![[33/52] Small Glum Child by kcm76](https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6082/6062296323_1bb0af6849.jpg)
[33/52] Small Glum Child, a photo by kcm76 on Flickr.
Week 33 entry for 52 weeks challenge.
One from the archive. Here’s a small very glum-looking child. Yes, it’s me. I must be about 5 or 6, I guess, so we’re talking around 1956/7. I also guess it was taken by my father somewhere in Hertfordshire, Essex or Kent – most likely somewhere in the Lea Valley. Beyond that have no idea where or exactly when.
Sartorial elegance never was a strong point of mine!
Weasel!
Weasel??!!??
Blimey, that is a weasel!
Something I never expected to see in suburban London — at least not in broad daylight. And I think it is only the third time I’ve ever seen a weasel, the previous two times being fleeting glimpses in the twilight as they disappear out of sight at breakneck speed.
This one was running around on the pavement and road (trying hard to get run over – stupid creature) on the busy Greenford Road right outside the Bridge Hotel about 1130 yesterday morning. (If you go to the “Location” tag at the bottom of this page, or to the Flickr image, you can see exactly where this is on the map.) The beastie is here seen lurking under a piece of metal barrier; (s)he’s probably about 15cm (6 inches) long in the body.
It was so fast it was a question of point the camera out of the car window in vaguely the right direction and hope. I got one shot in before the lights changed (and I almost missed that!). This is a tiny crop from the middle of that one shot.
Meet Rosie …
She is our next door neighbour’s young Persian cat who is currently being fed and watered by Noreen.
She is also about to drop a bundle of kittens. The owners get a female cat, don’t have her spayed and then wonder why every tomcat in the area comes to call. They then bugger off on holiday for 3 weeks – although to be fair they have gone “home” to Lebanon because the husband’s father is seriously ill. So Noreen has had to man the breach. Fortunately they’re due back today, although who knows if that will materialise!?
Fortunately Rosie is a placid and amenable pussy, although that lovely soft, long fur needs a lot of brushing to stop it getting matted. I love her Hobbit feet – in this second photo you can just see the tufts of fur between her toes.
Meet “The Lodger” …
She appears to have been abandoned (she’s been around for some months) and decided about a week ago she wanted to adopt us. She was clearly starving hungry and is very friendly and easy to handle. Sadly our current two felines are very not impressed, so she’s having to live in a box in our front porch for the time being. After a week she is still hungry but is already looking in much better condition.
This morning we took her to the vet (we were taking our two as well for their injections) to get her the once over. It turns out she has been chipped and the registered owners live a few streets away. She’s clearly in reasonable health and as there is no sign of kittens she’s likely been spayed. The vet reckons she’s probably about a year old.
The vet is going to try to contact the registered owners and see what gives; he’ll also hopefully contact our nearest vet’s where she may be registered. If there’s no dice in a week or two we’ll get the OK for her to move in with us @ndash; the present two permitting. It would be nice if she does move in as she’s a lovely, friendly small cat who deserves a good home.
Meanwhile she’s doing sentry duty at our front door.
Week 32 entry for 52 weeks challenge.
Rainbow seen this evening from our study window. When Noreen first drew my attention to it, it was very bright, almost a complete arc with a second fainter rainbow outside it. By the time I got a camera on it, leaning out the window, it was beginning to fade. Still it looks like someone in the next street has a crock of gold for a TV set.
Week 31 entry for 52 weeks challenge.
This is my mother who will be is 96 in October enjoying the summer in the gardens of her care home yesterday. She spends quite a bit of time just sitting quietly under the trees watching the wildlife; apparently in the Spring there were hares running around the lawns quite oblivious to her presence. OK she’s very frail and needs a zimmer frame, but she’s mentally all with it and can still draw and paint and read. And although she’s very deaf with her hearing aids she can still hear the birdsong.
And yes, that’s Noreen in the background who will be 60 also in October.
I present you with the Common Wasp, Vespula vulgaris.
I found this critter dead on the bedroom floor this morning and in picking it up for recycling I realised just what stunning creatures wasps are. We so often think of them a nuisanceful pests whereas they’re amazingly engineered and even in death almost beautiful. So I had to photograph it – click the links below for larger views.
Image 1 (top left) shows just how hairy they are when we think of them as bald. And you can just see the tiny, shiny bulge of the top of the wasp’s compound eye.
Image 2 (top right) shows some of the mazing engineering: just look at the hooks and barbs on the legs – just what is needed for gripping caterpillar/insect prey and crawling over plants.
Image 3 (bottom left) shows the face and jaws which are the characteristics that identify this as Vespula vulgaris rather than any of the other UK species.
Image 4 shows something I’d never realised before (although my book shows it clearly) and that’s that wasps have two pairs of wings: look carefully and you can see in front of the large main wing a smaller wing. No wonder they’re such skilled flyers.
These are tiny, amazingly delicate yet robust insects. This individual, a worker, is just 12mm long with a wingspan of about 22mm. In her lifetime she may well have “salvaged” numerous flies, caterpillars etc. as food for the next generation of grubs – without wasps we would be knee deep in creepy crawlies.
This was taken under my desk lamp (hence the slight colour cast) with my point-an-shoot Lumic TZ8 – which is amazing for macros like this as it will focus down to just a couple of centimetres (much better than my dSLR)!
And as I was taking these I thought: how the hell do you go about dissecting something this small? Clearly scientists have done so, but it’s a skill I don’t have and I’m not dexterous enough to ever conceive how to do it! Amazing insects and amazing scientific work to dissect one!
Montage created with fd’s Flickr Toys
![[30/52] Symmetry by kcm76](https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6127/5978562974_ea91cb6f7e.jpg)
[30/52] Symmetry, a photo by kcm76 on Flickr.Week 30 entry for 52 weeks challenge.
OMG do I ever photograph anything other than flowers? Well yes, but it’s too easy to photograph flowers at this time of year, and they almost always look stunning. This small but perfectly symmetrical rose was seen in a front garden in Northolt. Can anyone identify it?
![[29/52] Hebe by kcm76](https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6003/5963779892_2d532f364f.jpg)
[29/52] Hebe, a photo by kcm76 on Flickr.Week 29 entry for 52 weeks challenge.
As so often, flowers again this week. This hebe is growing in our front hedge. It’s a fairly dull shrub and I always forget how pretty the flowers are.
![[28/52] Roadside Rosebud by kcm76](https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6011/5926463149_d10bbcbcd5.jpg)
[28/52] Roadside Rosebud, a photo by kcm76 on Flickr.
Week 28 entry for 52 weeks challenge.
A rather nice pink rose growing over a garden wall in Pinner.
![[32/52] Rainbow by kcm76](https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6088/6023232554_4438ae3365.jpg)
![[31/52] Mother at Nearly 96 by kcm76](https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6015/6008589487_57cc0698c5.jpg)
