The Moon and a couple of birds

Here’s something I haven’t done for a while, and that’s taken some photos.
Sunday saw a full moon, which apparently was a Blood Moon, though most people in the UK didn’t see it due to heavy cloud cover.
Hubby took this picture through our lounge window as we were about to take the dog out for a walk just as it was starting to get dark.
Come time for her final wee at 8.30 ish and we couldn’t see it at all.

In contrast, I took this yesterday.
It was the little chap that initially caught my eye as he was all alone and I wondered what he was. Then Walter here came along and I could see it was too small to be another pigeon, but before I could get another shot off, they both flew away.
In flight I realised it was a kestrel, and remembered we had one visit the garden shortly after we arrived here. He sat on our gate for a few minutes so I got a good look at him, but obviously had no camera to hand then. Shortly after I got a fuzzy shot of it on our back fence.
I’ve cropped the picture but it’s still a bit grainy though better than the last one. Think I’ll call him Sid.

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Photo Challenge #248

Nekneeraj has given us this Levent Erden image to work with this week.
We are invited to write a poem or piece of prose accordingly.
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/19271780/posts/2144098801

Becka had been acting strangely and extremely secretive. Little things had started to go missing and when discovered in her toy box, Becka had blamed Sophie.
Then Rachel found photographs that had been ripped to shreds or the faces of adults obliterated with black marker. Becka said Sophie didn’t like people much, but was happy to play with her.
Rachel grew worried, even though she told herself she was merely a child and it was not unusual to have imaginary friends.
But this friend was too real.
And dangerous.

The shadow lurked in the background.
Becka had found a toy broom in the closet and the hat at the back of her Mom’s wardrobe.
She liked playing dress up.
‘Look!’ she said. ‘I’m just like you!’
‘Ah, but can you fly?’
Becka shook her head sadly.
‘I don’t know how. Can you show me?’
‘Maybe. But not now. Your mother’s calling.’

‘Becka? Honey? Who are you talking to Sweetheart?’
‘Just Sophie Momma. ‘

The two-tone giggling sent shivers down Rachel’s spine.

FOWC with Fandango — Noble

Funny things seem to be happening today as regular blogger entries didn’t come into my reader, then I discovered I’d read some and liked accordingly but don’t remember until I re-read them and think………. I remember that.
I’d say I needed a holiday, but being retired, my time is my own anyway.
Things just don’t seem to be registering with me just now. Doh!
Finally, after a bit of clicking and reclicking I have found Fandango’s word prompt for today.
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/22/fowc-with-fandango-noble/

Hubby is my Knight in Shining Armour as he is willing to battle invading monsters and treats me like a lady.
OK, he saves me from spiders that tend to step over our threshold, and depending on size determines which spider catching kit he uses: coaster and wine glass, or place mat and pint mug. Either way they take flying lessons out of the window and seeing eight legs trying to make a parachute is quite funny.
And the lady bit?
He opens doors for me……. cars, house, shop. How noble is that in this day and age?

Twittering Tales #120 – 22 January 2019

This week, Kat has found this photo by Juan Pablo at Pexels.com for us to work with.
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/60562321/posts/2144188566
We have 280 characters, that’s inclusive of punctuation marks, spaces, and paragraphs, to tell our tale.

It had all started here, in this place, at this table.
His arrival with the tray broke her reverie.
‘You remembering too?’ he asked.
She smiled and looked at the ring on her finger.
‘Tea for two, but last time the ring was in a box with the scones.’

245 characters.

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Flow

This week, Frank’s theme is flow (click here for full details)

Update: Actually, no it’s not, it’s BANK and I misread it, but my photos are still relevant (what a relief!) and I’ve modified my post accordingly apart from the title.

What could possibly be better to write about than scenes along the river bank, the flow of the water and being part of it.

The above are a selection of photos taken from the boat on our first trip up river in May 2015. The water was like glass, and as we puttered along, we felt part of another world.
The wildlife we saw both along the river bank and in the fields was amazing, from herons to kingfishers, geese, ducks and swans.
It was wonderful to see things from their perspective, something you can’t appreciate in a car, and indeed a lot of the scenery was inaccessible by road.
The flow of the river on such days was gentle and serene, hardly noticeable if it hadn’t been for the reeds stretching their tendrils beneath us. Our boat, a 41 foot Sea Otter, had a draft of just 18 inches, so we could pass through quite shallow waters, and believe me, en route to Stratford Upon Avon there are a fair few!
All locks bar one on the Avon are self operated and once secure inside, the power and speed of the water locking up is awesome. On more than one occasion we had a bit of a struggle keeping the boat secure, but we got the hang of it and into a routine so that when it was just us, most times it was plain sailing. I developed muscles in places I didn’t know I had places.
It’s almost two years now since we took her up for brokerage, a sad but enjoyable trip as we finally got to explore the canals, even if it was only one way.
The entire trip is catalogued with a prefix of ‘Final Trip…..’ if anyone would like to read about it. This is the last entry, so you can work backwards.
Photo: berthed at Stratford Upon Avon April 2017, final trip

Digital Camera

Photo: berthed on the river bank at Stratford Upon Avon August 2015, our second trip.

Darts League Update

Good news!
We are not bottom of the Ladies Darts League despite our defeat last week.
In fact, the girls would be pleased to know that we are third from bottom, aka fifth overall!
We can’t catch up the leaders in 1st, 2nd or third position, but we may creep into the middle by the end of the season if we win more matches than we lose.  We have a Bye tonight and with only five more matches to play, four of those are the teams above us!

#JusJoJan 2019 Daily Prompt – Jan. 22nd

Your prompt for JusJoJan 2019, January 22nd is brought to you by Pamela! Click here to find her last post and say hi while you’re there! Pamela’s word for our prompt today is “curiosity.”

They say curiosity killed the cat, but in my case curiosity saw me disappointed and hungry.
Mum had been given a box of chocolates for her birthday, cherry liqueurs actually, and it was a posh box with a ribbon on the front, something like this but pink and red.
Seeing it on the side, I asked if I could have one, to which Mum replied of course, and started to laugh.
My memory had let me down as it was years since Mum had been given this box, and it was now used to house her curlers and bobby pins.