of the glade with interest looking this way and that and into the shade of the bluebell wood.
I heard the cuckoo, the day before yesterday. For the first time this year. Near the horses, his song a bubble of sound echoing loud, and fluting through tall dark pines and slender birch amongst shimmering rustles of wavering aspen to floating on waves over hazy heather.
Milkwort, Lousewort and Cinquefoil. Naming nature 2017-05-11 Thursday
You might think that milkwort would be white from its name, something like the starry stitchworts or soft leaved mousears spangling verges, but it's not. It's a brilliant gentian violet tinted blue. Miniscule highlights amongst dark heather stems and short brittle rush and sedge, but startlingly bright.
Mats of lousewort have little ferny patterny rouged leaflets like heather or moss, with fat light green parcels of something papery lantern like beneath sticking up pink hooded petals which could be mouse ears.
There are five petaled yellow cinquefoile delicate, in a two inch flat canopy along grazing paths with daisies and violets. And lesser spearwort too.
A hedge of hawthorn, hazel and privet Naming nature 2017-05-10 Wednesday
The sparkling early sunshine is glinting intense brilliant miniatures of itself and rainbow refracted shimmering rays through a dense mesh of black woody hawthorn stems. Behind the stems a yellow glow of illuminated hawthorn in the sun trap tarmac canyon of a busy B road.
The rushing sound of cars making a zone of noise like a beach seashore, only a momentary gap in traffic revealing another soundscape hidden beneath of cawing rooks and cooing pigeons and daintily tuneful songbirds. Happy and active now, only a touch of rhyme crystals melting away from a frost pocket a reminder there was ice in the bright moon night.
Rumbling trucks on another busier A road further away. And an aircraft its huge wide sound lost and caught in the domed echo chamber of a clear light cloudless sky. Chasing cars down the roads to merge and meander, adding a bassy subtone to the human music of this mornings busiest hour.
Meanwhile, the hedgerow harbours nestlings. Thorny briar and bramble, bryony and woodbine warp with a weft of blackthorn, haw and privet. Scented hazel and shining oak and pale ash join in with dark green stalks of holly and spindle. Young elder fills in gaps with enchanters nightshade. When it's quiet you can hear their silent music.
This side of the hedge many of. the hazel leaves are black, deeply shaded with only hints of green and dusky shadows between them and the yellows as though sunlight runs through the young leaves fillng the cells, switching chlorophyll on for the day.
Green sticks, bendy fresh and flexible are growing strong now, springing from last autumn's taming tractor flail cut. With hawthorn leaves new stems to unfurl and lengthen, densely crowding with extra effort and energy stored in its gnarly thorn encrusted thicket of woody strife.
Decaying and dusty a detritus of stick litters surrounding bark armoured hazel trunks, coppice shared. Tying the stony soil of the road bank for tunnelling bolt holes. An embattled front and an edge line of stability, facing the hectic flow of energy technically chemical.
Willow-fluff and penny-cress, veronica and viral-messaging. Naming Nature 2017-05-09 Tuesday
Willow fluff drifts aimlessly, bits of floating grey sky in cold air. A dense flat mat of it, corner cobweb like a highwire safety net is covered in their downy tufts. Tiny flutters of web stretching grasping air flurries are no use and it seems the spider has long given up tidying this web. Beside is the perfect gauzy orb of a dandelion clock poised to release its umbrella seeds to the misty moon.
Delicate pennycress plants are all over the place displaying rosettes of leaf occupying bare damp soil in shady gaps between stones and crevices.
Bitter but edible, a peppery bite its worth as food the name suggests and if the taste is acquired scattering rocket seeds would be a more generous alternative.
It looks a bit like a tiny version of white ladies smock to me which has also been flowering for over a month in damp places.
Veronica is another small but pretty little flower showing off its striped purple petals today, easy to overlook but next to soft mosses and delicate fairy cap toadstools an enchanting miniature scene.
I thought I'd search for a more accurate name for this little Veronica and found too much information
I see taxonomically speaking this is a whole family.
Backtracking a bit on the site revealed this headline
Viral Short Message Service: peptide texting guides the outcome of infection
I'll attempt to comprehend this more thoroughly feeling particularly bugged by some kind of flu-like probably viral infection right now.
