OK, yes I've been a bit absent the last couple of weeks, and with genuine reasons. Normally I pop on on a Wednesday afternoon after my weekly hospital visit, but with the current climate, I'm at work until the hospital appointments resume, and, working has been variable days and times, which means fitting in shopping and other tasks around my work hours, oh and not forgetting the HS2 road closures, narrow lanes etc as they ramp up their work!
So, I'm well, and I hope you're all well?
Any gossip, please tag it here.....
My local reserve I understand has been overwhelmed with visitors, so I've kept away, because in places, social distancing is not practicable. That's nature, not a fault of the reserve, making some paths very narrow. Long term, it doesn't look like things will get much better quickly, especially as a nearby town is experiencing uncontrolled Covid-19 cases, but not deaths, and if Leicester is anything to go by, if a localised lockdown does occur, then i will be impacted.
Lets hope not.
I've not been too busy with the camera, but here's a few, and some interesting rare visitors included....
A large white butterfly enjoying one of the new lavender plants
A peach of a sunrise....
The next two sunrise pics were taken about two mins apart.
A hiding pond lily
And a blooming nice lily
The newly planted erysimum and lavender plants are filling out nicely,
And the big surprise visitors, long tailed tits, of which at one point, we had at least ten on one feeder!
This pic below, there were two just out of the the image, which I didn't see til afterwards.
One cutely waiting its turn...
This one gave up waiting and found another feeder...
And once the feeding frenzy had died off, this one came back....
Take care and stay safe and I'll hopefully catch up with more posts over the weekend.
STOP PRESS!
More LTT's this afternoon!
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
Tony T said:Lovely set of garden pictures Mike but more than that I admire your stamina in posting sooo many pics in one post. Think I'd loose the willl to live. Well done keep posting
Lovely set of garden pictures Mike but more than that I admire your stamina in posting sooo many pics in one post. Think I'd loose the willl to live. Well done keep posting
It did take a wee while to upload and sort them. On the plus side, I could copy and paste the photos and text into other threads, so I didn't have to go through all that hard work a second or more times!
Linda257 said:Nice set of catch up capture Mike. That poor Hybrid Robin/Squirrel... I feel so sorry for it.
Thank you Linda.
I could think of worse hybrid connections!
Unknown said:Excellent additions, Mike, including the ... what would you call it, a Squobin? That last one is a hoverfly, but those small dark ones are difficult to differentiate.
Squobin, I like that term..
Thanks Nige, and I did think it was a hoverfly from the way it hovered and darted, just like its bigger cousins.
A few more to the collection, and the LTT's have been around, in abundance again!
When I get up these mornings, it's dark!
Winters coming, and so is Christmas....
And the dew is still around, as displayed on this cars rear wiper with dew covered cobwebs...
Plenty of small whites....
I was having a look back at some old photos around the months of July and August, and they seem to be quite apparent around this time of year, here. It could be different in other places, so just a thought to share.
A robin in hiding (more likely watching me.....)!
Did I say the LTT's have been back.....
The LTT's seem to have mastered the art of socially distanced queuing!!
and sharing with others.....
_________________________________________________________________________
Regards, Hazel
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
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Nige Flickr
Unknown said:Good to see the garden birds doing well. Mind you, I can't believe Lollipops have mastered queueing let alone socially distanced queueing! They used to cram as many as possible on my feeder. They only queued when it was physically impossible to fit another one in there!!
It's a pity the folk in the supermarket wouldn't do the same, I think they think because they are wearing a face mask that the 2m rule goes out the window!
Unknown said:Lovely photos Mike and good to see the flock of LTT's, I think they have had a good breeding year as there seems to be an abundance of these cute little darlings. Nights drawing in already although still waiting for a bit more summer weather yet !
The LTT's have been busy again today, braving the 30mph+ winds here.
September is usually a good month for the sun, so fingers crossed it doesn't let us down.
Lynn L said:Nice photos Mike, love the lollypops! On first looking at the photo of your car and before I read the text, I thought it was as smashed windscreen and bonnet damage!!
Sadly, that isn't my car, it belongs to the young lad across the road, though I wish it was, a nice fully spec'd up Mondeo, leather interior and all the gadgets you could dream of!
But I have to confess, it was my first thoughts, someone had damaged the car, that's what drew me to it in the first place.