au revoir

au revoir mes braves, a bientot

(no accents on this page)

dog alcatraz

we have been sent to dog alcatraz, the magnolia coloured house in the middle of this picture, miles from anywhere on the side of Kit Hill. There is no escape. Sentence is indeterminate but we will protest. Help! No further communication is allowed, but don't forget us we will be back. Who is France anyway?

shady woodpecker

a juvenile great spotted woodpecker, spotted in the woods today. These birds are very shy and like to stay out of line of sight.

Spot has been told he has got to do some time in dog borstal to cure his obsession with blogging ... more of this soon.

is it national bug week?

It is national bug week (link), we ought to celebrate. Here are three butterflies caught in action today, the marbled white (top) the meadow brown (middle) and the ringlet (bottom), feeding on clover and thistle, and just plain resting.

more from the spider's web

I was fascinated to find this silky spider nursery full of junior spiders, guarded by mum lurking in the undergrowth. The nursery is surprisingly robust. I have no idea which species of spider builds these nurseries.

country lanes

meadowsweet, valerian, foxgloves, hedge bedstraw, wood sage and ferns provide the framework for our lanes. It's well worth clicking on the lane label for this post to get a feel of how the lanes change through the year.