The Woodpecker moves in...

A lot of my time lately has been taken up by, doctors, hospitals and dentists. If it has not been going to appointments it has been worrying about going to appointments. However I now have a reprieve I have no more appointments until September, so hopefully my time can be filled with better things.
The weather has been wonderful over the last couple of weeks, lets hope it can last a while longer.

Emma my elder daughter asked if I could help out with a spot of child minding as it's the school holidays. Tony and I don't mind as her son and daughter are very well behaved and and they are no problem at all.

I am waiting for news of the birth of my second grandson, he is due anytime now. That will mean I have two grandsons and two granddaughters. Emma has a son and a daughter, Chris will also have a son and a daughter. Lynsey does not have any and does not plan to have any in the foreseeable future.

Chris and his girlfriend have already decided on a name for the baby, but I am not saying just yet incase they change their minds.

Now to a garden update,


The juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker is becoming a regular visitor and is becoming use to me and my camera,

He enjoys the peanut butter on the post in the garden.

He knows how to hide when the Sparrowhawk is about.

He also knows how to play a good game of hide from the camera, but he hasn't quite mastered the art of hiding from two.

He certainly is not bothered who he dines with.

Tony and I had a drive over to Morecambe to visit his son Carl and family last Sunday. It was a lovely day out, Tony took one of his scenic routes and I took photographs.

One of the pictures I took showed just how archaic some people can be,

A row of Mole bodies hanging on a wire fence.

 To leave you with a better picture in your mind,

Meet Tia,
The latest addition to Emma's household.

Until the next time...

A treat for myself

I have been wanting a new tripod for a while, the one I had has been ok, but I have always thought it was not really strong enough for my largest lens. So while we were in Scotland I decided to have a look around.
Ffords in Beauly as usual did not have what I wanted, so we looked in Jessops in Inverness. I was not really expecting to find anything in there, however to my surprise I found just what I wanted.
The young sales lad, "Toby" who served us could not help enough, but he tried so hard he kept getting himself into a muddle. When we had finally managed to pack up, pay and thank Toby for his help, I left the shop the proud owner of a brand new tripod and head.
Oh sorry didn't I say what it was!

It was a

MANFROTTO  055X PRO TRIPOD 

&

 MANFROTTO FLAT BASE VIDEO HEAD.

A lot of you will think a what? but some of you will think wow thats good.

I am very pleased with them, I have to say they took a bit of playing with but I am so pleased I bought them.

Another quick garden update,

Young  Robin 1

(red breast)

Young Robin 2

(no red breast)

Naughty Squirrel in Margarets plant pot

Enjoying the sunflower seeds

Trying to look innocent 

Until the next time...

An unusual sight!

While we were in Scotland some days we would just jump in the car and drive around not really going anywhere just looking for things to photograph.
I have tried on numerous occasions to take a picture of a Hooded Crow, and I have failed every time. So imagine how pleased I was when we saw a very young Hooded Crow all by its self, I had to get a picture.

A young Hooded Crow.

The youngster ran up and down the beach looking for food, it was getting closer and closer to us all the time as if it didn't even realise we were there. It got so tired at one point it had to sit down for a rest.

Having a rest.

However it wasn't long before it was up and running again.

On our previous visits to Scotland we have seen Eider Ducks, which I have taken pictures of. We saw some this time but both Tony and myself were amazed when we saw them.

We were driving along the coast road to Cromarty from Balblair, just past Jemimaville, on the Black Isle when we saw them. I could not count how many there was, there must have been dozens of them and as far as we could see they were all male. As soon as Tony could find a safe place to stop he pulled in to the side and I walked back, I had to get a photo of this.

Eider Ducks 

Taking to the water

Making a splash

Keep on splashing

Eider Ducks swimming

It was amazing to watch all those ducks move together, the pictures don't show it very well you had to be there, I have never seen so many Eider Ducks in one place and all male in different stages of plumage.

A quick update from the garden!

One of the squirrels enjoying an apple,

However it is not too happy when the apple drops over the fence.

Until the next time...

New Faces

We found we had some new visitors in the garden when we returned from Scotland. There had been another hatching of Starlings maybe two, more sparrows and my favourite new visitor has to be


The young Great Spotted Woodpecker

Who seemed to be getting harassed by a Starling.














Then of course there are the new squirrels, I managed to get a photograph of two of them together. One is a female the other a male, other than that I cannot tell one from the other and when all four are together , well I have no chance.

Until the next time...

The hole watchers

While we were up in Scotland looking after "The Pride" we noticed that Willow and Pandora spent a lot of time watching a hole in the garden. They seemed to take it in turns, almost on a shift pattern some days.

This is Pandora taking the first watch. With Willow close behind waiting for her turn.

This is Willow who takes hole watching very seriously, if she gets any closer she would be inside the hole.

Maia does not watch the hole, however she watches Pandora and Willow watching the hole.

If you look closely on the right of the tree you can see who lives in the hole 'The Pride' watch.

Until the next time...

Hospital, strimmer and squirrels

We had a couple of weeks away, the weather was kind to us most of the time, I have hundreds of photographs to sort through and of course as soon as I can I will share some. I have some to show you but they will come later, first of all lets get back to normality or as close to it as I ever get!

The morning after we arrived home I had a hospital appointment, my Mum came with me, (sometimes you need your Mum no matter how old you are). I will find out the results from that visit in a couple of weeks.
Christopher has been texting to remind me that there is only about 4 weeks before the baby is due to be born, (oh do I feel old,) that will be my fourth grandchild. Chris and Joanne are having a boy so that means Chris(my son) and Emma (my daughter) will both have a boy and a girl, so thats enough now, you can stop there, Please. Lynsey still says she isn't having any so thats ok,( I don't mind if she changes her mind but not for a long time ).

Lynsey is having problems with "Pepper" her cat again at the moment. He had to go to the vets, he was vomiting and sounded like he was choking. He would not eat or drink.
The vet gave him an anaesthetic and had a look, he found a twig along with a bit of dirt stuck in the cats throat. He is now treating the cat with antibiotics for a chest infection and laryngitis. I think "Pepper" has been raiding birds nests again and got a bit stuck so maybe it is poetic justice, but I am glad he is ok.

Tony has been busy since we came home, the garden was slightly over grown, so he has cut the grass, after much chunttering and mending of the strimmer again. The garden is looking quite posh these days.

I am very pleased to say that the day after we came home, we discovered that we had new squirrels in the garden 4 young ones. They chase round the garden like idiots, it is similar to watching a Benny Hill sketch.  They are very wary of the cats, a big bright ginger one in particular. This cat almost caught one of the squirrels yesterday morning, it appeared over the fence like a streak of lightening right where one of the squirrels was sitting. The cat missed that one, jumped down on to the floor where another squirrel was and we thought the cat must have caught it because we never saw the squirrel run away. I was horrified, all that day I kept looking out hoping to see 4 squirrels so I knew they were all alright.
This morning we finally saw all 4 squirrels in the garden together, knowing all the young squirrels were safe made me feel a whole lot better.

Now photos, I have sorted a few out and I am going to share with you a few of the highlights...

This small Deer was just calmly crossing the road one morning as we drove along.

The Deer did not seem bothered by us and just took it's time strolling across the road.


The same morning not far away Tony spotted a Hare in a field. Up came the camera again.

The Hare sat for a while eating before jumping up and running away across the field.

 The morning out was beginning to be a very good one, I hoped it was a sign of a good day to come.

We had a lot of good days we always do when we go to look after "The Pride" for my brother and sister in law.

I will try and have some more pictures ready soon.

Until the next time...