Day 247 - Relaxed Ruminants

roe doe or doe roe?

Our evening walks have tailed off lately, so even though the evening was a little windy and rain threatened, we made the effort to take a stroll down the lane to see what's happening out there.

We needed to get going anyway, as we're both still feeling a little tired, worn and generally under the weather, and we were in danger of flaking out for the evening. 

It's Week 3, Day 1 of our Pull Up Challenge too, so we need to muster some energy to stick with that particular (or puh-chick-ullah, as the Tai Chi guru pronounces it) programme. 

So we wandered down the lane listening to the oddly persistent shrieks of a buzzard across the field, and trying to spot where it was and what was up with it. 

We never did spot the buzzard, but this lovely doe roe was bimbling around the edge of the field, and seemed curiously unperturbed by our presence (albeit we were partially obscured by the hedgerow). 

I took about a bazillion photo's, which weren't great in the main, as the light was poor.  But I quite liked these two, which I tried to frame a little differently to the usual target in the middle of the shot framing.

big ears

I couldn't decide which of these two I preferred, so I'll leave that up to you, if it even matters.

We also met this strangely brazen sheep...it had an unusual and slightly unsettling bravado, compared with the usual run away if anyone looks at you attitude of our local lambs.

one shoop

I wasn't even zoomed in for this shot, she was only about 3m away from me...weird!

A propos of nothing much, if the singular of geese is goose, then shouldn't the singular of sheep be shoop?   Several sheep, one shoop...makes sense to me....

Anyway we arrived home and immediately got stuck in to the pull up thing...it was hard tonight, as we are still sore from climbing on Saturday...but we completed our sets, painful as it was.  

For some reason my schedule totalled 3 more pull ups than I've done in a 10 minute session before, which seemed quite a steep increase in difficulty. 

But I just about managed it, so with hindsight I'm treating it as significant progress!

Tired and hungry now though...

:-)

Day 236 - The Mighty Tree Sparrow

case to rest

I don't know about you, but I thought I detected a hint of scepticism in Andy's comments on a recent post about local birds.

I'd mentioned that we have tree sparrows in the garden, but had failed to provide documentary evidence, and so apparently had not done enough to offload the burden of proof. 

Tree sparrows are much less common than house sparrows, and so I suppose it was fair to demand photographic evidence of my evidently bold claim.

Well, it's taken a while, but as I was getting dressed for work this morning, I spotted this little chap sitting high in the hedgerow just a few metres from our bedroom window.  

"I'm sure that's a tree sparrow!", I exclaimed, immediately failing to grasp the significance and rushing to grab the DSLR...fortunately Anna was there to point this out to me, so I dashed downstairs to get the camera and rattled off a few shots.

It seems I still had a reasonable dose of the usual morning fuzzy-headedness, as I completely forgot to adjust anything at all on the camera...so the pictures aren't great, to be honest...

...but that is definitely a tree sparrow!

cheeky chappy

This is a juvenile, but still you can clearly see the brown cap and the tell-tale dark dot on the cheek.

Thanks Andy, I accept your apology!  ;-)

Moving on...our walk down the lane this evening was notable in a variety of ways.

Firstly, it was distinct from our usual walks in that we hardly walked, instead deciding to travel by skateboard (or is it technically a long board...or both?).

This was good fun, despite getting a slightly scary wobble on at the steepest, fastest part of the lane, trying to avoid random stones thrown all over the road by recent harvesting traffic. 

Down at the bottom of the valley (sans decent camera, of course), we came across the beautiful sight of a pair of deer wandering across the stubble in the evening sunshine. 

At least I had my phone with me, so I got the proof (cough, Andy...) although pretty much failed to capture any hint of the atmosphere...

not too dear

Finally, I got my first 'boarding injury!!

ouch stings

As it happened, this wasn't from careering (or is it careening? Actually, both!!) down the hill, out of control...it was from doing tricks outside the front door...or trying to, at least.

Ok, ok, I was failing to do tricks outside the front door...or is it the back door?  That's a matter of some controversy! 

