It wasn’t supposed to rain today

Sunday 21st August 2016

This afternoon it was quite hot and sunny, so I thought I’d take the dogs to Delph Woods where there is shade and water. And what happens? It immediately clouds over and we arrived there in the middle of a short shower of rain! Fortunately it soon stopped.

Our walk at the Delph was slightly different today, but we still started off heading for the lake.

Jez soon joined Max in the water and after she had cooled off she came to stand on the bank while I continued to throw Max’s cones so that he could have a swim.

She soon got bored with just hanging around, though, and decided to try and eat a tree instead.

Today, instead of heading straight for the scout field I walked in the general direction of Gravel Hill. I normally avoid going over this part of the woods as if the dogs run off after deer it’s a bit close to the road. As the road is currently closed, however, I thought I would take the opportunity.

There is another small ponds here which, although it can tend to be a bit mucky, currently has waterlilies flowering on it.

We walked around this pond before eventually heading back to the scout field. En route I took this photo of Max.

And here is Jez on the scout field.

We sat and played on the scout field for a while, then walked down to the stream. After that we headed back to the car and home.

A year ago today

We went for a walk on Upton Heath.

On Upton Heath

Saturday 9th July 2016

Apologies to everyone. I’ve been a bit busy and so haven’t had time to edit my photos, let alone write a blog post. But things are back to normal now and I’m in the process of having a bit of a catch up. My problem is going to be remembering what happened on our walks, so I think most of the time I will just have to let the photos tell the story.

So, on this particular Saturday Jez, Max and I went for a walk on Upton Heath in the afternoon. It took me a while to get Jez up the hill to the old railway line as she insisted on having a rest half way up.

While I was waiting for her to move on I took a photo of Max too.

We walked along the old railway line and headed for the pond, and I was surprised to see that the fungi, in this case Amanita pantharina, are already coming out.

When we got to the pond a couple of ladies were already there with a lovely little 2 year old staffy-cross called Alice.

As it was quite a warm day Jez had a long cool down…

… and a shake.

Meanwhile Max waited patiently for me to throw his cone as usual.

And while my two were standing around calmly, Alice raced in and out of the water with her ball.

After that we walked back to the car and came home. Chris had been cutting the lawn in the back garden so was ready for a rest and a beer.

Of course, Jez had to join in.

But she soon showed Chris what she thought of him.

So Chris retaliated.

And that’s it for today. We’d had a very pleasant afternoon.

A year ago today

Max and I went to Upton Country Park. Here he is in the stream.

Pre-pilates at the Country Park

Thursday 19th May 2016

As usual on a Thursday Max and I walked at Upton Country Park this morning. This was the view over Upton Lake towards Poole as we walked around.

Max likes the Country Park: he gets to play in the stream.

Today we saw the buzzard – we haven’t seen him (or is it her) for ages.

The blossom was looking rather nice this morning.

And here’s a shot of the blossom looking up through the branches of the trees.

And lastly for today, we came across this lovely rhododendron as we walked through the gardens.

A year ago today

I grabbed the camera when I saw this blackbird sunbathing in the garden.

Studland Beach for Max & I today

Wednesday 11th November 2015

Max had to go back to the dermatologist today for a check up. The vet surgery had moved his appointment to the morning as his vet had to attend a funeral in the afternoon. Sadly the practice’s finance manager, a very nice lady who I have spoken to on occasion, died suddenly a short time ago. As Max’s appointment was in the morning Jez didn’t come today. Which was a shame as I decided to take Max to Knoll Beach at Studland for his walk for a change after we had finished at the vets.

As you can see, it was a bit overcast and there was a quite a breeze. This was the view from the beach over to Old Harry Rocks.

Max was so excited to be at the beach and just wanted to chase his cone in the surf.

Here he is bringing it back.

And here he is reflected in the wet sand.

And here’s a close up of him.

After our walk I headed on down the Studland peninsula towards the chain ferry back to Poole. While I was waiting in the queue I took a photo of the South West Coast path sign.

We were at the back on the chain ferry, and as I looked back to Shell Bay I realised the light was really good, so jumped out of the car to take one final photo for today.

It had been a lovely walk for a change. I must take Jez next time she comes to the vet with us.

A year ago today

Max and I had a bit of a damp walk on Upton Heath.

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More wet weather

Friday 6th November 2015

There is no blog post for yesterday as I didn’t go for a walk. Instead I took Jez to see Rachael, her physiotherapist. She hasn’t been for ages and I thought it would do her good. Plus her back leg has been playing her up the past few days. We had a good session and Rachael worked out what was causing the problem with her leg and worked on that as much as Jez would let her. I’m hoping she’ll be a bit better now, but she’s got another session in 3 weeks time.

Not that I minded not going for a walk yesterday. The weather wasn’t very nice. And today we had rain again, so Max and I went to Upton Country Park. Max doesn’t really care about the rain. All he cares about is playing in first one stream…

… and then the other.

