My new #painting is "Badgers beneath". I hope you like it.
#Badgers don't hibernate, but they do go into a kind of sleepy lethargy enabling them to sleep for days through the worst of the winter weather. Sensible! Here are four badgers, curled up together, safely embraced by the roots of an #oak.
#watercolour & sepia ink on 600gsm paper, size 275 x 270mm.
I'm watching #WinterWatch. Which generall] I love.
But Chris Packham's discussion of fern lifecycles was rubbish. Gametophytes are pretty common - you don't need to go to temperature rainforest. There are loads in my garden (which has a sheltered damp spot). In Edinburgh, they're easy to spot along the Water of Leith between Stockbridge and the Dean Bridge.
Ok, I'm not the target audience - I grew Pteridium gametophytes and sporophytes too when I was doing my PhD, but still.
Incidentally, fern gametophytes are easy to grow. They will be found in most warm, damp greenhouses. If you've got ferns growing, they started as a gametophyte.
I've a potted Polypodium aureus (sporophyte) which is either the original, a clone of, or the offspring of a plant which grew by accident in a pot of bracken. (So it's nearly 40 years old.)
It produces a lot of spores, and from them grow gametophytes - and thence sporophytes.
The weekend before Christmas and I really should start with some seasonal photos. But I had the chance to photograph some waxwings recently and I am really happy with the results. So this weekend's photo is of a Waxwing. I hope you like it.