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the odd couple
here's a couple on a walk. the lady seems to be striding on whilst the chap behind looks a little annoyed. another walk spoiled by a petty argument perhaps. or maybe she's said something about the eye on his jacket.
actually, looking closer at the picture, it looks like the chap is carrying a rather large knife.
geocachers on the ridgeway
the motorway of its time is pretty empty these days
wicken fen
i had a meeting near cambridge yesterday so i got up 3 hours earlier than i needed and got to Wicken Fen by 7.30am in the morning for an explore and a photo.
the windmill is a wind pump don't you know
i spent ages seeking the bird hides which were quite well hidden. after playing seek the hide for a while i found one and went in for a my petrol station bought prepacked chicken sandwich. the only birds i saw were 2 pigeons and a crow. oh well.
when i arrived i went the wrong way and ended up going on the adventurers' trail. although i didn't see many other adventurers. so it probably should have been adventurer's trail. am i being preposterophe ? that's a new word i just made up, combining apostrophe and preposterous.
eventually i found the nice boardwalk bit which lead to the windmill
but not before seeing lots of nice ditches
here's a final picture of the wind pump
harcourt aboretum
we went to harcourt aboretum on saturday. a lovely place and well worth a visit. although we did get worried by about a dozen brave peacocks during a picnic making me even more unbearable than usual !
readers help needed !
our friend stephen loves this tree, but doesn't know what it is. can anyone help ?
here's some close ups of the blossom which might help. drop me an email or leave a comment if you know !
warburg nature reserve
we went to the warburg nature reserve yesterday and it's lovely
as with all good walks in a wood the girls ended up carrying huge sticks for no apparent reason.
very pointed out we'd seen lots of natures (plural) that day. and we had. including: a dead rat (on the road) and squirrels (dead and alive), various little birds, lots of red kites, a herd of stampeding deer in the wood, rabbits and probably other things i forgot.
somewhere in the lakedistrict
i've still got a pile of photos to post going back almost a year. it would be poor to post something over a year old (even if i've not posted it before), so i should really clear out some of the backlog.
anyway, here's a picture of the lakedistrict from last august !
kezia in a tree trap
here is kezia in a tree trap. these things can close up at any moment, so she looks justifiably frightened
stingers
kezia got stung by stingers/stingas last weekend and i found a doc leaf for her. she thought it brilliant. (because they are brilliant).
the nature inspector
esther and kezia have magnifying glasses as part of their going-for-a-walk kit. the idea is they are meant to be used for looking at small insects.
instead esther decided to do some detective work to see if she could fathom which animal had been here recently.
alimentary my dear whats on.
london wetland centre
as a celebration that kezia has finally got through the chicken pox, we went on a family outing to the london wetlands centre. it's really rather good.
here's a hide
and here's the girls in masks they made
definately worth a visit. beware of camera lens envy if you do go though - it's absolutely packed with photographers with long lenses trying to get their perfect bird shots.
pond dipping
here are kezia and esther pond dipping at the london wetland centre.
here is some of their booty - water snails, shrimps and a funny fly lavae thing
very blue sky
click for big
crazy red moon
i don't usually post at this time of night, but i thought i'd share this photo of the moon i just took with my Sony compact camera out of the window. no editing, just a massive crop.
i'm quite pleased with it. now if only i had a telephoto lense for my Canon and knew how to drive it properly ...
a nice slice of grass on Southwark Bridge
here's a row of grass on a bridge outside Ofcom spotted by a work colleague
no one seemed that bothered though.
egg
esther and kezia spotted something on the floor
it was a blue speckled broken egg. i took a photo as someone might know what sort of bird (or other egg laying animal) it belonged to
domestic rainbow
lucky people who live at the top of this hill - they've ended up with a crock of gold in their front garden
daffodils
esther and jane in a daffodil field.
click for big
warning - do not try this at home
touching the sun can be very dangerous and should only be attempted by trained experts.
industrial strength cress
the bad news is we ran out of bread. the good news is we've got you 8 silver bowls of cress.