Meanwhile, wet and windblown, I took the opportunity for a selfie.

Sorry about that!

And back near the car park there was a surprise waiting for us.

Little fairy / elf homes. Isn’t that cute?

A year ago today

Max and I were out and about on Canford Heath.

A birthday lunch

Sunday 13th September 2015

Yesterday was Jezebel’s 8th birthday, and tomorrow will be Pat’s 95th birthday. So today I invited Dad and Pat to lunch. For those of you who don’t know, Pat is Dad’s ex-partner who had to move in with her son last year after Dad fell and broke his hip.

Max was a happy boy. He’s very fond of Pat. Here are the two of them snuggled up of the sofa.

I cooked roast dinner for lunch, followed by a lemon cream pie. Later in the afternoon we had fresh strawberry cupcakes which I had baked earlier in the morning (the dogs had a peanut butter cupcake each). So, a nice dinner followed by cake and Chris was a happy man.

A year ago today

We went for a walk on Upton Heath and I took this photo of Jez at Pinesprings Nature Reserve.

Practising

Thursday 29th 2015

No photos from our walk today, I’m afraid. But once it got dark I was out practising photographing the moon. So here is a shot of an almost blue moon, taken from outside our front door.

Tomorrow I plan to head up to the Viewpoint on Upton Heath to get some shots of the real thing.

A year ago today

We went to the River Stour for our walk. This was the view from Eye Bridge.

I have a cunning plan!

Saturday 30th May 2015

After my last sorry attempts to get Jez to walk up the Roman Road, across to the viewpoint and then back down across the heath I hatched a cunning plan today. Instead of parking at the entrance to the lower heath, I drove up the hill and parked up near the viewpoint. That meant we walked round the back of the hill, then down across the heath to the pond, before turning back up and cutting through to the Roman Road and so back to the car (via Pinesprings). It was a nice sunny day, although the breeze was a bit cool.

The first photo shows Max on the path round the back of the hill. He can obviously smell something.

A little bit further along the path I took this panorama.

Here’s a slightly different view of One Tree Hill for you.

As I said we walked on down to the pond before turning back. I had planned to walk around the back of the pond, but Jez refused to go that wasy and just lay where we normally play until I went back again.

So we made our way back to the Roman Road and then onto Pinesprings where Jez had to have a long rest.

So while we waited for her I took the opportunity to take some photos of Max.

It took us quite a while to do the walk due to the resting, but my cunning plan had worked well.

A year ago today

Jez and I nipped home from Dad’s for a couple of hours. Max was underwhelmed to see me.

It must be warm

Thursday 18th December 2014

It may not feel like it at times, but it must be unseasonably warm. You may remember I took a photo of an Azalea bloom a couple of weeks ago at Broadstone Rec. Well Jez, Max and I went back there for our walk this morning and it was not just a case of an isolated bloom. This whole bush was in flower.

The azaleas in my garden have blooms on them too. They seem to be very confused.

So we had our walk at Broadstone Rec., which was somewhat uninspiring today as it was just a dull, slightly breezy day. When we came home I decided that it was time to start to tackle the general dumping ground that is my garage. This is what the downstairs looked like.

I started upstairs though. That enabled me to create enough space to move the two cabinets that you can just about make out in the front of that photo upstairs under the bench which has created more space downstairs. Meanwhile Chris did two trips to the local tip to take both rubbish from upstairs and downstairs. There’s still a lot to do, but at least we can move in there now.

A year ago today

Coincidence time again. We were at Broadstone Rec.

Should I give up daily posts

Tuesday 23rd September 2014

I keep talking about it, and on days like today you can see why. If I don’t really do much, such as at the moment when walking the dogs is at a minimum, then I find I don’t really get to take any photos. I’m conscious of the fact that this blog is called ‘Pictures from Everyday Life’ and that my original intention was to take photos of all sorts of everyday things, but sadly I’ve never really found the inspiration for that, and when I have I’m not happy with the photos I take.

So the upshot of all this is that I end up with days like today, when I’ve gone all day and not taken a photo, and then realise at about 8pm at night. And the result of a forced photo at that time of night is this.

Max on his night-time walk with his back to me, taken on my iPhone. Not appealing as a photograph in any sense of the word. It also does nothing to portray the fact that today was the first day of Autumn.

Chris has suggested I post weekly, but I think if I move away from daily I’d rather go back to ad hoc and not be tied to a schedule. That way, hopefully, you will still get lots of photos, but they may actually be of a better quality.

I’m also thinking of changing the Theme as the text is not very clear on that black background, which I chose to show off the photos. So I’ll try and find a decent photographic theme for the blog with a better text display.

If anyone has any thoughts on what I’ve just written, please feel free to share them.

A year ago today

I found this Comma Butterfly on Canford Heath