Day 293 - Moon Rising

half moon

Friday night again, and I've got a pretty random collection of photo's for you...and I'm completely distracted by something else entirely...

The top photo, whilst not so dramatic, made for a nice contrast with last night's sunset...looks like we're halfway through the lunar month!

In other news, I cleared the hole in the hedgerow this evening, after it had been blocked by a large pile of hedge trimmings.

hole whole

All ready for the Autumn Edition, in about two weeks time...

Whilst clearing it, I came across some of the tree from the bottom of my 50@50 post...somebody had used it to block up the gap. 

For reasons that will be revealed over coming days, I was looking at another hole in the hedgerow, within the garden, that I wanted to block...remembering my promise to the little tree we had to cut down, I gathered all I could find of it and used it to create a bit of lattice-work to fill in the hole.

manweb

As I was doing this, Loz started to stalk and pounce on the end of one of the sticks where it lay on the lawn, so I quickly grabbed the camera.

target locked

That stick is so going to get it - and probably much faster than I know how to photograph!

lightning strike

Yep, sure enough, she homed in so fast that everything is in focus except her!

For those of you who are unsure of the joys of owning a cat, allow me to demonstrate...

Warning, not for the faint-hearted...

deadv0l3

This is the kind of thoughtful present you can anticipate coming home to on a regular basis, when you share your home with an active feline - it's the back end of a vole...when Loz eats a vole, she always starts with the head, and works her way down the body until she loses interest.

Much as I've worked my way this far down the blog before losing interest!

If anyone's still paying attention, I'll give you a clue as to why I'm so distracted...there may be an opportunity looming to tick off a significant Challenge for the year...it's a really important one, and I could get the tick within the next couple of weeks...

Watch this space...

;-)

Day 290 - Jedi Ninja

Nedi Jinja

1986 was a notable year for a number of reasons...

I had a fairly new job in IT, as a Trainee Systems Programmer...I was married, with a car, a house and a cat. 

The cat was a stray my mum had adopted, then become wary of after it bit her.  I took him on, and he was so awesome I didn't even have to name him - he was simply The Cat. 

He behaved like a dog in many ways.  If I walked to the petrol station 100m up the road to buy a pack of cigarettes, he'd walk up with me, and sit outside, waiting patiently for me to walk back home with him.

Whenever I arrived home, I would whistle and within 5 or 10 minutes he'd be home, poking the letterbox in the front door, knowing this would prompt us to let him in.

We lived on a dual carriageway, and for reasons I can't now fathom, I wasn't at all worried that he'd get run over...I think I just thought he was too cool to be anything other than immortal...

Alas, one day (8th June, as I recall), I whistled him upon arriving home, and 5 minutes later there was a (human) knock on the door...I answered it to find a worried looking lady asked me if I had a black and white cat...

He'd been hit crossing the road to come home to my whistle, and his back was broken.  

I carried him home, and within another 5 minutes he died in my arms...I was gutted, and writing this, I realise I still am, to some degree.

How I loved that Cat.

The same year, continuing the practical module of my ongoing education in mortality, a colleague died on my arm at work one day.

He was a Kenyan named Subash, and he'd been overseeing my technical development...these days we'd call it mentoring or some such, I guess.  Despite being African, Subash spoke with a markedly eastern accent, similar to Indian...I liked him a lot.

He was in his mid 40's I suppose, and he'd long been ill with heart issues of some kind.

One day he wasn't feeling well and we decided to take him to hospital...I walked him out of the office and along the corridor towards the exit, when he suddenly grabbed my arm tight and went down on one knee.  I realised he was collapsing, and lowered him to the ground.  

I ran to get my boss, who tried to revive him, but he died there and then, of a heart attack.  I had the strongest sense that he was tired of struggling and suffering with ill health, and he didn't even fight it. 

When Death came calling, Subash just opened up the door and invited him right in. 

It seemed to me then, and still seems now, an entirely reasonable choice under the circumstances.

