Cookley Green

I forgot all about this place and the few photos I took around it. The village is not that far from Henley on Thames and at the time I went to visit a church not far away. One the way back I stopped off to get a few photos of the place.

This first thing you notice on the green is the War Memorial

It is quite prominent

Around the base are the names of those lost in the First World War
at the base is another plaque showing two names, the second J.H.Barnett is buried in the Churchyard of St Botoph Swyncombe, what is even sadder is that he was killed when the plane he was in crashed not far from here.
Left looking across the green

Right The road here on the left takes you
Swyncombe Church

The sign pointing to Swyncombe church

The road the other way going to Pishill

Stitch them together and the junction looks like this

Stepping back further and you see the whole junction.

Left the green on the other side of the road from my car

And looking over the main road to the man green I was on.

Taking Part in My Little Corner of the World Our World Tuesday and Imag-in-ing, you can find all the links in the right hand column

Take Care Everyone

James Rice a Beloved Brother

This might seem like a bit of a cop-out this week as I have not been to any new churches apart from a fleeting visit to one I intend to return to. I had written a post which will be published next week but during the week I was contacted with some information on this post about James Rice. I published it back in 2012 a little after visiting the church where the memorial is and had done a little work into finding out more. Over time more has been added as you will see. Hopefully I will be able to put some closure to it in the future.

The memorial is in this church

The memorial of James Rice and his brother

Take Care

The Clouds Below

These were taken a the other week when were were in Wales and went out for a walk early one morning around 7:50 AM

 Reaching the first view point on the hill and looking down on the camp-site

 Looking back the other way

 This is walking along the track at the hilltop and cloud rolls through

 From near the hill top view point looking on the clouds

Further along and the clouds below over the camp site.

Happy Skywatch.

Very Mature

The Wasp & the Fly

Back in July we noticed a new pile of sawdust by the raised flower bed. We new from previous years that a type of Ectemnius (solitary wasp) making it's nest there. So I thought I would capture one (an image) with my camera so I set it up on a gorilla pod and attached the remote setting the camera on high frame capture then waited.

This was the only shot I managed of the wasp landing with it's prey which is a fly. In previous years I had seen them flying clutching a fly but getting a shot of one proved very hard even landing. The fly is used as food for the larva when it hatches.

A few minuets after the was went in the next I noticed this fly sniffing around outside

It then went to investigate the opening

and went inside for a look

I did wonder if the wasp would come out and snatch it for it's nest

But now it scurried away before said wasp came out

Out came the wasp

quickly turning on to the side

The the next moment  after I took this it was gone

I think the fly was pushing it's luck because it hung about

Even with the was emerging from it's nest

at times a couple of centimetres apart

Getting ready to fly

The blur is the was flying off. The was is still burrowing in the sleepers and the wood dust has gotten bigger at one stage my wife cleared some away so it could get in the nest. Orthogonally we did try to discourage them nesting but now we leave them to get on with it they don't bother us after all then kill fly's and that can't be bad.

Taking Part in Our World Tuesday

St Mary Longworth

This week the Church Explorer visits St Mary Longworth a church which I found out had more history surrounding it than I expected. please take a look at the link to see more

It Got Hotter

I teased you with the temperature on Tuesday and I thought it could not get any hotter but not I was wrong there, the next day I thought should be a little better as there were some clouds in the sky but the relentless sun had other ideas and through the day the temp went up and at 2:50 I looked at the clock and noticed the numbers 42.2C that is 107.96F It was the hottest I have ever seen on our patio. The thermometer is on the fence opposite the kitchen and sends a signal to the clock, it is out of direct sunlight. I checked the greenhouse and found the temp was a little less at 39 C. I have to admit the patio is a sun trap and where we stay away from in the hot weather. Not long after it clouded over and the temp started to come down a little at a time

I even managed a photo of the cloud hiding the sun

I was also pleased it gave me some rays to capture. Blue sky could be seen between the clouds behind me

The clouds looked like they threatened Rain and Thunder

The sun still sent out it's rays from behind the clouds

The it rained, well more like a downpour, I went around the front porch and took a photo of the road wondering if the puddle would come up to our drive like it has done in the past

 This was taken from the left of the photo above almost to the day 19 years ago . Gets a little deep in a deluge and laps the bottom of our drive.

No sun any more, it was pure bliss, the trees in the distance obscured by the rain

3 hours later the temp was nearly 20C cooler though inside the heat was still there and took a few days to go. A do not like the heat-waves  and long for the days I used to know when we had cooler weather. I cannot see it changing any time soon. The longer the planes say out of the sky the better for us all

Happy Skywatch