CFZ PEOPLE: Happy Birthday (yesterday) Dave B-P

CFZ PEOPLE: Dave B-P

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to write a quick message thanking everyone who wrote me kind words and get-well messages over my time in hospital. I was admitted Sunday morning; by Sunday evening my pain and sickness were getting under control. As the days went by I was brilliantly looked after by the ward team, and steadily I got better and better.

On Wednesday evening I had a scan and was then sent home. Now I am well and truly on the mend. It is only with all your wonderful messages and thoughts that it is the case.

Thank you very much indeed; it’s so pleasing to know about the huge wealth of support that’s out there in the crypto community.

Best Wishes All

Dave

JON'S JOURNAL: Porriwiggles and pugmarks

This has been a remarkably busy week with all sorts of things happening, both good and bad: Dave B-P has been in hospital, a close friend is getting divorced, I have had various CFZ-related traumas and on top of this, my consultant has changed my medication and I am now floating around on a slightly spacy cloud, which is fun if a little disconcerting.

So I am a little behind on my nature diary.

Back on Sunday after we had all number of mild adventures on Northam Burrows (see HERE, and HERE and HERE) we went back to Huddisford to take Prudence for a walk. One cannot really let her out on the Burrows on a Sunday because there are too many other dogs - many not on leads - and she is a little unpredictable where her fellow canids are concerned.

There we noted that 'our' tadpoles had hatched and were developing nicely.


Actually, that is not quite true. We noted that they had hatched about ten days before, as you can see in this brace of pictures, which not only show the newly hatched porriwiggles, but also show a middle-aged Hawkwind fan filming them for next month's OTT:



The trackways, which provide entrance and egress to the woodland, were well used, especially this one, which shows deer tracks as well as the tracks of a sizeable carnivore. We were quite excited at first, but Richard F. says that they are a dog.

CFZ PEOPLE: Dave Braund-Phillips

I spoke to David earlier, and he sounds considerably better. If all goes well, he should be going home after his ultrasound scan this afternoon.

CFZ PEOPLE: David Braund-Phillips

My nephew David, who many of you will know intends to take over the running of the CFZ circus when he is old and foolhardy enough, is ill in hospital. I spoke to Jessica earlier and Graham and I will be going to see him tomorrow.

More news as and when we get it.

DAVE B-P AND JESS H: The History of the Christmas Tree

A lot of classic folk stories have grown around the Christmas tree. Christ's blessing and gift to mankind in the form of a decorated tree remains in the middle theme of most households, across the world. Many, many years ago when Ronan Coghlan was a wee leanbh people used tree-based stories to teach children about the celebration of Christ's birth. A variety of conifers - such as spruce, balsam, eastern hemlock and the Scotch pine - are used as Christmas trees but the Scotch pine has surpassed the Douglas fir as the nation’s most popular Christmas tree. But in the Holy Land conifers are mostly small and insignificant, and forest few, apart from Lebanon with its magnificent cedars. Even in ancient times forested areas were small. How did the evergreen tree come to become associated with Christmas? Is it an appropriate symbol in Christian homes? Is it fixed in paganism or Christian symbolism? Is there significance to its decorations?

One classic tale tells us about a woodcutter who helps a small, hungry child. The next morning the child appears to the woodcutter and his wife, as the Christ-child. The child breaks a branch from a fir tree and tells the couple that it will be a tree that, at Christmas time, will bear fruit. As foretold, the next Christmas the tree was laden with apples of gold and nuts of silver.

Another legend tells that when Christianity first came to Northern Europe three virtues, faith, hope and charity, were sent from Heaven to find a tree that was as high as hope, as great as love, as sweet as charity, and had the sign of the cross on every bough. Their search ended in the forests of the north where they found the fir, lit from the luminosity of the stars, and that was the first Christmas tree.