"What on earth are you doing skateboarding?!" I hear you cry...

Well, I'm not really sure, but I think it has something to do with my age...and a hefty dollop of denial thereof. 

Bah humbug!

B-/

Day 168 - Wild Boar Chase

brown sheep of the family

We went looking for the boar today, with mixed success...

The day was grey and overcast for the most part, despite the optimistic forecast from the BBC...but as the afternoon waned, the sun came out and it warmed up nicely.

We wandered off down the lane, camera in tow, to see what we could see.

Almost immediately, I spied a brown or grey animal sheltering under the hedgerow, in a field full of otherwise bright white sheep. 

Fortunately I had the zoom lens with me, as they were a long way away, two fields over, and my deteriorating eyesight could only make out a blurry shape.

The photo clearly shows it was just a sheep (also, nice bokeh).

(after this photo, the camera decided it had no battery left, so I changed to my phone...when I rechecked upon arriving home, the camera battery was 94% full...doh!!)

Further down the lane and across the fields, we came across another set of tracks, coming from more or less the same place as yesterday, but heading off in a different direction.

There seemed to be two sets of tracks at some points, one set much smaller than the large.

Here are more of the larger footprints;

As you can see, compared to Anna's tanned hand, this is fairly large.

This lighter is 8cm long, and is about the same length as the fore hoof.  The spur indentations are another couple of cm to the right.

We're estimating that this print belongs to a large male.   For reference, a male boar would typically weigh somewhere between 100 and 175kg...I'm less than 90kg, and Anna's around 50kg, so it's two or three times the size of her, and maybe twice the size of me...this thing could be huge!

The track ran out when it reached the road, although we did find a potential day nest in the ditch under the hedgerow...

On the way back I stopped to grab a better snap of one of these beautiful red trees, over next door's gate.

ornamental hawthorne

The whole of the verge is riddled with ants nests and mole tunnels (must try to get a shot of a mole, we have loads in the garden and round about, at the moment), making mowing harder work than usual...and when mowing this morning, I inadvertently chopped the top off a busy ants nest...oops!

I had exposed a lot of eggs, causing quite a stir amongst the ant colony, and was still feeling guilty about it.

no eggscuse

This was the best of a poor bunch of photo's I took with the decent camera just after the offence was committed.

Using the viewfinder would have meant lying with my legs sticking out into the road and my face in uncomfortably close proximity to a seething mass of angry red ants!   So I just guessed, and took a few hopeful shots.

Checking back this afternoon, as we returned from our walk, they'd got most of the eggs back underground...phew!

As we got back into our garden, there was a hen pheasant hanging around, and I got a few poor shots on my phone.  

meep meep

I can't believe I was this close, with the decent camera around my neck, and the zoom lens on, and I used my phone to take the shots, thinking the good one was out of juice...argh!

Oh well, lesson learned!

More on the developing boar incident as we have it...

:-)

Day 167 - Am I Boaring You?

rusty roofs

Anna came home today!  Yay!

As she was feeling tired and jet-lagged, after a bit of an epic journey, we decided to go for a slightly longer wander across the fields, to help her stay awake...blow away the cobwebs and all that...Jazz seemed relatively lively so we thought we'd see how far we could get. 

We followed a track across the wheat field, to these old outbuildings...I find them cool and interesting, and like to visit occasionally.  They're rarely used, other than to store an assortment of mysterious, odd-looking farm machinery.

Consequently, there's always signs of wildlife in there...owls, pheasants, rabbits and badgers use it as shelter, at least, and sure enough, when I approached there was a pheasant roosting in the dark interior.  Once he'd departed (with the usual crazy squawking), we ventured in to see what we could see. 

There were the usual signs, rabbit droppings, a variety of bird nesting material.   Then, hunkered down behind an old tyre, I found a somewhat bedraggled looking squab - a young pigeon.

damp squab

We left him alone and wandered back out into the daylight.  As I strolled around the back of the outbuildings, I noticed some unusual footprints.  

We'd been looking at prints in the mud as we'd crossed the fields...there were human welly prints, accompanied by a large dog...possibly Diesel the Doberman, who lives next door. 

