The travelling kiwi and her other Canadian friend, a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who luckily did not mind kiwis sitting in the antlers. I hope 'no trousers/pants' are not a usual part of the uniform....The light coming through the window was not good for photographing. the next lot of trip photos will be from London so many of you will recognise what they are.

I got a chance to test the zoom on the new camera today in Bushey

"Les Halles" or the market square of the village of Le Faouët, Brittany, France:

I am guessing the other two Red Arrows must have been doing one of the other maneuvers

Another pelican I got quite close to, but this time I didn't take the photo from so close and instead got down on one knee a bit further away and took it. It looks better that way.

Before we head to London, a couple more photos from around my home town of Timaru. This is at the top of the piazza looking towards the port and a rare cruise ship.

Daaanieel,

That's a great photo! Amazing yellow eye too.

I think it must be one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypericum

Lovely flowers, like sunbursts.

The foggy effect is very pretty!

That pelican looks unreal!

Water lilly taken this summer in Delaware.

ClaraSue that is stunning

The morning session started at 10 but everyone was advised to get there two hours in advance because of security. I knew from my visit to the Olympics that actually the security system was very efficient* and only took ten minutes but we still had to walk from the tube station, walk to the stadium, find our seats - and maybe get snacks/coffee/chocolate en route. So we got up at 5.30, left home at 6.30, and drove for an hour to Epping to get the tube. It was just as well we weren't leaving from my home or we'd have had to get up even earlier. Eek. Anyway, it took ten minutes to get through security, we went to the main Olympic shop, then we were in our seats by 9.30, eating muffins and sipping coffee as other people wandered in. Very civilised.

This is the view from our seats across the almost empty stadium:



*Sorry, Mr Romney but it all worked very well, London was ready.

Love the pelican Daniel, and ClaraSue's water lily. They are such a graceful flower.
Flopsy, you were so lucky to go to both Olympics and Paralympics. It's not something we will ever see in this Country again in our lifetimes, and weren't we lucky with the weather, given what it had been like only a few weeks beforehand. I recall watching the torch relay go through Rayleigh on a pouring wet day at the start of July.

<*Sorry, Mr Romney but it all worked very well, London was ready. >
Yes, I didn't see any apologies from the gentleman yet.
I agree, this month is wonderful so far.

Red Admiral butterfly who actually wasn't camera shy.

It's okay, Ren, we won all the dressage medals just to spite his horse. Oh what pretty dancing horses, and the best ones were British.

I am so pleased to have gone to the games - one lot would have been great, but going to both was even better. As you said, Christina, they won't come again in my lifetime and it was a wonderful opportunity.

Another view across Merry Hill

Lovely flower and butterfly, Clara and Christinap.

Took some even better photos on my walk today. I'll share them and then I'll go back to the ones I took before.
A huge pack of ducks or some sort of similar bird (and a couple of sea gulls) all floating together:

Stay tuned tomorrow to see them all in flight!

Lovely photo.

Very nice photo.

Mine is getting used to me chasing it around now too! A little underwing display.


Reminds me slightly of a Liberty print.

Yes, I see what you mean, there is a definite resemblence.

Daaanieeel - I have seen this on the river many times. One time, there were so many birds that they actually formed an almost-perfect brown square edged with white. It was an amazing sight. Of course, I was on my way to work and didn't have my camera with me.

I believe that the brown birds are baby seagulls and the white birds are the adults, who stay on the periphery to protect their young.

Beautiful butterfly shots! Someday I hope to have a camera that will take good closeups.

This is the pond where I found the water lilies.

Isn't that beautiful. So lovely and tranquil.

It wouldn't be the Games without the medals... and in London, the flowers. Four different sorts of British roses, bound with three herbs (rosemary, mint, and lavender - "scents of Britain") and wheat - which represents energy.

In this ceremony the flowers were presented by a British sports commentator, Clare Balding - who probably got the biggest cheer of the morning!

Honeysuckle berries. The birds are very fond of these

A country road in Aldenham

You shall not pass......
The paddock at one end of the short Dashing Rocks walkway, on occasion you find cows and sheep in there. They relented and allowed me to pass without paying a toll.

Great photos here. Santana, I'm enjoying the ones of Brittany. Beautiful cows, Howie. My grandmother has a farm and I love spending time with her cows there.

Photobucket is giving me trouble so I haven't been able to upload any photos.

I had trouble with Photobucket, too. I had to wait for hours before I could upload.

Love that pond, looks so tranquil... A place I could just sit and read... Also love that raod, Satguru, and those cows!
Thanks for the info, MotherGoose, that does make sense. I'll Google it to find exactly what it is!

Here is the photo of them all in flight. Was super lucky to get this one, they all passed in a flash. Also glad it isn't out of focus!