Parrots in the garden

We still get the Parakeets in the garden, this one hung around for quite awhile and as I type this we have four more taking the apples - the ones today look like babies as their tails are stubby and are being fed by one parent bird, they are making quite a racket, they snip off the apples without any problem and then pass it to a foot where they eat it; its interesting to watch.

In the background of this shot you can see a yellow banded grass snake; its commonly called a hose, they can be very long but not very fat; more and more are being found in gardens now that the heat is here, some are dark green but nearly all have a stripe or two, all are harmless, this one has its head dangling in the pond.

High Summer Skies

The sky from our garden showing the holiday jet vapour trails we enjoyed record temperatures for about the past 8 days

A walk in the woods

I can't add anything to this lovely picture - it's really nice walking over the woods on a summers evening . Note to self, must do it more often!

Heron Strike

We lost one of our fish this morning, well actually, it happened last night, a Heron must have paid us a visit around 8.30 - 9pm, Merlin went in the Garden and started barking drawing our attention to what he found on the lawn. One of our two remaining Golden Orff had been stabbed by a Heron and lifted out of the pond, it was still breathing but its body was fairly dry due to the heat, I picked it up and put it back in the pond keeping a check on it , it seemed to rally round and started to swim, but, this morning I found him dead under the lilly pad leaves, its a shame as I've had him for quite awhile, certainly over ten years; it was just over 20 inches long and weighed four and a half pounds and far too big for a Heron to swallow, given it's weight and I assumed it struggled, so I'm surprised that it even managed to lift it from the pond.

Because I've been at home and that the pond has cover on it with the plants etc we have not netted the pond and the pumps switch off at 8pm so the water was nice and still. So probably due to the high heat that we have been having coupled with low river levels has meant that the Herons are finding garden ponds easy pickings, we have not seen a Heron flying near here for many months . Golden Orff are a good barometer for the health of the pond and are always the first to take the food. We now have just one left which is almost white in appearance as it's golden yellow colour left it some years ago.

School sports day

Ethan had his school year sports day today and although at one point his team were ahead by just one tiny point the other team caught them up and his team came second, they all worked very hard and did their best.

It was hot watching my brother run his races so afterwards I had an ice cream, so did Ethan, the marks on my nose are battle scars from a fall that I had

Ethan Runs the first race which is the Egg and Spoon race , on his head is a bean bag

Ethan with his best friend waving the team flag

Ethan runs as fast as he can to win the race

Ethan rests up before the Big day starts

Frog Hunting

All you have to do now Phoebe is to give it a big kiss and it will turn into Prince Charming