It was, however, quite a shock to my system - seeing human death so up close and personal. 

Those two dramatic and traumatic experiences left my world somewhat reeling...

Yet unbeknownst to me, a little later that year, a doomed experiment to create a Jedi Ninja was initiated by our Evil Alien Overlords...

It's not clear exactly what went wrong, but rumours suggest that the Jedi mind tricks were simply too powerful a force for his lithe Ninja physique to contain.

Nobody knows whether the mind broke the body, or the body broke the mind...

But in any case, all that remains is the Raving Matt Man, entrapped in an urban cage...unable to go out for fear of the devastation his Jedi mind tricks could cause, and refusing to be photographed for fear of coming to the attention of the Evil Alien Overlords, thus reminding them of the need to terminate their failed experiment.

This evening, we went to visit the Matt Man to collect the latest data samples, exactly 28 years after inception...but as imprisoned as he is, his Jedi Ninja skills still help him evade our every attempt.

Reasoned questions invariably run into the brick wall of the just because argument...

And just try to photograph him...somehow his Ninja speed enables him to blur the light around his hands and face, thus obscuring his visage and rendering his image unidentifiable and untraceable.

Nice moves, Matt...

;-)

Day 281 - Lazy Day

disturbed

I've had a lovely lazy day today, watching the Grand Prix, sorting out video's from our Font trip, and even playing on my Xbox for the first time in months.

At one point I had to take a break from all this sedentary activity to go and sit in the sun for a few minutes with Anna and the Cats (there's that band again)...

Loz took up what has oddly become her usual position - under the kitchen window, just next to the drain chamber, in the mud of the border.

She looked so chilled basking in the sun that I took the opportunity to take a quick snap of her on my phone (the decent camera is still packed!)...or at least, I intended to - then the sun went in, prompting Loz to open her eyes, stop looking quite so chilled, and start looking annoyed at both the loss of warmth and at being disturbed by me.

So I just got this photo instead.

In keeping with today's theme of idleness and inactivity, I'm going to leave this one right there...

More tomorrow, of course...see you then!

:-)

Day 263 - Mobius Loop

deadmau5

Much as I love the cats, the constant death gets wearing by the time September comes around.

This is the cutest little baby mouse that was dumped unceremoniously by the back door this evening, by the Killer Queen herself. 

There was another one at the top of the stairs, by our bedroom door, so I guess this one was left out as a warning to the others...kinda like Omar's boyfriend in Season One of The Wire.

Have you seen The Wire?  Best TV show ever...in fact it's an insult to call it a TV show. 

Although set in Bodymore, Murderland (Baltimore, Maryland), it's Dickensian in its keen wit and sharp societal observation, epic in terms of both scope and drama, and packed with some of the best characters ever written...

There's Omar of course, and Bubbles, and McNulty and Bunk...Avon and Stringer Bell, Prop Joe and Cheese...Ziggy and Prez, Herc and Carver and Kima, Daniels, Rawls and Burrell...D'Angelo and Brodie and Poot and Wee-Bey and Wallace...

Not forgetting Slim Charles, Cutty, Marlo, Bunny, Carcetti, Snoop and Freamon.

Oh man, what a great show, I'm so nostalgic for it. 

Going full circle, who remembers the episode where a drunken Bunk is recounting the tale of how his wife had called him home because there was a mouse in the closet?   Bunk ended up shooting the poor little thing with his service handgun (and taking out one of his wife's shoes in the process)...

Now I think about it, that's where I got the line above from, the one about leaving it out as a warning to the others.

How odd that this post has gone on such a curiously circuitous route, only to end up folding back in on itself....from dead mouse to The Wire to The Wire to a dead mouse...it's like one of those endless mobius strips, looping in on itself into infinity.

Best not go back to the beginning and start reading again - you could be here until eternity...and whilst this blog can provide a moment's fleeting amusement now and then, there's definitely not enough substance to last you forever.

Just don't do it...

