Glorious Gloria

Gloria, the storm that is currently passing over Catalonia, has left its mark at the Croft. We've had more rain in one night than we've had since records began (my records, anyway), with 128 litres per square metre (128mm) which is the maximum that my rain meter can read. My neighbour up the  track emptied his 45mm rain meter three times during the night, so likely ours ran over. The last rainfall to get near this figure was on 12th September 2006 when we had 122mm.

The donkeys don't like it:

Jings it's gey dreich here, pal

...and for the humans,  there is currently no way in, or out, except on foot. The track has been washed away, and is currently on the way to the Mediterranean:

Sink or swim

But the house is fine, we've got supplies and plenty of wood to keep us cosy, so nae worries, hen.

Update

The storm has gone, leaving us to clear up the remains. The good news is that we  now have a beach by the stream, so will be offering sun 'n' sand holidays to anyone who wants them:

Just add sun umbrella and a pink gin

Rotten beauty

It's been an autumn and winter full of fungi. Here are a couple:

A jewelled field mushroom

This might be a Pleurotacia, but then it might be a lot of other species too. It is a parasite on the stump of a dead pine tree:

Gilded gills

Sticky end

This is what happens when you try to raid honey from my hives. You get got:

Caught in the Matrix

I found this hawk moth (Sphingidae) corpse when I was cleaning out the hives this winter.

Beeched Marten

We have a Beech Marten  (Martes foina) who takes the occasional chicken. I've seen one - at least her ears - in a night-time photo in my camera trap, but had never seen one close up.

Until Boxing Day, that is, when an individual who had probably been on a blinder the night before was a wee bit slow to react to the  noises of me waking up and letting the dogs out...and so ended up in our persimmon (Diospyros kaki) tree.

Persisting in the Persimmon

She (or he, I'm not up to sexing Martens up trees) stayed there all day, disappearing only at night when the dogs were safely shut up. She is welcome at the Croft - I'm sure that it is she, with the owls, that keep the rat population at bay.

Salamanders in my Salad Spinner

We had a veterinary visit before Christmas, from a vet who is an absolute amphibian admirer. On a wet and blustery night, she headed down to the stream to count salamanders (Salamandra salamandra). In November there are lots of salamanders moving around...so she picked up a few to photograph them...

Too many for the Tupperware

...and then picked up more, and more, until we had fifteen chunky salamanders in the only container with sides that were steep enough to prevent them climbing out - my salad spinner.

We're all in a spin

Hence the aliterating title, with due respect to Lucy Daniels, the wonderful children's author of Llama on the Loose, Puppy in Peril and many other aliterating animal titles.

We photographed the salamanders - not easy, when they are warm and start to move fast - and plan to do a recapture in a month or so. Their patterns are, I think, unique to each individual so we should be able to do a population estimate with a few captures and recaptures. All of the salamanders were returned to their homes after the short spell indoors.