Cheeky Visitors

Thought i would just post a couple of pics of a cheeky little visitor that we had to day. This little squirrel decided that he was hungry and so stopped by for lunch. As also did a couple of starlings that quite like the mealworms that are left out on the birdstand.

A Spring Day Out

The Sunday just gone the wife and I decided to take a little walk out to a local beauty spot quite close to where we live. This place is called Portchester Castle and is withing a 10 minute walk from the house. It's situated right on the coast and was at some time a Roman Fort, probably from around the 3rd century. However it's better known a  Medieval Castle from the late 11th century.

It was such a beautiful day, cold, but the sun shone and the birds and other animals were all out in force. Mind you an ulterior motive for the walk was to try out my new camera lens again and try to capture a few special shots. Not sure I really succeeded but I thought I would share them with you.

These were of a cheeky crow that decided he wasn't going to do anything that i wanted him to do, like fly or whatever. However eventually it did decide to take off and glide a few short yards. Success of some sort.







The castle grounds looked lovely in the sunlight and I managed to capture a couple of shots of some early daffodils.





All in all a nice walk and a couple of nice shots to add to my album. I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I enjoyed the walk and the taking of them.

Camera Lens

It might be worth noting to anyone that is reading the blogs of mine that all the recnt photos have been taken with a couple of new lenses. I wanted to copy a few pics but was thwarted by the fact they were in an album and i was unable to remove the pages. So, the only way to take a photo of a photo. not having the necessary macro lens, maybe because they start at around £350 I went to the local Jessop's for advice. The guy there sold me a Tamron 80 - 300mm with a macro facility, (bargain at £99) and I managed to get a wide angle / macro converter off Ebay for £13.99. Now I'm ready to experiment and the last two blogs are the first reulsts. Any comments would be appreciated.

It's probably obvious to any real photographers out there that i am very much the beginner.

Spring Buds

I thought that I would share with you the Magnolia tree in my back garden that is starting to show its colours for the spring. Lovely pink flowers are about to burst out and turn a rather bare tree into a riot of flowers and blooms.

In full bloom this tree is magnifcent and will last throughtout the whole of the summer, flowering as much as three times.

An afternoon out

The other day was such a nice bright day that the wife and I, along with the brother in law decided to visit a place called "The Witterings". Surprisingly enough this location is only about 15 miles away and we have never visited it in the 15 years we have lived down south. Maybe because it's an exceedingly popular sandy beach and in the summer you will find thousands of day trippers, campers and what not trying to get to it. It's alledgely the best bit of sandy beach in the south.

The day was very cold so you needed to wrap up warm, so, hats and coats on and half an hour later we arrived., parked up the car in a pretty much deserted car park, (still had to pay a £1 though) and went for a walk on the beach.

Wow, was one adjective you could use. Miles of sandy beach, hardly anybody on it except a few people and their dogs and the rest was all ours. Actually, it was a very pleasant walk. Out of the wind it was quite warm but not worth the risk of unbuttoning those coats. One gust of that icy and you were likely to freeze your proverbials off.                                                                                          

We walked for about a mile and a half and then got up onto the top and walked back through the camping car parks. As we walked we could hear a loud and persistent honking noise. Lots of geese. Over to our left in a field were perhaps a couple of thousand of these geese, wild and obviously wintering over here. I don't know what sort because as we walked along the road they all took off. Quite a sight to see all these birds up in the air. Unfortunately the lens on my camera was only a 300mm and so couldn't quite bring them close to view properly. An exciting couple of minutes though.

 

Having now got a bit cold it was time to search out a hot coffee, so, off we went in the car to the next beach where we knew a cafe would be open. This place is Hayling Island. Not a lot there except a shingle beach, a bit of a run down amusement park and a solitary cafe. still, it was March and people were painting their various businesses ready for the summer season. The coffee break was pretty quick, mainly because the coffee was pretty awful, cheap and instant, so we had a quick walk across the shingle and then in the car for the ride home.

All in all, a pleasant afternoon. Maybe now the weather is getting better we should have a few more of these afternoons out. I'l;l keep you posted.