:-/

Day 233 - Death By Cat

deadvol3

Cats are great and all, but they do have a bad habit of assuming you want the same things that they do. 

Anna was away overnight, so I got up and fed the cats before work this morning.  They were both hassling for breakfast, and once I put their bowls down, they went after it with gusto.

Not five minutes later, I heard the unmistakable sound of a cat wretching, and found Loz being sick in the doorway to the lounge.  I shooed her outside and set about cleaning it up.

Not five minutes later again, and I sat in my chair briefly to have a slurp of coffee...as I turned round to stand up, I found this poor, dead little vole slumped on the carpet behind me...

No cat to be seen.  

Picking him up, it was immediately obvious that he was very freshly dead.  As I took him out to the garden (for the crows), there was Loz, back on the hunt again around the borders of the lawn. 

She must have gone out and chanced upon the vole, and quickly taken it...as it was an easy kill, she then decided to present it to me before nipping out to pick up another one...

I know she's just a cat being a cat, and that the local vole population remains as healthy as ever, despite Loz's voracious kill rate...but I still feel bad every time, and rescue them when I can. 

It was too late for this little one...if it's any consolation, at least in death it provided me with a photo of the day (once my brain kicked into gear).

Voles are the most common prey for Loz, but there have occasionally been more impressive (sort of) kills.

Once or twice she's brought a baby rabbit home, looking immensely pleased with herself.

And one memorable day two years ago, I got home to find spots of blood here and there on the carpet, and this very dead weasel in the middle of the rug in the lounge...

deadweeze1

Weasels commonly take prey such as large rabbits, many times their size...they're ferocious warriors - it must have been quite a battle!

Beautiful animal, in any case...I still have guilty pangs about his unfortunate demise...

Still, the price of every life, and all that...

:-/

Day 207 - Troublemaker

lookout point

This little lady has been the cause of much trouble around here...in fact, such is her significance, I think she's featured on my blog before!

The Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) makes it a criminal offence to disturb a nesting bird. 

This protection stands regardless of whether the bird is nest building, or the nest contains eggs or young dependent fledglings.

In one of the hedges between our cottage and next door, a pair of blackbirds have been nesting for some weeks...for the last two or three weeks, they have been diligently feeding their young on juicy fat worms and other insects that they find around the garden. 

Our garden makes for a wonderful food rich territory for them, and we believe this is their second brood this year. 

One drawback, however, is the Killer Queen, Loz.  At the weekend, as Queenie was hunting voles around the decking, something in the hedge caught her attention. 

The blackbird nest is low in the hedge, maybe only 1m above the ground, although the hedge is so dense that the nest is not easily visible - I haven't managed to spot it yet. 

Anyway I found Loz totally focussed on the hedge in the approximate vicinity of the nest, in full on targeting mode.

As I shooed her away, she hardly even noticed me, instead treating me like some kind of roadblock and merely adjusting her position without losing focus on the nest at all.

We had to shut her indoors (much to her chagrin) for 48 hours, before she seemed to forget about the nest when let out under our supervision. 

The blackbird has a variety of strategies for defending itself against predators such as Loz, of which the Prime Directive is:

Never let the predator discover the location of the nest.

The blackbird achieves this by only entering the nest when they're sure they are unobserved...if a cat is around they will sit on the lawn in full view, just a few feet away, and wait for the cat to pay them some attention...at which point they'll take off directly away from the nest.   This both draws the predator away (both physically and psychologically), and as a side bonus, offers their mate a chance, quietly and unnoticed, to enter the nest.

To some extent they are testing the predator, to see whether it is in hunting mode, such that they can adjust their tactics appropriately.

For pure prey animals, they are remarkably brave where their young are concerned.

Anyway, as I briefly mentioned in an earlier post, we had to interrupt the drain digging operation in our garden because the new underground pipes were to be routed directly below the nest.

For several days now works have been halted (although in fairness, the nest is not the only reason), and we are watching and waiting to see what develops with the nest. 

