Happy Halloween!

I am not sure if this will work, so here goes,

I was out in Waking Street celebrating Halloween and noticed the sign above, it must have cost a fortune, it was huge as can be seen by the size of the people in the lower part of the video, naturally I was in Halloween mode,

 

all made up for the night, the lady above wanted to be photographed with me, strangely enough quite a few people did, I have no idea why, meanwhile in the Philippines Diana and her family were having a great time,

visiting a zoo amongst other places and shopping, lots of shopping! I will stop now as I am not sure how well this will appear, I am using my mobile telephone and it has taken an age just because I am not used to using it, but when we both return to the UK I will spend a few days playing catch up, I hope you all call back sometime in mid November.

I Am Not Sure If This Will Work

but I am trying this on my  mobile telephone,

we have arrived safely and are having a great time in Bangkok, I believe Diana has a thing called Facebook which she updates, so to see our progress please have a look there.

I Will Only Be Making One Short Post Today,

and it will be the last one for just over 4 weeks!

today we are flying to Bangkok to meet up with Diana's family who have flown in from the Philippines when we arrive tomorrow, we will spend a few days in Bangkok and then Diana and her family will fly back to the Philippines, I will pop down to Pattaya for 3 weeks and then go back to Bangkok and meet up with Diana when she returns from her family, we will then have a few days in Bangkok before flying back to the UK. 

for myself I watched The Black Death, a 2 hour special presented by Dan Snow, a little more about the documentary here, what a horror of a time to live, a absolutely fascinating look at UK and indeed European history, the Black Death or bubonic plague was one of mankind's worst pandemics, killing more than 25 million people or at least one third of Europe's population during the fourteenth century, after which Diana arrived home, so time for our evening meal,

first a read and a sherry, 

followed by a selection of Indian dishes, 

'Cheers!', 

after which we settled back for Men in Black: International, we had watched the film before a long time ago so it was nice to see it again, having said that I did most of the watching, Diana did all of the packing, we are so looking forward to this, Diana has not seen her family in 6 years or so after, so you can imagine how excited we are, when we arrive back I will update the blog, as my laptop went to computer heaven, or hell a few years ago, and I just can not get on with editing and posting the blog on my telephone, so please call back mid to the end of November, packing finished and we were off to bed.

I Started Getting Things Ready For Our Holiday,

starting tomorrow, 

Maggie kindly said she would water our Venus fly traps, so to save her watering lots of pots I put them all in one tray in the hall, I also left her plenty of RO water, 

as tap water kills fly traps, 

and here they are, 

a couple of close ups, 

with only one exception they have all grown remarkably well, next the fire alarm company called by and tested the building's fire alarm for its 6 monthly check, all was well, 

after that out of the park, 

and onto a number 54 bus to the shop, I had a empty water container that needed filling,

arriving home time for a read, 

Diana had left me a chicken biryani, 

which was delicious, 'Cheers!',

onto a number 354 bus to meet Steve, in a stroke of good luck I noticed a 227 bus about to join the main road, so I alighted at Big Catch, Beckenham's fish and chip restaurant, and caught the bus to Penge where I meet up with Steve in the Moon & Stars for a few pints, we chatted the night away until it was time to say farewell for a few weeks as we made a move to our homes, 

I was lucky again with the bus, a 227 arriving just minuets after we did at the bus stop, off of the bus in Beckenham and past the church, 

in the graveyard the cyclamen still looking nice, I just beat Diana home who was soon off to bed as she has a early start at her last day at work tomorrow before our holiday, for myself one from It Ain't Half Hot Mum, before I too was off to bed.

Only Yesterday I Made A Post About Asian Or Yellow-Legged Hornets As They Are Sometimes Known,

and today I received a article from the BBC about them, 

it is almost like someone is listening to what I say, (as yesterday I mentioned the insects to Steve), and then sending me news items that might be of interest!

back to the article and a few lines from it:

 Asian hornets were first reported in the UK in 2016, with 72 nests discovered in 2023,

This year has been the second worst on record for numbers, with the majority of sightings in the South East,

Kent's gardeners and walkers are being recruited to help track down invasive Asian hornets,

Although only 19 nests have been destroyed so far this year, the British Beekeeper’s Association’s (BBKA) Asian Hornet Teams, which support the NBU, said the problem has not gone away,

Sue Knights, Asian hornet coordinator for Kent Beekeepers’ Association, said: “Now is a crucial time for spotting Yellow-Legged Asian Hornet nests, as the falling leaves from the trees could reveal nests that were otherwise hidden, "It is vital that we know where these nests are located, so that we can keep an eye on the area for any queen hornets emerging from hibernation in the spring, "We really need everyone in the community to stay vigilant over the coming months."