Sacred trees in Europe, evergreens were a symbol of rebirth from ancient times. Egyptians brought green palm branches into their homes on the winter solstice as a symbol of life's triumph over death. The Romans decorated with evergreens during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honour of their god of agriculture. In northern Europe the pagans observed the Solstice festival of Jul, a two-month feast beginning in November with prickly pine branches hung around doorways and windows to keep away demonic spirits. But the sacred trees of the druids and Norsemen were deciduous oaks, not evergreen conifers.

The Paradise Tree - from the eleventh century, religious plays called "Mystery Plays" including the popular Paradise Play depicting the story of the creation of Adam and Eve, their sin and banishment from Eden. An evergreen tree was the logical choice for a lush garden tree on this winter festival, and it was decorated with apples symbolizing the forbidden fruit. It ended with the promise of the coming saviour and his incarnation, so gradually flat wafers symbolizing the forgiveness of sins in communion were added to the paradise tree, making it now not just the tree of knowledge but also the tree of life. This resulted in a very old European custom of decorating a fir tree in the home with apples and small white wafers representing the Holy Eucharist at Christmas time. These wafers were later replaced by little pieces of pastry cut in the shapes of stars, angels, hearts, flowers, and bells. In some areas the custom was still to hang the tree upside down.

In addition to the paradise tree, many German Christians set up a Christmas Pyramid called a Lichstock, an open wooden frame with shelves for figurines of the Nativity covered with evergreen branches and decorated with candy, pastry, candles and a star. The star of course was the star of Bethlehem, the candles represented the light of Christ coming into the world, the evergreens were the symbol of eternal life, and the candy, fruits, and pastries, the goodness of our life in Christ, the fruits of the spirit, etc. By the seventeenth century the Lichstock and the "Paradise Tree" became merged into the modern Christmas tree.

Modern Christmas Trees - Christmas trees became fashionable in the mid-1800s. In 1846 the popular royals Queen Victoria and her German prince, Albert, were illustrated in the London News with their children around a Christmas Tree. In America the White House led the way to trees for the holidays beginning with President Franklin Pierce. Despite some congregations' concerns about bringing trees into their religious traditions, trees quickly were adopted as symbols of Christ's Advent.

Thanks for reading, Merry Christmas, everyone and have a Happy New Year

CFZ PEOPLE: David Braund-Phillips (Update)

David telephoned last night. His first day at his new job seemed to go very well....

CFZ PEOPLE: David Braund-Phillips

David, Technical Director of the CFZ and my beloved nephew, starts his new job today. Good luck, mate....

UPDATE

You may have noticed that I have been spectacularly elusive recently. I have an infected cyst on my chest, which will have to be cut out. It is the size of half a grapefruit, and is causing me some considerable pain. I am presently on some very-heavy duty antibiotics, which are making me feel quite unwell.

On a brighter note, David B-P has been working hard on the WW Lineup and running order and we hope to be able to issue both in the next few days....

AN OPEN LETTER FROM DAVID BRAUND-PHILLIPS TO HIS MOTHER AND UNCLE JON

They do exist, Mum; you were right all along - ha ha ha. (EDITOR'S NOTE: One wonders whether Mr B-P had been influenced by the recent article on the life and works of the late Dr D by the eminent - and not late - Dr S).

GRAHAM INGLIS AND DAVE B-P BOTH DREW MY ATTENTION TO THIS

This makes somewhat interesting reading.
10 places it's (almost) impossible to visit

CFZ PEOPLE: Happy Birthday David

David Braund-Phillips, my beloved nephew, and heir to this bloody stupid circus (pictured here with Col. John Blashford-Snell, and some fat hippy in a Crass T Shirt) is 19 today. Happy Birthday, my dear fellow.

MORE NEW ARRIVALS AT THE CFZ

Last summer, Dave B-P, Max and I went to the charity fish auction in Redditch. Whilst we were there, amongst other things, we bought some Ilyodon xantusi, an obscure Mexican goodeid discovered in 1939. Eight months after we bought them they have achieved adulthood, and bred. The adults look like tiny trout, all a speckled, but the babies look like British minnows. Both are absolutely gorgeous....

