Here we go then (Where did July go?) Welcome all, to this ever more amazing forum!

When on holidays recently we visited the mountain village of St Nectaire, source of some delicious cheese, favourite of our household for many years. My eldest boy has dreamed of sitting down to an entire wheel of this cheese ever since he was little, so it was the perfect occasion to realise his dream:

Hope he didn't eat it all at once.

I spent the morning starting the pricking out of my spring bedding seedlings and this is the fruits of my labour. Wallflowers and one tray of Sweet William pricked out, two trays of pansies and another of Sweet William to go, but they're not quite big enough yet.

Finally got round to using my scanner on some old photos. This photo was from the first reel of colour film I ever took. Taken on a geography expedition in 1973 from school, and is of the Neptune locks at Fort William, when they were cleaning it out. (Not quite as sweet as Christinap's William though )

That's come out well Mugaboo. Must get the scanner going on some of my old photos.

A field near Hartfield in Sussex



My first colour film was also used on a school trip, Stratford on Avon in 1968. I think I added one already but will add another tomorrow. I also took some round Fort William the following year.

Oh Christinap, that's a lovely lot of future-flowers you have there! I always did like Sweet Williams!

My Grandmother always grew them. I just love the look and the fragrance. I'm planning my big central bed full of those, the wallflowers and tulip bulbs.

They were a firm favourite of my own grandmother, perhaps that's why I love them so much, they're an integral part of my childhood memories.

We're 'tomorrow' here, I'll post my picture for today, shall I? There's not much to see of the village of St Nectaire, it's a small place, huddled close to the side of the mountain, with a few houses, a church and a teeny shop. We did appreciate the cool water in the fountain, to freshen our sticky selves, as it was so hot that day:

This is the view from my hotel room balcony, overlooking Laurel Lake in Massachusetts, last week.

Nothing very exciting to begin August, I came across this little blackbird on my travels the other day.

Well,I, for one, find it very exciting, Howie. If I saw him I would be very happy as it would mean I was in England, and I miss it lots at the moment. Sweet picture.
What a lovely view, Liz.

Santana: It's a VERY nice picture of cheese, but upon thinking about eating it all, I'm sort of planning on baking some bran muffins to go along with LOL

SLiz: you NEED to blow that one up and frame it. Beautiful!

Fabulous view Liz and great picture. You've even got stars in it, which are really hard to get to come out on a photo.

Managed to catch this little Great Tit on the bird feeder this morning

Brilliant! I really love that, Christina.




A bit of hot colour.

Great pic of the Great Tit! Looks like he posed for you!

Again I think the public aspect of sport allows me to add this one, Wingate & Finchley v Wycombe Wanderers last night

Thanks Chavs and Liz. The birds were back and forth from the feeder this morning and I just sat there and shot off loads of pictures, and when I loaded them up and looked at them that one was far and away the best. I had others as sharp and as close, but it is just the way he was posing there that made that one the one to go with.

Clonmacnoise Abbey, Ireland


The Shannon was so high we couldn't dock at the Abbey, but had to moor at Shannonbridge.

What a wonderful little Great tit, Christinap! and chavs, the orange of that flower is so intense it's just hopping off the screen!

Here's a shot of a house perched precariously on the edge of the cliff at Rocamadour, a wonderful, buzzing village set high on the cliffs of a gorge on a tributary of the river Dordogne:

Ooh what lovely pictures you've all posted. Satguru, I've been meaning to tell you for a while that I really appreciate your photos of our 'green and pleasant land' with urban and country pics. Thank you.

Thanks Dot, after covering the local area I'm now adding photos to the Ordnance Survey map so covering as far and wide as possible. You always see a few nice views especially on the hills with long distances showing, while the urban ones are either around here or in neighbouring towns as I go through them.

Having being without phone and internet for a while I'm back.
This is a rented van from a company for backpackers mostly called Wicked. They're all different from what I can work out and very distinctive!

Meet a very noisy bird....the spur winged plover. Even with my bird stalking I could not get too close to this one, I was too scary for it.

A row of hand carved walking sticks for sale.

Oh! So gorgeous! Almost makes you wish you needed one!

Boats on Anglesea.

Santana, that's a beautiful house, like something from a fairytale. & I would have said so earlier but I got delayed by....oh gosh -- you're going to think I'm so stupid lol but when you said:
I thought "organe" was some botanical term and have been googling to look for it. Not finding it, I decided it was probably a french word and googled for that! It took some time for me to realise it was just a typo, talk about falcepalm moments...Anyway, the organe is montbretia/crocosmia & your photo is lovely.

I blame Word Wizard. It has addled my mind!

The sticks themselves are made of bog oak, and he hand carves all the handles. He'll do them to order so if you want a warthog, or an elephant or whatever, he'll do it. He comes from Ely, right on the fens, which is where you find the bog oak, and does all the Country shows round here. Has done for years.