I can only agree with you Rob. We regularly stay at the big white house on the headland above Port Quinn (National Trust) and sometimes it can be so peaceful you do indeed think, "Aren't we lucky". We will be back this year and looking forward to a Sunday roast at the farm shop you recommended.

I have recently discovered the Pentax F/A f4.5 170mm macro lens. It is downright, astonishingly fantastic!

You simply put an SMC Pentax-F 1.7X autofocus adapter on the rear of an SMC Pentax-A 100mm macro lens and screw an additional hood on the front. Dunno why I never tried it before but it's a fixture now! It works just as well with the A series 50mm macro too.

Might well be playing but it's good play, especially the last one.

The first one is super and the last one shows considerable presence of mind to get such an effective shot.

Fantastic use of a great sunset. All three are wonderful. Can't choose between them.

Thank you Joe, John.

I thought I would take Lennybloke up on his challenge with the green bottle bottom .......




Came out quite well considering the bottle is in Malvern somewhere?

What's not to like? The red of those poppies is fantastic.

What a wonderful place you have discovered and what good use you have put it to. The massed foxgloves are gorgeous but those reflections are something again.
And I love the caterpillar!

The lavender bushes are silent, when they should be elbow room only. The rambling roses are massed with flowers but I actually went out and counted SIX bees on the biggest one. The noise used to be astonishing. The farmers have been setting huge borders aside for pollinators with 'guaranteed' flower mixes and there's just the odd few visitors. And have you looked at the pavements where piles of ant spoil used to be commonplace? There are none. And activity in the bee hotels dotted around the house has been almost non-existent as well as many of the tubes from last year remaining sealed up. I dug some out and found piles of compressed pollen. The eggs have not even hatched.
On the other hand I went to a Wildlife Trust site yesterday (Harbury Spoil Banks, Warwickshire) where there were lots of butterflies - but even there, there very few bees.

Sad to think that was someone's home once upon a time with all the tales and emotions that implies.