DAVE BRAUND-PHILLIPS: Bath’s Romans Baths

Last weekend Jess and I went to the Roman Bath in Bath City, north Somerset. It was a brilliant display of Roman engineering. I thought I would share with you a snippet of their industrial technology and a few of my own pictures.

The Roman Baths are below the modern street level and have four main features: the sacred spring, the Roman temple, the Roman bath house and finds from Roman Bath.

The sacred spring lies at the very heart of the ancient monument. Water rises here at the rate of over a million litres a day and at a temperature of 460C. The spring rises within the courtyard of the temple of Sulis Minerva and water from it feeds the Roman baths. There is some slight evidence - an earthen bank projecting into the spring - that suggests it was already a focal point for worship before the Roman temple and baths were built.

Roman engineers surrounded the spring with an irregular stone chamber lined with lead. To provide a stable foundation for this they drove oak piles into the mud. At first this reservoir formed an open pool in a corner of the temple courtyard but in the second century AD it was enclosed within a barrel vaulted building and columns and statue bases were placed in the spring itself. Enclosing the spring in a dimly lit building in this way and erecting statues and columns within it must have enhanced the aura of mystery that surrounded it. Offerings were thrown into the spring throughout the Roman period.

Eventually the vaulted building collapsed into the spring itself. We do not know when this was but it is likely to have been in the sixth or seventh century. The oak piles sunk into the mud two thousand years ago continue to provide a stable foundation for the Roman reservoir walls today.

The Roman plumbing and drainage system is still largely in place and shows the ingenuity of the Roman engineers. Lead pipes were used to carry hot spa water around the site using gravity flow. The spring overflow is where surplus water from the spring, not used in the baths, flows out to a Roman drain.The Roman great drain carries all the spa water from the site to the River Avon four hundred metres away.

DAVID BRAUND-PHILLIPS: A bet about seahorses

The other evening David and his girlfriend Jess were talking about the blog. "I bet you can't just sit down and write a blog about...um SEAHORSES!" said Jess. "I bet I can" said David...

Seahorses; or Hippocampus, which means 'Horse Caterpillar'; are a small unusually-shaped fish that can be found in many areas of the globe. There are two species around British coastline: the spiny seahorse (Hippocampus Guttulatus) and the short-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus Hippocampus).

Both seahorses can be found from the Shetland Isles down the west coast of the UK (and all around Ireland) and along the south coast of England.

There are between 30 and 40 species of seahorses worldwide, and possibly as many sub-species. It is often difficult for scientists to identify seahorses because individuals of the same species can vary greatly in appearance.

New species continue to be found. They live in shallow weedy areas. In winter they move into deeper waters to escape the rough weather.

The point behind the writing of this blog is to make everyone aware of the danger even a small animal like this can find itself in from human threats.

As conservation is becoming an ever larger part of working and learning about animals.

The biggest threats to this particular fish are:

• * The traditional Chinese medicine trade takes in excess of 20 million seahorses a year from the wild and these are used for all types of medicine.


• * The Curio trade takes approximately one million seahorses from the wild a year. Along with shells and starfish, they are deliberately taken from the sea and left to die in the boiling sun. They are then sold as souvenirs.

* The pet trade takes an estimated one million seahorses a year.

These are also very common threats to many species around the world.

There are many organisations doing a brilliant job to help the seahorse, with various successful breeding projects and research activity to give the seahorse the best possible chance. However, as with all things, we have to ask is it enough?

MAX BLAKE NEEDS TO BE CONGRATULATED ON THIS..

