To Our Children's Children's Children - The Moody Blues

 In the eyes of the child 

you must come out and see. 

That your world's spinning 'round 

and through life you will be. 

A small part of a hope of a love that exists 

In the eyes of a child you will see

For most of the past couple of days I have been in Kingston on Thames visiting 2 very special girls and 3 equally important little boys. What has become usual is that

ALEXANDER and FREDERICK
scamper into my car before I even have time to get out of it!

During this first brief visit they managed function every control,
empty the screen washer bottle, bring up the battery warning light
and loose half of the parking money down the back of the seats.
Compared, I was such an angelic child??????
However, the Main Thrust of this visit was to meet a little girl named

ELIZABETH LOUISE
and they don't come much smaller!

Checking out all the digits there were all there and in the right place
and immediately I could see she was almost as beautiful as her Grandpa Bagsy.

BENJAMIN, Fred and Alex joined in to introduce me to
my first, and what should be, the only Granddaughter who
just simply 'knocked my socks off' and yes there was a blub!

BONDING

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
BEHOLD!

Benny, the youngest boy, was 2 years old yesterday so that was a
lucky escape, but there were presents including this
Play House.
They wanted me to join them inside but while I felt I could get in
there may well have been a big problem waiting to develop?

Meanwhile, Mummy Lisa was taking a break but not for long

as these boys seemingly never stop reading, writing, singing,
jigsawing as can be seen.

Alex has a novel way of helping his brothers,

but approaching dinnertime things have to be stowed away.
As ever my hat seems to gain popularity and after each of them

trying it on

there followed a game of throwing it onto the Play House roof

followed by Grandpa having to hide it.
Benny was looking a little bewildered at all the activity.

Now it may be noticed that I am looking even more pleased with
myself in this shot, as well I should.

I had just successfully completed bathing, drying, powdering and
dressing Elizabeth having not forgotten any of the skills needed to
bring up 2 girls of ones own.

A lovely drop of warm milk

as the Story Books come out the two choices being
The 3 Billy Goats Gruff and I See A Bear.

So, another day over in the company of my lovely family,

and time to say our

Good Nights.

Good Night Elizabeth, Good Night Alex.

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Coward of the County - Kenny Rogers

EARLY POST TODAY AS I MUST AWAY - HAVE A 'YOUNG LADY' TO MEET!
THIS POST RELATES TO TUESDAY

The heavy and frequent rain showers continued to roll in, but now from the north west, but the wind did moderate somewhat in speed. Arriving to monitor the Moth Traps, this was the scene at

HARBINS FARMHOUSE

Little doing in Mothsville the highlight being these c3

POPLAR HAWK-MOTHs
along with a

 

FLESH FLY
nasty sounding creature, while on the stable wall these most attractive young

GARDEN SPIDERs
As the weather seemed to be holding it was quickly down to
Longham Lakes where first up, having tired of Mallard the predators
are now turning their attentions to

COOTs EGGs

HOUSE SPARROW
taking advantage of the 'feeding station' while close by

GREAT CRESTED GREBEs

were in full 'display' mode.

Best number this year of
COMMON SWIFT
but I still havn't got the hang of capturing birds on the wing.

Oh, maybe getting a bit better with a bigger and slower target
GREYLAG GEESE
Having mentioned before about approaching the Pumping Station
with a degree of stealth, the camera was brought to bear as the

 COMMON SANDPIPER
 reached the 200 metre mark.

The Geese hadn't even flown out of view by then and being at the furthest point from the entrance, any semblance of 'shelter' was out of the question as the Heavens opened up dropping a fair old bit of rain and hail. Seeking a lee against the Pumping Station wall, at the bottom of a bank, I was only 'soaked to the skin' rather than 'drowned', but ever onward. Reaching the ridge of the bank the

COMMON SANDPIPER
was obviously feeling nervous

but as far as I could tell it hadn't sen me.

Lucky then to get a few shots off before it did and took to the air once more.

The precipitation seemed to have carried a few other things in its wake,

driving this
BLACK-HEADED GULL
onto the pathway and in the far distance a

LITTLE GULL
as well.

 

Showing comparison in size with the good deal larger
Black-headed Gull

the wretched thing couldn't have been any further away from  
terra firma if it wanted to be!

There, or thereabouts, is where it stayed with the photos
being something to be desired,

while taking to the wing occasionally

to feed.
Between here and my next port of call, a few interesting plants
were found including

BROOM

YELLOW (Flag) IRIS

RED CLOVER

and what is thought to be
HOP TREFOIL? (the jury is out on this one).

COWARDS MARSH
is not a place I have visited before, but would have been had I
found the place yesterday

With excellent directions from George Green, via E-mail there was no real reason for not having found my way, but came up against a 5-bar gate blocking the way so gave up the search. Today I was lucky to have bumped into Ian (Grylo) Lewis and his wife Margret who explained where I had gone wrong which was to my advantage!

MARSH COTTAGE

what a lovely spot!
Searching the marsh for the target birds I came across an unexpected

(male) PINTAIL

and very soon after, relocated the 'reported'

BARNACLE GOOSE
(make of that what you will)

before catching less than a fleeting glimpse of a bird with a 'downcurved' bill which disappeared, just as quickly, below the line of the river bank. Shortly afterwards I was joined by 3bfellow birders all of whom I had met before in the field. Giving them an update and trying to get them onto the key species the c2

GLOSSY IBIS

put in another and much more rewarding appearance.
(The 5 images above are all from the archive, as the birds were at
'scoping distance only and not even worth raising the camera).

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