I should note that we're not keen to protect the bird because it's illegal, but simply because it's morally right - the Law is simply a convenient way of forcing the uncompromising and uncaring drainage workers to cede to our personal standpoint. ;-)

A couple of days ago, our neighbour claimed that the young had fledged...but since then we've seen the mother and father blackbirds go back to the nest, and they're still making the soft clucking sound they make to reassure their young...so they don't seem to have fledged just yet.

Somewhat worryingly, this morning I saw the mother blackbird in the photo above enter the nest with a beak full of dry grass...nesting material!

We're hoping this simply means they're making a few running repairs...and not that they're starting Round Three!

I'll keep both my eye on them, and you posted...

:-)

Day 196 - Ravens Rock

on the lookout

I so nearly missed the opportunity to snatch a photo of this fine pair of ravens!

As you know, I recently proclaimed that I would try to get photo's of all the local corvids, for the blog.

This morning, when I went upstairs to get dressed for climbing, I immediately noticed the two large black birds in one of the trees across the way...we know there are two or three local ravens, and I've seen them in this tree before. 

Ravens look almost identical to crows, except that they're considerably bigger.  Size is not always easy to establish when the bird is a long way away, often in the sky and thus with no reference points...hence our long running debate over which ones are ravens (most of them, say I), and which ones aren't (almost all of them, says Anna).

When I spotted these, I immediately challenged Anna to deny that they were ravens - they're huge!   

To my surprise, Anna agreed...at which point I suddenly realised I was missing a golden opportunity for a shot of them.

I knew that the camera already had the zoom lens on, so I ran downstairs, grabbed it, and rushed back up, removing the lens cap and turning it on as I bound up the stairs...

I felt the pressure of the possibility for missing the chance, as I hurriedly opened the window, and started to try to find a solid, stable position.   Settling in, I looked through the viewfinder at the blur, and started trying to find and focus on the ravens. 

Once located, I zoomed right in and refocussed...brilliant, I'm going to get them!   

I clicked the shutter release...nothing!  Huh?! 

I clicked again...still nothing, argh! 

Did I forget to switch it on?  No, because it just focussed!

Hang on...what's that flashing symbol in the viewfinder?   Squinting, I peered into the tiny screen...

Oh, bollocks, no memory card!!

By this time, Anna was at the end of the bed with a storage crate pulled out from underneath, completely blocking my path...on the bed, May-Z was lurking about looking for some fuss...

Sorry Mayz, I'm coming through! 

I leapt over the bed and ran downstairs again to retrieve the missing card from my PC...I felt sure that I would miss my chance now, but as I leapt over the bed again, past a bemused and somewhat startled looking May-Z, they were still there. 

I rattled off a couple of shots, before one of them dropped down away from the tree:

spotted something

I lucked into this nice profile of the first one to leave.  There's a pleasing amount of detail, given that they were 100m or so away from me as I leaned out of the bedroom window.

incoming

I hoped to get a shot of the second one leaving the tree, but I mis-focussed on the sky at just exactly the wrong moment, and as I was trying to get back to focus and find the remaining raven, he too dropped out of the tree and flew out of sight into the far fields.

Oh well, I did get a nice profile shot of him just beforehand:

lethal weapon

Look at that beak!  He is a big, impressive bird, probably my favourite of all the corvids, although I do have a soft spot for crows too.

So I've learned some lessons about being prepared, and acting quickly once the opportunity arises.

And I got some nice shots - they're not going to change the world, but they were going to be the most difficult corvid to capture, except maybe the jay.  We see the jay much less frequently, but when we do he tends to be much closer - in the garden somewhere. 

So we'll see...

For now, I'm just really pleased to have had the chance to get my local raven buddies into my blog!

B-)

Day 192 - International Swallow Rescue

bird on a wire

I'm on a roll with my challenges lately, even if I'm only half ticking or repeating them.

