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