Bit late! Welcome all to June.

Just before it started pouring.

They have just opened a butterfly sanctuary nearby, and that is where this picture is taken.

More from the centre of my universe, Finchley Road, Golders Green

Giant dog invades garden
or Honey I Shrunk the House

Apparently LARGE bandicoots are still classified as marsupials. (Stupid sign at the entrance to the hospital where I work).

MG, bandicoots are said to be a common host for ticks. Are ticks a concern in your part of Australia? They aren't in Melbourne, but I have seen animals on Wilson's Promontory and further east with ticks attached.



This is the Lifesaving Club headquarters on suburban Williamstown Beach, but those who watched the Australian comedy/drama "Seachange" will recognise it as the Pearl Bay Courthouse.

Yes, we do have ticks over here. They are particularly bad at the venue where we hold our annual croquet and archery tournaments. We even give out awards to whoever picks up the most ticks at the club! Touch wood, I've never had one!

I loved "Sea Change"!

Went up to Hong Kong Park today and took some pictures of this gentleman.

Spanish Liz can tell you about him. But it was quite an honour to meet him.

This is what is under the statue

Oh, I actually quite like that one ren, he looks like he's standing on a hill in the trees, instead of on a plinth. I could rattle on for hours about this gentleman if anyone in interested, promise I won't if you are not

Well please do Liz

I month ago I related that I was going to get a new radio transmitting Watt/Hour Power meter and showed a pix of the old one. Well, they finally installed the new one. If you haven't seen the digital radio meters yet, here's a look-see:

Wallsend Forum shopping centre on a Sunday morning



There are only 3 or 4 shops open

Another view of Golders Hill Park on the side of Hampstead Heath

The older suburbs of Melbourne were once criss-crossed with back laneways for the discreet collection of...errr...nightsoil by a contractor with a horse and cart.
With the advent of the sewer system, some lanes became disused, or used for illegal activities. Many of them have since been sub-divided and sold to adjoining landowners.

In this suburb, street frontages are very small, so the lanes are maintained to allow vehicle access into the back yard if the property owner wishes. So where there was once an outhouse, there is now a small garage or carport.

The Mangoes are Coming, Chapter Two

Bishop's Sutton in deepest Hampshire

I received one of several large pumpkins that had grown wild in my brother's yard. Not being one to waste Nature's Bounty, I made this Thai-style curry of pumpkin and prawns. Very filling with rice!
Pumpkin soup will be the next recipe; I might even attempt a Pumpkin Pie in honour of my American team-mates.

This little guy was happily eating away

Another insect visiting a flower... This time, it's bees on a saguaro cactus blossom, the Arizona State Flower -- they're in bloom this time of year.

I love saguaro cacti! (And their shoes!)

Cacti have shoes??

Junior celebrated another birthday this week, and has invited a gang of buddies around for the afternoon. Here's the tummy-filler they will tuck into sometime around 4 O'clock:



Luigi, kit-kat, smarties, chocolate .... and underneath it all even a bit of cake! I expect the pate to be polished clean by the time they're finished with it!

Santana that is a seriously tasty looking cake! Save me a piece!
I've been away for a few days, and managed to take a few pictures.

Durham cathedral

Oh Jane how nice you went to Durham! Did you manage a photo of the university? It is so unusual.
That cake certainly is -most serious! Wow Toni

I fancy a Kit-Kat now!

Saguaros do - they're the woody scar tissue which grows around holes in the cactus - and some birds like to nest inside the cactus, making shoe shaped holes.

Mollie caught chewing the ear off one of Lady's soft toys

Gasp Zebra, that is soo lovely! Where is it?
Thanks Ertrum. I learn so much here.
Gorgeous June thread so far.

Toni, that's a magnificent cake!

Santana, I hope your little birthday guests were safely in their own homes before the sugar rush kicked in!
Zebra, your lovely photographs are such a welcome addition. I hope you will give us a few lines of description.



