Monday 7 November 2011

What's That!?! 9

A bit late in the day, but I finally remembered to post the answers to last week's photos.
I'll start with the second photo which was of course Toni's tummy.
 It turns out that Jack Russells have something called "ticking" on their underbellies. When we first got her, she was often called Toni cow. 

The first photo was Capsella bursa-pastoris, or Shepherd's-purse. I knew about this little plant long before I ever saw it. As a child I like many others in the 60's and 70's lived in a world made up of The Magic Faraway Tree, The Wishing Chair, where pixies, goblins, humans and fairies, sorry Paula, furries, all lived side by side. Enid Blyton may no longer be "PC" but she was a very important part of my childhood. Reading and the characters the books contained, were often my only friends. One of my favourite books when very young was The Adventures of Pip, a rather mischievous pixie who often seemed to get into trouble with his friend Jinky, much to the horror of his Aunt Twinkle. In one adventure, Pip used a purse from a shepherd's-purse as a replacement for his Aunt's, which he had lost.
It was that very book that also taught me how to recognise a male blackbird (they dipped their bills in liquid gold) and male sparrows with their black bibs.

This week I give you: