The view to the ocean are just spectacular. One again my little camera does not really capture the true image so please enlarge the photo for a more realistic view.
There was a fight brewing when my children saw this beauty. Fortunately Mr Bee found two more straight away so they could all blow their 'fairy wishes' to be carried away on the wind.
Yellow always seems to flare on my camera but it makes for a fluky arty shot anyway.
The hedges were absolutely covered in late spring growth.
A memory from home - eucalyptus. There are quite a few eucalyptus trees planted around the Island. They are classed as 'exotics' here; what a bizarre thought.
St Saviours' church across a corn field.
I think this is a pink horse chestnut tree. I love these trees as they remind me of the first time I went to London nearly fifteen years ago. Good grief has it been that long, I must be getting a bit long in the tooth!.jpg)
Busy bumble bee at work.
More hedge glory; by showing you these photos I am hoping to give a small sense of what it is like to walk in Guernsey. It will probably not be very noteworthy to those of you from the UK but to an Aussie girl, such as myself, it is like walking through the pages of a fantasy novel about a far off place where strange and unbelievable things happen. Nothing mundane here!
The gorse has finally finished flowering so no more spicy scents on the breeze until next year.
We had been walking for about half an hour when we came across the entry to the reservoir, so rather than backtrack we followed the nature walk back to our car which we had parked in the reservoir car park. We are getting better at finding places to park in Guernsey but I still believe it is an art which takes a lifetime of living on the Island to master. If you can guarantee you will find a park every time you are a 'Car Parking Aficionado' in my book. This is a derelict barn (we think) just as you enter the walk. Things such as this start me wondering why it was abandoned, how long ago it was abandoned (to have this much greenery clinging to its walls it must be a long time), who used it and what was it really used for. I have a habit of needing to know about a thing and if there is no information available on the subject I make up a little story in my head full of who, what, where, when and why. Walking with my children and listening to them full of chatter and questions I can see they have inherited this need to know/story imagining. That makes me smile, more than a little.
The backwaters of the reservoir were covered in fine, fluffy, floaty seeds. They were truly everywhere being gently buffeted about on the breeze.
Unfortunately Mr Bee failed to see their beauty as they set off his hayfever, so we left rather speedily.
The reservoir is kept stocked with fish. Mr Bee started to fantasize at this point about learning to fly fish. He always loved the Australian TV show 'A River Somewhere'. We owned the video but he watched it so many times that the tape wore out!
Wild foxgloves.
I find these such a romantic flower. Growing up in Australia listening to my Dad talk about the Isle of Man, where he is from, seemed to lend a very romantic aura to all British blooms. As a child I could just imagine the foxes slipping a pair of these on as they headed out to the 'Woodland Ball'.
There is a high vantage point where you can look across they reservoir but oops I did not take a photo as when we reached it there was a couple sitting quietly contemplating the serene beauty. We were clearly disturbing them, so I quickly snapped these two photos of the commemorative stones and hastily departed.
We do not mean to be so noisy but the kids were very excited about sharing each new discovery they made as we walked along and they always tend to do so at full volume. I would like to say that we are only a noisy bunch by Guern standards (which we most definitely are!) but sadly my little trio were usually the loudest group of kids in Australia too. I remember on one occasion when a close girlfriend had brought her son over for our weekly play date my kids were being so loud that when I opened the door to let them in he actually physically recoiled and took a step back as if to escape the noise coming from the screaming banshees inside the house.
I love this photo. It seems as if fairies should appear in the branches of the trees and flutter out from the undergrowth.
Just magical - to me anyway.
An entire hillside of bracken ferns. B1 was amazed that it all dies down in the winter only to spring up again new year. In Australia there are not that many plants which are so 'seasonal', not in the city. The bush is another story.
Still with me? I know it is a long post but I wanted to give family and friends the chance to see how we spend our time and where we go. This is another favourite photo. I think it would make a good painting; one of these days, in all my spare time (ha, ha) I would like to take up painting again.
Proof that owls live in these woods. If you do not know what it is I am certainly not going to tell you. However I will tell you that B1 and B2 were truly fascinated by it and Mr Bee was horrified that I actually took a photo of it ;P
Nesting box. I tried to find out what type of owls live around the reservoir but I was unable to. Mr Bee thought he had heard mention of the Powerful Owl, but don't quote me on that.
I find tree bark very interesting; its texture, colours, patterns and markings. There are alot of trees in Australia with beautiful yet strange bark; it is lovely to find bark of similar beauty here in Guernsey as well.
We walked for about one and a half hours. There was whinging from the peanut gallery at the beginning about boredom, sore legs and 'I don't want to go' but by the end they were all asking if we can go for another walk next weekend. I'm just glad that family time and interest in the natural world around them can still compete with TV and Nintendo DS.
The backwaters of the reservoir were covered in fine, fluffy, floaty seeds. They were truly everywhere being gently buffeted about on the breeze.
Unfortunately Mr Bee failed to see their beauty as they set off his hayfever, so we left rather speedily.
The reservoir is kept stocked with fish. Mr Bee started to fantasize at this point about learning to fly fish. He always loved the Australian TV show 'A River Somewhere'. We owned the video but he watched it so many times that the tape wore out!
Wild foxgloves.
I find these such a romantic flower. Growing up in Australia listening to my Dad talk about the Isle of Man, where he is from, seemed to lend a very romantic aura to all British blooms. As a child I could just imagine the foxes slipping a pair of these on as they headed out to the 'Woodland Ball'.
There is a high vantage point where you can look across they reservoir but oops I did not take a photo as when we reached it there was a couple sitting quietly contemplating the serene beauty. We were clearly disturbing them, so I quickly snapped these two photos of the commemorative stones and hastily departed.
We do not mean to be so noisy but the kids were very excited about sharing each new discovery they made as we walked along and they always tend to do so at full volume. I would like to say that we are only a noisy bunch by Guern standards (which we most definitely are!) but sadly my little trio were usually the loudest group of kids in Australia too. I remember on one occasion when a close girlfriend had brought her son over for our weekly play date my kids were being so loud that when I opened the door to let them in he actually physically recoiled and took a step back as if to escape the noise coming from the screaming banshees inside the house.
I love this photo. It seems as if fairies should appear in the branches of the trees and flutter out from the undergrowth.
Just magical - to me anyway.
An entire hillside of bracken ferns. B1 was amazed that it all dies down in the winter only to spring up again new year. In Australia there are not that many plants which are so 'seasonal', not in the city. The bush is another story.
Still with me? I know it is a long post but I wanted to give family and friends the chance to see how we spend our time and where we go. This is another favourite photo. I think it would make a good painting; one of these days, in all my spare time (ha, ha) I would like to take up painting again.
Proof that owls live in these woods. If you do not know what it is I am certainly not going to tell you. However I will tell you that B1 and B2 were truly fascinated by it and Mr Bee was horrified that I actually took a photo of it ;P
Nesting box. I tried to find out what type of owls live around the reservoir but I was unable to. Mr Bee thought he had heard mention of the Powerful Owl, but don't quote me on that.
I find tree bark very interesting; its texture, colours, patterns and markings. There are alot of trees in Australia with beautiful yet strange bark; it is lovely to find bark of similar beauty here in Guernsey as well. 
We walked for about one and a half hours. There was whinging from the peanut gallery at the beginning about boredom, sore legs and 'I don't want to go' but by the end they were all asking if we can go for another walk next weekend. I'm just glad that family time and interest in the natural world around them can still compete with TV and Nintendo DS.
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Oh what lovely pictures!!! I agree with you about the "fairy lane"... looks as though there must be lots of them hiding in there! Magic!!!
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