2017-05-08 Monday
Today my thoughts on learning to code seamlessly spill over into my writings on nature.
At the top of the list of further reading in the wikipedia Tacit Knowledge entry,
Angioni G., Doing, Thinking, Saying, in Sanga & Ortalli (eds.), Nature Knowledge, Berghahm Books, New York-Oxford 2004, 249–261
This connects directly to my efforts to describe nature and I followed through to this article
Reviving the Lost Art of Naming the World Adapted from “Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science” by Carol Kaesuk
Just what I needed for a motivational boost.
Yesterday was May 7th traditionally known as when all traces of winter have blown away.
Germander speedwell threw out it's pale blue petals into a starry haze all over the lawn. Clumps of brilliant blue flowered Alkanet
and White comfrey petalled bells brightened up some shady edges. I notice a similarity to the leaves, but vey different flowers.
The first week in May is when all foals are born.
2017-05-07 Sunday
The pungent slightly nose-wrinkling scent of crushed watermint rises from the boggy ground and I can feel a hint of dampness seeping into my thin soled light suede boots. Sallow fluff is spinning and swirling in the sunny air, drifting daintily across clumps of dark spiky rush and a shallow watery expanse of thick grey-green bladed reedmace.
Tiny black ants are hurrying frantically over crumbly muddy molehills, prickly creeping thistle leaves, and up and down stems of bobbing golden yellow meadow buttercup flowers. A miniscule electro-plated wiggly bodied beetle glints as it cleans an antenna on a hairy purple frilled ground-ivy leaf.
A little black and yellow striped hoverfly navigates a grass tussock an inch above the ground, sheltering from a wind that's strong enough to blow the tops of poplar and willow leaves over to shine silver in the blue sky. Glimpses of black-legged dark-blue bodied spiders amonst tawny warming grass litter basking momentarily then darting simultaneously with weightless scampering in all directions to hide in shadow.
Cow-parsley, Orchids and Ferns 2017-05-06 Saturday
Driving along a country lane the frothy white heads of cow-parsley were noticeable above dimming but still violet haze bluebells
and starry white stitchworts. Some cerise coloured orchids display delicately wild but exotic petal shapes with glossy green dark spotted leaves.
Ferns have overcome frost shock and unfurled fronds into wide and whispy ferny fractals.
2017-05-05 Friday
Fine drizzle cleared by cool airy wind in a sky covering of bright grey cloud. Birch and Sallow leaves and oak flowers rustling highlighted with robin and dunnock song. Chiffchaff, chiffchaff and warblings from a little olive breasted bird. Fine twiggy legs and fluttering wings as she springs and darts amongst fresh green heart shapes and dark stems of shimmering white birches.
Away from the deep shade of a mossy hedge bank and the sparse dryness beneath the birches, where shiny grasses are starting to tuft, the soft downy wavy edged leaves of burdock increase their size even as I watch. Gently waving pale surfaces against the dark brown shadows of damp humus. Silver furred shoots with hints of red at the center. I can think of its long deep tap root penetrating the earth right down through the clay to the sandy rock.
I remember the taste of dandelion and burdock pop, and how the first time I drank it from a bottle it fizzed into my nose making me splutter and sneeze.
I avoided it with suspicion for many years after that, only recently tentatively trying some again from a supermarket. Interesting flavour, vaguely medicinal, I wonder if I could have a go at making it.
There are a few burdock plants coming up in different places, not huge yet, but they will be. The dead spreading stalks of some of last years are still standing, brandishing burrs that threaten to turn horses tails and human hair into dense mats. Spiky awns wheedling their way into skin as you try to disentangle them.
I left them alone in a stinging nettle patch and there are more growing rapidly now, dominating the nettles, a task I've only noticed brambles being any good at usually. In the summer the bristly purple thistle like flowers are rather small but plentiful and enjoyed by bees and other nectar loving insects.
On a corner of the path in a vivid clump, beside a ramsons patch and on the sunny side of a holly hedge
The magenta pink of red champion are particularly dazzling against the greenery which is starting to get a bit heavy and morose draping over the sombre browns and brewing fertilility of wet earth.
