First Thing,

we were out, 

driving to Bickley railway station where a coach was waiting for us, we were out with the Bromley branch of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds),

and here we are at RSPB Minsmere, 

we started on the coastal walk,

in front the sea, behind reed and rush covered wetlands,

all set, we took all of these on Diana's mobile telephone,

and here she is, we stopped off at hides along out walk, everyone was looking at birds from the front of the hide, so far away, not Diana she looked out at the side of the hide, 

and there was a lovely cock pheasant, not 20 feet away! naturally a dig in my ribs to attract my attention, and I too was taking a couple of photographs of it, 

we continued our walk, 

through the reed beds,

and into another hide, finishing our coastal walk we went back to the visitor centre, 

where I had a look around, 

it was then time for a huge slice of delicious apple pie and a latte coffee, 

as we relaxed on the terrace, as it happens just before we sat down there was a flurry of excitement, a bittern, (Botaurus stellaris), was flying nearby, I was too late to see it but a couple of seasoned visitors remarked in all of their years of coming here, they had never seen a bittern in this spot, 

all to soon our day was over, Diana and myself enjoyed the day so much we mentioned that we would both like to go on another coach trip, but alas, on the next coach trip in June we will be in Morocco, the one after that in November and I will be in Thailand, Diana in the Philippines, so 2027 it is then!

on to my day photographing the birds, in truth even with the new 500mm lens and 1.4 tele-converter, (crikey it sound like I know what I am talking about!), the birds were so small even on the medium format sensor that they did not enlarge very well, my fault I am sure, not the set up I am using, I have only been out with the camera a few times, so I am still at the twisting knobs and pushing buttons with not a lot a lot of success in-between, so first something easy on the horizon that is not moving, I do not know what it is,   

another easy one, a boat,

the cock pheasant next to the hide that Diana spotted,

for all of the following, 

I do not have a clue what they are called, 

but in the distance, 

there were lots of them,

in the water,

and on land, 

these looked cute, 

as they searched for food, 

I enlarged the photograph above this one a tad, I will print it off on a A3 matte paper in the next few days,

and here she is,

Diana with her binoculars,

into another hide, 

a slight change of terrain, 

as birds searched the shore line,

back on to the water, 

this duck was preforming some sort of courtship I guess, like the Mandarins in Kelsey Park, he kept stretching his neck to impress the female, 

and then he looked my way, what a great time we had, all of the ones out of my camera with one exception is how they came out of the camera, with no enlarger or correctios, for Diana it was a none stop day, on our way home we picked up Wilma a Filipino friend, and I dropped them both off at Kai's home, the girls are having 4 days in Berlin, first thing tomorrow morning they will be at Gatwick and boarding their plane,

shortly after my evening meal, Diana sent me this, Kia had prepared their evening meal, chicken feet, my favorite Thai meal, not, in over 30 years of living in Thailand, 10 of them with Diana, I have never been a fan of this dish, but there it is, for myself a quick snack as I settled down to watch a Midsomer Murder before I was off to bed.

A Very Short, Quick Post Today,

as first thing tomorrow,

in the early morning we will be boarding a coach to take us and many other 'twitchers' to RSPB Minsmere, back to today, I wanted to play with a photograph of Diana, out of the camera above, 

so I decided to crop it, and then a bit more, difficult to see but the detail is amazing, I should say the colours are just as good, although the photographs look so different, next some time ago I read about and then saw some examples of glass globe photography, so I thought I would give it a try, 

a look out of our window,

glass globe installed on a tripod, 

photograph through the globe taken,

to keep both the globe and the background in focus I isolated the globe, and put it on a photograph of the background,

and here it is all in focus, not a great subject, but at least I now know how it is done, I think some landscape shots could be quite interesting using a globe, so something to think about in the future, after that time for my evening read and milk, yes no alcohol this evening as we will be driving to where the coach will pick us up in the early morning, 

this weeks Private Eye had arrived,

for tonight Diana had left me a huge beef stew, delicious! next get the camera ready for tomorrow, first thing I had already charged up the batteries, so for this evening feet up until it was time for me to pick Diana up from work, so for tonight my film was,

 Immortals, pretty much a almost all action movie, great sets, CGI and cast, after which I picked up Diana from work, arriving home it was a coffee and a chat, as we watched a Midsomer Murder before we were off to bed.

I Was Meeting Diana On Her Way Home From Work,

so out into the park, 

as I walked to the bus stop I noticed these,

a patch of bluebells that had recovered from constantly being trodden on by dog walkers, who park next to the verge and then trample the flowers to death, it used to be so nice before the flowers were killed, 

past the snail mail box, 

and into town, before meeting Diana I had a few things to do, alighting at the florists, there was a good show of plants there, 

the yellow of these in life so much more colourful than the photograph, 

I have always liked fuchsias, but never grown them,

lots to choose from,

but firstly this is where I was headed, to pick up the rest of my bi-monthly prescription,

next stop what was once W H Smiths, a company that sold stationary, I wanted to pick up a pack of 8 x 10 plain white cards, shopping finished, off to the bus stop, 

which was opposite the now finished Travelodge, 

to the left of it the pub, Kelsey House, 

to the right Village Car Care, the 354 soon arrived with Diana on it, so off to Bromley we went,

arriving there a walk past The Partridge, 

Diana was off to window shop, 

I was into Barclays to pick up some pound coins, amongst other things,

then out and past Primark, 

the haberdashery stall, 

and as it was Friday lots of food stalls, 

as well as the fruit and vegetable stall, 

this is where I was heading, stocks of spiced rum had reached a critical level, so a few bottles it was, and some food,

after which we met for our late lunch in The Greyhound,

spicy chicken strips for Diana with rice, 

scampi and chips for myself, 

'Cheers!',

back home on the bus, at the entrance to the park, the wisteria on Foxgrove Lodge putting on a good show, 

and it has such a delightful aroma, 

I just had too! arriving home in the evening it was the usual Outback Opal Hunters and a Deadliest Catch, which we followed with another one in the series Secret Garden, it was a delight to watch, so much happening that the owners of the property had no idea of, I should say each episode is based on one home at different locations in the country, after which a Bangers & Cash, we both try to guess the value of the cart that the team have renovated, sometimes we are both widely out, after which we were off to bed.