Catching up

The collared doves have successfully hatched and raised two chicks. This picture was taken a couple of days ago, but the chicks left the nest today. Theyr'e currently sat looking a bit miserable on next door's pergola.

The nice weather has meant plenty of walks with the hound and pottering in the garden - I've also recently taken on an allotment, but more of that at a later date.

Highlight of a recent early morning walk was coming face to face with a fox family - a vixen and two cubs. Of course, it was sod's law that I had just put the macro (close-up) lens on my camera, so the shots I got of the two cubs - mum saw me first and did a runner - are a bit crappy.

The cub in the the foreground was obviously a bit confused when mum disappeared and, for a moment, I think it thought J was its mother and came bounding towards us. It then realised its mum was not black and white and would probably not be straining at the end of a lead (just a reminder that J is half foxhound!).

On the same walk, we came across this man-made rainbow. The colours and patterns changed as the crop sprayer swivelled around. I was quite mesmerised and stopped to watch for quite a while.

Not too far away is a turf farm, which has this run of power cables crossing it. I pass it quite regularly and I've noticed that the poles have started to lean more and more - I don't think I'd want to have to rely on these for my electricity supply. A decent gale in the winter and they'll be over.

Couple more pictures from recent walks - I love the straight lines created by farming and some of the smallest, most insignificant flowers can be beautiful when studied closely.

Finally, for now, a rose in my garden, backlit by the sun.

Sky's the limit

After many attempts, a pair of collared doves have successfully built a nest behind our Sky dish.

They don't strike me as being the most intelligent of birds, but they're certainly indefatigable - there was a bigger pile of twigs and stems on the ground underneath than on the nest, but they kept going.

The hen (presumably) has been glued to the next for the last couple of weeks, so we don't know if there are eggs yet.

I don't think our cat can get at them (possibly out of the window, along the guttering and down a rope into the nest, but probably not - especially since he isn't too bright ,either). But if a chick did fall to the ground, it wouldn't last long!

Birthday boy

Dog Walker celebrated his birthday at the weekened - still a fortysomething, but only just!

Mrs DW insisted on a special treat (no, not that sort), so we went to Kew Gardens for the day. It was the first time we'd been and had a great time - what a wonderful place.

The weather was good, so there were a lot of people about, but the gardens are surprisingly big so it didn't seem crowded. There are lots of little nooks and crannies where you can sit in peace and not be bothered too much.

I took lots of pictures, some of which were even in focus . . .