"Who, me?"
Snowflake is the most adventurous of my new "chooks".

My daughter made me this lovely fascinator for Mother's Day. It is a hairpiece to be worn with my Victorian costume (as members of the Sherlock Holmes Society, we attend a number of events in period dress each year).

Thank you! It's on my Main Street in my town in Missouri.

Unfortunately, Ren, we didn't get to see the university. It was a four-day coach trip, visiting different places each day, and there wasn't enough time, really, to see everything in Durham.

We have seen some lovely stained-glassed windows, but this one was one of my particular favourites, in Hexham Abbey

Oooh Jane that's lovely too.

We also visited Alnwick Castle, where they filmed some of the Harry Potter movies. Unfortunately we didn't have the opportunity to see all of the castle, but we did manage to visit the gardens, attached to the castle. I thoroughly recommend the gardens, with stunning water features and hornbeam tunnels.



This is a photo from above, of the Poison Gardens. Obviously, you need a guide to tour the poison gardens, and there was no time to have a look around it. So we took a picture instead

Great photos so far this month everyone! I've not posted for awhile as my camera has been acting up. Even this one I've had to "play" with to make it halfway presentable...



Precious, visiting her friend Buddy, two houses along. She pretty much takes over his front porch.

Monday Sunset

Part of my "Holiday breakfast", however, back to sensible eating now!

The rain and numerous appointments stopped me in my tracks for a bit but back on the road again, this is Forest Row in Sussex.

I used to live just down the road from Forest Row

A photo I took a few days ago. I really like it.

I didn't know you lived over here as well Liz, what a small world! I have loads more on my Flickr site if you want some more memories.
This is the exit from the M25 motorway in Godstone.

I lived in East Grinstead and Dormansland over an 18 month period in the eighties. My mother lived in Dormansland, and later South Godstone

I learn something new here every day! Is that where she was from before going to Canada? It's very nice round there anyway.

Walking beside one of the local ponds today and noticed movement around my feet

Ok, I give. Are those black blobbish things frogs? (I can't find my glasses at the moment lol)

Zebra: I can see why you like it. Love the shadows/texture : )

Jane: looks like a very busy and enjoyable trip!

With my second grandchild due in a month, I've found an interesting shop to browse in.

An Aquilegia waiting for a bee.

I can see the frog!

Before I joined the site to cover as much of Britain as possible I'd never have taken bus stops, roundabouts or hedges, but when you're on the road and there's nowhere else to stop you take whatever you can to add another 1km square to the map. This is in East Grinstead but could probably be anywhere outside London as our bus stops are unique.

Couldn't be Northampton, our bus stops are red. And often have a front to them as well as a back. But they do have those uncomfortable perches - they make waiting for a bus seem as though it's taking an eternity, whereas in fact it's only forever.

Ah, privatisation- I forgot about that! Before 1964 there was a national bus stop design actually issued by the Department of Transport, although not of course for London Transport which was separate, but don't know if anywhere else was excepted. But with privatisation National Bus which had the plain white stops is now becoming replaced with local companies which I wouldn't have really noticed unless came across an unusual one like yours.

Enlarged picture of frog. They were about 1cm long



It was quite difficult to get a good image of them as they moved quickly, probably to get away from Lady our dog who I had to hold back with one hand to stop her eating them while taking the pictures with the camera in the other hand

lol Gees (re: the dog). Cute "phibbies". I've never seen a black one in my part of the world.

Love the little froggies! I saw a huge bullfrog the other day, but couldn't get a decent photo (still having camera woes).

Satguru, I don't recognize where in East Grinstead that bus stop is. Were you on the road coming in from Forest Row?

Anyway, you asked about my mother, and I needed to find and scan this photo before answering you.

The answer is "Yes" my Mum grew up in Dormansland (she was born in Walton-on-Thames) and it was in this building, The Memorial Club, in Dormansland, that she met a Canadian soldier during WWII. He was my Dad, of course They married in the church in Dormansland, and once the war was over Dad came back to Canada first, followed by Mum and my sister, who was about a year old when they made the journey. I came along a few years later, in Canada.



