Kite

The red kite around Oxford are a sight worth seeing. Re-introduced with chicks from Spain some years ago they have flourished. This year a reciprocal arrangement was made as the Spanish numbers were critically down.
The kite here are flying over the houses in one of the villages and seen against the building rain clouds.

Summer walks

The current hot weather is limiting our walking to early morning locally. There have been few butterflies this year - until yesterday on the hilltop we found many on the brambles. While walking up the hill we saw a few Holly Blue butterflies and at the top were Hedge Brown.

Spring flowers

As we walked recently there were primroses and violets, just about at the end of their season. The bluebells were starting to flower and the cherry blossom was coming out too. Final photo is of a red kite flying.

A walk in Devon

A winter walk in Devon took us to Stover Park. We went past the lake and along the frosty footpath.

Near here there is a memorial to the 250 men of the Canadian Forestry Corps who worked at Stover during WW1. They were foresters and sawyers and felled the trees on the estate to supply wood to the troops for railway sleepers, huts, trenches etc as well as fuel.
All the figures are carved from wood and are life size.