My regular readers will know that on occasion it has been known for mandycharlie to try something new and become completely hooked, and one never knows where that new to her addiction will lead.

Well, I tried a little close up photography yesterday, Oh My Days, it is so much fun. I have no idea why I haven’t caught this particular bug before. (pun intended)

My first ever bug – a Cardinal Beetle. Pretty little fellow isn’t he. And then I found a Nettle Weevil, so pleased with it.

Next I found a pair mating and have wondered whether to include it, what with this being a family show, but when are you ever going to see a pair of Nettle Weevils mating again.. and they are so pretty… See told you.  I’ve chosen one of the less diagraphic images to show you. But I have to say, in a very hippy way, ‘wow, look at the colours man’.

So while the heat of the summer keeps the birds quiet I’ll be wandering the lanes which are hopefully full of stinging nettles and weeds.

It is a universal truth that having cake in the house can only be a good thing.  When I was at college and Uni I would often while studying or sewing on my day off, bake a cake to last us all (depending on who was home) a few days at least.  Often on coursework hand in days when I knew the other students would be exhausted I’d bring a tin of freshly baked cake in, much to their astonishment, but once you know how it really only takes a few minutes to knock up a basic cake mix.

I got out of the habit of baking, especially since starting wildlife photography, which has become all encompassing.,  when I stopped to look at the cake at the local supermarket and well they just looked so synthetic.  I made a promise to myself that I would bake a cake and soon.

Some time later… I came across this recipe by Simple Things Magazine,  Lemon Olive Oil Cake and thought I would give it a try.It was a triumph. I used a light olive oil and the cake was moist and oh so delicate with all the air whipped into it and the smell of sugary cake and lemons  have wafted through the house all afternoon. Enjoyed with a cup of tea in the garden in the sunshine.

I fear I have found a new addiction. 

Greater Spotted Woodpecker returning with supper for their offspring.

Forgive the poor photography, they are a fair distance away, but worth reporting.  An asylum of Cuckoo’s, what a shot to get. 

One of the truths of nature is that if one scratches just a little deeper than looking at the idyllic scene of the village duck pond one discovers treachery in all forms.

Yesterday I was minding my own business while tucking into a cheese bagel when I heard the Common Terns start to screech loudly, I looked up and found a Crow marauding their nest.  He gobbled down two very good eggs as the Terns tried their very best to defend their unborn offspring and then grabbed an egg and tried to make off with it.  Either to eat it in peace or to return it to his mate as a gift. As you will see he didn’t get very far. The moment he cracks the egg. ‘I’ll just perch here while I figure out what to do’.Dropped it.

A Dunnock nestles into the leaves. 

My photography club organised a small outing to photograph the full moon rising perfectly from the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ as its commonly known at Hatton Locks. It was then that I was first introduced to the App of The Photographer’s Ephemeris that I can see as a photographer or just lover of sunsets and the occasional sunrise having a lot of fun with.

If you put in the location of Hatton Locks and go back to the date of the 10th May, you will see that a full moon perfectly aligned with the locks and that soon after the moon started to rise, in the opposite direction the sun started to set. It was a magical evening… well it was apart from the cloud.. So by the time the moon had cleared the clouds it was no longer in perfect alignment, but I feel in this case, as I was there, tripod at the ready and I haven’t increased the size of the moon., it is only a small tweak with photoshop to drag the moon back into a central and slightly lower position.  I always find those pictures amusing where the moon has been made bigger, its always obvious to me that a little skullduggery has taken place.

The next evening was hubby’s birthday,  I think the moon was in an even better position and only just off the full moon, but alas it was even cloudier.

The App works globally so even in unfamiliar territory, but wanting that spectacular sunrise/sunset, it is easy to find out which way to head. I am not going to make a landscape photographer anytime soon, but at least when I practise with this App in hand it will help to bring me something that is a little interesting, one hopes!