Congratulations auntie, maybe you need to be granny now?

Waterperry house and teashop just outside Oxford

Thanks for the congratulations and to Satguru for the suggestion of a name change.
For years I've been "Auntie" to a niece and nephews and now to their progeny.
Then I was dubbed "Auntie" when I was the oldest competitor at weekly pub Trivia.
"Auntie" is a term of respect given to female elders by indigenous Australians, and my team-mates of Indian Gang tell me their culture does the same. I just love my username!



This depression in the ground was once a lily pond in Williamstown Botanic Gardens. Eventually it developed leaks and was put on a master plan for refurbishment. A prolonged drought and resulting water restrictions have brought it to this state.
I'm hoping I'll be able to take my grandsons to have picnics and watch the goldfish as I did as a kid.

Congratulations from me too Auntie.

Another photo from the Babbacombe model village, this one a working waterwheel (although I
rather suspect it was driven by a motor.) The attention to detail is very good throughout the
whole place.

A pretty little butterfly.

It's a good thing I mentioned it as I didn't know that auntie, not the term of respect bit anyway. I could do with a new name people actually understood but once you've entered it the first time it's too late.

This is Beacon Hill in Lewknor on the way to Oxford.

Reflections of summer



In the grounds of Wallsend Hall

It took me well over 5 years to discover my little camera was able to work from a fast moving car, to prove it this is the West Wycombe junction on the M40

Great discovery David, but I hope you were not driving!

Santana: ooooh, my favourite berry. I only wish they'd realiably survive our winters here, sigh

David: I don't see anything "wrong" with your username. In several ways, I suspect it quite suits you : )

Gees: "upon reflection", I've decided your pic is very very verdant (yes I know, poor attempt at alliteration)(oops and there's another one lol)

Zebra: Loved both your pocket watch photo and the one of the Pearly Crescentspot (Phyciodes tharos), but for different reasons. The one of the butterfly is so perfect that I wonder if you didn't apply superglue to get it to stay "just so" on that flower (giggles, not being serious, just slightly envious).

Auntie: adding my congratulations on the happy event!

It's so difficult to eat a doughnut without getting covered in blue sugar.

Gorgeous photo Chavs! Oh those colours!

I love these close ups - and that's a beautiful photo, Chavs, just lovely.

Oh thank you for those nice comments, you are making me blush - I wish I could take credit for nature!

... but then you'd also have to take the blame for it. And I really don't want to be responsible for tornadoes, typhoons, tsunamis, et al.

haha! Good point.

Fabulous photo Chavs.

Congratulations Auntie. I am called Aunty Sue by a friend's children except the children are now in their 30s and still use the term.

Thanks Jakeroo, my name came from a quote, probably by Ramana Maharshi but standard Vedic teaching, when the outer guru teaches he is only pointing you to the inner true teacher, which is the satguru. It basically means whatever you can learn from outside you have the final answers yourself.

As for the driving, having seen someone take the complete length of a few motorways from the car I was taken to Oxford by my father a few weeks ago, and tried a few out of the window to see, checked them on the camera and they seemed OK, and were when enlarged. We went again near there on Monday and as I get a red square on the map for every km (it's metric although we're not here) I opened the window and took one as often as I could, and got myself many more than usual as if I drive myself I stop every mile or so which slows me down and takes a lot longer.

This is a typical shot of west London, the Uxbridge Road in Southall. Middlesex was developed after London as the docks meant the east was occupied first and the west really only grew up around a few small towns in the 30s when the trains brought huge industrial estates with surrounding housing estates for the workers to the whole west side, which was also more expensive to live in as the smell from the river was usually blown east so the gentry stayed to the west. That isn't the case now as the river's been cleaned up but the line between the poorer east and west remains to this day.

Nice ripe blackberries from points south(should I be green with envy) here they are still "very verdant"

Main central bed which I keep seasonal

Wow, lovely! Welcome Christinap So glad you made it. I used to live in Essex, but my garden never looked like that!

Lady looking very sorry for herself diagnosed with Kennel Cough this afternoon and confined to house and garden for at least a week

Aw, sorry to hear that Gees, she certainly looks a bit down.

I hope we see Lady looking better soon Gees.

This is the art deco Gillette building in Isleworth, currently undergoing renovation.

Precious likes to help with the recycling...

ha - that's bought a smile to my face.

We went to the Esse Heavy Horse Show. The way out was on a private road through the grounds of an old pumping station. We rounded the last bend and came across this amazing field of poppies. From the normal public road running past you couldn't see it at all.

Lush!

A picture that I took yesterday in a small town near mine. The site I used to upload made the bricks look really weird...strange.

It's because the forum software is forcing the resize rather than using image software to do it incrementally. Forum and browser code is not designed for images and can distort them badly, as has happened here. Much better to use image software and if necessary take the size down in a series of increments, e.g. from 4000x3000 to 3000x2250 to 2000x1500 to 1000x750 to 640x480. That way you can see if any distortion is creeping in and reduce the increments still further. Then upload the small image and link to that.

This is my version of your image taken down to 640x480: http://i54.tinypic.com/4s0hf8.jpg