Thyme for a Cumbrian Cassoulet

 

The botanists are trying to confuse me again! The plant on the left used to be known as Mediterranean Thyme, Thymus capitata. It looked like thyme, it tasted like thyme and, as far as I was concerned, it was thyme. Now it has been reclassified as Thymbra capitata. It is still known as Mediterranean Thyme, but also as Spanish Oregano, despite the fact that it looks and tastes nothing like oregano. OK, there are biological differences between the genera, but in culinary terms there's not much difference between Mediterranean Thyme, which was a mainstay of my Cretan diet when I was out there, and good old British Wild Thyme, Thymus praecox britannicus. Both go well with fish, and if you're in France – sausages.

Ishbel and I were wandering around the auction house last week when I spotted a box of pots and pans which looked strangely familiar. “I think those are French,” I said to her, enthusiastically. “Hmm?”, said a man standing close by. Ishbel had wandered off somewhere. I turned a pot over, and sure enough, stamped on the bottom, were the words L'incomparable – Vallauris Co – Made in France. I'd last seen a pot like this in 1969, when visiting the rest of the family, who were living in a village near Toulouse. It was in our concierge's kitchen, and she was making the local variation of the French dish, cassoulet.

Cassoulet has many regional variations, but is basically a meat and bean stew, flavoured with garlic and herbs. Mme. Caner was making hers with local sausage and duck, and the herb she was using was thyme. Anyhow, I bought the pots and pans at auction, and determined to make a Cumberland Cassoulet, using our local Cumberland sausage and a few sprigs of British Wild Thyme. If I say so myself, the result was excellent, and I've posted the recipe in Steve's Wild Kitchen. I'd recommend a good Côtes du Rhône Villages to go with it.

A couple of weeks ago, when we were in Sunderland, I spotted a chrysalis, partially wrapped in a bramble leaf. It wasn't one I immediately recognised, so I put it in my pocket and brought it home. Yesterday morning, I came into my study-cum-lab to find a Red Admiral sitting at the computer. Even at my age, I still get excited by the hatching of a butterfly.

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The cassoulet pot can be found here.

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Steve

Kroustas Forest

Last week we were looking for Griffon Vultures on the heights above Lasithi Plateau. We found some but they were flying very high. This week as we gathered on the forest road we were treated to the inspiring spectacle of nine of these magnificent birds not fifty feet above our heads. Standing half as tall as a man and with a nine foot wingspan they truly are awesome birds. Like all vultures they feed on carrion and will often circle around elderly animals that seem to have difficulty moving. As this accurately describes quite a number of our Sunday Strollers we considered it wise to move into the cover of the trees without further delay.

Kroustas is primarily a pine forest but it was the Juniper that caught the group's interest. Possibly because I informed them that a handful of juniper berries, when added to a bottle of the local moonshine and left to steep, gave a result that was (to paraphrase Douglas Adams) something that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike gin. With Christmas not so far away they fell upon the bush like a swarm of locusts. Still on the Christmas theme, high above our heads Mistletoe was growing in large enticing balls. Although parasitic it does very little harm to the trees and is a net benefactor to the forest. Its berries attract birds, small mammals and insects which increases the biodiversity of the area. An American study showed that twice as many juniper bushes sprouted where mistletoe was present compared with areas where no mistletoe existed. The seeds of both plants being distributed via the digestive systems of birds and small mammals and mistletoe is better at marketing its presence than juniper.

We emerged from the forest onto a rocky outcrop with tremendous views over the lower forest and the Gulf of Mirabello. I placed three of our gentlemen on said outcrop in the hope of enticing the vultures back and went off to study butterflies. Last week we saw the Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) and this week it was her sister, the Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), who was following us about. So, if your name is Vanessa, you are named after a beautiful butterfly. After that, of course, you have a choice of being a burly Russian seaman or a Portsmouth lady of the night, so it's probably best to stop at butterfly.

We then moved off to a different part of the forest, the location of which I will not reveal. The reason being that Steve Lenton, our semi-resident botanist came across a small plant which looked as if it had been dreamed up by the makers of Dr. Who. This was the Cretan Biarum (Biarum davisii) a flower (honestly) that is on the IUCN list as 'near threatened'. The reason it is near threatened is because the major threat is from avaricious rare bulb collectors and hence the reason for not publishing its exact location as it has never been recorded in this area of Crete before. Rare bulb and rare animal collectors are the scourge of biodiversity and should be put up against the wall and shot in my opinion.

Dragonflies were also darting around us, which may seem odd in a habitat that had no rivers, streams or ponds, as dragonfly larvae are aquatic. But all dragonflies have different requirements. Some like to lay their eggs in running water and some in standing water. This particular dragonfly, the Red-veined Darter, lays its eggs in shallow puddles as do all in the genus Sympetrum and when it rains in a forest, shallow puddles become particularly abundant.

