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.