There's some Cuckoo-spit on a hairy Campion stalk, but this year so far - no cuckoo.
2017-05-03 Wednesday
Quite cold and grey with dampness in the air a strong breeze is swishing around a cluster of sinewy birch trees. The sound like sea waves drawing in and out over fine shingle, softly building up in volume then quiet again. Birds whistle now and then, but not enthusiastically.
Mayflies I call them, pitchest black fuzzy flies with bodies dangling too heavy for their wings, gathering in sheltered spots around gateways. They always emerge in the first week of may, as the air warms and the breeze settles they fly oblique angles, as if drunkenly defying gravity.
Along the mossy track through the hazel coppice the last petals of wood anemones have fallen leaving slender stalks bowed with fat yellow-green bobbles of seed head. Bluebells have reached extra tall with pale thickened stems. Yellow weasel-snout, or archangel some call it sprawls variegated hairy leaves amongst oak litter radiantly raiising its display of lemon yellow snapdragon flowers out of the mould.
Wild Garlic Cakes
I take four good sized leave to make vegan pan fried Wild Garlic cakes for lunch. Eating fresh picked foraged foods when there's plenty is a way of noticing how much a part of things we are. The flavour of the leaves is mild and rather more oniony than garlic a seasonal flavour and treat.
Chop 1 potato, 1 carrot and 1 onion put in a saucepan and add half a cup of lentils cover with water and cook for half an hour. When cool and add chopped wild garlic leaves, a little chilli sauce, a teaspoon of yeast extract and half a teaspoon of salt. Mix in a cup of flour then spoon into frying pan hot with a little sunflower oil. Fry gently for 5 minutes on one side with a lid on the pan then turn them over and cook the other side for another five minutes until golden brown.
Tasty and filling for breakfast or lunch, I find the flavour of this recipe can easily be adjusted with different herbs and spices. A batch of the vegetables can be cooked and saved for a day or two to mix up into cakes more quickly.
Osiers and Forget-me-nots 2017-05-03 Wednesday
May rain. It's been raining all day. All the trees have new floppy leafage, flapping and dripping. The air is misty grey with drizzle and plinking water droplets. And everywhere layer upon layer of wet verdant luminosity. 256 shades of green.
A little brown blackbird flew from one frothy May blossomed hawthorn bush to another, beak bulging, carrying what looked like a slug. Intently peering into a dark chink between floweriness and wall of leaf she dove in leaving just a trace of rustle and splash.
The trees seem to be happy to grow in clumps rather than individual specimens. All around are trees. But they merge and blend. Its not a wood or forest. There is a copse maybe if thats a small wood, and a shaw if that's a wide hedge. Carr wood. Regenerating spontaneous.
White Willow and Osier and Poplar don't mind damp roots. Alder positively likes to have its wavy rooty tresses reaching into the fast flowing current of the stream. Sallow lays overgrown coppiced hedge branches across the dyke at surface level throwing roots and shoots out instantly on contact with soil.
Great-tit looking rather dapper, suited and booted in navy, primrose and black is showing a keen interest in a nest box tied to a birch tree above straggly unclipped wild privet, dog rose and bramble. They've nested there before and I wonder if it's one of last years batch, or perhaps a parent returned, knowing its a good place to brood.
From the ground amongst this assault of greenery, a patch of forget-me-nots catches my eye. The tiny mass of blueness. Taking a closer look the outer petals fade to pale magenta pink and inside lighter blue transitions to buttercup yellow.
I remember the first time I grew forget-me-nots with wallflowers on a crumbling old pebbly concrete wall. The deep crimson wallflowers, offset nicely the delicate sky-blue starriness and gave off an exquisite scent. Forget-me-nots free seeding randomly, has appeared each spring ever since.
Where is the Treasure? 2017-05-02 Tuesday
So how do I know how much diversity there is in my garden? Well, I have become familiar with the place over 25 years making mental notes of things that live and grow together. An interactive observer, interested in deepening my understanding of habitats, ecosystems and symbiosis.
This time of year, May, is incredibly dynamic. I always find it the most energised month of the year when all kinds of unexpected things can happen. It is a time of new life, vitality. Song bird chicks fledge nests, young mammals emerge from earthy dens. Fox cubs, badgers from sets, young rabbits from warrens.
