Blue-Tailed Damselfly

I woke up feeling decidedly unwell this morning.  A bit of a yukky throat, not sore, but not comfortable and a feeling of nausea.  Hoping that when I helped put up the fence last week that the back neighbour wasn't carrying anything.  Stupidly I wasn't wearing my mask.  Just didn't think at the time because I was out in the garden. 

Fortunately as the morning wore on I started to feel a bit better, although still very tired.  I did some work in the front garden, but as the garden waste collection bin is packed as tight and full as it can be, and I had filled all the spare bags I had, once I filled the round gardman bin I stopped.  Partly because I just couldn't be bothered lugging it round that back and all the way up the hill to my rather large pile of garden waste that I am hoping will gradually break down.

I spent some time by the pond, trying to see if I could see any of the fish, but no luck.  Couldn't even see any newts.  There was a lovely male Blue-tailed Damselfly which I managed to photograph.

Just look at those fabulous colours in his head and thorax.  Just incredible.

There were also the usual pond skaters.

There are quite a few of these lovely orange flowers growing on my front bank, but I am not sure what they are, I believe it is part of the Crocosmia/Iris family.

In the vegetable garden:

The beans are growing well and I picked quite a few today and dropped a handful off to my neighbour.  I hope she enjoys them as much as I do.  I had a few with dinner tonight and they are really lovely.

A Harlequin Lady bird.  Hopefully eating all the aphids/black flies on my Dalmatian bean leaves!

.  Day 28/Week 4:  103 miles!  Plus I still have three days to go until the end of the month, so very chuffed to have gone over my 100 miles goal this month.  

The Wow Factor

A lovely morning for a walk.

I thought I would try walking a bit further today to see how I managed it now I am feeling so much better than last week.

I walked to a place I went with my husband last year...we didn't get to do the full walk, we just walked a little way.

I decided I wanted to walk down to the water, as we didn't do that.

A tantalising glimpse of a beach...

A lovely pond.

The cliffs.

Rugged beauty.

The car park.  It had a few cars in it already when I arrived.  I'd walked along the road to get there, but only one of the cars passed me just as I got there.

Walking down.

A little more of the beach.

and then.....

Wow!  I was absolutely amazed.

I really hadn't expected this.

Beach wise, I am not easy to impress being used to the magnificent New Zealand beaches where I grew up.  A lot of those take some beating.   This came close to being comparable in beauty that is for sure.

I had a lovely time walking along it.

I didn't walk as far as I would have liked as knew I had to walk home again.

I didn't want to overdo it, so it will be interesting to see how I feel tomorrow.

Such richness of colours.

Waves lapping the shore

The sea really did look inviting.

Colourful cliffs.

There was such colour in them, difficult to capture on film properly.

Time to say goodbye until another day...I will definitely come back, with a packed lunch so I can enjoy walking right along the beach.

Large Red Damselfly

Lovely pond.

Instead of walking back via the road I went through the fields and the woods.

Looking back...

A swing someone had set up in the wood hanging from a tree.  I bet many have enjoyed a good swing on it.

Back home....

The crows enjoying a sunbathe on the roof of my seat.

This arrived this afternoon.

I sold a doll in the weekend and was able to arrange a courier collection so I didn't have to go to the post office.  With the proceeds I was able to buy a hutch for the guinea pigs.  They live inside my garden shed, but the sun shines directly into it all day, and I am worried about them getting too hot so wanted something they could go in during the day that would be cooler for them.  So was pleased to be able to get this and was most impressed how quickly it arrived.

The pieces.

The assembly...

Finished!  It fits on the deck beside my sewing studio nicely.  It is shaded there...I just have to check in the morning if it is shaded enough.  Certainly by late afternoon when I finished building this it was.

I will put the guinea pigs back in the shed at night as we have foxes, and after a fox 'opening' one of my guinea pig hutches many years ago when we first moved to Rose Cottage, in Hertfordshire, I don't trust them, and don't want to risk them getting into the hutch here.