Bits n’ Bobs

Posted on by Ark

Across the Valley – this afternoon.

Red Darter by the pool

Home Grown. First time I’ve had success with carrots. They are a dwarf species. And yes, we ate them with lunch.

Rain Spider. Discovered her on a wall inside the shed yesterday evening just before I locked up for the night.  They have become quite  scarce so you can imagne I was pleased as punch. I hope she has a long and fruitful life at our spot.

Benji. What else is there for a cat to do when it’s so hot?

Dressed in pink to make the boys wink.

Tawny Flanked Prinia gives us a song.

Butternut – I think?

Young Robber Fly I rescued from one of the water bowls in the garden.

Fried chips in their formative stage of growth.

”What’s the Buzz, Neil?”

Clouds across the Moon

Thyme enough for a Young Lemon Tree.

Speckled Mousebird

Ark.

37 thoughts on “Bits n’ Bobs”

  1. Do you folks always eat lunch outside in the summertime? And all together at once? Or is the table just “set” for picture-taking purposes? 😉

    SOME nice pictures in your post … 😇

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    1. The table hasn’t been there for very long and it’s usually only at weekends we’ll eat outside. Not if it’s snowing of course. Well, providing it isn’t snowing too hard.

      It’s difficult enough getting me to set the table as it is , do you honestly think I would go to all that trouble doing women’s work just for a photgraph! Sheesh!

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  2. Superb! Especially the ones of the Red Darter and Speckled Mousebird.

    Q: What magic is required to get the detailed image quality of your first moon shot using a cellphone camera? Mine always end up overexposed or looking like your second picture with the clouds.

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    1. Don’t tell anyone but I do not own a cellphone – I do borrow one now and then if I am out and about on my own.

      Both photos of the moon were taken with a Sony Cybershot; the first on full zoom. I had it on the ‘S’ setting and the shutter speed was 1/400.The rest of the settings are automatic.
      I cropped and cleaned up the shot a little with picassa.
      The second photo was taken sometime later, still with the Sony but the exposure was longer 1/25s. I mucked about in picassa later to get the blue/black effect.

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      1. These are elegant, Ark. Especially the first one. We have nothing even close to that here, at least in the North east, that color is amazing.
        The mousebird is my favorite. Along with all the others, of course. Even the spiders. Im careful with ours, too. I’m not their biggest fan, but a life is a life…

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        1. Life is a life indeed.
          I avoid killing or hurting whenever I can.
          In fact I had to encourge a mud dauber wasp to move out of our bathroom this morning as it had begun to make a nest attached to the light cover. I destroyed the nest with a broom handle and the nest had several small spiders inside – seems she was already stocking the larder!

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          1. We have an old house here, and they are famous for being wasp/hornet havens. Im mildly allergic, so I have a special glass-and-cardboard catcher for them, and out they go. The only thing I draw the humane line at is houseflies. brrr.
            I’d say you got her out just in time. We have wolf spiders on the porch, which gets old pretty quickly, and in the early spring I take down the webs and the about-to-hatchlings, and let them work it out on the rose bushes.

            There is just something about walking face first into a web-with-with-spider attached…

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  4. These are some absolute FABULOUS pics Ark! I must applaud you Sir. Your camera work is getting better and better by the month! You may have to consider working with National Geographic magazine! 😉

    The Hammers are giving your boys a run for their money, eh? 😮 Something you NEVER see in modern football: BRUTAL HONESTY! Hah! And a rare, fine upstanding honorable defender for West Ham, Arthur Masuaku! “I cannot tell a lie” as an honest young George Washington once told his father, but instead uttered “Yeah, that’s a PK.” Lol

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    1. Well … the Reds hung in there and the second goal was a pearler. Some fine footy and a really slick pass by Mr. Swiss Roll.
      I suspect with Jota playing the way he is, Minamino is going to have a hard time getting a place, and I reckon he will put out on loan before the season gets much older.

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        1. Now you’re asking!
          You know, Beverly I have no idea. I presume it does not smell bad as we would have been aware of it by now after all these years.
          I must make an effort to go and smell a bloom on one of my morning walks.
          Watch this space.

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          1. Thanks for checking. I just thought if it did how wonderful it would be to step outside every morning and breath in the sweet smell. Oh well,, ,enjoy the lovely landscape.

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  6. Nice shots, Ark. Especially good is that capture of your languid stretched out cat … (has your pool got a ‘cat escape’ ramp, just in case? And how long can a soggy cat tread water anyway?)

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    1. That is the Observatory – hence the name of our suburb.
      It is not open to the public, but I understand trips are organised by schools and other teaching establishments.

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  9. Great photos..love the moon shot. You do see jacarandas in Fla…the purple and occasionally yellow. I. south Fla. they have the Royal Poinciana , which is red…lovely trees.

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  11. Jacarandas and carrots now? (Our Jacarandas are only due until February)
    You would shrivel without your magic garden if you leave…
    Portugal would be a better bet than Pas-de-Calais in that respect… ✊
    This closed fist appeared out of the blue above my keyboard. Mac reads what I type and probably sends it to Langley… Does it read my thoughts? Oh. Well!

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  12. Eclectic stuff, 😍 love the speckled mousebird shot. Well done on persevering with growing carrots. The Blue Moon was awesome and that little crab spider waiting in ambush is cleverly camouflaged.

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    1. There was a Jacaranda that the council cut down outside a house in the steeet behind us but I’m pretty sure that was because it was interferring with telephone lines or something similar, if memory serves?
      I must be honest and say I have never seen one fall over or even one that has fallen over.

      Often it depends on one’s perspective. Are you absolutely sure it was the Jacarandas that fell over and not something else that became vertically challenged because of all that Kenyan home brew?
      😉

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      1. Ha! As if I would admit to being challenged by one too many Tuskers. But the jacarandas did used to fall over sometimes in Nairobi. They’re shallow rooted and get top heavy. And then the Akamba woodcarvers would move in and recycle the timber into a menagerie of beasties – large and small. I have a nearly life-size jacaranda aardvark.

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