Wild cherry, crab apple and hawthorn trees blossom. How warm and sunny it is for days in a row makes a difference to how many pollinating insects visit to fertilise and set fruit for the autumn.
After a very dry April when the soil was starting to harden, bleach and crack beneath the bright new grass, yesterday, the first day of May had a decent fall of rain. Through the night of Beltaine Eve, a mixture of drizzle and showers drenched everything just enough to dampen down dust and soak into the ground.
Then the early afternoon was breezy, clouds blew northwards thinning, and with the sunshine, surfaces dried quickly. The evening sunset had great black shadowy clouds passing like ships. The golden crescent of the waxing moon following soon after.
This morning the air is still, dew sparkles and glints. Tiny orbs on grass spears. Yesterday's rain drops merged in fluid rivulets and wet surfaces now seem to have gathered enough surface tension to re-form into small globes and balanced on every available spike.
There's a large lichen encrusted oak bough, wind ripped and shed, now fallen to rest on moss. A nice arch for robin, blackbird and pheasant hens to perch on with twigs that look like deer antlers for tits and wrens.
Behind it three bright, yard high, airy sprays of wood spurge, a hundred little pale green cup flowers each, catching backlit sun to illuminate young hazel shadows, over darker slender grey-green leaves. Close by some unfurling fern fronds are brown and frizzled. I wasn't sure if a frost a few nights ago caused that or the dryness of air and soil.
A buzzard is being chased by rooks. The rookery in a clump of Scots pines is out of bounds and they're making pretty sure the buzzard knows it. His piercing mews screech indignation as with cackling caws and flaps they gang up to see him off. A wood pigeon c-coo-coo-c-c's, peaceful and indifferent.
And I was humming this modern English folk song
Johnny Flynn - Detectorists (Original Soundtrack from the TV Series)
For Wildlife: A Blue Heart Garden. 2017-05-01 Monday
I'm going to make a blue heart garden, for love of nature and of life, for wildlife and for biodiversity. From May to September I'll write about it every day.
Rumbling bikes roar and drone. Heading for a gathering on the coast, a May Day meeting. Polished engines, metal and wax all lined up along a promenade. A busy fairground humming coloured blurs give kids exciting fun rides, shimmering arcade light reflecting in shiny eyes and spinning coins. There's circus tent with practising acrobats.
May celebration revellers dress as flower people with plants in their hair and smearing each other faces with theatrical oil paste algae coloured streaks. Playing a game of Jack-in-the-green, over the short iron age turf of the crumbling sea cliff hill.
Above the fisher boats and seagulls, there are echoes of ancient rites. A watchful spectator, a man's face in leafy wreaths appears randomly in shopfront decals and on carved wooden pews.
Light grey sky damp with cool drizzle fresh new leaves quiver, a gently swaying up and down. Ruffling motion as cars swish by behind the hedge, tyres making a ripping sound on wet tarmac.
Twittering birds hop and bounce through a soft lit mesh of twigs and branches. A surrounding Shaw of trees
Mature oaks arching out thick limbs, flowering boughs tufted with bright clumps of catkins. From sturdy rugged ivy twined trunks each new wave of growth bubbles up like some bio cumulus eruption.
Unlike the delicate colourful petalled flowers of cottage gardens, these huge domes are a thickly encrusted mass of beaded floral energy. Fractal waves repeating patterns, distinctly oak.
The stately trees command respect around here. Place names echoing their presence. Oaklands, Broad Oak, Three Oaks, Oak Hill, The Watch Oak. Gnarly buttressed mossy bones emerge from every hedge to spread their arching heavy summer shade and winter litter. People hesitate to cut them down.
In 1987 a great storm blew up the English Channel.
The morning after brought gushing torrents of brown water up from every drain, every hilly road a river.
There was much damage to property. Everywhere trees where devastated, broken. There was no autumn that year. All leaves were ripped off of every tree - in just one night.
But the Oak trees!
Lay everywhere uprooted, in droves. On their sides, on cars, and roofs, blocking roads. It seemed some giant had stomped across the landscape in a rage. Pushing these solid old trees over on a whim.
