JohnP

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!

Thank you Denis! I am doing so well, it's only seven days since the surgery and I can easily bend over and touch my toes, I had my first drive this morning... only a short trip to Aldi but I would have no trouble driving much further. I hope the weather bucks up soon and the flood water drains away, I am hoping to get out soon and look for the first butterflies. I photographed a Comma Butterfly on February 26th last year.

I haven't got around to it yet, maybe later. However the tumeric seems to be helping.

Polly, Yes I had a general anaesthetic, in the 1960 1970 & 1980's I had quite a few general anaesthics and they knocked me for six. I was sick for two days and I couldn't pass water... I wanted to die! The anaesthic I was given yesterday had no such effect, when I was coming around before opening my eyes I heard a voice calling my name, when I did open my eyes I saw a lovely nurse looking down at me and I asked her if she was an angel... Once I was able to sit up my thoughts turned to my past experience with my waterworks so I asked the nurse for a water bottle and to my relief I managed to go with no trouble, when the nurse collected the bottle she said that's a lot... I've hardly got any pain and I was even able to walk to the hospital car park to my lift home. I won't be lifting any heavy objects for 6 weeks and I will be able to drive as soon as I can do an emergency stop, I will give it a week and then start practicing in my stationary car on my drive.

Thank you Polly! It was open surgery so full recovery will be longer.

I am sorry for my absence again, things have been getting on top of me lately. At least one thing has hopely been sorted today, I've had surgery to repair my long standing Inguinal Hernia. I arrived at Hereford County Hospital at 7.30am and arrived back home at 2pm, the journey to and from Hereford (15 miles each way) was pretty eventful what with the heavy rain and standing water. We were lucky the car kept going and didn't stall in a great pool of water, I heard on local radio the the Hereford to Ledbury road was closed in three places at about 4pm so I was lucky to get home so early.

What brand/make bracelet?

Thank you Polly! I hope your second Op goes as well as the first. I also need bunion surgery but I can't face that to be honest, I have recently started taking Tumeric capsules and I swear the pain is reducing a little now.

I know what you mean John! I saw my GP in September 2018... I didn't get a pre-op assement until April 3rd 2019. Because more than twelve weeks have now passed since then I had to have another pre-op assessment last Friday, I was given a date for the surgery of the 9th February which has now been changed to 16th February.

Hello, I'm sorry for my absence of late, I'm not very active in the photography department in the winter... I hate winter! I am trying to get a number of jobs finished at home as I will be having surgery on a Inguinal Hernia on 16th February, obviously I will be limited in what I can do for a few weeks. I have been selling most of my DSLR gear on eBay, all I have kept is my Canon EOS 60D camera and a 18-135mm lens. I have sold four lenses, a Sigma macro flash, Kenco extension tubes and a Canon EOS 400D camera body. I got almost £1100.00 which more than paid for my Panasonic FZ2000... I love that camera! I will try and post something in due course.

I love this!

Something different.

Screws. I can usually find the correct screw for most jobs...I have more this is just a sample...

That's better Cheryl!

Nice image! Good choice.... the date is wrong though... I know Aussie time is ahead of UK time but not that much...

It was a very interesting holiday Korky, Ecuador is such a diverse country the capital Quito is the second highest in the world at 9,300ft above sea level. The Andes.

Taken in the Amazon Basin in Ecuador. Me sat on the equator. A Market in Quito.

An isolated spot indeed! I have no idea where the shots were taken though. This thread isn't used much which surprises me.

Some late flowers in my little garden. Penstemon. Penstemon. Penstemon. Fushia. All images taken with my Panasonic DMC-FZ2000 camera.

I have had plenty of experience using crutches in the past, I was 19 at the time and living with my grandparents so things were different then, I didn't have to worry about getting my own food, doing housework and going shopping etc. I had a motorcycle accident caused by a lorry driver wanting my side of the road, I suffered multiple fractures with bones through the skin. The leg is 1" short as a result, I was in plaster for 7 months. It didn't end there I had 5 further operations over the next 10 years. I have had many bad things happen to me in my life, the three worse things being losing my sister to polio in 1953 when I was seven, losing my mother the day after my 12th birthday in 1958 and my brother committing suicide in 2005.There is more but I'll stop at that. At the moment I can't see how I could manage if I had surgery, it will need lots of thinking about first. BTW... I am not looking for sympathy, I thought I would just mention a few things.