Welcome all to a new month. Of course we are expecting great things from the Olympics visitors among us!
So, on your marks....

A group of self seeded opium poppies.

shhhhhhhhhh - call them Oriental poppies instead LOL!
Anyway, they're gorgeous : ) Love your fence too

Hmmmm and where did the seeds come from I wonder? !

Possibly the bird seed I put out every day. Either that or blew in from somewhere.

Thanks Jakeroo. The fence is made out of salvage floor boards. Cheap way of doing it when you need a lot, very hard wearing as well and ideal for putting climbers up.

Aha! So you admit you are feeding a habit?

They are beautiful.

This country lane could be virtually anywhere in England, and is however next to the prairies on Dengie Marsh in Essex.

During recent strong winds in the UK, this tree came off second best.

Martin! You were sadly missed! Welcome home.

Here is the other plumage of the variable oystercatcher at the Smithfield rock pools. They are called variable oystercatchers due to some being all black and others black and white.

They are lovely birds, and that is another great photo Howie.

Canada Day fireworks, as seen from the end of my street.

What a fabulous photo.

Thanks Christinap. It was a really great show, and that was one of the prettiest of the lot. I was lucky to catch it.

Why, thank you!
I haven't had much to post lately nor had the time to do it.
I think I found Wally/Waldo though:

This Mickey Mouse was purchased from Disneyland (obviously ) for me by a kind cousin more than 30 years ago now. He's looking well, just had a new nose

Spanishliz, great shot!

I agree, it is a great shot. Fireworks are very difficult to capture.

Not currently an Olympic Sport, but you never know, it might make a come-back.

Christina, I love that pic. They should definitely bring it in to the Olympics. They look so good! I like the horse in the red - there's something extra refined about him/her, maybe it's the way the hoof is delicately raised, is it a royal wave?

It could be the Bristol City colours, of course.

Was that Bristol City, Martin?

Thanks Chavs. The red horse was slightly smaller than the others, and they all bowed on command as well. I think they could definitely have it in the Olympic opening ceremony.

Yes Chavs, it was at a Bristol City match.

As for the jousting, how about having that at the end of a football match instead of penalty shoot-outs? There's plenty of room on the pitch, we've seen that different coloUrs can be worn and it might give England a chance of winning!

What a good idea.

I've never seen photos taken with me or taken them myself of fireworks without a good deal of light persistence, that would have needed a very fast setting and if not taken with a tripod as well is even more impressive as I've tried myself many times and without the right kit it can't be done- I had a go new year's day this year if anyone remembers.

This is a field in pouring rain in Avington near Winchester

I just put my Canon Rebel on the Sports setting and took loads of photos, handheld. A few of them were good

Always useful to know what can manage the tough shots, fireworks are a test of a good camera as such little light combined with a fast exposure stretches them to the limits.

SpanishLiz: You have a Rebel? Am jealous!

Satguru: were you under an umbrella when you took the pic? Because when I try photos in the rain all I get are water splots lol. Lovely photo by the way, quite "ethereal" : )

We're no doubt about to get a huge thunderstorm here. Will try for pics of either lightning (although it's not even close to dark here yet) or hail. Am suspecting the latter, since the temp dropped about 6 degrees in the last 15 minutes lol

Martin, I'm Irish but I grew up in Clevedon, if you know it? My dad was a big Bristol City fan. Still is! He looked like a wally on a weekly basis.

not a very good photo but here is a spotted shag at the Smithfield rockpools

Loving all these birds, Howie. How beautiful he is.

I live in South Bristol, about 10 miles from Clevedon so I know it very well. I've just bought a
season ticket for Bristol City. It's the first time I've done that so I hope they don't let me down!


Here's an attempted photo of some fireworks I took earlier! Nowhere as good as the one from
Spanishliz but an interesting effect none the less.

Ducklings on the brook we pass when out with the dog.

Here is a picture of some scuba divers caught on the rocks.

I was standing under a tree for that one but also depends if the wind's blowing the rain towards you or not which is what causes all the problems, which I have had when out in the open. It also steams up the lens if really bad.

This is the railway looking towards Finsbury Park.

After the spotted shag last time, why not have some little shags from the Smithfield rock pools as well?

Howie, your bird pictures are amazing. (& I've never seen an all-black Oyster Catcher before so that was a treat).




Oh great! I'll be willing them on.

Do you live close to these rock pools Howie? You are lucky to have this on your doorstep, such lovely birds and such good photos.

