Some thatched houses have little sculptures in straw along the ridge of the roof line, as “signatures” of the craft of the roofers. These particularly fine examples were from Walberswick on the Suffolk coast.
Fishy weathervane: I’m sure someone more knowledgeable than me could identify the species, on the lifeboat station at St Ives.
A reminder that killing things has until recently been part of a traditional Christmas, even if the victims weren’t destined to end up in the kitchen. Fox, looking like it’s fleeing from hunters, weathervane, Totnes.
Santa Claus is (very loosely) based on a real historical figure. St Nicholas was bishop of a see in part of what is nowadays Turkey. He’s the patron saint, among many other churches, of Beaudesert church, Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire. The church has this splendid product of blacksmithing as its weathervane.
Yes, I know the twelve days of Christmas don’t start till the day itself. But the posts over the holiday period will be ones where I don’t need to get out and about to find wildlife and nature subjects.
Instead, they will be shots I’ve gathered over the years of weather vanes, door knockers, and today a wall decoration, some with animal themes.
This iron hummingbird was on a house in a quiet street in Topsham on the Exe estuary.
A mossy lawn, with the vegetation covered in ice crystals on the first frosty morning this winter.