Category Archives: Remains

Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Ozymandias warns: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ / Nothing beside remains. Round the decay /…’.  It is not just the ruination of the works of … Continue reading →

This male grey squirrel was foolish enough to climb a local three-phase power supply array, meeting an untimely death and blacking out several properties near Waterbeach. Photo: Grey Squirrel, Waterbeach, Cambs 170624

On 17th August 1847 the railway line linking Cambridge with St Ives and St Ives with Huntingdon was opened to traffic. The line ran on trestles across the River Ouse at Houghton.  The St Ives – Huntingdon line was closed … Continue reading →

Remains of a swan found by the River Cam just downstream from Bottisham Lock.  Two mysteries.  First, what species is it?  Probably a Mute, but as the head was missing it I wasn’t able to tell.  It had not been … Continue reading →

The first post under ‘Remains’ for well over 18 months.  Late spring has brought a clutch of dead fledglings and a reminder that this subject has been neglected. Photo: Mowbray Road, Cambridge, May 2016

Remains of the steel ribs of a ship merge into the rocks of the Cornish shore.  What’s the story that the waves erase relentlessly?  Walking companions recall seeing the recognisable hull of a ship on earlier visits. Photo: Thretherick, Cornwall, … Continue reading →

Unknown, broken fish.  Why hasn’t it been picked clean by the east coast Herring Gulls? Photo: Overstrand, May 2013

Collared doves are a pale, pinky-brown grey colour, with a distinctive black neck collar.  They have deep red eyes and reddish feet. Their monotonous cooing is a familiar. Often seen on their own or in pairs, flocks may form where … Continue reading →

A frog he would a-wooing go, Heigh ho! says Rowley, A frog he would a-wooing go, Whether his mother would let him or no. With a rowley, powley, gammon, and spinach, Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley. Photo: Cambridge, August 2012

Both bicycle and stand trashed. Photo: Cambridge, July 2012

Two dolls, a coal scuttle and a pot pushed to the margins of a bric-a-brac stall.  Next stop the tip? Photo: Cambridge Country Fair June 2012

What is one to think about foxes?   Wilde had a culinary view of them: “The English country gentleman galloping after a fox – the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible.”  For hen-keepers they are more than inedible, they are murderous … Continue reading →

Pigeon untouched, undisturbed by a footpath.  Cause of death? Photo: St Ives, 2nd September 2011

Another bicycle trashed and abandoned in Cambridge, cycle city. Photo: Cambridge June 2011