Great Tit on Bird Feeder

I have taken blips of squirels, a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker and a vareity of other garden birds today, but decided to use this one of a Great Tit which I have cropped a little in order to see greater detail.

Moth

This moth was sitting on a leaf, but did not sit still for very long, so this is not as sharp as it should be. I took several images, but it kept moving about; as they do. It has grey wings with pale yellow edges; if I find out what kind of moth it is I will add the information later.

I have a busy day today, my grocery shopping was delivered before 0900 hours and put away very quickly after. Later I am having lunch with a colleague who I worked with for over twenty years. Then later this afternoon I will have physiotherapy for my back, which has improved slightly. 

Even later this afternoon, around tea-time, I will be looking after my grandaughter while my daughter watches my grandson play cricket.

Not sure where I will find any time to read a book on my new Kindle.

My New Toy

Today I went shopping with my daughter as this was the last chance we would have for a while to shop during the week. She starts her new full-time job on Monday at Addenbrookes Hospital.

I took her out for lunch at John Lewis where we always go and then I purchased my new toy. I have been looking at these, almost since they came out, but could not quite decide whether to puchase one. Friends tell me that once you have one you never want to go back to books; only time will tell.

This is not a particularly good blip; this is the box, as I have not yet removed it from its packaging; I am saving that for later when we have had supper!

William

He needed this mug of tea after mowing almost an acre of grass in this heat. Admittedly some of it was mowed using the ride-on-mower, but some was also done using a petrol mower which had to be pushed; not bad for someone who will be seventy on Friday.

I back blipped for yesteday as I went to the sea-side with my family and did not get back until late.  

Family and Friends on the Disco Ride

A visit to the seaside produced 458 images, how do I choose just one? In the end I went for one, which shows the happy faces of my family and some friends on the Disco ride. This was a fast action ride with the ride coming towards me and going away again so I feel I was lucky to get them all looking in the right direction and all smiling at the same time! It was a good day, very long, very hot, but certainly action packed.

 

Grey Toadstool

Another garden blip today, but from my daughter's garden and not a flower!

I found this grey toadstool lurking under some lavender bushes and nestling in with some clover plants; this is the underside of it.

I am child sitting today for my grandson Oliver and two Italian children from Livigno who are staying here for the summer. Victoria as gone to the Kent International Judo competition with her parents. It is held in London so I am not sure why it is called the Kent International! 

Tomorrow will either be a very late blip or even a back blip as, weather permitting we are all off to the seaside.

This was a tiny toadstool, the white stalk being only about two inches high and the top was just slightly smaller than a fifty pence piece. About an hour after I had taken this the sun came out and it disappeared almost as soon as it got warm. This has been identificed on iSpot as Coprinus.

Honeysuckle Flower

Another flower today. I had planned to take a picture of a rose bud with greenfly on it, which I noticed after I had posted my blip yesterday. Unfortunately the ladybirds got there first, the rose bud is still there; the greenfly have gone! Well done little ladybirds for eating the pests.

Rose of Sharon

Another flower today and this is the first Rose of Sharon to bloom in the garden. I have a large area of these, but they are not yet out. This one is in a more sheltered spot so as it had bloomed during a dull and rainy week, I thought it deserved to be included here. I still needed my Wellington boots on to take it though!

I did not notice the little bugs on the flower until I downloaded it to my computer, which shows that I still do not look carefully enough at what I am taking. However, my first excuse is that it has been very dull again today, although the sun made a brief appearance this morning, so I wanted to take something outside before it rained again. 

The second reason is that although my back problem has improved immensely, probably due to the physiotherapy I am having, I do not want to risk to much exercise at this stage.

Pink Flower

It has been raining on and off here again today so I have just dashed out in my Wellington boots, to capture something close by. That generally means a flower, when it is wet, as the insects have more sense than to be out in the rain.

I do not know what this is, it is growing in the flower border and although it looks a bit like a wild mallow, it is too low-growing to be a wild mallow.

Pink Everlasting Sweet-peas

This morning involved a visit to the dentist for a check-up, but fortunately no work needs to be done. Then this afternoon I have been working on my images for my Open University photography course.

Then, a walk round the garden to see what I could find for today's blip. I was not aware that my everlasting sweet-peas were out and there they were, some pink and some white, difficult to decide which to choose, but finally settled on the pink ones. The white ones are still in bud so you may get them tomorrow.

