Are there any Tory MPs living in that village do you know? Only that looks suspiciously like a floating duck house to me.*

Two of my night-time visitors having a bit of an argument over the remains of a mealworm. I have learned that hedgehogs will do almost anything for a mealworm so I usually sprinkle a few outside the conservatory so they come close to the house where I can see them. When two arrive at once there's a lot of snorting and clicking as they circle each other, until one backs away very carefully. The smaller of these two is about six inches long, the other maybe eight inches.




*During the MPs expenses scandal in 2009, one MP claimed over £30,000 for gardening costs at the house in his constituency, including £1,600 for a floating duck house; another claimed for clearing out his moat. Suffice it to say that duck houses and moats have become synonymous in the UK with sleaze and corruption.

I thought exactly the same thing when I saw it. I also didn't see any ducks using it but may have in another. This is an interesting wooden house nearby.

This is a sculpture found by the sea in Denmark (Western Australia) - it's called "Sea Eagles and Dolphins Swimming in Space". It was sculptured by an artist with help from local high school students. It is made from a local hardwood called jarrah.

This is a zombie rose. No, really. I bought three cheap roses for £10, put two in the back and one at the front; the latter was in a large pot, buried in a graveled area where it died, completely and utterly popped its clogs. I pulled the pot out of the ground and stuck it behind the garage where all my bright ideas go to meet their doom and left it there until such time another bright idea needed that pot. Two years later, this spring, I went to get the pot and the dead brown rose had a small bud on one stem.

I planted it round the back with some bone meal and some chicken manure. Meet the rose of the living dead:

Crondall in Hampshire

The Pacific Ocean looking a little rough today behind driftwood as I strolled up the beach by Washdyke and back.

A common house leek in full flower:

A country pub in Hampshire

Red-billed gull just out of reach of the ocean.

Howie, I really love your last two photos!

Amazing shot of the water, you need a very good lens to get that detail and speed.

Asda in Wembley Park

My sister had her, wait for it, drum roll, 90th birthday on Monday (yes, I am that old) so I asked Sue if she would make a card for me, er for my sister, to mark the occasion and here it is!



Of course thanks to Her Majesty's Customs and Excise it didn't arrive in time but there's a big family lunch for her tomorrow so she'll get it then. My sister that is, not Her Maj.

That's an amazing card Sue, well done.

Guess who!

Normally they arrive in the UK the following day or the day after that but for some reason two cards posted that same day took the Heathrow route, the other one hasn't arrived yet and the lady's birthday was more than two weeks ago, she is in her mid 90s.

Another photo from the recent walk (or one of them) up the beach and back. I am not sure what this concrete object is or where it came from but the Pacific Ocean seems to enjoy crashing against it. In the background are Caroline Bay and the Port of Timaru.

Lovely pics of water, Howie, and that seagull is a real poser... a bit like this great-great-niece of mine.

People pics are sooooo hard to get right, aren't they? Coaxing the subject to smile and look natural ... and then the forum mod, cough, says the subject must not be recognisable. Do you think this will do? She's laughing her seven-year-old head off! Oh well, at least she's not a messy eater, there's not a mark on that napkin.

A floral display in Botley near Southampton

There was quite a display of contrails outside yesterday

Building on Kossuth Lajos utca in Budapest.

I always try and stop to meet my animal friends.

This is the Sacred Datura plant, aka Jimson Weed, aka Moon Lily, because those sad looking flowers bloom at night. It's very poisonous. This one is at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. (The Ranger didn't want me to get any closer.)

CmdrK, it seems quite sinister, with curing attributes plus side effects ,like hallucinations. I googled it and it seems to be from the deadly Nightshade family. Glad the ranger kept you safe!

There were some kids around who were not well supervised, or were, as Britons might say "Running amok!" The ranger didn't want me to fuss over taking a picture so the kids' attention wouldn't be drawn to it.

Only boys would do that! No, I'm not being sexist, it is simply a fact: running amok is something that culturally and linguistically only males do - and when they do, as I discovered when I lived in Singapore, the only thing the rest of us can do is runnnnnnnnn.

One of the things I love about this forum is that I not only find out things I never knew but I can see them too. I looked the plant up in Wikipedia and the flower looks just like Bindweed, to which it is related; no wonder that's so hard to kill!

Victor on his favourite bench where I am looking at him right now later in the day.