Today, as I was pottering around unpacking bags and stashing gear away after our weekend adventures, I noticed a little commotion in the lounge as I was passing.   All the animals seemed interested - the focus of their interest quickly became clear, when I found a swallow flying around the lounge!

Loz was on the arm of the sofa, looking for a chance to leap, and the bird was suitably panicked, flying round the room in desperation, whilst Jazz and Maisie watched with interest. 

My entering the room only served to panic the bird more, and push it towards the far windows, even though I tried to keep low to give it passage above my head...

It flew into the window by my desk, and dropped down onto the window sill.  I dashed over to open the window for it to escape, but somehow Loz beat me there...

I swear she has the reflexes of a cat!

Before I could intervene, Loz had the swallow in her mouth, and made to depart with her prize.   I blocked her exit, and hassled her into putting the little bird down, whereupon it immediately tried to fly away.  As Loz began to paw (claw!) at it, I grabbed her and pulled her away, and the swallow took to the air again. 

This time it flew into the opposite window, but with better anticipation, I just about caught Loz before she got there...holding her away (as she wriggled frustratedly), I opened the window and tried to nudge the swallow out.  

Unfortunately, it panicked and made a dash for the darkness and cover behind the curtains...and then dropped down behind the sofa before taking refuge in a dusty corner behind the bookcase.

I shooed all of the animals out, shut the door, opened all the windows, and cleared the furniture out of the way.   Once done, I took this quick photo (I had the wrong lens on, natch), as the bird had clearly decided its best bet at this point was to hunker down and hide where it was. 

As I was pondering how to tempt it out, Loz came back in through the open window, so I scooped her up and threw her out again.   Maisie discovered that the door had opened a couple of inches, so she snuck in too, and of course this prompted Jazz to follow on, to see what was happening.

Shooing them all out again, I used a short bamboo cane to nudge the bird out of its corner, at which point it gave me another brief, poorly lit photo-opp, as it landed on the Kinect:

bird on (x)box

It was covered in cobwebs at this point, but seemed in reasonable shape...there were no obvious signs of injury, and it could clearly still fly. 

Sneaking in closer, to try for a better photo, the swallow spooked again, and took off once more...this time, after a couple of near misses, it found the opening in the window and flew off into the great outdoors, a little shaken up no doubt, but still alive and flying...with a smidgeon of luck it should be ok to resume its life on the wing.

So I (literally) rescued a swallow from the jaws of a dangerous predator...that's at least two ticks for my rescue an animal challenge, after the successful rescue mission a few weeks ago.

Maybe I can offset this extra challenge point against some of my recent half-ticks?

Mi juego, mis reglas, I reckon!

B-)

Day 191 - Half a Tick

one word from me...

Apparently, 'tis the season of the half-ticked challenge...

Having been up early this morning to start packing before breakfast, we were loaded up and ready to leave the yurt by around 10.30.   Our horse ride on the beach was booked for 12.30, so we spent a couple of hours exploring the back roads along the coast, and hanging out at the beach.

Our trek consisted of a half hour walk to the beach, followed by a half hour or so trotting up and down, and a walk and trot back...

They allowed me to attempt to get my horse, Nelson, into canter...although not without first telling me that he's really hard to get going - unless you're a really good rider.

Although I'd passed their little riding test in the ring before we went out, I hadn't ridden for 15 years or more before today, so I was a little rusty, to say the least.

Nelson, as well as being barely big enough for someone of my size, was as advertised...pretty lazy, and almost impossible to cajole any energy out of.  He really had my measure - I couldn't remember the nuance of getting a horse into canter, and have since realised I was giving him quite a few mixed messages.   He had clearly decided that unless I gave him very precise, clear and specific instructions, in all the right ways, he was just going to resist.

(somewhat prophetically, the only climb I've fallen off this year was at Birchen in April, and it was called Nelson's Nemesis...which is how I felt as though Nelson viewed me).

