win something

.... yes a prize for the 2000th visitor to this blog, this photograph, pawgraphed by me and with a CD of this year's photos to the lucky winner if they leave an address. I was the 1000th visitor myself so I reckon I might win again.

lots of love Spot

the last view

... It seems very sad that it is almost a year ago that I first showed you these fields in late November covered in snow. A lot has happened to us all in a year, moving and growing and having babies, but in every other respect the natural world goes on, silent and uncomplaining and quite oblivious to our travails.

daguerrotypes

rather pleasing effect from PaintShop pro, making this fearsome pony look much more benign. He chased us out of his patch!

sauron looks on

perched on the top of this ruined mine stack is a very large vulture, watching the little furry hobbits (that's Frodo Lilly and Harriet) and thinking about having a late lunch

more ring legends

...see what I mean. It was probably very appropriate that Frodo should be with us when we found the source of the ring. 

the source of the ring

.... a very fine day for a walk, with Aunty Sally and her two ruffians (I can't believe we are so closely related). I had never quite understood where the ring on the stem of mushrooms came from, well now I can see that as the mushroom grows up through the soil or whatever, the cap is connected to the stem, and when it emerges it spreads out breaking away from the stem, leaving behind the ring, and here it is in the process.