egret, heron and swans

I've got myself in a muddle - the swan photos were taken before my Wales trip, the heron and egret after. The afternoon we went to the pond the Cob was having a session of preening, splashing and flapping his wings - a fantastic sight. Watching the swans and their seven cygnets throughout the summer has been such a privilege - I know I'm going to feel really sad the day we go to the pond and they're no longer swimming about.

I shan't have much to post over the next three weeks, my dog walking friend and fellow photographer and wildlife enthusiast is off on a fantastic holiday to Canada!

When I view my blog, sometimes it's not showing the photos - can others see them?

Wales weekend

Apologies that I haven't updated my blog for a while, a combination of several day trips, and then the last five days in Wales have kept me busy. I went to Wales with three friends, one of whom has a motor home. We went primarily for a big dog show and stayed on site at the Royal Welsh showground near the village of Builth Wells. There is an interesting looking quarry on the hillside above the campsite - when we returned home I looked it up on the internet - it is Llanelwedd quarry. It has provided the stone for many of the buildings in Builth Wells and had the first occurrence of laumontite in Wales. Most of the weekend was spent lazing about or walking the dogs on the hillside though I showed Taivas on the Saturday which typically produced the worst of the weather. My friend kindly ran Taivas for me as I'm struggling to get around the ring at present. This combination of me showing and her running worked well, Taivas qualifying for Crufts for the second week in a row. We had eight dogs with us, all of them more or less behaved themselves!

A magical afternoon

I don't think I've stopped smiling since yesterday afternoon - a quick trip to the local nature reserve and we saw a kingfisher. Not only saw one, but it perched in front of us long enough to get some photos. A simple pleasure maybe but for me it was very special. Then a heron flew in too! I expect you have guessed that I'm still not drawing but I hope you like these photos. The Beautiful Demoiselle visited my garden this morning and Tom the alpaca was at the gardens I visited last week, oh and what I think is a meadow pipit was on my walk this morning at Kings Hat. It obligingly stayed still just long enough for me to get a shot, though from a long way off.