What first encounter has made a lasting impression on you?

Wow! What a holiday Kezmo! So sorry to hear that you lost all the photos. Did you ask any 'professionals' at the time whether data extraction was possible from the failed drive? Do you still have it? (I don't suppose so). At least you have good memories!

Another 'encounter' or more of a sight that I shall never forget was a few weeks back, I was driving along the M54, and luckily had Mum as a passenger as no-one would believe me otherwise!!

We both noticed movement on the hard shoulder, but couldn't make it out. It looked dark & light and very odd! All of a sudden, it shot across in front of me and only then did we both realise that it was a rabbit (light) going hell for leather with a polecat (dark) firmly attached with teeth to its rear end!!

Luckily there was no-one behind me or in the outside lane so moved slightly left & slowed down to avoid them. They went through the central and we were both concerned that they would then be killed as there were a lot of cars coming in the opposite direction. A couple of hours later, on our way home we checked the whole section of road for casualties, but there wasn't any, so we think (hope) that they made it! As regards the rabbit, who knows whether it got away or whether the polecat eventually got the better of it! It was the most amazing thing to see!!

Hi Marjus,

This is where I am going to admit my ignorance - Fantastic account of your polecat and rabbit saga oooh where's that camera when you need it!  I was going to exclaim that I have never seen a polecat but have just googled and realised that ferret - polecats are similar but I have never seen one in the wild!

Hi MarJus

At the time the hard disk failed, we sent the laptop off to be fixed mainly because of all the photos we had loaded on there, not just the ones from New England.  The result was that it couldn't be fixed but they did say they could send it off to a company who could possibly retrieve all the data but quoted some extortionate amount of money to do so.  At that time we hadn't been back long from NE and we just couldn't justify the expense on top of what we had already spent on the holiday so said no.  If I had been a bit more savvy, I would have said send the hard disk back and we could try at a later date to retrieve the photos when we were more able to afford the expense. I tell you what tho, we have learnt our lesson - we back up everything we load now.

As you say we have our memories but it was a hard lesson to learn.  Perhaps one day we'll go back to NE and try again.

Rockwolf said:

Wow! What a holiday Kezmo! So sorry to hear that you lost all the photos. Did you ask any 'professionals' at the time whether data extraction was possible from the failed drive? Do you still have it? (I don't suppose so). At least you have good memories!

I would love to witness everything you mentioned, how wonderful!

I work a twilight shift and therefore travel home in the early hours when sensible people are tucked up in bed haha!  One night I was lucky enough to see a fox in the car park, tatty looking but great all the same.  I read in the Mail recently that fox sightings are more common now in towns than in the countryside. 

Thank you for sharing your sightings!

Jackie