Sunday 22nd May 2016

A great improvement in the weather to yesterday.  I seemed to be on a nature ramble today, apart from some annoying gnats flitting round my head, I managed to photograph a little brown beetle munching on a leaf and, with a little bit of patience, this beautiful peacock butterfly.

My closest neighbour to the one side lives on a farm three fields and a bit away (last photo). Sadly, she had an unfortunate accident a few years ago falling downstairs at night and breaking her back.  She is now in a wheelchair and trying to learn to adapt to a different life.  Her husband has a vehicle that can anchor her wheelchair as a front seat.  They passed me by as I was doing my 20 minutes and we had a little chat.  I must admit I think about her situation quite often when walking and, when I feel like not getting out or not quite in the mood, I am just so grateful I still have legs I can use and tell myself to just get out there and use them! 

The gate into the field is a metal gate that has to be lifted slightly to open and then it has a reverberating clang when pulled shut.  As our drive is part of a public footpath, we get quite a few walkers with dogs that our cat, Charlie, hates.  As soon as he hears the gate, either he runs in the house or up on top of our roof just in case he is chased.  He must have experienced that quite early on when we had first had him as a rescue cat. He is quite small but at least he can run fast!