Notices by Kimberley (kimberley@ecoevo.social)

It’s raining proper rain! Big fat drops of lovely desperately needed rain. It’s been so long that it feels like an event worth watching, window open wide

I set up a little blog to document some sewing projects rather than clutter up my more nature-focussed feed here. You can follow it via Mastodon @kim if that's your kind of thing. I can't promise it'll be consistently updated!

#sewing

Week 2 of my road being closed and the street has filled with kids on bikes. I don’t know how we came to prefer constant streams of noisy traffic over this.

One of my regular hedgehog visitors has developed these patches of white quills that seem more densely packed and maybe a bit crusty than the others. Any hedgehog knowledgeable people know what it might be? They’re a bit hard to see in these photos.
I’m also sending a photo to a local hedgehog rescue place

#hedgehog #UKnature

Current and former PhD students - is there a question you wish you'd asked your PhD supervisory team before starting?

#PhD #Academia

Had a lovely chat with my neighbour out in the garden. He struggles to grow fruit and lost all his raspberries, I lack the patience for annual veg seed starting but my perennial fruit plants are very abundant so he offered to share his veg in exchange for some fruit. Between us we've got a good harvest covered. I like that rather than all of us trying to grow bits of everything.

Also traded some raspberry cuttings for well rotted horse manure from another neighbour.

#gardening #GrowYourOwn

Database of Insects and their Food Plants https://dbif.brc.ac.uk/homepage.aspx

This resource lets you search for specific insects (maybe those local to your area) and what plants they need as food sources, or you can search for specific plants and see what insects they attract

If my ID is correct these are my first time finding birds egg fungus (Crucibulum laeve). And in my very own garden. They’re smaller than photos I’ve seen led me to believe (maybe 5 mm diameter)

#Fungi

I didn't know I needed to see a digital exhibition of the history of cats in science and literature but then I saw this picture and knew that it is exactly what I need right now
https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1BcWRvZti77GiGPyAyTCCjzyss-ig58MLKJO7v9I7NS4&font=Rufina-Sintony&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=900
#cats

When I took my old boy to the vet last week I saw a poster for a cat that had been missing since May after escaping from a van during a house move, and because apparently I have a photographic memory for cats I remembered exactly where I petted that particularly kitty and text the location to the number. Turns out he was still hanging around that area and 4 months later they have him back. Feeling very happy for that cat and glad my need to say hello to every single kitty came in useful!

Cats knew that computers would lead to our downfall from the start and tried to warn us. They sat on the keyboards so we couldn't talk to the machine, they whacked the mouse out of our hands, they sat on PC base units to jam up the equipment with their shed fur. But we didn't listen and now here we are, wondering if the computers are going to destroy everything. Cats know computers can't open doors and cans of food for them otherwise I don't think they'd care so much.

#Caturday #cats

Really looking forward to my one walnut

Just popped out to put some washing on the line and a leafcutter bee (Megachile centuncularis) flew by carrying its cargo. It took a little break on my garden table so I grabbed my phone and waited for it to take off again so I could see it grasp its leaf. Here’s a little slo-mo clip

#bee #UKnature

Just discovered that the University of the Highlands and Islands have a free 3 course programme of horticulture courses on OpenLearn.
Plant biology
Garden and planting design
Plant propagation

You can do them seperately if you're just interested in one or two. Study online at your own pace, certificate of completion available afterwards.

https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/course/index.php?categoryid=542

#Gardening #GardenDesign #Plants #Horticulture

The Great British Sewing Bee is back on BBC One tonight at 9pm. I haven't seen it promoted much so sharing for those who like to watch but aren't aware it's back. #SewingBee #Sewing
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03myqj2

Somebody moulted on my strawberry

#Insects #entomology #UKWildlife

With more insects around now that spring is here I'm just going to pin this excellent photo guide to various insects of the UK by Steven Falk hosted on Flickr. It is an excellent resource so I'm partly pinning it for my own quick reference but also for anybody else who wonders what a particular insect they meet is, or want to get to know them better https://www.flickr.com/photos/63075200@N07/collections/72157629222209764/

@Fragglemuppet tiramisu. I’m all about the dessert

I'm supposed to be whittling down my final project ideas ready to start it in 2 weeks but somehow I've added more to the list 🥴

Also how is it final project time already? I swear I started this degree 5 minutes ago

Went out for a snowy walk. We were the first out this morning so all the snow on the trail was unspoilt until we left our footprints
#UKSnow #SouthYorkshire