The Taverna Bit

Having completed two strolls in one morning we repaired to lunch at the Matraia taverna in Kroustas village to replace any calories which we may have inadvertently burnt off in the preceding couple of hours. A lovely liver in red wine sauce was the special of the day so quite few of us opted to top up our iron and antioxidant levels.

Diary Dates

Stroll #4

Sunday 14^th October

11 am

Almyros Wetlands, south of Agios Nikolaos

A chance to see amphibians, dragonflies and migratory birds.

Stroll #5

Sunday ^21st October

11 am

Bramiana Reservoir

(Details next week)

Not Just For Twisted Women by Steve Daniels  A light-hearted look at life through the eyes of the fairer sex.  Kindle Edition 1.99 pounds sterling (or equivalent). Paperback edition will be available in time for Christmas. Read snippets, samples and stuff at Steve's Books

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LINKS:

Share your nature thoughts, photos and comments on Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Explore the region with the #CreteNature interactive Hiking and Nature Map

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)

Pefki - Top of the Gorge

Last week we were walking down by the White River at Makry Gialos. If we had continued up the gorge this is the village at which we would have arrived. It is called Pefki (or Pefkoi) which means Pine Trees in Greek. The Pines to which the name relates are these, the Turkish Pine, Pinus brutia. Although native to the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly Turkey, you will also find them in Australia and New Zealand and the reason for this goes back a little over 100 years to the 25^th April 1915. Aussies and Kiwis will recognise this immediately as Anzac day which commemorates the Gallipoli campaign where many Australian and New Zealand lives were lost. 

One of the major landmarks of the Gallipoli landings was a lone pine tree and in the aftermath of the campaign soldiers took cones from the battlefield and planted the seeds back home as living memorials to the fallen. Which is why you have Turkish Pines half a world away in Australia and New Zealand.

But to pleasanter thoughts – this is the track down into the gorge and immediately we have an old friend waiting for us on the path. This is the Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta and it is one of two Vanessid butterflies that often accompany us on our walks in the winter. The other is the Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui and if you remember back to last year when we were coming down the Milonas Valley both species were flitting about all over the place. This winter I haven't seen a single Painted Lady. They are a migratory species that come over on the African winds but this year, not a sign of one as yet. Keep your eyes peeled.

I mentioned the Mandrake in passing last week and here, under this Carob tree is one of the most magnificent I've ever seen. Mandrakes are part of the Nightshade family, a somewhat diverse group of plants containing such poisonous personalities as Deadly Nightshade, Henbane and Thorn Apple as well as the table friendly Potato, Tomato, Aubergine (Eggplant) and Bell Pepper. Which begs the question; how can such diverse plants be grouped together in one family? Nowadays we are using genome sequencing to see who is related to whom but since the 19^th century we have been using floral formulae and the formula for the Solanaceae family is this:

This tells us that they have bracts, are actinomorphic, hermaphrodite and more than anyone other than a dedicated botanist would want to know about the number and position of their sexual organs. Fundamentally, plants are grouped together on the basis of similarities in their anatomies which have evolved over time rather than on the basis of how they affect us. In practical terms it means that you can take any flower, determine its floral formula and work out to which family it belongs.

Whilst we're on the subject of flowers come and take a look at this Mediterranean Spurge a moment. Not the most pleasant smelling plant to us but irresistible to flies as you can see. We've long known that colour and smell attracts insects to plants and when the insect goes in for the nectar it gets coated in pollen grains. These are then transferred to the next plant it visits and thus it becomes pollinated. But not all plants are pollinated by insects, some are pollinated by birds, so how do you attract a bird and repel an insect (or vice versa)? Here's the trick. Plants have a gene that controls a protein which determines the shape of the cells on the petal surface. Turned on it produces conical cells which an insect can get a grip on, even in windy conditions; turned off and it produces flat cells that insects just slide off. This Spurge has gone one better. See how the surface is covered in tiny hairs which the flies are using to anchor themselves into position? Perfect target audience marketing – attract them in with the correct fragrance and make it simple to obtain the product. We could learn a thing or two here. After all, flowers have been in the selling game a lot longer than we have.

That's enough science for one day I think, let's just mosey on down the track awhile and enjoy the rural landscape. Most people, I suspect, miss this part of the gorge. They're either hurrying down to get to the spectacular rock walls below or thankful to have nearly reached the top if they're coming the other way. But this is really quite an idyllic rural stroll in itself with the gourds out drying in the sun and the chickens ambling about in the winter warmth. Crete, there's nowhere quite like it really.

