It's very rare we get modern new houses built here any more, most are copies of workman's cottages from the industrial revolution time. But these have just gone up in Hackney so it is possible.

I think I can rescue the rose. I had a look and the roots are still in place, so cut it back, get an arch or something and it should be OK.

Lovely looking cake, did you make it?

A slight change from birds to travel photos from my 2010 trip. Here we have Dome Rock on the way to Phoenix, Arizona. Taken from the bus while going from San Francisco to Lubbock.....about a 37 hour bus trip.....lol

Lubock, Texas, home of Buddy Holly.

Great photo Howie, you can imagine the cowboys riding along there. Don't know about a 37 hour bus trip though, imagine you had a numb behind after that.

That was just the beginning but each subsequent bus ride got shorter and shorter with the last one being about 8 hours. Luckily for most of the time going across the USA I had no one next to me which made it easier to change positions to get a little more comfortable....lol

Great selection of photos so far! Love those chairs (formerly) underneath your apple tree, Christinap! (& hope you manage to save the rose)!

Here's a shot of the pond in our village park, taken with my mobile phone in the middle of a misty rainshower:

test 2

Howie I hope you saw that you are a Roll of Honouree. Please go and post a pic in there!

Congratulations on the Roll of Honour Howie, well deserved

Congratulations on the Roll of Honour Howie, well deserved

Don't know how I managed a double post there! Never mind, just take it as double congratulations lol.

Santana, I've been out this morning and cut the rose back to around 4ft, tied it up to some stakes, and the roots are fine, completely undisturbed, so it should be OK. Once we finish chainsawing the tree I'll get an arch or pergola or something. Gave the chairs a good look over as well and not a scratch on them, which really was very lucky.

Love that picture of the lake, very romantic looking.

Sounds like the rose will be ok, I'm glad! The cake, by the way, was made by my Mum - granny's prerogative.

Congratulations, Howie!

This fabulous old car was in the car park at a country show we went to recently. Still in daily use and the owner has had it for the last 45 years.

Another photo taken from the bus. Not really sure how I managed to get this river as the bus was travelling at whatever speed it was moving at, there were vehicles going past us in the opposite direction, there were trees and signs on the roadside but I still got the river and hill in the positions I hoped for. This is in Arizona between Phoenix and Flagstaff.

37 hours in the bus? And I didn't think California to Texas should take that long, but don't know the whole coast to coast. I did a small version back in 1980 and don't think we spent more than a few hours on any of the bus trips as we took a plane for the longer hops. But if it's a whole day where do you sleep? I can't sleep sitting up, meaning on the flight home I didn't sleep for maybe 36 hours altogether as a result and took weeks to recover.

This is the monorail linking the two terminals at Gatwick Airport.

I left San Francisco at 10pm at night on a Friday, went down to LA with an hour stopover, then west to Phoenix and north to Flagstaff before west again into New Mexico and Texas. Spent 2 nights on the bus though we stopped at some places in the early hours for 5 to 60 minutes. Arrived in Lubbock just after 1pm on the Sunday. Just try to sleep on the bus in between stops.

Congrats Howie (I'm a bird fan too.. um the kind with wings lol).

Santana: fabulous photo and would make a great jigsaw puzzle!

This is a farm near Reigate, the camera packed up on the next photo but as it's doing it regularly I now carry a spare memory card, and although it took four more bad photos before alerting me I swapped it over and got 46 more. I may have to get a new camera now as it can't keep doing that and get away with it every time. It actually finds a way of mixing the new photo with another one before stopping altogether and need to wipe the card every time it does. If anyone knows what's happening or had it as well it would help.

It was my mum's 80th birthday yesterday & her granddaughter made this cake for
her party. She was up until 2 am trying to get it finished in time.

Wow! Well done to your granddaughter, Martincube, she did a fantastic job! I love the teal shade of those sugar roses!

Yes that is my favourite colour. I want that for my 80th cake!

Looks good enough to eat Martin

Indeed it was. It was far too big for the number of guests who turned up so if anyone happens to be in the Bristol area in the next few days then let me know & I'll save you some.

Happy birthday Mrs Cube! I think both our mothers were the same age when we were born as you are both two years older than me and mine.

One of my usual road pictures next to Gatwick Airport

The first of two monarch butterfly photos.