Found three treasures while litterpicking, including another Mesolithic worked flint - 7 from the same area so far (2 x blades and 2 x points/barbs were notably close finds). This one is the same grey flint, and it's been worked as a core, but only about a third remains because it broke from intense heating. Archaeologists sometimes record these heated flints as "potboilers" but I'm not convinced that applies to this artifact. It seems to be part of a core with usable flint that was put beyond use either intentionally or in a natural wildfire. I was already beginning to wonder if a tool - spear/harpoon - was mislaid and I've been finding some of the pieces. Now I'm wondering if a campsite was lost or even a human life: landslip, wildfire, hunting accident? Impossible to know but I can't help speculating.

#archaeology #Mesolithic #lithics #larking #litterpicking

Sunset seen while out litterpicking yesterday evening.

#sunset #clouds #larking #litterpicking

Two tiny worked Mesolithic flints, probably used as barbs on spears. The smallest, which I found yesterday while litterpicking, is 11x6mm. Apart from me, you're the first people to see the one on the left for over 8,000 years.

#lithics #Mesolithic #archaeology #larking #litterpicking

Guess who just found the teeniest Mesolithic microlith while litterpicking on a sunset walk? Me! Strange to be the first person for over 8,000 years to see this human manufactured tool.

#larking #lithics #Mesolithic #litterpicking

A large, rusty, rear horseshoe with quarter clips and square headed nails. No earlier than 1830s but likely more recent. Found in woodland on a disused and overgrown farm and logging trackway while litterpicking. A lucky find.

#litterpicking #larking #horseshoe #30DaysWild

I don't usually bother the fossil Friday tag with common Wenlockian marine fossils, but for the second of 30 Days Wild, the Wildlife Trusts' annual event, meet Big Dave the Dawsonoceras who was an orthoceratoid (like a squid in a conical shell) who swam in a warm shallow sea about 430 million years ago. Big Dave was a peak predator in his time. After Dave died and his shell came to rest on the seabed it became home to many smaller encrusting colony animals such as bryozoans. Fossilised Big Dave is about 10x5x4cm and the largest Little Dave bryozoan covers about 5x1.5cm of the surface. You can see the internal structure of one of one colony of encrusting animals in a photo below. I found Big Dave when I was walking and litterpicking in the woods. He was sticking out of a muddy bank of glacial till, which around here is a type of soil-with-rocks deposited by glaciers at least 150 thousand years ago.

#30DaysWild #larking #WenlockWednesday #fossil #fossils #FossilFriday

I need to break my addiction to picking up random fossils now I can't give them away via local educational programmes. I just bent down to look at strata when suddenly a rugose coral appeared in my hand... closely followed by several different species of brachiopods... oops. Although this solitary horn coral does have a colony coral epibiont so maybe I'll use that as an excuse.

#WenlockWednesday #fossils #larking

Recent litterpicking included a cute plastic elephant who is now in a local charity shop, and a Castrol GTX oil tin that appeared to be 40-50 years old.

#litterpicking #larking #elephant #ToyPhotography

@Jon6705 I'm in, as you know, because I litterpick all the time anyway. It's useful, community-building, fun, meditative, and gets me outdoors (or gives me another good reason). And I never know what I'll notice when I slow down to pay attention to the little things.
#litterpicking #binfluencer #walking #WalkingMeditation #larking

Plastic dragon who crossed my path and is now pinned to the village notice board.

#litterpicking #larking #dragon

I was litterpicking a shop/cafe car park last month and made a gem of a find, real junk jewellery. 15 x 10mm. I hope whoever lost it wasn't too upset. Then I was litterpicking in the woods yesterday and I found another purple gemstone. 35 x 20mm. If I was superstitious I'd probably believe the universe was sending me a message, but what? Wear more purple? Oscar the Grouchy trash god loves me? Crossstitch a bejewelled icon of St Tobermory of Wimbledon? And will these puns get me condemned to eternal dalmatian?

