Bob's garden, August 2017.

Friend Bob, the other day sent me these nice pictures of the wildlife in his garden and I thought they deserved a post of their own.

Bob and Joyce have decided not to get another dog, you can't guarantee to get one the same as your last one can you and is it too late in life to start again with a puppy.

I think the Dog's Trust are a bit choosy with people of a certain age these days, which in my mind is wrong as they can get you to sign that in the event of something happening to you the dog is passed back to them!.

Still back to the wildlife!,

Is this in the country I can imagine you saying?, 

But no it's in the wilds of Denton!, east side of Greater Manchester.

Bringing the family round too

Been coming for years!

And there's Hedgehogs too!

 

They love dog food!.

Kestrel devouring a pigeon, not nice but they all have to live and eat don't they, nature is cruel at times!.

Lots of these, but not so many these days!.

Nice pictures Bob, as I think most people will agree, safer in your garden than in the country with the hunt riding round.

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Enough Said!.

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This Sunday at Reddish Vale Park. 27.8.2017.

Nice sunny day at Reddish Vale today.

The collage in the information centre is now finished and a beautiful job has been made of it with a wonderful collection of photos and the framing of it all has turned out a very nice job, congratulations to all who have had a hand in it!!.  

Then it was off round the lakes to see what was worth snapping.

The decking bridge over the run off to the river was of interest as I've been doing a bit of decking this week!.

 

A cute baby sparrow.

And these not so cute Terror- pins!, two of three on the lake near the bridge just mentioned.

One of the second brood of Great Crested Grebes, off fending for itself.

As you can see its getting its Dad's classic shape but not changing colour yet.

The cygnets are doing well with their attentive mother keeping an eye on them, even though they are quite big now they won't be aware of the dangers of cruel homo sapiens ways.

Still at the ugly duckling stage.

Then a surprise!, this Little Grebe swimming around on its own, seen them last year but they seemed very shy and right over the other side of the lake, out of range of even my zoom.

This one perhaps looking for a mate and more interested with that than being shy!.

Think this is only a juvenile one as the adults have a red head. 

Nice day, then another surprise friends Mary and Peter turned up, so it was off to the centre again for another cuppa.

Then off to Son John's for Sunday dinner, only 11 sat down this week!!.

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Why did the blonde throw bread crumbs into the toilet?,

To feed the toilet duck.

Why do seagulls fly over the sea?,

Because if they flew over the bay they would be bagels!.

Its the way I tell em!.

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Garden Centre Cafe Dog Walkers Club.

Today we had a day out together at Reddish Vale Country Park, we met at the Cafe there which was as you can imagine on school holidays full of parents and their children.

I even met my next door neighbours, with their lovely children, in fact all the children today were all well behaved and enjoying themselves!.

Our group all had a nice meal which we didn't have to wait too long for considering the fact they were full of customers, when it came it was nicely presented, hot and savoury and a reasonable price!.

Afterwards we went down to the information centre area and had a walk round to the small lake that the others hadn't seen before. It was nice and quiet and peaceful there and we had the place to ourselves, except for the wildlife!.

Heron.

Cormorant.

Drying out after a good fishing session.

Then it was back to the Info centre for a nice cheap cuppa, and a cornetto each.

 I'd arrived early and had a walk round the larger lakes and saw some of the others birds there and the children were there in Canadian canoe's on the river.

No pictures of the kids, its not the done thing these days is it, they were all very keen to have a stroke of Pepe and were very polite about it!.

Nice fluffy Chaffinch

Beautiful colourful little bird's 

The cygnets are both doing well  on the larger of the lakes

Mum very attentive and keeping her eye on Pepe!.

Plenty of cormorants there today.

The Great Crested Grebe Babies are both doing well 

Quite different to the parents at this stage aren't they 

Not sure what type this one is, no doubt mate Bob will let me know before I can find out myself!.

Also on my solo walk round found these colourful flowers/ weeds? with lots of bees all over them., they didn't seem to be bothered if they were Flowers or Weeds!

These were all taken with my IPhone, so turned out quite well I thought, so included them all!.

