Bikes and Scooters at Santapod

XFest at Santapod today was an extravaganza of wheeled stunts from the microscooters through BMX bikes, motorbikes to jet powered racers. As I was collecting Phil on my way back from Birmingham, I only had my G12 compact - not the ideal camera for the task but eventually got the hang of predicting where the bike etc would be after the shutter lag.

Harlequin Centre Watford

A quick visit to the Harlequin Shopping centre in Watford on my way to lecture at Croxley Green Camera Club and a chance to test the camera in my mobile phone. For a small camera it does a pretty good job.

Large Red Damselfly

 A couple of Large Red Damselflies hatched from nymphs during yesterday afternoon. The one above emerged successfully but the one below failed to extract the wings completely. With today's cold wet weather, I doubt either will be successful in surviving to mate.

Hanningfield Reservoir

The rain stopped yesterday morning and so I visited Hanningfield Reservoir Nature Reservoir. The Nature Reserve is an ancient woodland with Hornbeams, Beech, Oak and Ferns. Around the centre are Horse chestnut and Sycamores,  all in fresh green leaf. One area is carpeted in Buebells

Wickford is Ready for the Jubilee

 A very dull morning in Wickford was cheered by the Jubilee-themed window displays ready for June.

Garden Bugs

At last it has stopped raining so took a walk round the garden with the macro to see what was lurking in the foliage. The dandelions attracted two very attractive species of solitary bee and there were lots of nursery spiders warming themselves in the sun.

Orange Tip, Nightingale and Snail

 Some images taken in the rain over the last two days. The Orange Tip was in the garden on a scabious. The first is natural light while the second has a bit of ring flash to allow smaller aperture. The Nightingale and the snail were shot at Paxton Pits this morning in the rain.

Ampthill Rainbow

I stopped to admire a wonderful rainbow on the way to lecture at Ampthill Camera Club last night. The football match continued on a dandelion-covered pitch under leaden skies. The young man in red scored twice from this spot outside the box while I was watching.

 I had some fun in the adjacent poplar wood moving the camera to distort the shapes. The flag of Finland arrived in one of the images

Drought ...What Drought?

I know that we would need much more rain to refill reservoirs but it was not really the best timing to receive this leaflet this morning after almost 48 hours continuous heavy rain.

Meredith Comes Home

Meredith had to stay in intensive care for a few days because of jaundice but came home on Sunday afternonn  and yesterday she had her first bath helped by Sadie.

Busy Weekend

It has been a very busy weekend starting with Frances and Christopher's wedding to photograph on Saturday. The weather was definitely April showers but, kindly, the sun shone for the outside photographs.