One of the bits of useless knowledge that have lodged in my brain from years of trivia quizzing is that the highest order of chivalry in Denmark is the Order of the Elephant, but I've no idea how the Danes hit on the elephant as a symbol. Maybe it's some sort of ideal like the British lion: you're not really likely to see a lion on the prowl in the British countryside, are you?

I've been to Phillip Island so I know how cold it gets! In the middle of an Aussie summer my friends told me to dress up warm as they packed the car with rugs and thermos flasks of hot drinks. I thought they were nuts - until the sun went down and the wind came in off the Antarctic, it was freezing! But the fairy penguins were worth every goosebump.



The Beast of Bodmin Moor has been around for a very long time! Though I think that's supposed to be a panther. What does it say about the British, that our highest order of chivalry involves a garter? Too many Carry On films?

Timaru had a couple of elephants late last year though I am not sure what eventually happened to them as I was in New Plymouth when they disappeared. This mother and baby elephant seal sunbathing in the Timaru sunshine at Caroline Bay.

Some architectural art in Croydon

Have I posted the Nestle Tower in Croydon before? (yes I have but I love them all). You can see the new pastel tower on the right which I don't think I've taken properly yet as it hasn't been there very long.

We went to a cheese factory and the cheeses were much more reasonably priced than the chocolates - they were delicious too! We bought quite a bit of cheese (as well as wine, and home-made jams and chutneys).

Oh my... that reminds me, it's lunchtime. Bread, cheese, and chutney coming right up!

Talking about food... you may remember last year's saga of growing tomatoes against the garage wall... This year I decided against doing the same again - instead I stuck some plants into hanging baskets and have hung them on the garden fence where it catches the sun. Since then we've had so much rain I've only had to water them a couple of times but nothing daunted, there are tomatoes already!

Here's Precious, monarch of all she surveys, wondering if perhaps we might have some of that cheese....

I'm so pleased when I look at Precious I have my own cat again now. Every time I saw her picture it reminded me of Lucy and one reason I was encouraged to get another one.

Another of my tower blocks, I think they're in Maidstone

I wish we lived close enough that I could share my cheese with Precious!

If you are sharing then there is me too...

Only if you bring your cat.

Precious and I wish so too

It's the lambing season here and we saw lots of them on our way down to Denmark.

Nice looking lambs with strong straight backs. And knobbly knees!

Galvanised steel planters are fashionable this year, I seem to have acquired quite a few!

This is a typical English suburban residential road. It could be anywhere but is in Sittingbourne in this example, but looks like half the roads for miles around me as well.

Part of the new development on the old cinema site, this is on the ground floor next to the shops with a tower block on top and a theatre next to it.

The Tasman Sea and Middleton Bay from the Opunake Walkway in Taranaki.

A view across West Hendon right next to here

Green's Pool, at William Bay National Park, near Denmark.

And another strange thing that happens in Las Vegas is this doughnut hole in the clouds in what is trying to group itself into a whale of a rainstorm.



Edit: It succeeded very well.

That's really lovely. Weird skies fascinate me.

Wave goodbye to June, people... I'm going inside in case that storm gets here.