Chaffinch

Last time I saw a little bird (Stonechat) during our walk I didn't have my zoom lens with me, but today I did. This is a Chaffinch (I believe, from looking through my British Birds book).



It was another hot and sunny day. Made me want to be on this yacht I saw heading towards the open sea.



Later in the day - just before sunset - we went back to Castle Hill for a little walk. I loved the sea and the sky, as usual. Very subtle, but beautiful.



And let's finish the day with the opposite of subtle. This is the Newhaven Coastguard watchtower. Drama added with Dynamic Photo HDR.

Piddinghoe

Some photos from our morning walk in Piddinghoe. Just realised now looking at this photo that the sailing lake is used by Seaford Angling Club.



We met a border terrier called Henry today. (Zebedee didn't actually eat him even though it may look like it in this picture.)



Border terriers are very bouncy. And springers nimble.






They had a good play for a while, but then Henry got bored.



This photo is absolutely unremarkable, but it makes me feel good looking at it. It reminds me of lovely summer days by the river.

Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden

It was another hot day (28°C) and not the best for a drive in a car without an air conditioning, but nevertheless, we went to Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden for the three hours that it is open on Sundays. Not easy to take photos with the puppy pulling on the lead that is attached to the hand that is holding the camera, but between us we managed to take turns in attending to the puppy and take a few OK photos of the sculptures and the lovely garden that they were in.

































Hang on a minute - exactly HOW big is that puppy?!?

By the way, I'll show a detail from the above photo:



See the lower jaw? Three milk teeth missing! :-) I didn't get a chance to see Zeb without his upper middle incisors because the following day I noticed the they are loose, the teeth were gone and tiny adult teeth were already showing! Seems that it takes a lot longer for the lower front adult teeth to appear (after the milk teeth have fallen out).

Back to the sculpture garden then.

Pheasant at Castle Hill

Weird! Never expected to see a pheasant couple on top of coastal cliffs. First I saw the male...



... and when I walked on, suddenly a female pheasant rushed off from the long grasses, making it look like she ran away from her nest. Which made me walk away quickly and let her get back to the spot (where her nest may be). Anyway, very odd place for a pheasant to nest, I think!

The walk was lovely as usual... I'm surrounded by beauty.



The obligatory puppy photo from the walk:



...and a couple of butterflies - a Small White, or a Large White (not sure which).



...and a Gatekeeper, a ubiquitous butterfly, at least in these areas.

Dusty Lensbaby gets an outing

I haven't used the Lensbaby for ages, and now that I came across it while looking for another lens, I thought I'd give it a whirl to see if it still works. Well, of course it works, and it was fun to play with it in the garden.









The latest Zebedee news are:
1) On Sunday I noticed that his front teeth are loose! He is starting to lose his milk teeth. I thought it was funny that the front teeth come out first, just like on humans. Can't wait to see him looking like a 6-year-old human kid with missing front teeth.
2) Last Friday we made it to puppy school (we missed the first week as I had to sort out some product photos urgently). Zebedee can already do most things they teach there, but still, it is good to see some training tips performed live in action. And the puppies get plenty of chance to play with each other, and get used to new people, small and large, short and tall.
3) We have ditched the puppy collar and lead and started using an adult collar. 'Cause he just keeps on growing!

Seaford Head

...also known as Wake up and smell the flowers! Part II

This morning we went for a walk on the cliffs from Seaford Head towards Seven Sisters, and back. It was such a beautiful day that we found ourselves sighing out of delight every few minutes, and without noticing, ended up walking so far that we had to hurry back in order to get into London (to meet up with a friend) on time.












Canon IXUS 850 is a great little camera to carry in the pocket and snap away with, but it does have its limits when it comes to image quality. Apart from having a rather grainy pixel quality compared to larger sensored SLRs, in the above photo you can see vignetting (=darker corners) and barrel distortion that causes the horizon to bend. But not so much that it disturbs the "untrained eye"; I doubt any non-photographer even noticed it before I mentioned anything.



Yesterday we drove to Beachy Head.


(click on the image to see the bigger picture)

It was a very windy day.



So windy that in places Zebedee had to brace himself against the wind even when just standing in one place.