But there was another footprint, cloven hooved, and large...we scratched our heads and thought maybe a large deer, though it seemed unlikely. 

Round the side of the outbuildings there were a number of these prints leading along the gap between the wheat and the hedgerow. 

cloven hooves

Here you can see two prints.   Note the indentation by the 3rd knuckle of my index finger, and large, splayed hoof. 

sasquatch?

Here's a slightly closer view, and again you can see the depression just above the tip of my thumb. 

There was an accompanying trail of slimy poo!

not deer

We'd briefly considered whether the hoofprint might belong to a Fallow Deer, although it would have to be a huge deer, with the size of the print - 3-4" long. 

That theory bit the dust as soon as we saw this poo - I don't know what this animal has been eating, but it's clearly not predominantly grasses!

Could it be a wild boar?!   

I saw one less than a hundred yards from this spot, 8 years ago.   There were a number of sightings in the area at the time, and local speculation was that they'd escaped from some (unspecified) boar farm. 

But since then there's not been a hint of them...but still, these prints...that poo...

We strolled home discussing whether we could find somewhere to put the trailcam, and determined to look up boar prints when we got home. 

Passing a completely different field, we saw a deer. A Roe Deer, I think - there has been a family group living in these fields for a couple of years. 

I took some photo's, but you can't even see there's anything there, let alone that it's a deer!

no deer

The deer is smack on the vertical mid-line of this shot, and around 55-60% up from the bottom...don't bother looking though, because you can't see a thing!

We bimbled on, and came under the watchful eyes of a small flock of newly shorn sheep.

feeling a little sheepish?

Amusingly, they seemed a tad more skittish than usual, as if embarrassed by their nakedness.

Anyway, once home, I googled wild boar hoofprints...this is definitely a wild boar!!!

How exciting!

We've lent the trailcam out at the moment, but I'll ask Anna to retrieve it...

It would be a real coup to get a photo of one for my blog!

B-)

Day 142 - Dangermouse?

nope...vole, not all that dangerous

This is going to be a tale of two parts.  In a few sentences from now, I'm going to wade into the soggy swamp that is the ethics of soloing, which is to say, climbing without the safety of ropes for protection.

The first part of the tale will be short, and appropriately, will be about a vole with a short tail.

Here (see photo, taken in a field) is a vole with a short tail - it's a Short Tailed Field Vole!  

Apparently they like to hide in the same place as grass snakes (many of the reptile mats we looked under over this weekend had evidence of vole, and occasionally shrew, activity), which seems an adventurous choice to me...go voles!  

Given that there are field voles by the million around here (I may not even be exaggerating, depending on your definition of "around here"), it seems that this risk is worth taking...the reward of the warm shelter in which to live and raise young outweighs the small chance of getting eaten by a passing snake.

Which leads me neatly on to tonight's main themes - danger, and risk.

My 50@50 Challenge has raised a few questions in the related areas of safety and responsibility that are worthy of a response.

There are obvious questions like "Isn't it dangerous?", or "Why would/do you do it?"

There are slightly more obscure questions such as "Isn't it irresponsible?", although this is more often framed as an accusation; "You are/it is irresponsible." 

Then there are those questions that are all about the subtext, as demonstrated by my mum's "Where is your hat?"

These are weighty questions, and the answers are even weightier.

Soloing is a dangerous activity, yes.  It's possible to kill yourself doing it.  The same can be said for driving a car, of course.  Or crossing the road.  

It's also perfectly possible to climb safely without killing oneself.   A simple priority of not doing anything foolish stops me from falling off a climb in the same way that it stops me from forgetting to brake and so running into the car in front, or walking out into traffic without looking.

This in itself could answer many of the concerns - if I'm not going to fall off, then the remaining questions become irrelevant, don't they? 

And this is a key point - I am not going to fall off.   I don't get on the rock thinking "I hope I don't fall off", or "It would be best if I didn't fall off".  

I get on the rock with a single thought foremost in my mind - I will not fall off. 

