2016 Round-up Part 4

In July, Malcolm and I took ourselves off for a few days stay in Portsmouth. We had a great time exploring the city...

and the sea-front...

and we had a high time up the Spinaker Tower.

While in Portsmouth, we paid a visit to Brian and Mary and spent a a very pleasant evening with them. Mary cooked a delicious meal for us and it was nice - after many years - to catch up with their son, my second cousin, Simon. It was Simon who suggested we should take a look at the delightful village of Bosham and this turned out to be sound advice. It is a beautiful village.

Back home again and high summer meant that our local countryside was blooming with late colour.

August saw a second (and in some cases a third) flush of ducklings swimming about on the lakes of Straw's Bridge.

The fields were still blooming, but the grasses were ripening in the sunshine as the late summer flowers hung on to their colour.

On 16th, our friend Jayne accompanied us on a walk and,we found a very strange object growing on a tree trunk. It turned out to be a Chicken-of-the-Woods fungus - a new 'tick' for my list.

My 49th birthday also brought some much warmer weather and the surprising sight of no fewer than eight Buzzards circling in the clear blue sky.

Things had started to slow down by September and the first signs of Autumn were beginning to appear. Rowan berries are always the first to show.

Then came the first Daddy-long-legs or Crane Flies.

Yew trees were also fruiting colourfully on Shipley Hill...

but, by the end of the month, the leaves were starting to turn and Autumn couldn't be put off any longer.

Tomorrow will see the the end of this rapid round-up. So stay tuned..!