The Old Bird!

I took this shot of my Mother with some of the older hens the other night.

She is the one on the right...!!

New Arrivals

The menagerie is expanding!

The latest additions arrived a couple of nights ago in awful weather but have settled in nicely, ready to join the others eating us out of house and home!

Hopefully these 8/10 week Light Sussex and Vorwerk chicks will form the basis of a little breeding flock for the future and provide a few more delicious eggs.  Both these breeds are officially "rare" but the Vorverks are particularly so almost dying out some years ago.   They will be welcome and interesting additions to the hybrid egg producers we have at present.

No doubt they will appear again!

A Quiet Day

Turned out to be a quiet sort of day, the girls returned exhausted from parties and sleepovers and the boy was out.

A few household chores and settled down to watch the Grand Prix.  A great victory for Webber and a good drive from Hamilton!  Now the sun has come out at last.......

A peaceful picture for a peaceful day.......

Life Goes On....

Despite the rogue gunman just north of us in the beautiful village of Rothbury, one of our old walking and climbing grounds in the Coquet Valley, life goes on.  Dogs are to walk and the wonderful countryside is here to enjoy.

The children's Mother was a little unwell this morning but dashed out for a short stroll with the dogs in the plantation up the hill from our house in the Tyne Valley, before going back to work this afternoon

It was a lovely morning and nice to be out for a few minutes.

Slender St John's-Wort  Hypericum pulchrum

Stumped!

Northumberland.  It's a big county!

If You Go Down to the Woods Today.....

After my visit to the woods last week I posted a shot of an orchid which I had not seen there before.  Today I went back on my bike and to give the dogs a run, imagine my surprise and delight to to find this white orchid!  Later, almost back at the car I found a clump of the lilac variety.  Even better!

Common Spotted Orchid  Dactylorhiza fuchsii

On the ride I saw these trees, the lower branches dead and bleached but revealed by some recent thinning.  I couldn't decide which I preferred, the harder contrasty top shot or the softer bottom one.  So you have both!  Looking at them again, I think I prefer the harder one.....

Frog Health?

Another uneventful day, a bit of sun, a bit of laundry, collect one of the girls from school and watch her ride this evening.

Vague attempt at an "arty" shot!

What ever next?  We haven't even got any frogs......

Woodland Treasure!

We avoided the forecast rain today (we will pay tomorrow)!

Up to the cottage late morning to collect Mother's terrier for the day and cut her lawn in the warm sunshine.  The light was good so I took a couple of shots that I had had my eye on, then up to the local forest with all the dogs.  The young terriers running for all they were worth, it must be great fun being only a foot high and able to running round under all the trees!  The old collie wandering along in the rear and me wandering vaguely in the middle!

I love the contrast between the Buttercup and Cotinus leaves.

At last I found an Astrantia with the right background and lighting.

The real treasure trove of the walk was this wild orchid, it looks like a Southern Marsh-Orchid Dactylorhiza praetermissa, though we are possibly a little too far north here and it was on the small size (that could be the northern climate).  It is the first time I have seen any orchid in these particular woods, though I have seen one variety in Kielder Forest.