The Great Gate Detective

Sometimes, Facebook's reminder of historic postings gives you a new perspective on a narrative, perhaps even that it might be blog-worthy. :-)

On the 8th January 2016, I visited UK Architectural Heritage: a veritable treasure trove of a reclaim yard in Herefordshire. I was picking up a fossil marble fireplace I had bought on eBay. Incidentally this fireplace was only installed last year - 6 years later!

Naturally, I had a look around the yard. One of the many items I regretted I could not afford were these lovely gates from Kensington Gardens.

gates at reclaim yard

On the 24th January 2016, I watched the film "Pan" (2015) and spotted the very same gates:

gates in movie "Pan" (2015) 

Wowzers! Had these gates really been removed from Kensington Gardens in the last year? I did some online detective work, and discovered the actual gates for Kensington Gardens are very different and even grander. The UK Architectural Heritage website revealed that the gates were genuine period gates, that had "KENSINGTON GARDENS" added to turn them into a film prop. Mystery solved!

The coincidence that I should be watching the film a few weeks later, and the fact I instantly recognised the gates are both astonishing to me. The Balintore connection is that J.M.Barrie, who wrote "Peter Pan",  visited Balintore Castle!

Nature in Winter

Already this winter, the snow has advanced and receded at the castle a number of times. For the fortnight up to my return to the castle on the 18th December, the landscape had been held in a deep-freeze state of Narnia-esque beauty. Just two days later the snow had all gone. Snow returned over the festive period, and my friends and I went for a daily walk in these conditions, while it was light to make the most of the short days.

During these walks, any exposed colour would stand out sharply, and one's eye would be drawn to this previously unobserved delight. One such are these red lichen growths. Can anyone identify? On enlarging the photo, I spotted the red "crusty" lichen is growing on top of the green "leafy" lichen. It is known that the lichen is a symbiotic relationship between an algae and a fungus. It is not without the realms of possibility, therefore, that different lichen species could be symbiotic either in whole or in part.

 

red lichen

During this second cold snap the temperature hovered around zero, sometimes above; sometimes below: perfect conditions for slow crystal growth. There were white lakes of crystals in fields glinting in the sunshine. I have never seen Jack Frost being so masterful before, even down to this crystal growth on Balintore's east drive, which I initially thought was the imprint of a leaf:

Jack Frost's finest in microcosm

While I was driving through Glen Quharity,  I had one of those moments: the land was totally covered in snow, the mist had come down so even the air was in white-out. Above me two buzzards were circling, presumably looking out for small mammals breaking cover. Their forms were deeply etched in black on a white ground. It was elemental.