Cloudy Sky

 

Some clouds and blue sky I took during a morning walk last month

 

This is a wheat field we walk though along a footpath there are a lot of fluffy white clouds in the sky

 

The dog roses were in bloom

 

They showed up nicely against the sky

 

As we got near home I noticed these two balloons by the allotment gate, left over from a previous days party

Happy SkyWatch  

A look in the greenhouse

 

I've not show you in here for a while since the plants were just growing, it's all changed now

 Like I said changed, the plants have all grown 

 

 

These peppers were late growing so I'm not sure how they will turn out

 

Tomatoes growing well and have flowers on them 

 

Cucumbers

Which as you can see have fruit and we have eaten one already, these will not be far behind

More growing

More tomatoes from on the other side of the greenhouse

 And I am glad to say they are starting to fruit

 Even on my patio we are growing cucumbers

 More of an experiment, the two outer ones are small verities about 100mm or 3" long the middle one was a spare I did not want to throw away

Take Care 

St Mary Magdalen Oxford

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St Mary Magdalen the third of the churches he on his last Oxford visit. I have see the church many time and always wondered what it looked like inside, this time I found out. The church is one end of St Giles near the martyrs memorial  

 

A peek at the Sky

 

This week some photos showing a peek at the sky where it just comes in the photos 

Morning walk with the pup and we pass this field

Up in the distance some cows with their calf's

 

In the back garden the sky showing between the rose buds

 

Through the Rosa Californica 

More of the rose and sky

Sneaking in behind the Mavern Hills rose

Happy SkyWatch 

Ugly bug diner

 

Not sure you can get much uglier than a ladybird larvae  

 Collage of them munching away

I came across them on one of my globe thistles 

Which came as a surprise because I hardly saw any last year

The one good this is they were eating the blackfly on the thistle 

 

Ugly critters 

But they eat the blackfly and turn into beautiful ladybirds 

Take care 

St Michael at the North Gate

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St Michael at the North Gate Oxford a church I have longed to see and did not disappoint  

 

View from the spire

 

After showing the St Marys church Oxford in Sundays Blog and a teaser from the spire I thought I should show what you can see from it.

The Radcliffe camera from the spire

 

Closer look for you

 

 

Turning left a little to look over Oxford the spire belongs to Exeter College chapel 

 

 

Turn right and you see All Souls College 

 

 

Going around the spire a bit and you look up High Street on the right and past All Souls College 

 

 

Going further around and we look towards Merton College on the left Christ Church Cathedral center and Top Tower on the right

 

 

Zooming in on Christ Church and Tom Tower

 

 

Quick look down at the High Street

 

 

The spire you see is the Former All Saints Church now Lincoln College Library 

 

 All Souls again

 

Happy SkyWatch

Take care

 

St Mary the Virgin Oxford

 

  This week the Church Explorer visits the University Church of St Mary the Virgin the first of the churches I will be visiting in Oxford to finish off the ones I need to visit in the book Oxfordshires Best Churches. This one is certainly one of the best, it is stunning inside.

The Horse Chestnut tree

 

This is the Forty in Cholsey it is dominated by a couple of trees, the one on the left is a walnut tree which was pollared over the winter so lacks growth, the other tree is a Horse Chestnut or as most kids will tell  you a conker tree because of the nuts that are dropped in the autumn and sought after to play conkers with 

 It was well in flower when I took the photos and looks glorious in the clear blue sky

Happy SkyWatch

Walk in Millennium Wood

 

Taken over a couple of days  

 Jubilee field named in honor of the queens silver jubilee. It was gifted to the village and at one time was the grazing pasture for cattle. Over to the right out of sight is the brook over which they built a bridge to get to the filed from the recreation ground 

Looking the other way you see a Millennium wood planted as you might guess in 1999/2000 to commemorate it

 

The wood you are looking at now is 25 years old and is situated in a triangle of land between the old branch line and the brook. There are three ways in now, this is one of them

 

 

The trees have grown well over the years though some did not survive

 

 

The bridge is more recent and crosses the stream that comes from the bulls hole which over the years has silted up because no cattle graze in the fields any more

 

 

The paths seem to go on a long way but here we are returning back to Jubilee field 

 

 

The wood is home to a lot of wild life now

 

 

Looking back to the bridge here

 

Take care