21/12/2020 Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and a much improved 2021.

   Maximum temperature here today 14⁰C, minimum 6⁰C.  3 mm of rain measured this morning but it has been raining all day.  23km/h North-westerly winds with gusts up to 46 km/h.   The freeze arrives on Christmas day.  Temperatures drop and frost arrives.

I had intended doing another blog before this one, but time caught up with me, and the speed of the WiFi just got worse.  I hope it will improve in the New Year but I do not have much hope.  I have picked one photo from each month of 2020, thankfully COVID has not as yet killed off my photos.  Probably not the best photos as far as photography goes, but the ones I like from each month

12.2 km walked yesterday the best ever!

14/01/2020 A sunset that looked like a fireworks display.

03/02/2020 Snow drops appear in the garden.

21/03/2020 Blossom and insects start to appear.  Mirabelle blossom and hoverflies.

11/04/2020 Butterflies are very visible out on my walks. Orange Tip butterflies  

(Anthocharis cardamines).  Male on the left and the female under the leaf.

25/05/2020 Lots of Damselflies around. Beautiful demoiselle Male (Calopteryx virgo).

09/06/2020 I just liked this shot of the Wall Lizard (Podarcis Muralis) eying up the hornet (Vespa crabro). They both finally decided to go in opposite directions!

04/07/2020 Happy and smiling Sunflowers.

16/08/2020 Lesser purple emperor, female butterfly (Apatura ilia).

11/09/2020 Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas).

18/10/2020 Hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum).

14/11/2020 One of our neighbour's little ponies, they have four, and none of them are higher than my waist.

16/12/2020 What else but a Robin for Christmas. (Erithacus rubecula).

Happy Christmas 

Gesëende Kersfees

Nginifisela inhlanhla ne mpumelelo e nyakeni

Nadolig Llawen

Nollaig Shona Dhuit

Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ur

Buone Feste Natalizie

Feliz Natal

Feliz Navidad!

God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt Ar

Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan

 Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun

 Kung Ho Hsin Hsi. Ching Chi Shen Tan

Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto

Sawadee Pee Mai

Gajan Kristnaskon

Froehliche Weihnachten

Kala Christouyenna

Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova.

Vrolijk Kerstmis en een Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar

See you all in 2021 I hope.

See also my

 Bird blog

Joining up with My Corner of the World.

27/08/2020 Out and about, insects and skies.

 Maximum temperature here today 27⁰C, minimum 13⁰C.  Dry, but rain forecast.   17km/h North-Westerly winds with gusts up to 39 km/h. 

Sorry that I am not keeping up with blogs or comments, but we have had continuous slow WiFi, at times being only 0.1 (sigh).  The garden is also being very demanding, especially with two fig trees loaded with fruit and the dehydrator being on the blink.  I am spending many hours in the kitchen bottling.

Sunflowers.

Interesting clouds, do you see the teddy bear face?

Genus Calliptamusa member of Short-horned Grasshoppers Family Acrididae...

as above.

House sparrow (Passer domesticus) - I just liked this shot!

Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album)...

As above...

See the white comma and why it is named as such.

Orchids in the house. Cymbidium.

Lesser Purple Emperor (Apatura ilia).   Think this is the female, the male (of course) is the pretty purple one!!  She is still pretty good looking though!

As above...

As above.

The setting sun after a stormy day. 16/08/2020

Florentine Woolcarder (Anthidium florentinum)...

As above.

Bumblebee.

As above.

Peacock butterfly (Aglais io)...

As above.

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta).

Common social wasp (V. vulgaris).

Yellow‐legged hornet, (Vespa velutina) - another bee killer that appears to be rapidly spreading in France!! First identified here in 2004 😡

The first rose for some time appeared especially for my birthday 19/08 ....

We met up with friends and had a 'distancing' picnic at a friends house with a very large garden, and a very pretty farm wagon.  Despite the fact that we had not seen each other since February, and we had all been in lock-down, there seemed to be a lot to talk about.  Thirty-nine years anniversary tomorrow!

My local list of wildflowers. (90 Species 23/08/2020).

See also my

 Bird blog

Joining up with My Corner of the World

29/06/2020 Out walking and in the garden.

Maximum temperature here today 21⁰C, minimum 14⁰C. Dry.  15km/h North-Westerly winds with gusts up to 31 km/h.

My apologies for not keeping up with my blogs or yours but we just seem to be extra busy!!!

Looking through the forest.

The track where I was walking.

A hoverfly.

Somebody's insect hotel.

I walked down to the closest dam in the hopes that I might see something of interest.  Not a bird or an insect in sight.  Well, there were some water skimmers on the water but!!!

Back home a rainbow, look closely and you can see the second one.

Plane number F-HCG0 flying over the garden.

The vegetable garden.

Too big for lizard's lunch I suspect but they seemed to be aware of each other.

Hornet (Vespa crabro) and Common Wall Lizard (Podarcis Muralis).

Small stallion seen on a farm on another walk.  He posed perfectly for me!

Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris).  A protected species and they can range from Red to almost black.

Marbled White (Melanargia galathea).

As above.

Peacock butterfly (Aglais io).

Speckled wood (Pararge aegeria)

Wall brown (Lasiommata megera).

My local list of wildflowers. (82 Species 25/06/2020)

See also my

 Bird blog