Rayleigh High St this morning - Police outriders for the Olympic Torch relay, the torch is just round the corner behind them about to come into sight. I've never seen so many people in the High Street, they were ten deep in places.

Everywhere looks better from a bridge, even Stroud Green

The rockpools would be less than a 10 minute stroll away, depending on how long it takes to cross the main road.

Amongst my self seeded poppies is this one. I've never seen one quite like it before. That colour yes, but with conventional petals, not looking like this.

I went to London on Thursday which was the day that London's newest
building - The Shard - was inaugurated. It's the tallest building in Europe
and will be opened to public early next year. I couldn't fit it all into one
photo from where I was standing but I'll be back in London on Tuesday
so I'll try again then. At least I got the pointy end in!

I saw The Shard several times when it was being built. Makes you dizzy looking up at it. Did you see the photos the other day of the window cleaner who got into difficulties right at the very top, his platform was swinging around all over the place, must have been terifying. I've been to the top of The Gherkin, and the views are stupendous, must be even better from The Shard though.

It's interesting what you can see from bridges, I don't know whose garden this is but they are clearly used to people looking in

That poppy is simply amazing,Christina!

I'm going to collect the seeds and see if it comes true from seed. A big patch of those would be quite spectacular.

Not just birds at the Smithfield rock pools, here we have a purple rock crab, photographed through the water.

Wow, the water must be so clear and clean there, that's lovely.

We've had this hen pheasant around the garden a lot in the last few days. I'm wondering if she has chicks somewhere nearby.

I'd quite forgot about The Shard and it wasn't until I was on my way to London that I saw it
mentioned in the BBC news. That's when I decided to find it if I had the time. I haven't seen
that video yet though I can imagine how scary it must have been. He certainly earned his money
that day!
It would be good to see London from the top to see how the view compares to New York from
the top of the Rockefeller Centre and Berlin from the TV Tower. (One way to overcome any fear
of heights I might have had.)

The main reason for the trip to London was to visit the RAF museum at Hendon. They have
dozens of aircraft that I didn't think I'd ever get to see in the flesh (or metal, wood and fabric).
It was good to see a Chipmunk there. It was one similar to this that I had my first ever flight
in.

Today we went to the local food festival...

More of Stroud Green

Another day, another photo. A traditional house and garden in Thames Ditton

Another aircraft I was fortunate enough to fly in many times was a Slingsby Cadet glider like
the one below. One flight ended early when the towing cable broke when we were half way up.
Luckily, we had enough altitude to be able to do a circuit of the airfield and land again. My
fellow Air Cadets asked if I'd been scared but it all happened too quickly to be frightened. I was
more disappointed about having my flight cut short but I got to go up again later in the day.

Oh satguru that is so pretty, just looks like a chocolate box picture. Lovely to see those can still be found.

Great photos!

We got stuck in a bit of a traffic snarl crossing the top of Toronto yesterday, and kept seeing this fellow alongside us. Snapped him from my back seat vantage point.

Nap time at Caroline Bay yesterday.....

I spotted that garden straight away, besides the house which is quite unusual they'd put an awful lot of effort planting the garden just right to fit in. Every bunch was arranged exactly and they also managed to get it all flowering at the same time which needs a lot of knowledge as well.

Here's another one near Richmond

My pink buddleia has definitely liked the rain this year

I bumped into this happy looking ogre near the Houses of Parliament yesterday. I'd vote for him!

This is Hackney Wick by the Blackwall Tunnel approach road

I always like roads taken from bridges but there was a bit in the way of this on the Blackwall Tunnel Approach

If you are not captivated by the main object in this photo you will notice a little cushion starfish, again at the Smithfield rock pools.

Molten sulfur coming out from the rocks in Kawa Ijen (Ijen volcano), Java, Indonesia. It was relatively safe inside the crater but the smell (like rotten eggs) was appalling. Many Indonesians in the area cart large lumps of sulfur out of the crater as their employment. REALLY tough work.

Loving all the photos... the variety is wonderful.

Incredible that sulphur! We sprinkle powdered sulphur around the fences to keep out snakes. Presume its the same.The colour is amazing.

Yes, one and the same, ren! The poor guys that carried it out of the crater in huge chunks did it by having two large wicker baskets between a pole. The pole went over the shoulders. We watched at the weighing station and the weight of sulfur each man was carrying was between 80 and 100 kg (175 and 220 lb). They made this trek into and back out of the crater multiple times per day in really poor quality air. If you look carefully you'll see some orange colour in with the yellow - just to the right of my friend taking the photo. That's the molten sulfur coming out of the ground. It turns yellow as it solidifies.

