JohnP

I'm adding some new gear to my arsenal, the first one arrived yesterday... a tabletop tripod! I can't speak highly enough about it, it's really well made. extremely solid with no plastic parts. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07RRVYCQX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 This item is on it's way and should arrive next week. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009SJ7UWU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I couldn't get on the forum for quite some time last evening.... Heat stroke I expect!

Dog Rose.

Moon.

Harlequin Ladybird.

Penstemon.

Nice capture!

Marigold in my garden. Moon shot taken in my garden.

Astroemeria.

Astroemeria.

Well done Paul!

UPDATE. Even though both the Hedgehog houses got used for sleeping in last September/October neither were used for hibernation, in November when I thought all Hedgehogs must now be hibernating I put both houses in my friends garage for the winter. About a week ago there was evidence that Hedgehogs had again been visiting my friends garden, I thought maybe they would sleep in the houses again so I took them from the garage and placed the in her garden along with food. This morning she phoned about 9.30am to say the house that I had made had a Hedgehog asleep in it, I went to her place with my camera. She carefully opened the lid of the house trying not a wake it, however it did just raise it's head but didn't seem bothered so I just fired off four photos and she shut the lid. I waited a while and the Hedgehog didn't come out of the house so I left happy.

It was a close run thing even getting the shot, the butterfly wasn't exactly hanging about... around 1-2 seconds on each flower...

Thanks everyone! I'll let you into a little secret... this was a grab shot! Until I spotted this male I had only seen and photographed females, this is unusual as it's almost always the males that start to appear first. I had watched it going from one cuckoo flower to the next only settling for 1-2 seconds, I put the camera on full zoom to hopefully get a shot and then move in closer if stayed put long enough... it didn't!

Thank you Polly... this has come as a big surprise!

Cheryl... yes the larger plants are tomatoes, there are also some smaller tomatoes on the shelf. There are four Kalanchoes on the shelf I grew from cuttings for indoors) plus four peppers and four outdoor cucumbers to eventually go out on the patio in growbags. On the floor with the larger tomatoes are marigolds, I save seed every autumn and sow them at the beginning of March into two seed trays with light colour in one and dark in the other, I have only recently pricked out the tiny plants into five trays of each colour making ten trays of fifteen plants in each. They will go out later into both containers and the flower bed. On the floor you will see four pots with nothing showing yet, they are dwarf beans which should show themselves in a few days, when they are a couple of inches tall I will sow another four and keep repeating this so I don't get too many beans all at once, they are to go in my small veggie patch when frosts have finished. I sowed both carrot and spring onion seed in my veggie patch a few days ago, it's good to sow these close together because carrot fly don't like onions apparently.

I have been keeping busy, I can hardly sit in my little conservatory at this time of year, I don't have a greenhouse so my stuff has to stay in it until the danger of frost has passed.

Boredom is setting in, months of this will drive me crackers... Like everyone I guess! Orchid (Phalaenopsis). Camera: Panasonic DMC - FZ2000.

I've seen two Brimstones and a Comma as well but they didn't settle so no photos.

An overwintered Peacock butterfly, the shot was taken in my garden.

Bee Fly.... shot taken in my garden.

I'm going out to do some gardening in a few minutes, in the mean time I've made a start. Marigolds from saved seeds. Tomatoes.

It's a beautiful blue sky here this morning and not a single vapour trail in sight, at this time every morning there are usually loads of trails from aircraft that have crossed the Atlantic on the way to Heathrow and Gatwick.

The planet is in a mess… no doubt about it! However there is one positive coming out of the Coronavirus crisis. Just look up at the sky… hardly any planes flying over, think about how much less pollution there will be. It’s people flying about in those darn things that have spread the virus to every continent except Antarctica, it couldn’t have travelled across vast oceans any other way. It would be good if people got used to not flying about and thousands of planes could be scrapped and the metal turned into something useful, that could be the first big step in the fight to save the planet but I fully expect things will eventually end up as bad as ever. We photographers will be able to take better landscape photos with the cleaner air and no blinking vapour trails… Rant over!