Tony Warren, Asian Hornet Team coordinator for the Gravesend branch and founder of Asian Hornet Alert, said there had been a "significant reduction" in nests found and destroyed this year, "But the threat remains," he added, 

it is vitally important for the bees of the UK to stamp out this foreign invader, if you should see a Asian hornet or a nest of them please report it here, the full article from the BBC is here.

If You Like Dolphins, Or Are A Bit Squeamish,

it might be an idea to skip this post, 

a pod of killer whales was being monitored by García-Cegarra, who is a researcher at the University of Antofagasta, who has been tracking this particular pod, which is led by a matriarch named Dakota, and four more orcas, but as captured by drone footage the pod changed from its normal diet of sea lions, to dolphins, for no apparent reason, in Pacific waters near Antofagasta, a killer whale hurled a small dusky dolphin into the air before devouring it, moments later, four more orcas arrived to join the feast, “Such a thing has never been recorded in Chilean waters,” García-Cegarra says, since 2018, García-Cegarra’s team hasn’t monitored Dakota’s pod alone, they have collaborated with local tour operators and fishermen in a citizen science initiative, over the years, these partners have submitted photos and videos, “Orcas are the top predators of marine ecosystems. Changes in their diets may be an indicator of a shift in the distribution of their prey due to climate change,” said Carlos Olavarría, a marine biologist at Chile’s Centre for Advanced Studies on Arid Zones, who was not part of the study, at the moment climate change appears to be the culprit leading to this behaviour, from the article:

“It’s a fascinating discovery,” said Josh McInnes, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia in Canada, who has studied orcas along California’s coastline and was not part of the new paper. “The more we know about their behaviour and what they’re eating is important because they are in a place where a lot of things are changing.” 

‘Rising ocean temperatures are reshaping species’ distribution and behaviour, driving key fish like anchovies and sardines to migrate toward cooler waters. This shift disrupts food chains that support top predators such as orcas, McInnes said. Additionally, warmer waters are fuelling more frequent harmful algal blooms, which deplete oxygen and create dead zones, endangering the survival of fish and other marine life’ the full article is here.

I Had A Quiet Day,

and had a couple of visitors, 

after a bit of an absence the crows have started calling round, after the usual start to my day Diana started getting ready for work, a late shift today, after she left I had the househusband job I really do not like, cleaning the glass shelves in the bathroom, I am always so afraid that I might drop one and break it, thankfully all went well, in the afternoon a double helping of Bangers & Cash, and a couple of quiz shows before my evening meal, after BattleBots I watched,

Attenborough and the Sea Dragon, I had watched this documentary before, a fascinating programme, Sir David investigates the discovery of a 200 million year old Ichthyosaur on the Jurassic Coast in southern England, and not just any old Ichthyosaur, this was a totally new specie, a great look into the world of fossil hunting in the Jurassic Coast,

 I decided to watch Munich: The Edge of War, I had also watched this before, but I fancied watching it again, the story of the film is in the title, the film is in fact based on the international bestseller by Robert Harris, chronicling the events leading up to the start of the Second World War, although the main characters, Hartmann and Legat are fictional, Harris confirms that they are partially inspired by the diplomat Adam von Trott zu Solz and the scholar AL Rowse, after which as it happens Diana arrived home from work, so feet up for a coffee and a chat before we were off to bed.

Regular Readers,

will know that in Steve and Kai's back garden Steve has 3 bee hives, 

and here they are in the summer, Diana and Kai having a close look, 

Steve is opening one of the hives, 

to keep an eye on how the health of the hive is, locally Steve looks after several hive in the local bee keeping club, also if you have a swarm he is the guy that will take them away for you, as it happens I have a soft spot for bees and happened to find a article about a deadly invader, (for bees), trying to invade the UK, the Asian or Yellow Legged hornet, 

honey bees in Europe have no real defence against these invaders,

a handy guide to the European and Asian hornet, well it appears that a bee keeper in France, Frédérique Ripet has developed a answer to the problem of Asia hornets gaining access to the hive and slaughtering the inhabitants, Stop-It Max, give bees the chance to escape Asian hornets, which can ambush them as they return to the hive with pollen, “A nest of Asian hornets eats 12kg of insects a year,” Frédérique Ripet told The Connexion.“When they can find them, their preferred food are honey bees, and a honey bee usually weighs just over a gram. If you do the maths you can see why they cause such devastation.”