Just to prove I can even manage a reasonable photo in Hackney. I'm sure I've just insulted a few people there but expect more people leave too soon to get that attached to it...

Yikes, followed by awesome. The only two words I can think of to describe your photo Mike!

Are you really taking a photo of me?

Good one, I like that.

Mike - awesomme photo.

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The recent heavy rain has made the soil so loose that a good gust of wind brought this old apple tree crashing down this morning. I was cross as I'd been trying to grow a rambling rose up it. Still, hopefully I can save the rose. It snapped the parasol on the way down and just missed the seat by a whisker. Lucky really, if it had gone the other way it would have taken a shed out.

Ooh, dramatic! I hope you can rescue the rose.

My own rambling rose turned 21 this month.

Just to be clear, I mean my daughter; I haven't actually named any of my plants. (Yet).

It's very rare we get modern new houses built here any more, most are copies of workman's cottages from the industrial revolution time. But these have just gone up in Hackney so it is possible.

I think I can rescue the rose. I had a look and the roots are still in place, so cut it back, get an arch or something and it should be OK.

Lovely looking cake, did you make it?

A slight change from birds to travel photos from my 2010 trip. Here we have Dome Rock on the way to Phoenix, Arizona. Taken from the bus while going from San Francisco to Lubbock.....about a 37 hour bus trip.....lol

Lubock, Texas, home of Buddy Holly.

Great photo Howie, you can imagine the cowboys riding along there. Don't know about a 37 hour bus trip though, imagine you had a numb behind after that.

That was just the beginning but each subsequent bus ride got shorter and shorter with the last one being about 8 hours. Luckily for most of the time going across the USA I had no one next to me which made it easier to change positions to get a little more comfortable....lol

Great selection of photos so far! Love those chairs (formerly) underneath your apple tree, Christinap! (& hope you manage to save the rose)!

Here's a shot of the pond in our village park, taken with my mobile phone in the middle of a misty rainshower:

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Howie I hope you saw that you are a Roll of Honouree. Please go and post a pic in there!

Congratulations on the Roll of Honour Howie, well deserved

Congratulations on the Roll of Honour Howie, well deserved

Don't know how I managed a double post there! Never mind, just take it as double congratulations lol.

Santana, I've been out this morning and cut the rose back to around 4ft, tied it up to some stakes, and the roots are fine, completely undisturbed, so it should be OK. Once we finish chainsawing the tree I'll get an arch or pergola or something. Gave the chairs a good look over as well and not a scratch on them, which really was very lucky.

Love that picture of the lake, very romantic looking.

Sounds like the rose will be ok, I'm glad! The cake, by the way, was made by my Mum - granny's prerogative.

Congratulations, Howie!

This fabulous old car was in the car park at a country show we went to recently. Still in daily use and the owner has had it for the last 45 years.

Another photo taken from the bus. Not really sure how I managed to get this river as the bus was travelling at whatever speed it was moving at, there were vehicles going past us in the opposite direction, there were trees and signs on the roadside but I still got the river and hill in the positions I hoped for. This is in Arizona between Phoenix and Flagstaff.

37 hours in the bus? And I didn't think California to Texas should take that long, but don't know the whole coast to coast. I did a small version back in 1980 and don't think we spent more than a few hours on any of the bus trips as we took a plane for the longer hops. But if it's a whole day where do you sleep? I can't sleep sitting up, meaning on the flight home I didn't sleep for maybe 36 hours altogether as a result and took weeks to recover.

This is the monorail linking the two terminals at Gatwick Airport.

I left San Francisco at 10pm at night on a Friday, went down to LA with an hour stopover, then west to Phoenix and north to Flagstaff before west again into New Mexico and Texas. Spent 2 nights on the bus though we stopped at some places in the early hours for 5 to 60 minutes. Arrived in Lubbock just after 1pm on the Sunday. Just try to sleep on the bus in between stops.

Congrats Howie (I'm a bird fan too.. um the kind with wings lol).

Santana: fabulous photo and would make a great jigsaw puzzle!

This is a farm near Reigate, the camera packed up on the next photo but as it's doing it regularly I now carry a spare memory card, and although it took four more bad photos before alerting me I swapped it over and got 46 more. I may have to get a new camera now as it can't keep doing that and get away with it every time. It actually finds a way of mixing the new photo with another one before stopping altogether and need to wipe the card every time it does. If anyone knows what's happening or had it as well it would help.

