I have shown over twelve people around our house and am thinking of becoming a tour guide as (even if I say it myself) I am getting fairly good at it, making people relaxed and showing them all that I have now realised what a pain house viewing and selling is. So I have compassion for anyone who has to go through this harrowing experience.
Without myself and the wife support for each other, the fact that viewing is by appointment only, thus allowing “some” free time to enjoy a bit of photography and of course my fishing life would be really hard going in this stressful time.
3rd July.
Out with my 150-600 large lens , taking pictures of the local farmer cutting silage I realised with such a good distant lens it is very hard to judge just how far away from me some of the shots I take are. So below are some distant shots made closer with the lens on maximum distance and others with nearer the actual length away the shot really is.
Three shots showing the tractor at work, using the lens to make it as close as possible.
The minimum length of the lens showing a much more realistic distance it really was.
One of each of the Cairn opposite us.
The close up of the rose was so close it is not possible to get in focus.
Just found it interesting to see the advantage of a good zoom lens.
4th
Independence Day for my American friends and also gaining some independence is one of my wee Swallows.
Not sure how far off it is from fledging, but has certainly grown since I last saw it.
P.S. In fact after I took this shot it fledged that day, though we started off with three in the nest , it was in fact the only one to survive. Fully expecting the parents to start a second brood at any time.
5th.
Though it fledged it comes back to sleep each night and here it is arriving back for bedtime and………
Here it is fast asleep at ten thirty at night (yes still daylight here at that time), head tucked under it’s wing, if I perched there for the night I would surely fall out of bed.
10th.
Start of a mini heatwave here and at a temperature of twenty eight C this Dunnock knows the coolest spot is to get down into the longer grass before that man with the mower cuts it again.
12th.
I think in the twenty years we have lived here today has been our hottest day, the temperature reached a barmy thirty one degrees Centigrade and for here that is hot. I walked down to our lovely River Fender just one hundred yards below our house to suss out the water levels and temperature. Levels not great but nice and slow and well able to have a wee swim in it. So if it is this hot tomorrow I have decided (again a first since being here) I shall go for a swim to cool off.
Below are what it looked like tonight.
Looks inviting doesn’t it?
13th.
When we first moved to this house we noticed in the village that most of the older houses had House Sparrow nests in between the tiles. Yet us being just under a mile out of the village had none, so our task was to encourage them up, we had them visiting the feeders but not nesting. So I started to build Sparrow hotels (as they like to nest as a colony). Basically three Tit boxes joined together, one each end and a central one facing out. It took two years to get our first nest and that was not in the hotels but they bullied their way into a Blue Tit box, followed by an artificial House Martin bowl, until the next generation (or other birds arriving) discovered the hotel boxes. Now we have at least six breeding pairs and their calls are a feature of the property, especially when parents are feeding young. The shots below show a male having just fed the babes in the box and one of both parents with the female above waiting to get in the box with food. Not great shots, shooting into the sun on another very hot day.
P.S. have not learnt on my new P.C. how to straighten the shots yet, another task for this old brain to learn.
15th.
Just an update on the house, shown seventeen around the house and the sixteenth put in an offer that we have accepted so full steam ahead for a move.