They are called everlasting sweet-peas here in England, not because they last forever, but because they are perennials and come up every year, unlike normal sweet-peas which have to be replanted each year.

 

Bug on White Daisy

I do not know what kind of bug this is, but when I find out, using the iSpot website, I will add to this information.

It is not as sharp as I had hoped it would be, but it kept jumping about and then disappeared althogether!

Information added - 22 June 2011 - It seems this is a Common Field Grass-hopper.

Victoria with her Silver Medal

This is Victoria with the silver medal she won at in her weight category, under 44 kilos at Berkhampstead. It does not show the black and cut eye she received during her last fight, but she did beat the girl who, unintentionally, did it.

This was a judo competition!

Nikon??

Victoria visited today to show us her birthday present from her parents; a new bicycle. I was going to post a picture of it, but decided that this one was a better blip of today's events.

Victoria often visits on Satudays and she and my husband do all kinds of things, from looking at pond water through a microscope to making hot air balloons which actually fly. Today has been wet again, so they were looking at film Nikons, which my husband sometimes uses; she was fascinated. She does not realise how much she learns without even trying when they have these sessions together, her maths has improved so much and she gained a much higher grade than was expected of her.

Left Overs

It has been raining quite hard all morning and there is no way I am going outside to take blips in this weather. 

These are some of the left-over gluten free cakes from yesterday; they are here today, but will be gone tomorrow!

Birthday Cake

Today was my granddaughter's thirteenth birthday. It was not a full blown party, she is having a sleepover, with some friends, sleeping in a tent in the garden at the weekend. Today was just for Victoria, her brother and parents, plus me and my husband and two Italian children. They are children of our friends in Livigno where we ski each year; they are here for ten weeks while they improve their English.

We visited this afternoon, to have an early supper of pizza and birthday cake. It had to be an early tea, as she had a judo training session this evening and birthday or no birthday she was not going to miss that. She has a competition on Sunday so needed to train this evening.

This shows her 'grown-up' birthday cake, white icing with white roses and a pink ribbon as well as candles. We actually sang 'happy birthday' twice and had two lots of cake. We had afternoon tea when her brother was at home with gluten-free fairy cakes as he would not like to miss out on cake. Both her brother and myself are coeliac so, as always there were gluten-free cakes to indulge in. We had to have these earlier in the afternoon as her brother was playing in a cricket match for the village cricket team and with such a short cricket season, no way was he missing that.

Red Rose in Bud

Another blip from the garden as my back is still limiting how far I can walk; not far. I hope the physotherapy will work wonders on Monday, but suspect it will take time.

The weather has been odd here today with lots of cloud and some rain, This poor rose bud already looks battered, but has fared better than many in the front garden.

Cuckoo Bee

I think this is a Cuckoo Bee (Bombus (Psithyrus) vestalis), but I am not absolutely certain.

The sun came out today and with it came lots of bees to gather nectar from the flowers; at last I am able to post a blip of a bee.

Orange Flower - Maybe Crocosmia

I think this might be a Crocosmia, which apprently is part of the Iris family. It comes up every year in a great big clump and produces these beautiful orange flowers. It looks as though it should belong to the Lily family, but similar images found on the Internet, state that Crocosmia are part of the Iris family.

It is quite dull here again today and quite changeable, but no rain so far, although little sunshine either. Perhaps that is just as well as I should be doing other things, rather than being out in the garden.

Mini Italian Cup Cakes

No, I did not make these they were seen on a market stall and looked delicious so I decided to make them my blip of the day.

It has been very wet here and despite still having back problems, I went with my granddaughter and other family members for her birthday lunch; this is when I spotted these cup cakes.

I am late uploading today's blip as I have been watching the Formula One from Canada, on the television, for the last five hours. Those of you who also watched it will know that the race was 'red flagged' for over two hours.

Female Chaffinch

I have not been out much today as I have once again damaged my back which means walking is limited. I was able to sit at the open kitchen window and take blips of the birds visiting the garden. I took so many and then did not know which to choose, but finally settled on this female Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs.

Great Spotted Woodpecker - Dendrocopus major

I had lunch with my daughter today and took several blips of the wildlife in her garden. I thought this juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopus major was quite good, although it is not as focused and clear as I would like it to be.