It was my mum's 80th birthday yesterday & her granddaughter made this cake for
her party. She was up until 2 am trying to get it finished in time.

Wow! Well done to your granddaughter, Martincube, she did a fantastic job! I love the teal shade of those sugar roses!

Yes that is my favourite colour. I want that for my 80th cake!

Looks good enough to eat Martin

Indeed it was. It was far too big for the number of guests who turned up so if anyone happens to be in the Bristol area in the next few days then let me know & I'll save you some.

Happy birthday Mrs Cube! I think both our mothers were the same age when we were born as you are both two years older than me and mine.

One of my usual road pictures next to Gatwick Airport

The first of two monarch butterfly photos.

The pond at Trent Park in Enfield

Every time these pigeons tried to rest on their owner's roof he clapped his hands and they started off on another circle. The exercise regime. Brilliant to watch.

I had to go here to complete my first 10km square on the photo map website, it was about a quarter mile walk and I did have an umbrella but no raincoat and had to change all my clothes when I got home as there was no sign of rain when I left.

The other monarch butterfly photo.

Gasp! Stunning. I could look at that all day.

The traditional Victoria sponge birthday cake for a very special three year old

Has anyone seen our sledge?

Howie, that butterfly picture is beautiful

Trent Park teachers training college's original building, now part of Middlesex University

One of the first things that greets you at the RAF museum at Hendon is this Hurricane (and the
Spitfire behind it):

Tower to black-backed seagull flight number BBS01, you are cleared to land on rock74....

Lol. It should be careful, there's a Hawker Hurricane on its tail...

You see the oddest things for sale at country shows every so often. This head is actually a carving. Very good but I don't think I could live with it.

Competed in the Tom Na Bat hill race this weekend (part of the 171st Tomintoul Highland Games). This is the point where I got to the lowest part of the route, before climbing almost to the top again. You can see the line of the path (there was not much path on the course, straight through the heather) on the top right. Two people were behind me at this point, and I got past another at the finish (Out of 45 I think).

After jumping over the ditch to get back onto the road, after the second decent of Tom na Bat, I was met with this view.
The river you see is the River Avon (pronounced "arn").

Mugaboo: The pictures are lovely (but I got tired just thinking about the "run" lol!)

Christina: Good Lord. Unless one had a ranch with Scottish Highland cattle (or whatever that's supposed to depict) I can't imagine wanting anything THAT big! Love the huskies - they look ready to pull that car, never mind a dogsled lol.

Martin: cool plane pix!!

Howie: who couldn't fall in love with that flutterby? And the gull pic would have been equally as beautiful without the bird at all but nice capture (you apparently live in "God's country") : )

The weather here since spring has been stormy (to say the least). So clever critters like wasps seek sheltered areas to build their nests. This one (only 4 days work - at that point - for the wasps) was found in the back corner of our greenhouse:


(yes we destroyed it - I don't mind them visiting, but if they're going to live here, then they have to pay rent lol)

Wow, makes you wonder just how big it would have got if you'd left it. I think I'd rather not know the answer to that.

No, nasty. But it makes a really gorgeous photo.

More on the flight theme (well, it's Amelia's birthday after all):



Airshow participants on their way home, I think. So I got a private performance of formation flying.

One of the ducks at the Timaru Botanical Gardens.

If anyone wants to know what most of Middlesex looks like this is a pretty typical view. It was mainly built in the 30s along the railways and new industrial estates by them and these sort of houses go on endlessly for miles. I completed the first Ordnance Survey 10km square on Friday and had 24 to do in this one, I got 5 and then hit the olympic torch parade in the exact road I was heading to next so had to cut it short, I couldn't see it as the roads were backed up for a mile and had to turn round.

Still getting plenty of rain here.

This was my local bus stop for 28 years when I lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb

This is the building which houses the Imperial War Museum in London. (It would be interesting to
know where the big guns are aimed at. I can think of a couple of targets...)

The bat vault at the Louisville Slugger Museum, Kentucky. A very enjoyable look through the museum plus getting to see bats being made.

I wonder if Batman would like the Bat Vault? :-)

I saw Bat Vault and though that you had been visiting our resident old bat!