#litterpicking #larking #WombleWages

Owl pellet, probably from a barn owl, which I found up on the clifftop moors above Wdig (Goodwick) beyond Stop-and-Call. This pellet is regurgitated fur and bones from a small rodent, basically the indigestible bits. 3.5 x 2cm. (I couldn't think of a cw that wouldn't suggest images worse than the reality.)

#Pembrokeshire #Wales #UK #owl #owls #BarnOwl #OwlPellet #larking #bones

Went for a walk in the woods.
Best moment: seeing a roe deer. Also fabulous fungus.
Worst moment: misjudging the stability of a gravel bank and landing sock-deep in river mud, lol.
Worst find: plastic barrel, with "corrosive" warning label, fly-tipped next to a stream where "corrosive" contents were probably dumped.
Best find: fossil rugose "horn" coral with encrusting sponge epibiont.
Pick of the litter: 2016 "strike gold team GB" Strongbow cider can (no Olympic archery medal since Alison Williamson in 2004).

#rambling #hiking #fossils #WenlockWednesday #mudlarking #larking #litterpicking

So, @stylo_the_unicorn nudged me to post images of the glass bottle shard I found, which to my eyes appears opaque dark blue but when held to the light seems a transparent mid green. There's no direct sun through the thick altocumulus stratiformis opacus clouds (sorry, I collect clouds) so capturing an image was difficult and, interestingly, the camera's colour correction software is processing glass that looks green to my eyes as a redder-browner colour. Any explanation of the apparent colour change in the glass, please?

#glass #chemistry #physics #light #finds #mudlarking #larking #litterpicking #help #clouds

I need help from glass and/or science understanders, please. I found a fragment of glass bottle base. The glass appears opaque dark blue (not iridescent) but when held to the light it appears transparent mid green. It also appears to be exuding an orange powdery substance, which I assume is an oxide. I'm therefore wondering if this is dichroic glass, although it doesn't look like any contemporary dichro I've seen. I think it's the wrong colours to be a Tyndall effect, but might Rayleigh scattering o something similar produce this effect? I have no idea what I'm talking about here, obviously.

#glass #DichroicGlass #chemistry #physics #light #finds #mudlarking #larking #litterpicking #help

This morning's litterpicking find was a Lithuanian receipt up a hill in the Welsh Borders. A return train ticket from Vilnius to Trakai. What story shall we tell to explain it? A globetrotting Russian spy keeping tabs on Ukrainian refugees? A USian tourist on a speedrun through Europe? A twinning committee? Trakai isn't twinned with anywhere in the UK yet so maybe we should make them an offer? Sveiki lietuviai!

#LitterPicking #UK #Vilnius #Trakai #ticket #TicketToRide #TrainTicket #larking

I love this 🧵 from Lara - I didn’t know that many bollards are ex-cannons 😯
But I’m more surprised to learn that there’s a Twitter account especially for #bollards! @WorldBollard@twitter.com 😲

RT @LondonMudlark@twitter.com

A spot of streetlarking. Two late 18th century cannons on a London street. They were once street bollards so it’s unusual to see both ends… read on 1/4

#mudlarking #mudlark #larking

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/LondonMudlark/status/1614945073325608960

RT @LondonMudlark@twitter.com

A spot of streetlarking. Two late 18th century cannons on a London street. They were once street bollards so it’s unusual to see both ends… read on 1/4

#mudlarking #mudlark #larking

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/LondonMudlark/status/1614945073325608960

RT @LondonMudlark@twitter.activitypub.actor

A spot of streetlarking. Two late 18th century cannons on a London street. They were once street bollards so it’s unusual to see both ends… read on 1/4

#mudlarking #mudlark #larking

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/LondonMudlark/status/1614945073325608960

RT @LondonMudlark@twitter.com

A spot of streetlarking. Two late 18th century cannons on a London street. They were once street bollards so it’s unusual to see both ends… read on 1/4

#mudlarking #mudlark #larking

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/LondonMudlark/status/1614945073325608960