(I took the pic on one of my trips to England in the early eighties, before I moved over there myself.)

Forest Row? I've spent many hours at the Isle of Thorns in Forest Row.

And a couple of years ago I spent a few hours at the Llama Park. I don't suppose there was a Llama Park at Forest Row when you were there, SpanishLiz, but please say hello to this resident.



My team's mascot, Ralph, also lives in that Llama Park. And for anyone who has no idea where we're talking about, the forest at Forest Row is the Ashdown Forest - it's where Winnie-the-Pooh lives!

Such a handsome Llama, Flops

Love the frogs! Our summer monsoon storms will start up soon (fingers crossed) which will wake the desert toads from their underground slumbers -- always so cool to hear them croaking

A pic from this morning -- the daytime moon over the desert.

Flopsy - Ralph is gorgeous, and isn't Winnie-the-Pooh lucky to have such nice company around him !

Pdaz- Beuatiful pic of the moon.

A few fishing nets in the port

The front of the Wills Building formerly the Newcastle cigarette factory of WD & HO Wills now converted into flats this is a listed building so the exterior has stayed as it was

Szabs -- at first glance, I thought that was an octopus!

Here's a pic of Agua Volcano in Guatemala from a recent trip.

Saw this little guy this morning -- a ground squirrel (the Sonoran Desert version of a chipmunk) up in a Palo Verde tree, looking for seed pods...

PDAZ - What a great shot, he is adorable!!!




On top of the hill of the town of Vélez Blanco (Almeria - Spain) you can find this Renaissance castle which is an extension of the original Moorish alcazaba, which was built by the Marquises of Vélez Blanco in the early 16th century.

Nice to see a bit of historic Sussex, and here's some historic Oxford, I took this house when I lived there between 1988-9, it's in the centre near the river.

Received from my Grand-daughter for Fathers Day the image has been adjusted for a softer focus

My daughter's (Willow's) new shoes. Would you believe, they have a built-in bottle opener in the heel?!

Good grief! I hope she doesn't try going through airport security!

CRAZY!!!!

I can't remember when these familiar batteries vanished from Britain but they were exactly the same all my life. You see some good memories out in the sticks sometimes, although if anyone went in and asked for them they'd be pretty disappointed.

Cool shoes. I only wish I was young enough to wear them.

David, it is only the packaging that has changed, try Googling Eveready Batteries.

... they just keep going and going and ....
(Or is that a US specific ad campaign?)

This little craft offers joy flights over Port of Melbourne and Port Phillip.
I've never felt adventurous (or wealthy) enough to try it.

Back to what was my local park. It does change every season.



The Everready seems a puzzle as they became Energizer in 1992 when bought by the American company. They did keep the name as you said as they sell them online looking quite different, but haven't seen them in shops as Energizer seem to have rebranded them all there. But they indeed are still very much available online, which makes me wonder why I haven't seen the brand in shops since Energizer took them over, but they are widely available otherwise. Has anyone seen them in a British shop as I certainly haven't?

Eveready(no longer Everready) is very big in India, thats their biggest customer I think.

I don't know the answer about Eveready but I do know the Energizer bunny is useless.

I saw that as well when I did a search. They changed the name altogether for most places and changed the spelling where they kept it the same. That'll do a lot for product awareness...

Szabs: I can't decide which one of your last 3 I like the best - they are all fabulous

Mothergoose: I have only one word for those shoes... "eeeeeeeek" lol

Dukes Pond Sunset Silhoutte

Mollie waiting patiently at the back door to get in

Sweet Mollie! Love the pic. Love all of yours, too, szabs

Here's Precious, thinking about chasing Tigger off his own doorstep! She did it too, a moment or two later, cheeky kitten!