We have been keeping quiet about this because a technical paper by Max and Darren is in the works. However, we have been pipped at the post by the BBC so we can go public. The story is also in the forthcoming A&M and reads:

A recent discovery was made in the archives of the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery by Max Blake, one of the best known of the younger brigade of CFZ members, and as I have said on a number of occasions, someone who together with Dave Braund-Phillips will be managing the circus once I've finally retired or died.

Although there have been reports of unknown cat-like animals in the UK on and off for centuries, there has been a paucity of hard evidence. Until now the only reports of specimens actually being secured are from the last 40 years or so. Max has discovered an animal, which appears to be a Canadian lynx, that was shot over a century ago.

He is currently working on a technical paper with Dr Darren Naish that will contain all the details. He has asked us not to reveal anything more until it is published, and we of course agreed. When we are able to do so we shall have more photographs, and all the technical details that anyone could possibly want. Well done, mate.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00w13p9/Autumnwatch_Unsprung_2010_Episode_6/

It is about seven minutes in.

GOOD LUCK DAVID

Readers of the CFZ Bloggo will all know about my dear nephew David Braund-Phillips. He has been my right-hand man for the last few years and today, at the age of eighteen, he leaves home. He has secured himself a technician's job at Stage Electrics in Bristol, and is presently looking for a flat for him and his lovely girlfriend Jess.

I will miss him tremendously but I am also so proud of the dear boy that I could burst!

MAX BLAKE: Livebearer breeding success

You should all have read that back in early June a mini expedition (of a sort) went up to the midlands from the CFZ to try and bring back some new species of livebearing fish for the CFZ collections. Dave, Jon and myself set out bright and early to try and get all the lots we wanted and to a degree, we succeeded.

Two of the rarer species we brought back were Limia grossidens and Xiphophorus nezahualcoyotl. Both Jon and I love Xiphophorus species, and many of the more obscure species have wonderful species names such as X. montezumae and X. cortezi, all named on a Aztec theme. We were trying really hard to breed both species in the same tank when disaster struck and we lost our male X. nezahualcoyotl. Though this is a problem to breeding, we had our hopes pinned on their strange reproductive biology. Like all members of the group, both Limia and Xiphophorus give birth to live young but the females can also store sperm to fertilise future broods. We crossed our fingers and hoped that they had mated before he died.

Just over a month later we had some good news. We had around six fry living in the tank with the adults but due to their very small size we could not determine their species. Eventually, as luck would have it, they were large enough by the time I got down here for the Weird Weekend for me to be able to determine their species. Not only had we bred the more obvious Limia grossidens, whose fry show the black banding and obvious silver spot surrounded by black on their dorsal fin, but we also had 2 fry, probably both females, of the Xiphophorus! The two species had released their fry at the same time and we now have a very small colony of both species living together happily. It will take another year at least before both species get up to full colony status, but more importantly, we need to hope that the Xiphophorus female releases another brood and we get a male this time!

In the meanwhile, if anyone (David Marshall!) knows of someone keeping, breeding or selling this species please get in touch with Jon or myself and you can help us conserve this wonderful species.

SCOLICHTHYS STORIES

As regular readers will know, just over a week ago Dave B-P, Max and I went to Redditch in the West Midlands where we bought some rare and unusual livebearers including this little fellow (and his five companions). This is Scolichthys greenwayi, a small fish from the Rio Chixoy and Rio Salinas system in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.


Well, much to our great pleasure they have bred already and hopefully will continue to do so. This makes eight species of livebearers succesfully bred at casa CFZ during 2010 so far.



By the way, if anyone wants to collect them, we have surplus Girardinus metallicus (yellow form) and Heterandaria formosa....

THANK YOU TO PAUL VELLA

Paul Vella wrote to us the other day to pay his subscription to Animals & Men. He also enclosed a donation, which will cover the expenses of tomorrow's trip to Redditch for the Charity Fish Auction. I will even be able to buy a pie each for Max and David, which will be a jolly good thing because teenage boys get awfully hungry....

Thanks, Paul.