Puzzles

[Brian Ellis]

The photo came from Philip MacDougall.

Puzzles by proxy

[Giles]

Time for a puzzle.......
Ivy with a problem?

[Roma]

Eaten by roe deer?

[Giles]

No, it's too bizarre to guess, really.
The sheep climb on to the walls, then walk along the top grazing the ivy.

[Ragged Robin]

How amazing!  I always thought ivy was poisonous   

 

[Lesley Cox]

I thought so too. Perhaps it's only poison ivy, which I believe is a Rhus species?

[TheOnionMan]

I thought so too. Perhaps it's only poison ivy, which I believe is a Rhus species?

Poison Ivy is Toxicodendron radicans (older synonyms Rhus toxicodendron, Rhus radicans).  Doing garden cleanup, there are always a billion chokecherry tree seedlings (Prunus virginiana ) that germinate under large trees, presumably from bird droppings when resting in the large overstory trees.  Well, the same is true of poison ivy.  I have eradicated all of it in my property, but it remains a constant battle, with lots and lots of woody 1yr seedlings spread by bird droppings after they eat the white berries.  The trouble with yanking out the little stick-like seedlings (mostly the darned chokecherry), some are poison ivy seedlings, impossible to tell before anything leafs out, and I get poison ivy breakouts on my hands (don't like using groves), all parts of the plant, woody bark as well, have the volatile irritating oil, not just the leaves.

[Ragged Robin]

On a walk, just after the rain, and looking up above just couldn't believe my eyes

A spider in the sky - I wonder why  

[Anthony Darby]

Girocopter?

[Ragged Robin]

Not sure they would allow girocopters in this part of Switzerland - helicopters yes.....but it's not that either   

I thought you would have got this one straight away Anthony 

[Anthony Darby]

I have seen them using helicopters to dump fertilizer on conifer plantations in Glen Lochy.

[Ragged Robin]

Amazing what helicopters can do......

This helicopter was transporting planks of wood to construct the next phase on a a stairway up a rock face, dangerous work balancing on the edge.  It has a clue attached to it and was used as a method to get from A to B which is relevant to the puzzle 

[Anthony Darby]

I'm afraid my climbing friends would be horrified. Almost as bad as to "bolted" climbing routes in the Costas in Spain, they would say. I'm sure this is for a reason Robin.

[Ragged Robin]

The local Swiss are very safety conscious and are, in fact, wearing all the gear, they are used to working in small spaces on rock and this is a staircase that is being extended up the rock face to join a bridge at the top, which is a viewing spot for the waterfall below so people can climb from A to B....and this is what the spider in the puzzle is doing, but how?

[Anthony Darby]

Spiders can span gaps two ways: 1) the long way, down, across and up dragging a thread which is then pulled to create a thread spanning the gap or 2) pulling out a loose thread which catches the wind and is blown until it snags a twig on the other side of the gap and is then pulled taught.