Flowers, Sunsets & Butterflies

We had a little bit of a chillout day on Thursday, or that was the plan but we couldn't resist going to the garden centre for some butterfly friendly flowers, Buddleia, Lupin & Cowslip. We've been that busy, we haven't chance to plant these out, that's a job for tomorrow.

The flowers we've already planted are doing well, like the Viola and Aqualigia below.

While Debbie was taking pictures of the flowers on Thursday evening, the sky slowly turned from blue to red and as the moon moved in for the night.

On Friday we headed of to Spurn Point on the East coast, the least said about this the better but if you must have the gory details, see them here. Just a couple of pictures by Debbie before we were chased off by the little hairy monsters.

The one good thing to come out of the Spurn visit was that we ended up at the North Landing at Flamborough head and this place is beautiful. The high cliffs are alive with sea birds, Swallows skim the lush green grass and Sand Martins ride the sandy coves like skateboarders with wings.

Debbie snapped away the whole time we were there but many of the seabirds were just out of reach of the 200mm lens, including the Puffins which we both saw for the very first time. Flowers and butterflies, Debbie's passion, were made for the little lens and there were photo opportunities for those too.

Debbie did get some nice shots of the Puffins, one of which I've posted at Little Brown Job. Bird watching is quickly climbing up her favorites things to do list, almost as fast as Twitter, another twittering twitcher in the making ;-)

Paul.

West Midlands Safari Park

Yesterday we had a day out at West Midlands Safari Park, we only found out about it after seeing on TV last weekend and we're glad we did. With Debbie not being the worlds best at map reader, she drove all the way there and back while I navigated with a good old fashioned road atlas and Google Maps to check we were where we thought we were. It was a marathon drive down the motorway network round Birmingham but well worth it when we got there.

The only disappointments were the Sea Lion show which was hard to photograph with too many obstacle's in the way and not much content, plus the Giraffes appeared to be living in slum conditions. The rest of the place was fantastic though, it took us well over 2 hours to get round the safari drive the first time round with so much to see.

Debbie took the wheel for the first drive round while I jumped from front seat to back seat in the quest for a great shot..

For the second drive round I took the wheel while Debbie really got to grips with her new camera as you can see with the shots below..

With me driving and a White Lion being a little too far away, Debbie even got a shot with my huge 500m lens..

Today had been designated 'sofa day' as we're both just too tired to do anything. Tomorrow we're back on the road again!

Paul.

Potteric Carr

We had a few hours at Potteric Carr yesterday, wasn't as good as last time but I think we were a little late getting there. Debbie had a few problems with her new Canon EOS 1000D, a combination of getting the settings right and most of the wildlife simply being too far away for a 200mm lens.

Despite all the problems, for a first time out with an SLR camera, Debbie's had done really well, shooting in aperture priority mode for the first time ever.

While we were there, we joined the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust so we can visit as many times as we want and also be kept up to date on some other fantastic places to visit in Yorkshire that we never knew existed.

I'll do some testing with Debbie's camera today and make sure everything is ready for our next adventure.

Paul.

Hot Sunny Birthday

I thought I was in trouble last night, Debbie tried out her birthday present (a day early) and wasn't happy at all that the Canon EOS D1000D only allows live view to be used in the 'farting about' modes. I managed to get it working on aperture priority but it was still a bit of a let down.

This morning, Debbie forgot about live view and got stuck in using the viewfinder. All I could hear from the living room was a machine gun type sound coming from the kitchen as she rattled off over 200 pictures!

We've had another busy day, more shopping, getting the second part of Debbie's birthday present, an 18-200mm lens for her new camera. It's the same lens I use on my Nikon and is just right for carrying about everywhere.

Also on the shopping list was a new lawn mower, we've got this terrible habit of killing them, one last year and two this year! We took it in turns to drag the heavy mower through Meadowhall back to the car. After that we called at Dad's for a coffee and more cards and gifts.

Then finally it was feet up time in the garden, soaking up the sun, drinking ice cold larger and watching the birds.

All images are courtesy of the birthday girl, all the action happened while I was busy this morning and while feeding Lucy this afternoon lol.

Paul.