I see a dragon

That old Pareidolia kicking in again.

The dragons head upper left, then a thin neck and body, looking a bit like a viking boat. Finally a great sail of a wing catching the glow from the setting sun.

This was last Monday and it lingered on my phone until I found it today.

I don’t see sunsets very often because I’m on the wrong side of the hill. This was at the top of our hill and there are still buildings and trees in the way and as the sun drifts northwest as it sets in the summer there is more vegetation in the way.

Telling the weather by cat

Wet cat

Some cats avoid rain, take shelter

One of mine must have otter DNA

Who needs a barometer when you have him.

Wet fur = rain

Cold fur = frost

Cold white fur = snow

Warm fur = sunny

Dusty fur = Saharan sand!

Yes he’s a weather forecaster

Though he doesn’t know it,

He’s just come in

Damp.

White hydrangea

Hydrangea Macoropholia

I said we had got a white hydrangea a few days ago but it’s only just beginning to flower. It’s still in a pot, and looking closely it seems to be a very pale pink.

We had one a couple of years ago with conical instead of flat flower heads. But because it was very shady in the garden it didn’t thrive. That’s why this one is in its pot-so we can move it around… Anyway I think its lovely X.

The road goes ever…

There are some verses in the Hobbit by JRR Tolkien “The Road goes ever on”….

I wish I could remember it. I could look it up, but basically I’m too tired! The photo I took last year, at the Dorothy Clive garden reminds me of the verse, the road or path winds off into the distance. Who knows where it will lead as it rises and falls, but there is the possibility of adventure and even danger. I guess it could also indicate what happens to us in life, the ups and downs, you can’t forecast what is round the corner, it could be something nice like an old friend, or someone jumping out at you with malice. The path isn’t always sunny and bright. But we have to live it the best way we can.

Blue green algae

It looks like pea soup. The green in this pond is caused by algae I think. This is also in the local lakes. Some of them have pumps that are being used to try and get some oxygen into the water. Days are cooler and greyer, so I hope the water will clear.

This photo was taken yesterday at the Dorothy Clive Garden out in the countryside. Still looking good and it’s almost the end of August.

Idyllic?

Hot day, blue sky, barely a cloud in the sky, cattle in a field, reflections in the canal. Memories are made of this, blues and greens, shade and light.

I have memories of days like this, maybe not as hot, but they were calm and happy. I remember a time when things were not scary. Oh there were diseases around, and awful things were happening. But I was a child. I didn’t know about them.

Then I remembered the disaster at Aberfan. There was a land slip of old mining waste. It slid down a hill and landed on a school. Children and adults died. That was the first TV report I remember seeing.

Now rivers rise and places flood all the time, “hundred year events” happen every ten or twenty years. Storms dump three months water on a country while other places suffer heat domes and wild fires.

Will the wonderful days of summer be once in 100 days instead? Maybe we need to sort it out NOW!

I wrote this a few days ago but for some reason it did not publish? Now on a grey, dismal day I look back after another walk and Im sad it wasnt like this, but glad it was a lot cooler!