Absolutely stunning pics everyone!

Liz, Precious is beautiful

Sorry, what plants and flowers do the bees visit for honey in your area? For instance it's mainly heather in Scotland etc.

Another ANZAC day in WHite Cliffs.
Lest We Forget.

Lovely photo Copago.

Tori, how fabulous, let us know how you get on with them. I'd love a bee hive but have no idea of how to look after them.

Part of my collection of Swarovski figures

Wow, they're gorgeous, Christinap!

Copago, your ANZAC Day weather was obviously much better than ours. The boys had been pestering the boss and I to take them to the Dawn Service at the Shrine Of Remembrance this year (you have to be there around 5 am). We decided not to go after looking at the weather forecast. Good move, as it bucketed down! Next year.

Now I understand.

We have 80 acres in hay that has a lot of clover. An orchard full of apple and plum trees, and many native flowering plants in the 120 acres of woods.

We checked in on them tonight. The Queen has now made her way out of the "Introduction Cage". That is a cage with corks made out of marshmallows. The bees work their way through the corks (generally in three days) and during that time they adjust to her pheromone, if successful they accept her, she lays eggs, and young appear.

With all those lovely sources you will have gorgeous honey!
Christina contact your local Beekeeping Society. They are great at starting you off and giving advice. Even if you go for the natural methods, you need to know how to farm the honey etc. It is really worthwhile.

It was a nice day, Mike! My son laid a wreath in memory of his grandfather and had a tear in his eye (which made me get on too). Was a proud Mum.


Here's a feral pig in a cloud of dust

I quite liked having the old tall ship in the same photo as a very modern bridge. This is in Dublin.

An impressive building, the Corn Exchange in Bishop's Stortford

Thanks ren I'll give them a ring

Loving your Ireland photos Sue. The tall ship one is lovely.

That's an impressive photo Satguru. Never been to Bishops Stortford, must check it out.

By the way, Photobucket is awash with complaints about the new editing system.

My latest hobby is for geograph.org.uk which (this was before Google covered everything) asks everyone to take photos and post them on the national map so it becomes an archive of the present and past. That means until I run out of steam I just look at the map and see where I haven't been yet. I started from when I went digital in 2005 so only include those, as film photos were few and far between and means I had to start all over again from scratch for them. I can only do anywhere ambitious after the clocks go forward so finally been let off the rope at the end of March and taken full advantage of it.

This one would also have been at Blarney Castle, the grounds were gorgeous.

Mole Hall in Essex, only a couple of miles from Stanstead Airport. It's a wildlife park, but the grounds are very lovely, especially in Spring.

Sue, once again your photos are lovely. Such great composition. Here's a photo I took recently (same day? ;)) of the same view but far away.

Taken from the train as it went over the bridge, so a bit grubby - grubby windows!



If you look closely though, there's your bridge, and the chimneys, and the tall ship!

Great photos, everyone. Precious says "Thank you" to playmate for the compliment

This pretty tree caught my eye when I was out walking this afternoon.

All the photos are beautiful. Slightly depressing as well, since we had another big dumping of snow yesterday. And then it poured rain. The grass looks a little greener though, which is good lol.

Have they not knocked down those chimneys yet, Chavs? I'll be quite sad to see them go, they've always been a key part of my hometown's skyline and it'll be strange not to see them anymore.

For a charity Auction at a rodeo we were at recently.

Hi homie!
They are still there, yes, just not chugging out smoke anymore, but I expect their full demise is inevitable. And wrong, so wrong!

Put it this way, I went to school in Clontarf (on the seafront). I saw those the Poolbeg chimneys every single day of my school life (16 years), not to mention all the other occasions they popped into view. I guess keeping the structure will be too costly to warrant the expense, but I really will be sad to see them pulled down. Just call me sentimental ...

A field in Much Hadham

Chavs, great that you have the same photo. I took it on Easter Sunday when I was on a coach tour of Dublin. We had stopped to take photos of the famine statues. That afternoon we also went to O'Connell Street and got tangled up in an IRA demonstration and march by the Post Office. I didn't get a photo of that.

The famine statues in Dublin, the faces are haunting.

I think this was the nicest view from Wednesday's trip

I had never heard of the famine statues in Dublin. I went to wikipedia to read more. Absolutely heartbreaking but something worth remembering. Excellent picture.

One of the statues, close up.

The famine played such a big part in the history of Ireland, I think those sculptures deserve their city centre placement. Personally I think they are fantastic. I love the expressions and attitudes of despair that are so well portrayed in the gaunt figures. They seem to just capture perfectly the desolation and utter despair that I always feel the victims must have suffered.

We were obviously told a lot about the famine and none of had known that it was only the poorest people who starved, the ones who ate nothing but potatoes, that other people had no problems.