Hilary's Posts Of The Week

I hope that everyone will go over to Hilary's Blog at Smitten Image on Wednesdays when she will be posting what she considers to be the best reads of the week. No one could replace David Mcmahon from Authorblog's Post Of The Day because that involved so much work and I can't think of anyone who could devote that amount of time to search through the many blogs for ten winners a day.

However it will be really great for Hilary to take over the next best thing with her weekly top posts. I think a bit of healthy competition is good for us all and also is a great way to meet new bloggers.

So thank you to Hilary, much appreciated.

Squirrels and Sand

Hosted by Cecily and Angie

Photos are copyright of Maggie May

We started back at school following the summer holidays, on a Thursday and during the following week, there were two inset days that fell on the Thursday and Friday. This meant no school for the children and non for me on the first of the two days.

The childrens' dad had an offer of a few weeks work, so Granddad and I decided to take the girls to Weston Super Mare on the bus.

I think it must have seemed a long drawn out journey for them as they are used to going in the car everywhere much more quickly. However they were quite excited about going on the top deck of a bus and being able to see over all the hedge rows.

It was a beautiful day and we took a picnic and spent a long time making sand castles and paddling. The water was warm and shoals of little fish came into the very shallow water of the safe paddling area that has just been reconstructed for children. Within a short time seagulls began swooping down and eating the fish.

We made a lovely building and a moat but while we were eating lunch, some children jumped on it so this is all that was left, much to the annoyance of the girls.

The following day, I had to go into work for the first half of the day, for training. We asked Amber and Millie what they would like to do in the afternoon after I got back and they asked to go to Brandon Hill to feed the squirrels. This is a very lovely spot, high on a hill in Bristol. This beautiful part of the city is in the central area near the University and museum.

Granddad and I are obviously feeling our age when we climb up the very steep hills. Come to think of it, Bristol is all hills! Anyway, there are lots of seats to sit on while we catch our breath.

The squirrels were very tame and came out in threes and fours, taking the peanuts that we had brought, though this proved to be very difficult when the pigeons arrived. It was then a competition as to who could get a nut to a squirrel and not a pigeon.

This picture was very weird because the squirrel was shrieking in a very loud and strange voice. I had never come across that sound before, so whether it was a mating cry or a cry of anguish, I do not know. It was like a bad distress call. Maybe some reader would know?

At the time of the trip, Bristol had several dozen pianos left in unusual places around the city and this one was on a hill with a view for miles around, behind it. The girl who was playing fairly well gave permission for me to snap her from the back.

The pianos were part of a project to promote music and give ordinary folk a chance to play in public. In some areas one or two pianos had been vandalised but on the whole this was a very popular idea and most of them were left alone.

Of course the girls had to have a go too.

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cecily. Why not drop in and some some really good photo stories.

Topsham Harbour

Photo copyright: Maggie May

I recently went with my family to Topsham in Devon and this is a little harbour that I came across.

The weather was lovely and the company was great.

What more could anyone want?

Watery Wednesday is hosted by 2sweetnsaxy. Why not look her up and see some really great pictures from all over the world?

Arachnophobia Anyone?

Photo copyright: Maggie May

There has recently been an announcement on the news, here in Britain, that there are going to be very many more spiders about than normal. This, apparently, is because of the Indian Summer that we have been experiencing for the last month. It has been fairly warm and sunny without much rain for several weeks, although it does get quite cool in the early mornings and the evenings.

I wouldn't say that I had arachnophobia, a severe fear of spiders but I really don't like them.

So OK, their webs look lovely with the sun light shining on them and if there are little drops of dew on the web, so much the better. They are also very good at keeping flies and garden pests at bay. So why are they disliked and avoided?

I think it is the sheer speed at which these creatures run that makes me want to get out of the way. The thought of one on my body is really awful. They are creepy.

At the After School Club where I work, I put on an act of bravery and catch the spiders and throw them out of a door. I usually get a mug, catch the spider in it and put a stiff card over the top and release them outside. My boss, if she catches me, tells me to throw the mug in the bin, even though I think that is such a waste because everyone knows that the mug would wash clean. Its not as though I caught a rat or a cockroach. That would be an entirely different matter.

I read somewhere that the average person swallows thirty spiders in their lifetime, while they are asleep. The thought of that is appalling, especially if you are a vegetarian, as I am. A few years ago, I did wake up one night and felt something on my face. Immediately I snatched it off and threw it down. It was a spider. What if I hadn't wakened up in time to throw it off?

So what is it about spiders that you don't like? Or maybe you do like them.

The Sunday Roast

Most people who know David Mcmahon from authorblog will have been shocked and disappointed to learn that he decided to close his blog in order to promote more time to writing his novels.

Although this was an exciting thing for him to move on to, we will all certainly miss not only his photography and excellent journalistic writing, his sense of humour and his comments, but Verse and Worse (his funny rhymes), Post Of The Day, that made us all compete in a friendly way for recognition, and The Sunday Roast.

Whilst the Post Of The Day helped many people, myself included, to receive new comments and in turn, good blogging friends, similarly The Sunday Roast helped to introduce us to bloggers who were unknown to us.

Well I have got good news for you. David has recommended someone to take over the Sunday Roast and he is the Bristol Blogger, Eddie Bluelights who has agreed to do this and hopes to take over mid October.

Eddie wants to keep David's interviews in the same tradition and style and if ever David came back to blogging, he would hand everything back to him. So he is looking after it for him until such a day that this might happen.

