the house that martins built

you fly all the way over from Africa, you build a nest out of mud and saliva during the dryest spring in 50 years, you line it with moss and you get ready to lay eggs and then a bunch of scruffy sparrows come and commandeer your living space .... and a gang of 10 of us can't shift one miserable little sparrow. What a bunch of losers! (the little chap on the roof in the bottom photo is a very feisty sparrow, and his mate is going into the nest in the top picture)

nature's garden

Coming across scenes like this is one of the joys of walking in the woods. I guess many gardeners would love to capture this essence of Nature's random brilliance.

marsh tits

it is becoming increasingly difficult to spot birds as they take advantage of the leaf cover. This is (probably) a marsh tit which prefer deciduous woods, although it could be a willow tit.

green lane

the canopy of leaves is almost complete and once more the lanes have become long green tunnels

waiting for the call in Linkinhorne

two images from a walk around the tiny hamlet of Linkinhorne yesterday evening, where things have been very sensibly arranged for parishioners both past and present. This is the church of St Melor, another of the less well known Breton/Cornish saints (usually said and written as Mylor).

things we saw today - heath fritillary

and cowwheat, with its funny bearded upper lip, and best of all, the rare heath fritillary which feeds on it, out very early this year, especially for our visitor Carletta.