The Extra Bit

Solanaceae: Characters, Distribution and Types

We had rather a lot of plants this week but I've just one more to share with you as it's a type of Stonecrop (Sedum sediforme) which hasn't been recorded in this location before. 

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LINKS:

Share your nature thoughts, photos and comments on Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Explore the region with the #CreteNature interactive Hiking and Nature Map

The Snail That Built A Mountain

Forgive me if I break into song as we commence our walk into this gully but it’s such a beautiful morning – Sweet painted lady, seems it’s always been the same, getting paid for being laid, guess that’s the name of the game - that’s better; nothing like a bit of Elton John to start the day. OK that was not a bit like Elton John. 

Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui  and Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta

The reason for this sudden burst of exuberance is the orange and brown butterflies that are accompanying us, Painted Ladies, which we saw a couple of weeks back pollinating the ivy (Life in the Uplands). The red and black butterflies that are also joining us are Red Admirals and the two are closely related. The Painted Lady is Vanessa cardui and the Red Admiral is Vanessa atalanta. I find it intriguing that one should be named after a lady of the night and the other after a high ranking naval officer, a sort of lepidopteran equivalent of the actress and the bishop I suppose.

Italian Vipers Bugloss, Echium italicum

Last week we were chatting about Iron and how it travels from the rocks to our blood but this week I want to have a little look at another chemical element, Calcium. Take this knee high plant down here for instance called Pale Bugloss which looks a bit like an artificial Christmas tree. If you look closely at the stiff hairs on the leaves and stem (a characteristic of the borage family to which it belongs) then you are looking at calcium in action, the element which gives life its hard bits. In our case that means bones and teeth and it gives plants the ability to stand erect.

Snails of the Helicidae family

Snails of course, such as these of the Helicidae family which I’ve assembled on this bit of limestone, use it for shell building. This is recycling in its purest form as limestone, which is primarily calcium carbonate (calcium + carbon + oxygen), is formed from the shells of marine molluscs. When the sea bed was lifted to form these mountains, about 26 million ago, the calcium in the sea shells formed these rocks and the land snails are now taking it back by rasping away at the algae on the rocks and munching the plants that grow on them to make their own shells. And so the elements go round. There are 94 naturally occurring elements in all and nature re-uses most, if not all, of them in continuous cycles.

Lichens

Come on, I’ve spotted a cave, or leastways a medium sized hole in the rocks, I suppose one could call it a cavelet. Let’s explore it. Ooh, lichens. Look at this doughnut shaped one up here. Lichens grow very slowly from the middle out. This one is so old that the original ancestor has died and we’re looking at the succeeding generations. And this one at the back here seems to be almost glowing green. Unlike plants, lichens have no waxy cuticles or pores that they can close to keep out unwanted substances so they are very useful for monitoring air pollution. If you take a piece of lichen, dissolve it in acid and analyse the resultant liquid you can determine the types and amounts of elements that shouldn’t be there. In 2015 for instance the discovery of heavy metals in the lichens of Washington State in the US was traced to a zinc and lead smelter across the border in Canada. ^[1]

Jumping Spider of the Salticidae family

Ever get the feeling that you are being watched? There’s a little jumping spider on that rock down there and I think that he’s got his eye on us, or to be more precise, at least six of his eight eyes on us. Why so many? Recent research has found that the front pair are for sharp, colour vision including ultra violet. The next pair, the anterior lateral eyes, are detailed motion sensors. If you cover only the main eyes the spider will back away from an approaching object but if you only cover the anterior lateral eyes it won’t. The other eyes are thought to be less detailed motion sensors giving the spider a wider field of awareness but research continues on that score.^[2]

This seems a nice place to stop and admire the scenery so we’ll continue on down the gully next week and see what else we can find.

The Extra Bit

It’s that time of year again when the oranges are ripening and it’s time to make some marmalade. When I mentioned this last year so many people asked me for a recipe that this year I’ve decided to publish a supplementary blog post complete with recipe card and a cut out label for your jars. So if you’d like to follow me to the kitchen I’ll show you a simple way to make delicious marmalade that keeps for a couple of years (if you haven’t eaten it all by then)…Steve's Simple Marmalade

^[1] Science News: Lichens are an early warning system for forest health

^[2] Live Science: Why Spiders Have Eight Eyes

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LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

See detailed pictures at http://www.inaturalist.org/login  (search - people-stevedaniels-observations)

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)

The Art of Stream Dipping

To read in other languages use:  Google Translate and copy and paste the web address into the translation box.

We haven’t been out to Red Butterfly Gorge  together for almost a year so it’s high time we took another look. Particularly as last time we went hiking up the track to the gorge (like most tourists do) and missed all the wonderful stuff not a hundred yards from the car park.