30 years ago and there are still living oaks resting on their sides. One along with a boundary a recumbent giant still throws up new branches, waving tentacles amongst a hazel coppiced stream bank.
Roots a wall of mossy earth beside a water-filled hollow, great trunk restful along the stream makes a sun trap for damselflies and other aquatic edge flies. A plant free sunny sheltered spot for badgers and rabbits to play and climb, foxes to curl and weasels to pop.
Tab 3 Notes
Notes, quotes, random reflections.
Displacement Activities - Useful links
The Fascination of What’s Difficult
The fascination of what’s difficult
Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent
Spontaneous joy and natural content
Out of my heart. There’s something ails our colt
That must, as if it had not holy blood,
Nor on an Olympus leaped from cloud to cloud,
Shiver under the lash, strain, sweat and jolt
As though it dragged road metal. My curse on plays
That have to be set up in fifty ways,
On the day’s war with every knave and dolt,
Theatre business, management of men.
I swear before the dawn comes around again
I’ll find the stable and pull out the bolt.
Make beautilful word clouds with
Wordle
On the summer solstice 2017-06-21 I committed to being vegan .
“Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshiping.”
― Hubert Reeves
So long as we use a certain language, all questions that we can ask will have to be formulated in it and will thereby confirm the theory of the universe which is implied in the vocabulary and structure of the language.
Michael Polanyi
I am a fan of timed focused learning sessions so when I found the FreeCodeCamp forum thread Let's discuss your "Pomodoro Clock" I thought
it would be fun to try out the different clocks that other campers have made to time my coding sessions.
Pomodoro Clock by wildlifehexagon (Eric Hartline)
My first go and this is the one that made me think of trying out Pomodoros campers have made. I really like the colour and the tomato image. The clear functionality and the link to more info on the Pomodoro technique.
Not keen on the timer sound, which is just personal taste. Maybe a choice would be nice.Dystopian Pomodoro Clock (FreeCodeCamp) a PEN by Matt O'Tousa
Intigued by the title I like the start page when the timer is running the dystopian message is boldy reinforced - terrifying to the extent I'm glad it can be hidden by a browser tab.
Innovative and original, a dark themed pom for when you need an extra boost of self discipline to keep coding.Pomodoro clock
A PEN BY Hatim Sue
I like the simple design of this timer, and there is a silent pop up alert box instead of a bleep, which is good if you don't want others to be notified of your sessions.
Pomodoro Clock
A PEN BY Ben
Great idea by Ben of an hourglass session that spins over at break time. I like the colour scheme and functionality.
Another silent pomodora which is good for discretion though sound option would make it better.
Stars 4.5
Pomodoro Clock - FreeCodeCamp
A PEN BY David Pickup
The simplicity of this pomodoro is appealing to me. A sound or popup alert would be helpful though as I found the session rolled over without me noticing.
4.5 stars
Pomodoro Timer - Vue.js 2.0
A PEN BY Tyler Cotton
I love the background and design of this clock, it's very sleek and efficient. No sound alert but a pop up box to alert you to the end of session is good.
4.5 stars
Music pomodoro timer
A PEN BY Marko Stefanovic
This is my favourite pom so far. The radio function with choice of ambient channels really enhanced my coding session, (Though Nirvana was not quite what I expected) The alert sound is subtle but gets the attention too.
It would be nice to be able to start a break time without having to do a work session first.
4.5 stars
Bill Sourour retweeted
Programming Wisdom @CodeWisdom Jun 8
“A common fallacy is to assume authors of incomprehensible code will be able to express themselves clearly in comments.” - Kevlin Henney
SONG III.
The Mists dispelled.
Then the gloom of night was scattered, Sight returned unto mine eyes. So, when haply rainy Caurus Rolls the storm-clouds through the skies, Hidden is the sun; all heaven Is obscured in the starless night. But if in wild onset sweeping, Boreas frees day's prisoned light, All suddenly the radiant god out streams, And strikes our dazzled eyesight with his beams.
The Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius
Sometimes I recall a song I first heard when I was 19 - from the "Rust Never Sleeps" (1979) Album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse -
Thrasher - because I like the words.
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