This ensures that I climb with the necessary calm, controlled care, I make no foolish moves, and thus, I don't fall off. 

There was the suggestion of using a bouldering mat (essentially a crash pad) under each climb, to give me some sort of soft landing.   And of course, my mum thought I would wear a helmet.  However, in both these cases, in my mind they introduce an element of doubt. 

"I will not fall off" becomes "I will not fall off...but just in case I do...".   

Suddenly, I'm in a different mindset, where falling off is a possibility...and maybe this takes the edge off my focus, lowers my level of alertness, and leads to me climbing in a less controlled (and thus more dangerous) manner.

To me, both Trad Climbing and Soloing are all about rational risk awareness.  It's a matter of analysing the actual risk, being aware of the debilitating effect of perceived risk, and making calm, calculated decisions. 

During my 50@50, I retreated from one route because it seemed too hard and I didn't feel totally solid on it, and bypassed one or two others because my instinctive response was "don't like the look of this one..."

For the 50 routes I climbed, I looked at them, decided "yep, I can climb this safely and successfully", and did...

Let me be clear - I'm not an adrenaline junky...I'm not even sure at what point my adrenaline might kick in, it happens so infrequently.   

Last Friday, I wasn't afraid at all - I experienced no release of adrenaline at any time.  You can see from the video interview that I was calm and relaxed, and so were those with me.

Nobody present was overly concerned that I was going to hurt myself. 

The outstanding question is the charge of irresponsibility.   This is an odd one, and raises many more questions...what is it that I'm responsible for?  To whom do I owe this responsibility?  By what authority does this responsibility lie with me?  

But the primary response, the one that instantly springs to my mind when such ideas are mooted is of course;

With all due respect, what has it got to do with you?

I must confess, I'm not very good with being told what to do...but I'm much worse at being told what I should or shouldn't do!  Does anyone have the right to tell me what I should or shouldn't do?  (I'm talking moral rights, of course, not legal rights). 

But even leaving that to one side, I think we can all agree that I'm going to die one day.  I'm reasonably certain of this.  So why does it matter how or when that is?   Would it be irresponsible for me to take an unnecessary car journey, knowing I could be killed even if I'm a perfectly safe driver?   Are some ways of dying more acceptable than others?   Is living longer more important than living well?

As you can see, I'm asking a lot of questions, but not offering many answers to them.  I could write for a week on these issues...but I've been reading about the importance of brevity in blog posts!

I'll try to round this up briefly...

So is there a point to soloing, or to this challenge, or to climbing in general?

Well, what is the purpose of life, if not to experience oneself?  Climbing (and soloing moreso), offers a rich depth of experience of myself.  I challenge myself in order to test myself...to compare myself with my preconceived notions of Who I Am, by exposing myself to challenging situations.

It certainly makes me feel healthier on several levels, and I think it makes me a more useful person, better able to deal with the rest of life with strong, calm energy. 

So, where are we after all of that wayward rambling?  

I don't think I've done the subject justice...but I hope I've offered some food for thought, and at least demonstrated that like most things in life, it's not black and white, but varying shades of grey. 

I can offer a real world example with the help of my trusty companion, the Right Honourable Jazzy B.  He's a black labrador, and nobody would dispute that he's black...except...

...check out this photo from this morning.   It's difficult to pick out any parts of him that are truly black...much of him is a shade of grey, almost white in parts (as he is almost black in others).

So yeah, it's all grey.

If anyone wants to take me to task on any of that, have at it, you know where I am!

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?!

;-)

Day 138 - Racing Snail

you lookin' at me?

I'm constantly surprised by the array of characters we come across around our way.

I'm now on a mission to get photo's of as many different animals as possible for the blog.  I've had many so far, from dogs to cats, from pigeons to pheasants, from newts to no snakes.  

(I'd include links to all of those, if there weren't so many, and I could be arsed)

But so far, no gastropods...until we met this little chap whilst walking Jazz down the lane this evening.  We chatted briefly (although in fairness, it was a bit of a one way conversation), and he agreed to pose for me, for a moment.

poseur

Then he raced off, and I just caught this shot as he sped on by...

