As I rolled into the driveway this evening, this number came up on my odometer.

edit to add: this is a cooler day for August too!

That's brilliant flopsy, love that one.

Some fantastic photos here everyone - especially love yours Jill! That's some serious tunneling :-)

Here's a photo taken on the Goulburn Weir in central Victoria. It's around midday. The gloom is created by bushfire haze (smoke), although the fire was over 100 km away at the time. I was hoping for a reddish coloured sun to make an appearance for extra effect, but it didn't.

Is this recent, Mike? Hope all is okay.
Love the goats - I reckon they are the best pets .. apart from jumping that is.

Here is another tunnel shot.
AM off on a school camp for a few days today so will catch up with you all later in the week.

I loved digging holes as a child and would still get busy in one if it was that size now.

In case anyone wondered what Thornton Heath looked like they probably don't need to go there now.

No, Jill. Fortunately this fire occurred a few years ago. I was searching through some old photo folders yesterday and found this one. It immediately brought to mind the surreal, almost eerie sensation of being out on the water that day. Despite the distance to the actual fire, you could smell and even taste the burning eucalyptus. The trunks and stumps in the water are from trees that died over 100 years ago when the weir was put in on the Goulburn River (mainly for irrigation).

Great pictures everyone! Dave, that IS a cool day in Dallas and neat photo!

Nowadays, it seems you can't go anywhere without seeing fields of wind turbines.

Despite the bad weather earlier in the year the garden has recovered and isn't looking too bad.

'How long do I have to stay here before I get my fish?'

Love the tunnelling pictures, what more do a boy and a dog need to keep them happy. Mike, that is such a atmospheric photo, can almost smell the smoke just by looking at it.

Those wind farms are popping up everywhere here as well, trouble is they have to turn them off it it gets too windy! Still can't quite work that one out.

This rural scene is still in London as a bit sticks out to the south just beyond Chessington Zoo.

Howie's pic reminded me of a sign I saw in the Olympic Park - how many teams wished that Michael Phelps had read this!

Could be worse, Flopsy.

LOL! Back door to the monastery?

Hahaha Chavs, love it!

Love that wind turbine too, I think they look great and that photo is taken at a great angle!

Hard to believe that's LONDON in your photo, Sat!

Your garden is looking wonderful, Christinap!

Love the boy shots, copago

I went boating on Lake (will insert name later when I remember it) Lake Pavin, a totally emerald coloured lake in the crater of a dormant volcano, (altitude 1,197 metres) in the Puy-de-Dôme département of France. The lake is 700 to 800 metres in diameter, and is 92 metres deep at its deepest. Once we got away from the tourist sector it was actually really peaceful and totally gorgeous:

Beautiful lake. I want to be there, Santana.

Here..red sky at night...

Oh WOW! Fabulos piccie, Chavs!

Oh, thanks.

Totally fabulous photo Chavs and Santana, I want to be in that lake, looks so lovely and cool.

Probably the worse photo since this started but I took it at an angle through a window pane which really needs to be replaced as it is foggy.

The men came this morning to install new insulation in my loft, new low energy lights and a couple of new smoke alarms - all for free. Soon it will be a new boiler and other things to do with heating.

This is a long view of the garden from the top towards the house. I keep the beds mainly to one side to allow fairly unrestricted access with the ride on mower, alternative is a 45 minute walk every time I cut the grass. I have to use the push mower when it is long and wet though as the ride on won't take it, and that has been most of the time this year. Still, exercise is good for you, or so my husband keeps telling me!

Sue, will the boiler and heating stuff be free as well?

Oh I think so Christina, they are very good to elderly people in Jersey!

London is over 20 miles in each direction and there are a couple of miles around most of it which are still at least partly farmland, but would still be 10-12 miles from the centre as before 1965 they would have been considered in the home counties before London doubled in size.

This is one of my favourites so far, a view across The Cotswolds from Bourton on the Hill looking east.



The current camera which is nearly 7 years old is fine under reasonable conditions, this is about the best it can do overall using all its tricks, but has been crashing more and more recently so will see the results soon when the new one arrives. I don't take many moving targets or dusk shots deliberately but those were beyond this compact, hopefully something a bit more elaborate will allow far worse conditions and still get something usable as well.

What a great garden, Christinap!

Sat, that is just such a pretty view!

Sue, that really is looking after you well!

Here's a (poor) shot of some of the collection of over 4,000 model cars to be seen in the round tower of the Chateau de la Vigne:

Another Bronx Zoo photo, this time a white-naped crane strolling through the water.

Satguru, that is beautiful. I love the Cotswolds and that is just a great view.

Thanks everyone, it was just waiting for photographers. Glad to see I'm not the only one with cabinets of model cars, except my house isn't an official museum. Here's one from a different angle.

I thought of you straight away when we visited that castle, satguru! I have a few other photos of the car collection, though they are not very good quality. The light was poor, the cars were behind glass and I needed to use my flash. I'll get around to posting them over the next few weeks for you. There were some very cool vehicles!

Love your latest photo of the Cotswolds, it just looks so "picture-postcard perfect"!

Your crane looks ever so graceful, Howie!

Just for you, Sat, the display case containing miniatures of a variety of Royal vehicules:



It was very cute, the figurine of the queen was constantly waving her hand