Slippery Jack, Red Admiral, Nematocera Larva

You’ll have noticed that we’ve swapped the sweep net this week for a pond dipping net and scientifically selected glass sample jars (yes, I know yours has still got a Hoeseradish sauce label on it but I assure you that I scientifically selected it myself). Now the idea is that you wade out into that raging torrent using the wobbly stepping stones provided whilst I sit here on the bank with the magnifying glass and the inspection tray (or upturned one litre ice-cream tub lid as it’s otherwise known). You’ll need the net and this big stick as well. Steady as you go. Place the net on the floor of the stream and muddy up the bed in front of it with the stick. Marvellous, now bring it back to the bank – watch that stone it’s loose – oh dear, never mind, you held onto the net and that’s the main thing. We can get another stick and that sunny branch looks ideal for drying your socks. Let’s have a look and see what you’ve found. Now that looks like the larval form of one of the Nematocera, a suborder of flies that includes mosquitoes, gnats and midges among others.  We’ll have a few more tries and take the results back to the lab. No, you go, you’ve already got wet feet.

Anemone

I think we’ve got time to explore some of this lovely pine woodland on the way back. The Red Admiral Butterflies are out in force as usual and the ground is quite littered with these Slippery Jack mushrooms. As you can see they decompose quite rapidly and the caps soon become quite slippery and slimy. Some species are considered quite a delicacy in parts of Eastern Europe but I believe they only pick the very young ones. Ah, here’s a flower that can sometimes be confusing. This is an Anemone (Anemone coronaria) which comes in violet, pink and white and looks very similar to the Persian Buttercup (Ranunculus asiaticus) which comes in yellow, red and also white. Anenomes however have this whorl of leaves a little way below the flower and no sepals below the petals, Persian Buttercups are the other way around. We’ll get these samples back to base now as I’ve a new project for you to get involved with and I’ll update you with the ongoing projects we’ve already started. Don’t forget your socks, are they dry yet?

The Snails and their initial routes

Last week , as you no doubt recall, we were looking at animal personality and I thought it would be fun to have a closer look at snails and see if they have individual personalities. Are some more adventurous than others? If so does this swashbuckling, devil-may-care attitude make them more attractive to other snails or does like attract like? Accordingly I grabbed a handful of snails that were all resting together under a rock up the lane and put them in a box in the garden and waited to see what would happen. As you know, snails are hermaphrodite so we don’t have to worry about the whole male/female attraction thing and that’s why I’ve given them non-specific gender names. Let me introduce you. Ashley took a day or so to get moving, found a plank of wood on the ground beneath the box, explored half the length of it before coming back to the other end of the plank the following day where it met up with Vivian who’d also found the plank, travelled a few centimetres to the right and thought “that’s enough exercise for one week” and stopped. 

Ashley and Vivian with Big Mark and guests

The following day two baby snails had appeared between them and there the group has stayed and started receiving visitors in the form of two Julid millipedes (whether by invitation or not is unclear). Beverley has had a hard time of it. It also took a day to get out of the box and the following day was lying on its back directly beneath it looking rather forlorn. Since then it has climbed laboriously back into the box and out again, fallen over once more, closed its shell in a fit of despair and finally attached itself to the underside of the box in an apparent sulk. Sam on the other hand is the most adventurous of the bunch. First out of the box within six hours it sprinted three metres to the base of the grapevine on the first day, explored the right door jamb the following day, found this unsatisfactory and on the third day I found it lodged behind the air conditioning pipe 1.58m above the ground. After such a marathon eight metre trek it’s taken a four day break to catch its breath. And Leslie? I’m still looking. Six hours after the start it was still happily in the box, the following morning nowhere to be seen having been away on its toes overnight. 

The Boys

So that’s the snails, come upstairs to the terrace and I’ll update you on the other ongoing projects. You met Alice and Beatrice, our female House Sparrows, last week; now meet the boys. I haven’t named them yet as I can’t quite distinguish between them. Maybe you can? Those of you who know your European sparrows will have spotted that they have brown caps and white cheeks like the Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) rather than the grey caps and cream cheeks of the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). The truth of the matter is that the distribution of sparrow species and subspecies in the Mediterranean is highly complex and I suspect that only DNA testing and cladistic analysis  will sort out the true relationships and ancestry of these birds.

European Wasp

As to our other ongoing projects: the moss continues to grow in the mossary but the insect egg still hasn’t hatched and I’m beginning to see why this was such a passing fad in the nineteenth century. Even in the days before television, watching moss grow couldn’t have been the most exciting of pastimes. And on the Phenology front I’ve added the European Wasp (Vespula germanica) to our January sightings which still leaves us with a couple of dragonflies and a grasshopper to try and spot on the insect list before the end of the month.

Well I think that just about wraps it up for this week so until next time – happy hunting.

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LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)