There are quite a few people trapped on David's draft folder, who should have been appearing on his Sunday Roast. These people might have never seen the light of day if Eddie hadn't agreed to free them. It would be good to see who they are, if they are new people or whether they are good friends, whom we already know.

Some of you might well be thinking, "Whatever is this Sunday Roast?"

So for those who have never heard of it, I will explain quickly that David invited people to be interviewed via email, to use on his post every Sunday together with their picture.

Some of his questions were Why Do You Blog? What Is The Reason Behind The Blog Name? What Advice Would You Give To A New Blogger? He also asked what they thought was their most significant post on their own blog and why. Also what other blog had influenced or made the most impact on them and why.

These posts have always been really interesting to read and I have made some good blogging friends this way.

I was Roasted last December just after Christmas. It was good fun, if not a little hot!

Eddie also wants these back numbers linked to his blog for others to see but if this is not possible, then you can always check them out at David's place.

Well Eddie hasn't as many followers as David has (getting on for 1000). Who could compete with that? Therefore, it has been decided that some of his followers would spread the word around so that readers will know that the Sunday Roast is still in operation. That is why I am writing this post that I will leave on my blog for a week or so, before I post anything else.

So my dear readers, if you enjoyed David's Sunday Roast, please would you post a similar notice on your blog to help promote the fact that it is still in operation and point them to Eddie Bluelights?

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if David didn't come over and have a peek from time to time.

Let's give him something to be really proud of....... a tradition that was started by him and that lives on.

Righty ho then, over to you, as he would say.

The Visitor

Photos copyright : Maggie May.

Something made me go to the window.

He looked up. Our eyes met. Something passed between us. We had definitely made a connection. I must have looked surprised to see him, but he seemed a little wary and uncertain of how I would receive him.

The scrawny fox turned his back on me, lapped some water from the mini pond, turned over some earth in a pot of newly planted young salad leaves with his paw and his nose. Then, slinking down the garden quietly and carefully, picking his way carefully through the obstacles that confronted him, he leapt over the wall into my neighbour's garden before my eyes could focus on him, using a metal chair to reach the height of it.

Its not as though we live in the country. This is a city garden with high walls and trellis on the top for added security. This was an urban fox who probably lives on allotments, but could just as easily live under a shed in someone else's property.

Was this the fox who brought hens' eggs into my garden on three occasions? Hens' eggs that had the little lion stamped on the side? He had put his first one in gravel and I had broken that one in my efforts to get it out. The second one had been left in a pot of chives and the latest one had been half buried in a small pot of earth. Maybe there were bulbs in that pot. I really can't recall, but the egg is still there waiting for him to collect it. Is he saving it for a time of famine? Or maybe he has forgotten about it altogether. Popping eggs into the the ground like a squirrel does with nuts.

Is this the ferocious animal that kills all the chickens for the sake of it, when he really only needs to eat one? Is it the same creature who takes childrens' pet rabbits and guinea pigs when he can?

My fox looked dainty and walked carefully round my garden pots. He would need to have a delicate mouth to carry the eggs while jumping walls and digging in pots. That same animal with a reputation for slyness and killing?

I felt it was a privilege to have him come into my garden and use my belongings and to have witnessed him doing this.

So come back, my scrawny, dainty fox. Share some more moments with me. I want to see you again but please do not leave your shells everywhere and dig up my plants!

Wings and Things

Hosted by Cecily and Sports Mama

When Harry and I recently went to stay with our daughter on the east coast, she took us for an outing to Colchester Zoo. This was a very big zoo and was divided into different sections for example Africa and Australia etc. There they had very big animals in very large compounds and they all seemed very happy and well cared for. In fact, some of the compounds were so big that we had a job to find the animals.

We really did enjoy that visit very much and would definitely recommend anyone going there.

Funnily enough, when we arrived back home, my son asked us a few days later if we'd like to go to Bristol Zoo with him and the girls.

When I was young, I can remember going to this zoo and finding large animals in small cages and it did seem quite cruel and I can remember that the polar bears had to be put down because they went mad in their tiny environment.

Anyway, I am pleased to report that there are now hardly any large animals in that zoo and the ones we saw were very happy in their environment. The zoo seems to now specialize in small animals, insects and fish. With some animals there are walkthrough compounds of fairly large and natural looking surroundings.

The highlight for me was walking through a forest of small parrots. The girls each clutched a small cup of food for the birds (bought from a stall as we were about to go in). This looked like some kind of nectar. Well when they saw the parrots racing over to get their meal, the girls chickened out and gave their cups to me and before I knew what was happening, I had an armful of small parrots waiting to take the nectar and several sitting on my shoulder. I was hoping none would poop on my light coloured jacket and I was lucky on that occasion as none did. However another lady was not so lucky and had her face and hair covered in bird's mess.

Equally enjoyable was the walk through the heated butterfly enclosure and I was able to snap some unusual species and watch them going onto the small tables of nectar and the colourful flowers that were provided for them.

I even walked through the compound where the bats were sunning themselves in the Autumn sunshine. ( Yes we are beginning Autumn now.) I didn't mind the thought of bats flying around me as they weren't vampires. They were quite large though, measuring around a foot in length and a couple of feet or more from one wing tip to another.

It is so much better to see these animals and insects in a small zoo rather than the larger caged animals of yesteryear. I was very impressed with both visits to very different zoos on the east and the west coasts.

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cecily. For more stories with photos, why not click the link.