Eclipse over the windmill

Friday is the usual day for volunteers to do the flour milling and any odd jobs at the Mill, and on the morning of 20 March a number of us were there to get ready for the intensive weekend of spring-cleaning, and limewashing the interior. We'd brought our eclipse-projecting kits with us - colanders, binoculars – the skies were beautifully clear, so we could make the best of the rare chance, and we captured some images, projected on the Mill wall, or reflected in a window. People passing by came up to share our vantage point at the top of the hill, and one man brought a welder's mask which we passed around, getting a direct look at the sun’s disc reduced to a thin crescent.

From the upper floors of the Mill there are views to the distant hills, and a photo from a bin floor window shows something of the strange, bleak atmosphere across York at maximum ‘darkness’; but it was surprising how bright the day remained with only a sliver of sun to light it. Birds didn’t seem to be troubled by the event and just before the maximum, a pair of sparrowhawks passed high over the sails. 

Worse things happen at sea dept.

The gaslit bar was icy, heat from the blazing fire going straight up the chimney with the windy draught. Rain poured in above the windows in the small hours and we laid towels to dampen the sound. Downstairs in the morning all was locked and deserted: the landlord hadn't realised we expected breakfast. The taxi driver hadn't got the knowledge.

Name that cat - A picture quiz

Sado-hygienist

She makes me feel lazy, careless, stupidly deaf to repeated good advice, wily and deceitful. If  I am allowed to overcome these failings then I can look after my own teeth, which is not the objective.

The pain her implement causes is attributable to receding gums, caused by my neglect of proper methods.

I am a little depressed, and my teeth don't really look any better.

Mending

Health, Safety and Steamed-Up Glasses

Giger bugs

Saw these near Men-an-Tol on the Penwith peninsula. Found afterwards that they are the larvae of the Bloody-Nosed Beetle, or Blood-spewing Beetle, which feed exclusively on 'bedstraws' (I always called this goosegrass). The adult spits a red fluid when in trouble. - I wanted to identify the weird, leathery beasts and went to a specialist website; with a heavy heart, knowing how slim my chance of finding them among thousands. But they were the very first in the list of recent queries! Someone else had just seen them, and in Cornwall too.