photograph Frédérique Ripet, after her own hives were attacked, she vowed to find a solution, “I realised that you only need three Asian hornets to hover around a hive for the bees to be too terrified to go out,” she said, “If they do not go out there is not enough pollen to feed the larvae and they start to die. The queen stops laying eggs and the hive collapses.” A number of products were tried, simple chicken wire in front of the hives initially seemed to offer the best protection, even though it damages bees’ wings, "I developed the device using plastic, which does not damage the wings, and with fewer holes available to the bees in three dimensions, which are too small for the hornets to fly through, this means the hornets have to land on the Stop-It device and walk towards the nest, which lets the bees see them and use another entrance, and because the hornets are stopped and slow, in strong hives the bees are even sometimes able to attack and kill them” 

costing €28, at today’s rate £23.24, or $30.34 the Stop-It Max can be adapted to hives from all over Europe and the UK – each country has different hives and beekeeping traditions, Ms Ripert set up a company called Api & Bee near Agen (Lot-et-Garonne) to market her devices, the full article is here, but here is the thing, if you have any family, friends, acquittances that keep bees, or indeed know of any bee keeping clubs or associations, please forward this post to them, if it helps save even just one bee colony, it will have been worthwhile.

Leaving The Contentious Question,

should we bring them back? behind, 

photograph courtesy of Colossal Biosciences, one company is making great leaps forward to bring ay least one extinct animal back, we have featured the company before it is Colossal Biosciences, we have featured them before, from the article:

“The genome of the extinct thylacine has been nearly completely sequenced, de-extinction company Colossal has announced. It says the genome is more than 99.9 per cent complete, with just 45 gaps that will soon be closed, it’s a fairly difficult thing to get a fully complete genome of almost any organism,” says Emilio Mármol-Sánchez at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, whose team was the first to extract RNA from a preserved thylacine. For example, the last few holdouts of the human genome were only fully sequenced in the past few years", the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger as it is known was wiped out by humans, the last one dying in 1936,

from the article:

'Given the lack of any other thylacine genomes to make a comparison with, there is no direct way to tell how complete it is – instead Pask says Colossal is using other related species in the same family to make this estimate, but even if the genome is as complete as Colossal thinks and it really can fill in the remaining gaps, there is currently no feasible way to generate living cells containing this genome. Instead, Colossal plans to genetically modify a living marsupial called the fat-tailed dunnart to make it more like a thylacine', will it work? well only time will tell, but I have to admit I would like to see man made extinct species returned to their local habitat, now we know not to kill them! the article is here.

Blog Posted,

I was then out to visit Duncan, 

into a grey slightly cold day, 

a bit of a hold up, road works, this time the water company, 

past Peter Pan's Pool,

looking towards Catford grey skies, 

the bee garden on top of this bus shelter, 

looking nice, 

the bus was making good time until, a driver change, 

past the one way system still in force in Lewisham, 

at Blackheath station, no further work on the other platform,

I was in luck, a through train to Gravesend,

off of the bus and up the hill,

to the home where Duncan stays, 

blue skies starting to break through, as it happens it was getting quite warm, inside Duncan was not his usual self, he was asleep when I arrived and had not eaten his breakfast, I stayed a couple of hours until his lunch arrived, he remember I would not be visiting for the next 4 weeks or so, hopefully the two Steve's and Alan will call in to visit when I am not here, 

at the bus stop blue skies, almost, it was so hot I did not put on my waterproof or under jacket, 

at platform 0 a through train to Blackheath was due, then on to a number 54 bus,

going through Lewisham the pavement still being worked on, 

at Lewisham hospital the beds opposite still unplanted, 

the road works from this morning still here, 

off of the bus and into the park, blue skies, 

and it really was quite warm, what a change from this morning, 

after a couple of quiz shows, it was time for my read and sherry, 

my meal for tonight, liver and bacon, delicious!

'Cheers!', I watched a BattleBots, the start of a new season, I am happy to say, I followed that with a Bangers & Cash, during which Diana arrived home from work, so it was feet up for a Midsomer Murder before we were off to bed.