The road is a regular little boulder-field, from his perspective (in the top photo).   It reminds me of Dartmoor, along the river Dart, in fact.  I bet there are plenty of climbing opportunities if you're this small!

Speaking of which, tomorrow is the big day, my 50@50 Challenge!

I've been trying to explain how I'm feeling about it.  Mildly nervous is close, although without the negative connotations.  It's firmly on my mind, and I have a hint of that feeling you get when you're about to dive off the high board, or start a race, or before a gig.  

When I used to gig a lot (20 years ago!), I rarely felt nervous, as I was quite experienced.  But I realised that I did have the physical symptoms - mainly, I yawned a lot!  It took a long time to understand this, but I eventually realised that although I felt ok, I was shallow breathing, over-oxygenating my lungs and hence the need to yawn...

Anyway, that's how I'm feeling, I think - a heightened state of mild, low level anticipation. 

I'm fundamentally confident that I can climb safely and well, but I'm slightly concerned about conditions (a little damp, although drying through the morning), and endurance...I know I can climb with calm, controlled confidence for the first ten or twenty climbs, but can I for the last ten or twenty, when I'm tired having already climbed thirty routes or more?

I also jarred my ankle really badly (the one I hurt when falling off last time, that still hurts a little) at lunchtime.  I just slipped a bit on a wet stair, and it hurt so much that I felt sick for a few minutes.  For a moment, I thought I'd blown my chance to do the 50@50 , but then it sort of cleared up and it's ok again now...so I don't know, minor cause for concern maybe, but I'll see how I go. 

Primarily though, I feel confident, excited, a little nervous...and really looking forward to getting on with it in the morning.   The plan had been to get on the road for 8am or so, but the crag may be a bit drier if I leave it a little later...haven't quite decided on that yet.   It's a two hour drive up there, so we'll leave by 9am at the latest I guess...but now I say that, 8am seems better!

Now I have to have some dinner, then get all the gear together and pack it up, then a few hours sleep...

It's currently T-10hrs or so...

Wish me luck, folks!

B-)

Day 136 - Funky Li'l Dude

international toadlet rescue

So this is what Anna calls "work".  

After going in to work early, to attend a meeting to resolve a challenging staffing issue, I then spent a full day in a course on Public Sector Finance and Budgeting...

(I can feel you all falling asleep as I type that...don't panic, I'm moving right along...)

Anna spent the day hunting for snakes, and playing with toadlets and newts.  I think that's right, let me try to recall what she said, exactly...

Loads of work...blah blah...quite stressed....blah blah...SNAKE HUNTING...blah blah, relentless demands...blah blah...RESCUED A TOADLET...blah blah...no time to think....blah blah...GREAT CRESTED NEWTS...long, tiring day...blah blah...

So yeah, I think I was about right, mostly just playing with cute animals. 

Toads are pretty cool, aren't they?  I used to have one living in a hole next to the path in my garden.  If I peered into it, I would see him hunkering down at the bottom, looking up at me.  

Yep, I had a toad in my hole...I'm sure you can all enjoy yourself with that one - you're welcome.

But this was before Anna and the cats lived here (good band name - Anna and the Cats!)...not sure I've seen him since....hmm

Anyway he was a funky li'l dude...he'd come in the house once in a while and freak Bluez out.   
I'd find Bluez in the hall, in a closed loop of barking indignantly at something by his bed, sniffing it, retching at the smell, barking indignantly at it, then sniffing it, retching....and so on. 

Not the sharpest tool in the box, our Bluez...

Next up, Female Great Crested Newts don't seem to have a crest...

show us your crests

What's up with that?!  

I bet if you were a male great crested newt, meeting up with this female having hooked up via an internet dating service, you'd be all like, "Woah dude, wtf?!  Your ad said you had great crests...was that a really old photo, or what?"...

