Catching up

I think you will be giving up and not visiting any more, it's been so long since my last post. I just re read it and saw what I said about finishing the memory book that weekend. LOL, that was a joke - I spent 3 to 4 hours a day for the following 10 days before it was finished. It was worth it though - my parents are so thrilled with it. Today my sister visited and brought it with her so I could see the finished result (I'd had the book sent direct to Mum and Dad). It is lovely, good quality & beautifully finished.
I've had a few excursions now that Mary is back from Canada so at least I have some photos to post but have done very little to the robin. Now I have no reading glasses for a few days so cannot draw anyway. Our excursions include the usual walks, the local nature reserve, another nature reserve near Lymington and our big trip to London. I will save London for another post and just show you a few nature pics today. It was a thrill to see deer so close at Fritham, a Black tailed Godwit (and the Kingfisher again) at the reserve. We saw the heron at Eling and the little bird, which I am assure is a Wheatear, at Lymington.

At long last.......

........I have started my new drawing - I've only done the line drawing but at least it's a beginning, getting me out of the rut. I hope now that I can get on with it quite quickly though as I still haven't finished the memory book I won't get much done this weekend. I'd like the memory book to be finished and ordered by tomorrow night and that's going to take all my time - fortunately Clive is away this weekend (in Pontsticill) motorbiking with some friends, so I am free to spend all day on it and forget about cooking etc.

Anyway, here is the line drawing - I have enhanced the lines for your benefit, they are actually very faint. My thanks to Jan for allowing me to use her lovely photo.

Memory book and macro pics

Another week plus has gone past since my last post, I can't keep up with things recently - the time is going so quickly.

I have been busy the last couple of days, working on a "memory book" as a gift from me and my two sisters to my parents on their diamond wedding anniversary. Sixty years of photos to look at, decide which ones to use, either photograph them or scan them, edit any which need it etc. We then had to fathom out how to actually design and make up the memory book - I'm using the company that prints my photos so we were able to upload the photos direct from my computer but that in itself took close to a couple of hours. My sister travelled down from London on Saturday and was here for eight hours! We were working solidly for virtually all of that time - and we are only half way through! So I have the rest of it to do, placing the photos and adding captions. I'm very tempted to order a book for myself - it was great looking through all the pics, brought back so many memories. But don't expect much in the way of posts this week either!

I'm still getting to take a few photos while Mary of Forest Walks fame is away on holiday, just local ones but there's plenty to take. Here are some of my recent favourites. The hoverfly was minute - barely longer than my little finger nail.

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.

Egrets and a butterfly

Same excuses, no ink and too busy! This weekend I had my nephew's wedding to attend, the reception was at a lovely golf club, the grounds looked out to Southampton Water in the distance. During the afternoon and evening I watched three cruise liners depart, including the Queen Mary 2.
Here are a few pics from this afternoons trip to the local nature reserve. We saw beautiful egrets, a cormorant, lapwings, pretty butterflies and dragonflies too. We explored a little further than we have before - big mistake as neither of us has a great sense of direction (actually mine is non - existent) - we ended up walking for at least an hour and a half, totally lost at one point!