Welcome to July!

I'll get started
SOme wood ducks that have taken up residence on our tank.

A close up of Jess

I can't afford a house in Hampstead Garden Suburb but can make sure I can look at my favourites whenever I want to.

Never mind Dave, just wait till you win the lottery.

Jess is a doll!

Patriotic, red and white, maple leaf candy for Canada Day! I remembered to photograph it, but forgot to either eat it or bring it home from my sister's to eat later. Oh well

Those look nice Liz.

Another cycle ride photo ..so green everywhere at this time of year.

This pillbox, about 100 meters from the sea, has got somewhat buried in the sand dune. A couple of miles east of Lossiemouth.

As I don't do the lottery my fortune will have to follow my fame. The odds are probably similar...

Here's one more from nearby, I go there every spring to take the best gardens

Same road, detail of flowers this time

New fence versus old fence

This spider has been with us for some time. It has a home on our conservatory window where the web catches flying insects. I'm about to clean the windows so I hope it will crawl off somewhere and hide while I do it. It'll have to spin another web but such is the tough life of a spider.

ewww . .I hope it's a lot smaller than it appears on my screen!!

It is smaller. Just zoomed and cropped to show the detail. It's probably a bit over an inch from end to end, including the legs. Pretty though isn't it?

'pretty' isn't the word that immediately came to mind ...

I think he's pretty, TW

I wonder why it likes to be upside down?

Something you don't see every day, but could yesterday in McKinney, TX.

an emu on our brand new fence. They do a lot of damage so it's not such a great thing to see!

I meant to ask yesterday .. what is a pillbox? Something to do with lookouts during the war?

Dug-in guard posts (with loopholes through which to fire weapons) made from concrete are also known as "pillboxes". The originally jocular name arose from their perceived similarity to the cylindrical boxes in which medical pills were once sold. They are in effect a trench firing step hardened to protect against small-arms fire and grenades and raised to improve the field of fire.

Defences were placed along the coast to hinder a German invasion. Between the defensive "Pillboxes" were places anti-tank concrete blocks, as seen in the photo below. Most of the sea defences in Moray were built by the 1st Polish Army Corp in 1940/41.

The building at the back is the Bin Forrest shooting ground. The mouth of the River Spey is a couple of miles further on from here.

Wow, that's a real Batmobile, not a copy or a new version but the proper 1950s Lincoln. I don't know how many they made but can't be more than a handful.

Another churchyard, this time in Esher

Some ducks flying around.