All life?

Another brief post today as I try to throw off this virus thing - thanks for the encouragement and recommendations of fluids and chicken broth!

I found this street sign in Wells in Somerset in the UK a couple of years ago and it made me laugh.

I suspect the sign has been edited in some way to add the upper line - but I still think its funny!

As a came to understand when I no longer lived there, things are different in Somerset!

You can find more macro shots at Macro Monday 2 and I Heart Macro.

Enjoy.  I'm off for some chicken broth!

Rainbows

If spring showers bring forth flowers, they also forth rainbows!

These are some of the rainbows I encountered last week around Lorne.

Lorne

Lorne

Lorne 

near Forest

As well as flowers and rainbows, spring seems to be prime time to catch some ugly flu like virus - I'm not happy and I going back to bed!  Responses to comments will be slow!  Sorry.

You can find more skies here at Sky Watch Friday.

Cheers, SM.

Wild Bird Wednesday 65 - Eastern Spinebill.

The Eastern Spinebill may be the closest I get to seeing a humming bird in a while.  A member of the large group of birds known as Honeyeaters, the Eastern Spinebill is not closely related to Hummers - but they are nectar sippers.

The garden of the house we stayed in at Lorne last week had a very active pair in the garden - and it times it seemed that there were more than two of these distinctive little birds darting from flower to flower.  The plants within the fenced vegetable garden seemed very popular - but they often could be seen snatching insects from fence posts.

At about 15 cm long and possessing a highly distinctive curved bill that adults are pretty hard to miss.  I hear this bird in the bushes around my house - it sounds like a squeaky wheel - but this was my first chance to get any picture of it.

Hovering Eastern Spinebill

Eastern Spinebill - with Silvereye 

For those of you missing the shoals and backwaters of taxonomy - this bird also goes by the name of Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris which refers to the birds thin bill (apparently!)

Now its over to you - click on the link below and off you go.  Don't forget to link back to WBW, to encourage any bloggers you know to join in and to visit the many and varied blogs that make up the world of WBWers!

Flowers

The house we stayed in last week had a small orchard - and a rather good vegetable garden - around the based of the trees, which I think were apples, but could have been pears, was a garland of forget-me-nots.

I was a wonderful place to stay.  Pretty much the only noise was the rain on the roof, the wind in the trees and a crackle settling of logs on the fire.  I got a bit a damp lying on the grass to take this image.

You can find more images from around the world at Our World Tuesday.

Spring Rain

It would not be spring without some rain, but on occasions spring can get a little carried away.  We were down on the coast at Lorne this last week - thats about 2 hours west of Melbourne.  A little bit of research found us a rather wonderful mud-brick house on the hills above the town.  Very peaceful - apart from the rain on the roof and the gale force winds!

We got the fire going and stayed indoors for the forest couple of days - which, if the truth be told, suited us all down to the ground!  Later in the week the weather improved and we got out and about.

On one of my trips to the wood pile I noticed the water pouring off the roof and down on to the stones around the house - it may not be the best picture of falling and splashing water, but it does sum up the first couple of days of the week!

You can find more macro shots at Macro Monday 2 and I Love Macro.

Cheers  SM.

Wild Bird Wednesday 64 - A collection.

Its not been a bad week for my self esteem!  A while ago I reconnected with a friend I had worked with back in the UK.  It turns out he earns part of his living now as a photographer and he invited me to show a selection of images (in digital form) at an exhibition at his gallery.  To say I was pleased to do so was an understatement.

As I know I have a busy week ahead of me I decided to post the same set of images to WBW.

Hope you enjoy them.

Pied Oystercatcher 

Australian Gannet 

Australian Magpie

Laughing Kookaburra

Dusky Moorhen

Red-Headed Avocet

Shy Albatross

Green Rosella

Banded Stilts

Black Swan

Western Bowerbird

Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo

Now it's your turn - and I hope you forgive me the indulgence of these pictures!
Click on the link below and off you go.