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Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you and can't stand in the driver ahead of you!.

One thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion,economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we all believe

that we are above-average drivers!

If your wife wants to learn to drive, don't stand in her way!.

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Sunday at Reddish Vale Park, 20.8.2017.

This Sunday there were a lot of people at the Park, but I think most of them were passing though and just dropped in for a cuppa!.

On my walk round with the Camera managed to get this baby moorhen looking a bit lost and bedraggled, not surprising with the state of the water it's been brought up in, still I suppose mother knows best, my mother certainly thought so!.

Another lost baby was this Baby Coot crying for his mum.

But best of all on the day was this Great Crested Grebe with a fish that it had caught and was trying to give to one of the babies!,

 

There was no way the baby could get this big fish down!.

So finished up eating it himself

Are you trying to choke my babies you idiot!.

Then my camera battery packed up, what a plonker!, it was my own fault has I'd not charged it up after the last outing, so continued walking round the lakes with an expensive lump of equipment round my neck that was just a hindrance.

I did manage to get another picture out of it if not using the Zoom. 

Grooming time on the small lake for this cormorant and duck.

At Etherow the day before I managed to get a couple of pix's with my compact camera that I always have in my pocket.

A sparrow.

A member of the family of Robin's in the Garden Centre Cafe looking a bit wet, which is not surprising in the weather we are having.

Still the way of telling its summer in this country, is that the rain is warmer isn't it!.

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When I was born the doctor came out of the delivery room and said to my father,

 "I'm sorry I did all I could, But he pulled though !!.

David has got a fantastic new off road vehicle,

It's a Reliant Robin 3x3!.

What do you call a wood pecker with no beak?.

A head banger!. 

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Birthday Venue, 17.8.2017.

Had a good day out today, we went to Pico's restaurant in Glossop!.

Free parking for 4hrs for customers!, and the main thing is they are very dog friendly, which for us was the one of the main attractions as we were a party of 5 with 3 Dogs!.  

So we had gathered together here instead of our usual venue at the Etherow Garden Centre Cafe, Sorry Maggie!.

 

There is a very varied menu and something to suit most people.

Here is part of the menu.

 

There was 5 of us, celebrating mate Davids birthday which is on Sunday but today was the only day that we could all get together!.

That's David with the mustache, with Peter  

Some one else's view.

Mary, Peter's wife and Jean in Red!

Jean showing us all up with a new hair do and make up!.

And someone caught me without my hat on!

Between chatting about all things dog related, and putting the world to rights, looking round I realised that the owners must have been to Drew Pritchards the Salvage Hunter for their decorations and lighting, if you watch his program on TV you will see the type of items he buys and sells.

I remember having that lady picture on the far left, years ago

This couple are from Etherow as well, small world, there again they have a Cockerpoo too

Think we will be having another trip there in the near future!.

Leaving the others afterwards Pepe and I took a walk around and right next door was The Mountain Warehouse with all the outdoor gear so I bought a pair of  trousers that were going at half price, End of Summer Sale???, we've not had any yet have we?.

In the Market on the High Street got the latest Celine Dion CD at a good price, so a good day all round, just got back to the car and the heavens opened for a while to wash us home!.

Got a nice plant at the Etherow Garden Centre this past week as well, 

Very bright colours and very shiny foliage,which is said to get better in the Autumn, Mary looked it up and the common name is the Mirror plant because the leaves are so shiny.

 The gazebo at the Garden centre is looking a lot better now the legs have been raised, lighter and the big people don't bang their heads now.

Nice job Ryan!, I just did a bit of supervising, old habits die hard!.

Nice atmosphere, and there is a nice family of Robins hopping all over the place.

The Spam and Egg torpedo's are to die for!.

Well that's it again, 

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Children brighten a home, they never turn the lights off!.

 A small boy gets separated from his father at the funfair and asks a policeman to help find him.

the policeman tries to get a description. 

What's your father like he asks,

Beer and women, replies the boy.

Today I saw a man trying to chat up a Cheetah.

Hello I thought,

Hes trying to pull a fast one!.

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