Hey, I've got a 'nana tree/plant/shrub as well! Puny little thing it is. No banana splits in my foreseeable future.

I have been attacking the brambles in my garden and this is to show my prgress, it is a pity that I didn't take a photo before I started.



Sara can vouch for the fact that I have done a huge amount and that is all today.

Stunning sunset, Zebra.

To Sue
Well actually Old Dear, you have not done too badly there.

This rat snake was in the middle of the road on our way home one afternoon. My daughter takes pictures of everything so there was no question that I would stop. At first, he was stretched out, but when my daughter went near he coiled up and struck at the camera. I've never seen anyone run backwards so fast! She did get some great pictures though.

Sunny English wall

The Dunstable downs from the south

It's a great picture. I like snakes and I too would have stopped to take pictures. I held a red rat snake at the zoo a couple of years ago and I know they won't hurt you, but if it had coiled up and struck out at me, I would have run too!

This red flowering gum was just teeming with bees.

P.S. Sorry I have been inactive here for a few weeks. Have had two lots of house guests, one after the other, so I haven't had a lot of time to myself. Took lots of photos but mostly of people, so not suitable to use here.

This is Tina. She is in a field with no grass for a reason. Yet she finds a snack!

More work done on the brambles in the garden.

Another New Zealand photo before I head back to my travels. We are looking down the spillway at Benmore Dam in South Canterbury, one of the largest earth dams in the Southern hemisphere.

Time for a memory. In 1969 I fell for a girl two years older than me on holiday who in turn was interested in someone four years older than she was. We did become friends, and the following year I took the train to stay the weekend with her in a wonderful 1960s bungalow in Wokingham. I've passed it many times since but not with a camera, but was there today specifically for that purpose, and although took some of the houses next door you could see, this was overgrown with trees but as it's the specific one you'll have to enjoy the garden instead.

You've uncovered a beautiful rock wall!

Newton watches through his front door, as Precious helps herself to his catnip plant!

Lol -- I had to really look to spot Newton!

Here are some bats that I saw on a canoe trip in Costa Rica -- they were under a limb that hung over the river.

Good job on those brambles Sue. I've got some overhanging vines and a huge strelitzia which desperately need taming. The longer I delay, the more rampant they grow.



Latest report from my back yard. Here are my three new girls. From left Rocky, 1 year old and Snowflake and Oprah, point-of lay pullets. To the right is Henrietta, determined to remain Alpha female.
Chook-whispering has its drawbacks. I need to be there at bedtime and keep them apart until they are too drowsy to brawl over perching space.
Daytime is not a problem. There are enough places to hide if Henrietta gets bossy, although Rocky seems willing to stand up to her.

Today has seen more hacking back. You can see the progress by the position of the bird box. In the foreground is my mechanical goat.

I could scarcely believe it when I saw this sign.


You'd have thought they'd let me know they'd named a school department in my honoUr.

(NB: this is genuine, no Photoshopping* involved.)

*Other photograph trickery programs are available.

Peony

This is what yesterday's house looked like, but of the row of four that was the only overgrown one.

Wallsend Park again a recent addition to the park is this open-air gym

Here are some Florida wildflowers. When the road crews cut the grass along the highways, they have to go around these flowers.

We used to have a black hen named Oprah!

I had a furry visitor in my back yard today. Bunny was good enough to wait for me to get my camera and then hopped around and posed a bit