The instructor, presumably in the name of Health and Safety gone mad, refused to give me any assistance, apparently on the basis that I was only allowed to canter if I knew how.  When I was told I had to ask Nelson more firmly to pick up the pace, and I enquired exactly how to do that, seeking a few reminders, I was told to "just generally ask him more firmly."   

Great, thanks...

So whilst it was brilliant (as we descended onto the beach I found I had a huge grin on my face), I failed to get a full tick on my challenge.  The challenge states a preference to ride the horse to gallop...I would have accepted canter, but as he wasn't having that in the only two short attempts they let me have, I can't with clear conscience claim the full tick. 

Whilst in the Lakes, then, I've got a half a tick for climb a long mountain route, half a tick for sleep in a tent, and now an additional half a tick for ride a horse to gallop...

Still, they were all great fun and I'll seek the full ticks as and when the opportunity arises!

Riding on the beach is ace, though!

Anna rode really well, for a novice...and her horse Pandora is a bit of a celebrity, featuring as she does on the opening credits of Country File!

I'm special, so special

Here's Anna riding away from me as Nelson puts in the least possible effort to keep up:

look at the arse on that

As a little bonus, perhaps to make up for the lack of cantering, the Universe offered me another great example for my dead animal collection - a lovely fresh jellyfish.

jelly, baby

After the trek we headed back to Warrington to collect Jazz, who seems to have had a brilliantly chilled few days with Cathy and Phil.  After a lovely early tea, we set off for the last long leg of the journey back to South Warwickshire. 

On the way, we took a detour to collect Loz and May-Z from the cattery before arriving home at around 9pm, incredibly weary and with a number of significant sore points setting in...that riding session is going to make itself felt over the next few days, I'm sure...

Anyway, check this further bonus photo opportunity that the Universe proffered whilst we were waiting at the cattery:

when you see it....

On first glance this may seem a fairly innocuous and perhaps confusing photo of a cat run...but look a bit closer, right in the middle of the picture...

soon...

I give you....

Cat in a Box!

Now please excuse me whilst I go collapse in an exhausted heap somewhere...

B-)

Day 180 - Cool For Cats

behold my prize

The Killer Queen sits victorious over the motionless carcass of her vanquished foe...

(playing) dead?

At her feet, the tiny vole lies prostrate and silent on a soft, deep bed of lush, green grass...

play with me

Feeding the desire to humiliate her new minion further, the Queen demands amusement...

bollocks

Deeply unimpressed, the Queen looks away in resigned annoyance...before spotting the camera, and immediately recognising the PR potential in the situation.

you can have it...

In an act of generosity befitting her sovereign status, the Queen gifts the unwanted prize to a lowly subject, who bows deferentially, as convention dictates.

you're welcome...

Comfortable in her supreme coolness, yet unable to suppress her sarcasm, the Queen departs, never looking back...

ooh check it out

The usually rebellious May-Z, despite having this time been cowed by the Queen's casual indifference, is unable to resist the lure of a captive vole....

play with me!

A sharp stab with the claws is usually enough to get them going...

hello?

And yet it seems ineffective this time...wtf?

nah it's broken, rubbish...

Suddenly understanding the Queen's unexpected generosity, May-Z loses interest and departs the scene with an air of cool, un-feigned indifference...

riveted by the unfolding drama

Meanwhile, Anna can barely contain her excitement as she watches from a safe distance...


Fin

Day 160 - Ninja Cat

balance it is...

Maisie has never been the most cooperative of cats, nor the most photogenic...

But then I suppose those qualities sit well with her ninja proclivities.

Anna is in Florida, playing with dolphins and whatnot (so she say - I've yet to see pics, despite promises), but of course she's missing the animals here all the same.   When we Skype, Jazz and Loz are usually lurking somewhere around me, but Maisie is never to be seen. 

As a true ninja, it wouldn't do, to be hanging around in broad daylight being seen and everything!

No, Maisie lurks in the shadows, upstairs out of the way...resting ahead of whatever her latest ninja mission might be. 