fast stream
click for big
english country garden
click for big
the king and sky
click for big
kissing gates
one of the great things about country walks are the kissing gates. here are jane and esther awaiting their obligatory (obli-gate-ery) kisses
outdoor plants
this year's christmas tree experiment was a great success. people were asked to put their christmas trees outside in the street about a week in to January and suddenly london looked like a pine forest.
all the trees are gone now, but i noticed this morning that a variety of plants in pots have appeared along my route to work. some are doing better than others.
mobile trees
i've mentioned about the early morning moving trees before. here's another one.
lifting the moon
did you know that the moon is getting quite old these days and isn't working too well anymore ?
once it's going it's fine, but they have to lift it by crane in the evening to get it started.
farm track
click for big
danger, heavy plant crossing
is it just me or have plants and trees recently started to climb out of the ground and move around ?
thanks to my new train timetable, i now get in to London just before 7am which means i see things that others don't. like the trees going back to bed after their nights roaming the streets.
here are a couple of trees easing themselves back to bed:
and here is a little tree in a plant pot with some small plants still waiting to jump back in:
sunrise
i've not been looking forward to my morning commutes, especially since the timetable change (which has resulted in much more crowding and a much more unpleasant journey).
however, this morning i got a seat and saw this excellent sunrise. it hasn't been light by the time i've got to London for weeks, so this is a sure sign that summer is on the way !
a welcoming bridge
some paths and bridges are just crying out to be followed. this was one looked like it would be great to walk along. the kids thought so too.
but we snubbed it as it wasn't on our route.
there's probably a message about life in there somewhere.
leaves
these leaves must have fallen off a tree a few days ago. they've been run over so many times they are now part of the road
i suspect this is what is commonly known as a 'road tattoo'.
sunrise
there was a smashing sunrise this morning as i came out of Paddington Station. The sky was glowing red, not that you can tell that from this picture !
the half haycorn
esther shouted "come quickly daddy, there's something we need to photograph".
we both ran like the wind to get to the scene. it was half an acorn (haycorn) on a leaf.
esther was very proud. this is her picture.
kezia's first flower
kezia was a good girl in a flower shop yesterday and the lady behind the counter gave her a free flower. she was very proud of it and very carefully carried it to the front door when i got home last night.
it's a pity shop keepers don't do that kind of thing for growned-ups. it would be great if you got to the checkout in the supermarket and they said "well done, you've been really well behaved whilst doing your weekly shop. have a milky way".
but they rarely do.
coat in a tree
it's a shame that all the leaves are dropping off the trees. so, how does a tree keep warm in winter ? simple. wear a coat.
tiny flower on a big street
i had to get down low for this photo. much to the worryment of passers by.
the flower itself was about 5mm long, so this photo is probably actual size.
plastic flowers
here are some plastic flower petals on the floor. i included my boot-toes as i thought you might be interested.
if you aren't interested in my boot-toes then just look at the top half of these photos.
winter bulbs
here is a light bulb in a flower bed. also in the bed is a cigarette and a cigar. i look forward to seeing how these develop. i think it might be slightly foolish to plant them as the weather is turning cooler.
but maybe they are winter flowers, with the bulb providing light in the dark evenings and the cigarette and cigars providing heat.
sunflowers
when jane and i were out festival-ing, esther and kezia went to stay with their friends katie and olivia. here is katie with a sunflower.
blue flower
it's always nice to see some nature in the middle of london. here is a blue flower sticking through some railings.
this is a 'Morning Glory' according to my work colleague Harry. i hadn't realised they were so temporal. if i had i would have spent longer than 5 seconds taking the photo.
here is a nice little page with a movie about them
jilted
here's a very sad thing. it's a red rose that's been abandoned and walked all over in the rain outside paddington station. there's definately a story behind this.
trees
look. blue skies. in a forest. in england. lovely.
town gardens
walking down a residential street i spotted this rather nice gnome tableau. very attractive i'm sure you'll agree.
tree moving
it's not clear if this tree is going up or down. such is life for the city tree.