Today, I allowed aggressive thoughts to guide me....
"Hey, Old and Fragile - you're for the chop! You thin and puny ones - no-one wants you! You who are too left-leaning, I must exterminate. That goes for your extreme right chums too.
Scram, sucker!
And those who remain will now be drenched with foul smelling brew."




So once again my annual rose pruning is done.

Lol We had a typhoon in the area and the wind did mine for me
My poor mangoes are drooping and the big tree lost a huge branch.The roses look very sick.

Thanks Jake & Liz

What a place to have a cat nap!

That's a pretty contented-looking cat...

A now rare and sadly damaged old sign to the post office in West Hendon.

Turret in Newcastle's Medieval Wall showing a nice arrow slit

This is the road leading to the bottom of the road where I lived for 28 years, and my current optician is just over the main road from here which was why I was there myself.

I had a look for Eveready yesterday and found them for sale in my pound store, the packaging etc is red.

This is my new kitty



His name is Ben...I've had him for about a month and a half, now.

How lucky are you! He is just gorgeous!

Oh, he's adorable!

What a beautiful kitty!

From this morning's hike... This is the cornerstone of Shaw Butte Observatory, a Hohokam (Native American tribe) site from the 12th or 13th century. There are more petroglyphs on the stone in the right corner of the picture. It's a pretty interesting site -- found this on the Internet:

http://www.amug.org/~sbplum/Siteinfo.html

I want him!

Edit: Not the rock, the kitten!

The Pet Rock fad is over, eh?

Part of Grainger Town area of Newcastle where the some of the older buildings were cleared and replaced by modern ones

Ren is correct. In some parts it has become the generic word for batteries.

Toronto Island Airport taken from the CN Tower

I have been passing this building in the centre of Newcastle for the last 58 years and for a time in the late 50s visited it with my Dad as one of the companies he worked for had offices there. It was only when I looked at this picture I saw the clock on it

I love Op-shops! Paid the princely sum of five Australian dollars for this pram, which included an alternative stroller module. Now daughter won't have to bring her own when she comes here for a shopping trip.
Not a mark on it, not a safety clip out of place - all I had to do was polish the chrome and keep my cats from nesting in it!

That's interesting. The links I found were all abroad, but suspect that's a Channel Island thing as I would guess Energizer have individual contracts for each country and the UK can't use the old name but Channel Islands are independent. Update, I've just found this site selling them in the UK. They may be imports but am now on a search myself in the shops. It's a shame they changed the name though as Eveready isn't the same even if still available. Full range

Underground overground Wombling free, Wimbledon Common.


Wimbledon Parkside by satguru, on Flickr

A moth photographed today while walking the dog. The moth is a Burnet, possibly 5-spot,probably Narrow Bordered 5-Spot, Zygaena lonicerae.

These are verdin -- little chickadee-like birds native to the Southwest U.S. They are hanging upside down on a light fixture in our atrium at work.

I'm currently on the last full day of trip to New York, so expect a whole
load of pictures when I get back to the UK. One here to whet your appetite,
taken yesterday when I went to Coney Island. (Yes, I did have a hot dog at
Nathans! ) This is the famoUs Cyclone rollercoaster. (No, I didn't have
a go on it. I didn't want to lose the hot dog. )

St Giles, right in the centre of Oxford

Another insect found locally



I think this is the Common Blue Damselfly

A planned view in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Many more were planned but only a few ended up being created.

When out walking the dog yesterday I realised I had nearly stepped on something looking back this was what was nearly squashed

Lovely pics
Hoping that my computer woes and camera woes are getting better and I can join in again soon :p

Here's the view next to yesterday's

More nature



A Butterfly this time
Meadow Brown Maniola jurtina

I've had my camera nearly six years, and only just found the "Fireworks" setting - Doh! I'm not convinced it's any better than my earlier method, though.

Canada Day Fireworks, 1 July 2011



(By the way, don't we need a July thread ?)

Great shot Liz.

This is a photo for the ladies, the perfect retail outlet for you.

June being done (How fast was that?) Here comes July.( Sumer is a-cumin in la-la-la)