From on High

Why do we have to have Christmas at such a busy time of year?  All the shops are full of people, the car parks are crowded and schools have lots of events as well.  And this happens every year!

These are some pictures from around First in Switzerland. They we're taken at the start of a really good day walk. I find them calming; which is very useful!  I hope you do to!

Normal service will be resumed soon - if fact I think I many even have a free evening tomorrow - but lets not over plan things!!  You can find more pictures from around the world here at Our World Tuesday. SM

A few in Black and White

There has been a 'thing' doing the rounds of social media about posting a series of Black and White Images from you life / world.

I thought I'd post my images here as well, knowing that not everyone does the social media thing.  These pictures were all taken on a phone and then converted to B/W.  I thought that 'minimal gear' approach suited the 'this is my world' kind of feeling.

Not my 'normal' stuff - but about me none the less.  SM

Wild Bird Wednesday 281 - Purple / Australasian Swamphen

A few weeks ago I arrived at a new nature reserve, just in time for it to be closed because of the high winds created a danger of falling branches!  I was not best pleased!

So, I set up on the edge of a field where some Purple / Australasian Swamphens were wandering about.  This species of bird has undergone a bit of a taxonomic review of late, and is not considered a full species and goes by the name of Porphyrio melanotus. Most of my books were printed before this change occurred!

Anyway - these are rather large and good value!  And I think that they look rather prehistoric.  I may be well off the mark here, but I suspect that they would make a decent model of some of the huge prehistoric birds that used to roam about and generally be rather frightening!  However, as you can see these birds just eat grass!

To join in with WBW just click the blue button below the thumbnails.

An InLinkz Link-up

Faces from Oxford

If your week has been anything like mine, it's been busy! Far too much to do!  So, in these situations, I delve back into the 'archives'!

These are some faces I found looking at me from the walls of Oxford during our trip there earlier in the year.  Most of the faces are from around the doors of the Bodleian Library, and the one with the flowers is from Balliol College.

I rather like them, and I wonder who they are.

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

Wild Bird Wednesday 280 - Crested Tern

Crested Terns (Thalasseus bergii) is one of Australias most widespread terns - being found around the  entire coast of the country.  It is also rather most tolerant of people with lenses than most other terns.

These birds were loafing about on an old - and infrequently used - jetty at Apollo Bay in Victoria.  There was not really much going on with the birds - they were just sitting around, preening no and then and occasionally briefly flapping the wings.  They normally did the wing flapping when the lens was not on them! Although I did manage to get one bird mid-flap.

Not much else to say - these are splendid birds, and I enjoyed sitting down with them for an hour or so!

To join in with WBW just click the blue button below the thumbnails.  This is the 280th time I have posted for WBW (!) and I can't help but notice that the numbers of participants are slowly falling.  So, if you know of any bloggers who have stopped sharing, give them a nudge.  And if you have found any new bloggers that may be interested, give them a nudge too!  I'll keep running WBW as long as people keep joining in.  SM

An InLinkz Link-up

A couple of locals..........

We had two months rain fall over the weekend - which put a literal and metaphorical dampener on most of my plans!  Just over 100mm of rain - which is just about what we would expect in all of December and January combined!!

So, here a couple of shots I took the weekend before:  Australian Magpies lookinggood.  I really like these birds, they seem to have both intelligence and personality, so what's not to like.

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