And just to show you that I took a photo myself today too, here is a cool spider web on the privet hedge under our bedroom window.

practising to deceive

The whole hedge was covered with them this morning, and it was foggy and damp too.  I took this photo at around 7.30am, just to get a banker in for the day.  I could have worked with it, had Anna not come up trumps with the amphibian wrangling snaps. 

Apropos of nothing - just to keep you in the loop really (whoever you are) - Andy asked an interesting question in the comments on yesterday's blog;

"Actually, I WAS wondering how you were going to crank up without annoying the neighbours, which I'm sure you don't want to do."

I bet you don't even know why that's an interesting and insightful question!  It is though, isn't it Andy?   I'm going to address that tomorrow, I think.

(psst, everyone else...I apologise in advance for tomorrow's geeky blog post about how to get  a decent guitar sound indoors - it's Andy's fault, blame him...)

Then he asked, "Why has the prove you're not a robot thing changed from legible numbers to the usually indecipherable letters I wonder." the answer to which escapes me (and to be honest the question mostly escapes me too).

Andy concludes this literally wonderful post by helpfully pointing out that "That's two wonders". 

I presume he's talking about the act of wondering, rather than the word wonder...cos there's three of those...

Just sayin'...

Day 133 - No Man Went to Mow

green grow the rushes-oh

I spent most of today waiting to see if the weather would dry up long enough to mow the lawns.  

It didn't, which I'm somewhat conflicted about...on the one hand, yay, I didn't have to mow the lawns!  On the other, damn, those lawns still need mowing!

The venerable JazzyB is on a new drug regime for his ongoing lameness...he's now on Metacam, an NSAID (like ibuprofen), Tramadol, an opioid analgesic, and Symmetrel, which is a drug used to treat Influenza and Parkinsons Disease, but can be used in dogs to increase the effectiveness of other painkillers. 

So far he's doing ok, and this evening he isn't limping much, considering he's been out for a walk today (which is encouraging...). 

We went to see Frankie, who was lying down in his field, somewhat worryingly.  When he saw me, he struggled to his feet and started to hobble over.  I jumped over the fence and went to meet him, to save him walking all the way to me. 

I gave him a couple of apples and a bit of a fuss, but then left him fairly quickly, to save him following me.  

Later on, I phoned the shepherd (whose sheep were in with Frankie the other day), and he said the horse was his, and he hadn't noticed anything when he'd been there earlier, or through the week!   Clearly, he doesn't pay attention. 

When I asked the horse's name, he said "the kids call him Toffee", which I thought was a curious response (not to mention a bit of a rubbish name).   He'll always be Frankie (or occasionally Ol' Blue Eyes) to me.

I explained that the horse appears to have laminitis, and probably needs to be stabled and treated.   I'm not sure how seriously he took it - he said that the farrier was due to visit next week...to which I thought, well that won't be soon enough, and he needs to see a vet!

Anyway he said he was going up there shortly and would take a look, so we'll see what happens.  I'll try to check on Frankie again tomorrow. 

Following that, we wandered over to this little artificial pond, which is only about 30-40m from our house.   It's referred to as a canal on some old maps, and I guess this is strictly true, as it's straight and narrow, and man made. 

The pond always looks lovely at this time of year, and as far as my blog goes, it's another reminder of the gorgeous verdant green I seem to surround myself with in the Spring.

There are a pair of mallards that seem to be in residence.   I've seen them a few times in recent weeks, and you can spot them at the far end of the pond in this photo (click on it to view it full size, on a PC at least - smartphone users will have to make the best of their teeny screen).

Having said that, as we were leaving in the car earlier this evening (heading to the local pub), we saw the pair of them wandering down our lane...I've not seen them do that before.

Anyway, our new camera hasn't arrived yet (although, frustratingly, one of the lenses has) , so this is a standard smartphone photo.   

Speaking of which, Anna is getting a new (work) smartphone on Monday, a Samsung Galaxy S5, which apparently is capable of recording 4K video!!!

Can't wait to give that a trial run...although first I have to get over feeling peeved that she has a phone two generations newer than mine, when I love my funky gadgets, and she really couldn't give a toss... 

That shit ain't right! 

Hmph...

}:-\