So Anna hasn't seen her since going away, and therefore requested a photo.   As I was short of precisely one photo for the day, I went and found Maisie snoozing on the bed in the spare bedroom.  I only had one real chance at a getting a good photo - as soon as she's awake enough, she'll just follow me around, looking for a hand to rub her face on...and getting far too close to the camera in the process. 

I just caught the photo above at the last second...none of the subsequent 20 or so I took were any good, as she was always blurry and getting in too close...like in this one, for example:

thanks Maisie, helpful

Anna came up with several potential scenario's; Cat in a Hat...Cat in a Bag...Cat in Another Bag!   Whilst these are all desirable, for the ongoing Cat in a Bag series if nothing else, they're not the kind of photo you can capture on demand!

Not with a ninja cat, anyway. 

Maybe with a trained (read: brainwashed) performing cat, like those they apparently have in Key West...but not with a true blood, old skool, ninja cat like our Maise...

B-)

Day 141 - Snake Eyes

I can see in your eye

If you listen carefully to the video interview from yesterday's blog post, you can hear Anna conversing with a delivery man about a parcel he had for us.

After some negotiation, Anna persuades him that a signature is not really necessary, and in all probability, if someone were to illegibly scribble something in the signature box, nobody would be any the wiser...wink, wink!

System successfully subverted, I then resumed my mission safe in the knowledge that our new camera had arrived!

However, it was late yesterday evening before we got a chance to unpack it, so today was our first opportunity to start to get to know it a little better.

I have to say, it's been a successful first day, and consequently this is going to be a photo-heavy post.

First up is this gorgeous juvenile grass snake, which we found dozing under a reptile mat at our local wildlife reserve. 

snake in the grass

He's the first snake I've seen for a few years.  He's very small, for a grass snake, about as thick as a finger.   We did disturb him a little, but he didn't rush off immediately, and was generous enough to allow me a few shots. 

Beautiful creature!

Experimenting with the telephoto zoom lens in the garden, Anna caught this lovely shot of one of our local robins.

takeaway for the kids

He's nesting in the hedgerow, although I haven't spotted exactly where.  But you can clearly see the insects he's caught to feed to his young.

Speaking of insects, I got this really lucky shot of a Hoverfly in flight.

fly by shooting

This was fully point and shoot, I wasn't even looking through the viewfinder!   She was buzzing about on the lawn, and I just put the camera a few inches away, with a low f-stop and crossed fingers, and clicked away, letting the auto-focus do its thing.

Of course, all this excitement wasn't going to go unnoticed.   We spotted this buzzard sitting motionless on the breeze, high in the sky over yonder.   Even on full zoom, he was a long way away, but this crop from the photo shows a surprising amount of detail.  

got my eye on you

It's the best buzzard shot I've ever managed, if nothing else!

Closer to home, Maisie found it all curious and intriguing.   She was attacked by a local feral cat last night, and we were concerned that she might just hide under the bed for a few days.  

But you know what they say about cats and curiosity...

what's going on?

Any which way I look at it, it's been a super-successful day with the new camera, and I hope to continue to find new and interesting perspectives to bring to my blog.

I'm also pleased to have such a lovely new set of animals to add to the collection.   One day soon I'm going to have to do a summary...if nothing else, I need to start compiling a list of anything I've missed!


Finally, a quick update on the 50@50 Challenge aftermath.  

When I had to nip down to the loo at 7am this morning (yep, our bathroom is downstairs), I really struggled.  My feet, ankles, shins and calves were so stiff and painful, the best you could say is that I hobbled down the stairs. 

After stretching them out a bit before getting up a couple of hours later, they weren't so bad.   I figure it's a good sign though - firstly, it clearly was quite a challenging proposition, and secondly, I must have been climbing with my legs, like you're supposed to.

I meant to say yesterday, when I have some free time (in a couple of weeks), I'm planning on putting a little video together, outlining the story of my 50@50 day. 

Of course, I'll post it on here for you good people.  

I bet you can't wait, eh?!

;-)