An excellent gallery of photos from India: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/media/set/?set=a.230450446965140.70777.100000005601801

The dark history of an ancient faerie well is revealed in this short fantasy tale by Adele Cosgrove-Bray, read live on 7 Waves Radio in 2008.

    Ducklings are extraordinary characters.  Something about them makes just about everyone smile.  They're cute and fluffy,  so tiny and yet so brave. Imagine how big their pond looks to them, and how much courage it must take to waddle away from the only place they've ever known - the nest - then leap into water without even knowing what will happen next.  To a duckling, that pond and muddy bank is the whole world. Have you ever  considered what ducklings make of us, watching them?  What does a duck know of our lives - of vehicles, cookers, DVDs, Prada and all the other stuff with which will forever remain irrelevant to a duck's life.  Nothing, of course. Think about a ladybird, then, crawling along a rose.  If the ladybird sees you watching it, how does it react?  It might fly off or, more likely, ignore you completely.  You're not relevant to its sphere of life; and why should you be. We're surrounded by animals, insects and plants that, similarly, get on

This is just one of the many Celtic crosses found within the peaceful graveyard around St Bridget's Church in West Kirby, Wirral.  This particular stone caught my attention due to the rich symbolism carved into it, which expresses the fusion of both the Viking and Celtic cultural influences of the area's long history. With clouds of pink cherry blossom draping over the ancient, leaning gravestones, and pale yellow primroses growing like jewels scattered in the grass, I thought spring would be the perfect time to photograph this place, which can't really be seen from the road just beyond the perimeter walls.  To view from this photoshoot, visit: http://hubpages.com/hub/St-Bridgets-Church-West-Kirby-Wirral

The annual Egg Run brings Easter eggs to children in Clatterbridge Hospital and raises money for the hospice. The video shows only a tiny fraction of the 10,000 bikes which took part in the huge convoy which roars around the Wirral, starting from New Brighton then moving along the coast road and through West Kirby to reach the hospital.  It was filmed while standing on Black Horse Hill in West Kirby. Hmm, I recognise that bloke with the Jack Russell Terrier...! Learn more about the Egg Run here: http://hubpages.com/hub/Wirral-Egg-Run  

We've been enjoying viewing Robin of Sherwood   which has Michael Praed in the heroic woodsman-archer-rebel role.  Many people would have viewed it years ago on TV, but it's new to our eyes.  It's interesting to note an element of pagan references woven into the plot, one obvious example being the appearances of Herne the Hunter.  Even these-days, with the ever-growing avalanche of New Age fluff, it isn't often that a TV series or film contains references to Britain's pre-Xtian religions.  And on those occasions when they do, the tendency is to trot out stereotypical superstitions and historical inaccuracies.  The argument for this claims that viewers want entertainment over factual information.  The result is that many people mistake fiction for fact. Viewers don't want to know that people living rough in a forest would have been crawling with lice, ticks and fleas.  They don't want heroes with decaying teeth, rickets and other visual signs of life-lon

One of my photographs has been used by The Wirral Globe.   It would have been polite to ask my permission first. Source:  http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/8794988.Hilbre_Island_to_be_without_a_custodian_as_council_struggles_to_find_lone_ranger/

I'm just back from walking my dogs.  The pond in Gilroy Nature Reserve is almost free of ice now, and the trees were full of green finches, blue tits and sparrows.  The few remaining dry leaves rattled with the chilly breeze passing over them.  A heron took to the air, leaving its perch seen here in this photo.  More photos of Gilroy Nature Reserve:  http://hubpages.com/hub/Gilroy-Nature-Park

Most traces of the recent snow have been washed away by rain, but the pond in Ashton Park remains partially frozen.  Ducks and geese don't make great ice-skaters, yet they do their best to reach bread thrown by valiant visitors. More about Ashton Park, with photos:  http://hubpages.com/hub/Ashton-Park

Even an innocuous boiled egg can contain surprises...

My efforts to store online photos on disc continues.  Here are a few more of my favourite shots.  Royden Woods  West Kirby Marina  West Kirby Marina under repair, March 2009.  Grange Hill War Memorial  Solitary figure on Red Rocks, Hoylake 

Emily, Killer of Garden Gnomes  Mutley and Poppy  Jazzy and toy mouse  Rolly-polly Saffron  Ygraine in the Grove I've been tidying up photos on my hard-drive and transfering them onto disc.  Here are a few of my favourites. 

Stanislav Belyaevsky's exquisite photography, which captures the passion, strength and beauty of ballet. http://www.belyaevsky.com/

The colours on Caldy Hill are changing to an autumnal palette now.   Mushrooms and toadstools blossom from beneath a growing carpet of fallen leaves, and the feisty rustlings of foraging squirrels send showers of pine cones to the damp, peaty ground.  The quality of light changes everything, from the soft green-golds filtering through arching branches of oak and rowan, to the hard glitter of silver-greys bouncing off the River Dee.  Bees hummed over the last of the purple heather on the summit, and the faerie pond lower down - dry during the summer months - begins to look more marshy as it slowly refills.  And on the narrow path, threaded with roots and sandstone rocks, overhung with ripe blackberries and peeling silver birch, lay one tiny lizard, another victim of bicycle wheels, still struggling to crawl away to die beneath the trees.

Rosa gallica, also known as the apothecary's rose or Rosa mundi, is in full bloom right now in my garden. It was one of the most-painted roses in Renaissance art, and was cultivated by Romans then later by monks for its alleged medicinal values. I grow it simply because its fragrance is divine.  Surely that is reason enough, hmm?

Heidi Ruby Miller has been running a series of interviews with authors. From the list of fifteen questions, the subject is asked to pick six to reply to. Her website lists the authors - 56 to date - who have taken part in her project. See this here:- http://www.moonstonewritings.com/interviews.html Or for the latest one (with me as the subject) you could just scoot over to:- http://ambasadora.livejournal.com/129800.html?view=520456#t520456 *** Yesterday afternoon found us sitting in a solicitor’s office, drawing up details to be included in our updated Will, such as our desire for a Living Will and for certain specific funeral arrangements. We’ve been meaning to update these documents for ages. Enough of procrastination! There’s no point in waiting for one of us to drop dead and then go, “Oops, we really needed to update our legal stuff! Quick, reanimate him/her and wheel us off to the lawyer’s office!” And today we have glorious sunshine! That’s a rarity this summer. Mos