Day 169 H is for Hairbrush

Had a lazy day today.  Sorted out the stuff to take away tomorrow.  Have I mentioned we're spending 5 days in Stratford on Avon, including Tuesday night at the RSC theatre watching  The Merchant of Venice starring Patrick Stewart?  It's our wedding anniversary so we thought we'd do something different. We've booked the caravan into a site right on the banks of the river.  Just hope the weather improves!  


Anyway todays challenge was something beginning with H so I picked on my hair brushes. 

 I also photographed a bird that appeared in the garden. I' don't know what it is but am wondering if it's a juvenile whitethroat.   If any ornithologists out there could enlighten me I'd be grateful!  

Aah, have just discovered it's a juvenile starling. I should have realised. We have lots of them around here, I just haven't seen one quite this young

Day 96

What a gorgeous warm sunny day it was today.  The car thermometer said 19 degrees when I was driving to Porthcawl at lunchtime. I'd bought kids pots of bubbles so when we visited Mum we took her out in the garden and blew bubbles. She enjoyed it interittently but Dad had great fun.  It's years since he played with bubbles,  it's not something you usually do in your nineties!  I'm keeping the left overs and will try some bubble photos before long.


On my way home I stopped off at a small lake in Newton near Dad's house.  Our daily challenge was nature so I was hoping for a bit off aggressive spring action, fighting or displaying by the waterfowl.  They didn't oblige but I got a few nice shots including this one of a Canada goose landing on the water

Canada Goose

The light was lovely and with little wind there were great reflections of thebirds, the trees and sky.

2 headed coot?

as I left I heard this blackbird singing away before spotting him watching me from high up in the new green leaves of a tree

Day 11 - Flamingo legs in pond

Bit of an abstract one for today, sticking to the watery theme.  We had a splendid time at Slimbridge, mostly watching the wild birds from the hides.  This photo is from the flamingo pool, however.. I just liked the reflected colours of the flamingos in the water.  Bird photos will be posted on my Flickr site shortly, but not tonight.  I need some sleep before sorting through them

Day 9 - Forest Farm - Nuthatches

Forest Farm is a small nature reserve alongside part of the old Glamorganshire canal in Whitchurch, Cardiff.  It's a mixture of woodland and wetland.  I had a splendid time there today, photographing the small woodland birds.  I didn't even reach the hides by the ponds as I was out of time and the light fading.  I'm struggling to pick a single photo of the day but I''ve settled on this one of a nuthatch.

Here are a few more nuthatch photos as a special treat! There are yet more of todays bird photos on my Flickr page here  http://www.flickr.com/photos/pontydoc/sets/72157624214261163/detail/

DAY 8 - Roath Park

At last, the sun has shown itself, so we went for a wander around Roath Park Lake, in Cardiff.  I was hoping to get a shot of a goose or cormorant in flight but they didn't oblige. Here's a black headed gull instead.  It's not the most interesting shot but all I have for today.  We've friends coming around for the evening so no time to be choosy!