A Rather Random Selection.

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."

- Charles Dickens

 

Hello my beauties.  Thanks for dropping by again.   How was your Monday?  Not a manic one I hope.

 

This was the sight which greeted me first thing this morning as I waited for the kettle to boil.  Please excuse the quality of the picture as it was taken through a (eek! rather smeary) window, and whilst still half asleep, but I had to share it with you.  This is Charlie - sitting on top of an old fencing post which is very precariously leaning against the bench and awaiting disposal.  I have a cat who appears to think he is an owl.  How could he have possibly been comfortable?

 

I'm sure Cassie is wondering how on earth he got up there!! 

 

 

I badly needed to escape from the office at lunchtime today.  It was such a beautifully bright day, it would have been a travesty to sit inside in the dry fug of the air conditioning, and  poring over a computer screen.  So, for one precious hour, I walked down to the canal and ate my lunch there, sitting on the (admittedly rather cold) wall and filling my lungs with crisp, 'relatively clean' air. I took the camera and took just a couple of shots.  This lovely little spot is right in the centre of huge office complexes and about five minutes away from the bustling Merry Hill Centre.  Just a few years ago there used to be a thriving cosmopolitan network of winebars and nightclubs right opposite where I was sitting.  Sadly, apart from a couple of chain-owned pubs, the majority of them have now closed, forced out of business by mega high business rates and falling trade.  It's left the area looking a little bereft and bleak; boarded up and unused it's  a rather expensive white elephant now. 

 

Still Waters

Dudley No. 1 Canal.  This view shows the Earl of Dudley Bridge - and a lone fisherman.  Wonder whether he caught anything?

This beautiful silver birch was almost glowing. against the clear blue of the sky

Back at home this afternoon I was really happy to discover that lovely man had put in a new gate to give us better access to our beloved field.  He'd dug out some soil from behind the old makeshift door which had been threatening to perform it's own mini landslide and block our exit for ever(!), and had also cut back some overgrown branches which were a bit of a hindrance.  He laid a few spare slabs as a solid pathway and that's another long overdue job completed.

 

I took this shot when I got home this afternoon -

ooh it looks all mystical and mysterious doesn't it?

 

My apologies for the rather random selection of photographs today. 

 

See you very soon.

 

K x