This statue of Sir Winston Churchill appears to be keeping an eye on events at the Houses of
Parliament. (Whether he likes what he sees is another matter! )

Ploughing competition at a local show

St James Park Newcastle ready for the Olympic football. The name of the stadium was changed to Sports Direct Arena after the stadium was chosen for the games so the new signs have had to be covered up hence the 2 white covered signs in the picture

We've been away

Close up of a nasturtium

they do like their XXXX in Queensland

Now that is what you call and industrial sized beer keg

This is somewhere I hadn't been for ages (14 years or so), entering Suffolk at the beginning of Newmarket racecourse

I must get this in straight away, the first picture from the 2012 olympic games, the men's cycle race in Kingston. I've got a couple of closeups as well if we can show people for this occasion, especially as they have all been on TV as well.
Edited to add Bradley Wiggins is on the far right of the pack.

Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame at Longreach.
Great place.

Great going satguru, our first Olympic photo

Copago, thats a wonderful building and I love the ststue outside.

Thanks Christina, many people have posted them on Flickr and all with cameras with fast shutters, and as a result can now say the cyclist on the right is Bradley Wiggins (click and choose full size and you will see) along with Mark Cavendish and Ian Stannard as they stayed in a bunch for most of the race. It's the women's tomorrow and found the best way to keep the cyclists in focus (this was the only one I got) and see how I get on.

I saw lots of different signs on my recent trip to Massachusetts, Vermont and New York, but this one really made me giggle. It appears to be warning one to beware of pedestrians with hula hoops!

Well, they are quite a traffic hazard you know.

Watch out for Vikings!

Athlone, Ireland.

Bringing the ingredients to the boil at Schimpff's Confectionary in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The only thing they do differently now than 100 years ago is use a thermometer to check the temperature. Back then they used a finger with glasses of ice cold water very close by....The other photos of the candy making has the owner in and as we are not supposed to show people....this will have to do.

The sea near Tynemouth

We've had a band of thunderstorms rolling over us for a lot of today, which has given us some great looking clouds.

A few today were clearer than this, but here is the leading pack in the women's race with Lizzie Armitstead leading who was overtaken by inches at the end to win silver.

Great variety on this page, and exciting to see a bit of the olympics here.
Tynemouth looks very pretty.

Love the Olympic shots!
And what is that sign really trying to say?

Dusk

Here's a shot of the Viaduct "L'Isle Jourdain" (near Poitiers, France), where my crazy 15-year-old son did a (50m high) bungee jump last Saturday:

A friend of ours gave us this magnificent bunch of pink lilies. The aroma as you enter the room is amazing. If someone with more botanical knowledge than me (i.e. any botanical knowledge whatsoever), can identify them, please do so :-) The diameter of each flower is around 6-8" (15-20 cm)

Ohh Mike, what an elegant flower, and a lovely photo - it looks like a painting. I'd be interested to know its name too. Maybe Christina knows?

From the photo, which is gorgeous, and Mike's description of size and perfume I'm guessing it's a pink variety of "Stargazer". They're Asiatic lilies and always have a lovely perfume and those long stamens. Mike, watch the pollen, it stains things and they absolutely drip with it.

You can grow those yourself, bulbs are obtainable any good garden centre or mail order. They need good drainage, so put some grit or something in the planting hole and they'll come up year after year. Unless you disbud you won't get flowers quite that size, but still a good size, about 4 inch diameter.

This is my orange "Stargazer", which has been growing happily in the garden for about four years now. Some have speckled inside, some don't. I've got a white one which isn't but has a pink outer and a white inner.

wow - beautiful.
And *shudder* at the bungee jump!

Big sky country

This is another statue I spotted in London. It's a Lioness chasing a Lesser Kudu and can be
found in Lower Grosvenor Gardens near Victoria Station. An interesting piece which doesn't
look completely out of place, especially with a little foliage in the foreground I thought.

A field near Crowborough

Another thing, Mike, do not let the cat near that lily, the pollen can be fatal to pets, so I am told.

Martin, that's really a great photo with all the foliage & I like the statue but...what is it doing there? I've tried to google but other people seem as baffled as me.

Perhaps it's a bit of feminism what with all the male lions lolling about the rest of the city!

Christina, I knew we could count on you and your lovely garden.

Wow, Ren, I didn't know that. Thanks so much for alerting us to that. The flowers have now been relegated to the sealed rubbish bin (outside). Twiggy (the cat) will be most grateful....

Many thanks too for the identification, Christinap!

Archery at Lords cricket ground.

Great pics! Love the 'lympics ones!

Here's another shot of that viaduct:

Great photo Dot - lucky you to have some tickets.

I shudder at the thought of that bungee jump. It just looks sooo high.