Splodge

This is Splodge my fifteen-year-old cat; I am not sure how she became Splodge. My son-in-law originally named her Mozart when she was born, he, and my daughter, owned the mother of Splodge, she is a tortie and white so genetically will be female. Although she is getting old now, she is still very active and gives the two tabbies a run for their money when it comes to catching and eating wildlife.

I spent a long time today taking blips of great tits and other birds, but did not like any of them so settled for Splodge instead.

I visited my daughter this evening to have supper with her family and two Italian children who are staying with her for eight weeks while they learn English.

A walk around her garden gave me several blips to choose from, but I decided on the young pear fruits, rather than the flowers or the cats. The young pear fruits point upwards unlike fully ripe pears which hang downwards. If I remember I will take the same blip in the autumn when they are ripe; looks like there will be a good crop.

Shield Bug

I originally thought this was a Shield Bug, but on closer inspection I do not think it is. This bug was seen on the fennel stalks in almost the same position as the ladybird I included earlier.

It is not a particularly nice day here and it now looks as though it will rain; the garden needs the rain and I am working indoors, so I suppose that makes it okay!

Information added on Friday 10 June 2011 - It seems that this is more likely to be a squash bug Coreus marginatus.

Red Lily

Busy day today so I have only just got around to posting my blip. I backed up all of my recent photographs today onto six DVDs; this took a while :>))

Then it was off to look after my grandchildren, Oliver had to have his tea before he went to play in a cricket match and also had to be taken to the cricket pitch.

Then it was home again and down the road to feed our next-door neighbour's dog; they are on holiday so we are looking after Bow. I am not that keen on dogs, but this one is a nice friendly well-behaved dog. There may be a blip of him some time soon. While at my neighbour's house I blipped some lilies and liked this one best.

Then I had three students to deal with who had pre-booked one-to-one telephone tutorials and now I shall go and cook my tea.

Tomorrow is another day; I hope it is not quite so busy.

Park and Ride - Cambridge - United Kingdom

Today we visited Cambridge and as always we used the Park and Ride; we both now have a 'bus pass'!

I thought the bus made an excellent blip for today; such a bright green and my favourite colour too. The other Park and Ride buses in Cambridge are either Red or Blue depending on which route they take. This one goes from Babraham to Milton, via Addenbrookes Hospital and the City and Grafton Centres.

Firstly we went into the City Centre and after shopping, we had 'brunch' in John Lewis before heading off to Addenbrookes Hospital for one of my husband's many appointments. Then it was time to catch the bus back to Babraham and home.

Florence

This is a blip of Florence who was being uncooperative. It has been raining today, what few flowers there are in the garden are all closed up. Florence did not want to be blipped, probably because it was raining and we were in the garden getting wet.

Florence has only one eye, she was born this way and copes with life very well, catching wildlife equally as well, and sometimes better than her brother Dougal.

Oh how I wish I could take an interesting and unusual blip everyday, such as the one I took yesterday.

Eggodus

This blip was taken at the King's School in Ely. I took hundreds of blips yesterday as it was Graduation Day for some Open University students, but I thought that this was an interesting and different image. It reminds me of an egg and someone trying to escape so Eggodus, rather than Exodus!

A Simple Clover

I was trying to take macro blips of insects, but they never stay still long enough for me to blip them. Instead I decided on the simple approach for today, so here is a blip of a very simple wild flower; a clover (Trifolium).

My 'L' Plates have been removed today so I really feel I belong now. It is a lovely day here in the East of England and I would like to be in the garden, but I also have some work to do before the weekend.

Over the past ten days I have spent so much time looking at other peoples' submissions. I was told it was addictive, I knew it would be addictive, but I did not realise how addictive it would become!

Sparkle in the Grass

I had my toe nails redone today with black and silver 'Minx' and could not resist a blip of them to post on here.

I will be attending and processing at the Open University Graduation Day at Ely Cathedral on Saturday. I can remember my own two graduations, both held in Ely Cathedral, which is a magnificant setting in which to obtain your degree. I hope the weather will be kind for those collecting their degrees, it is such a grand occasion and something they have worked extremily hard for.

Saturday's blip is bound to be from Ely; it will be difficult to choose just one blip from the day.

Assorted Vegetables on a Market Stall

Today I went shopping with my daughter and grandchildren so not much time for taking photographs. This one, of part of a market stall selling fruit and vegetables, was taken with my point and press; I was a little limited in what I could get. It looks a little too green and blue for my liking but what you see is what you get. I liked the selection of vegetabes, especially the locally grown aspargus.