Twenty One - and Some Extra Decades…

Out with Bella this morning saw these rather elegant fungi - I think they are on the stump of what was a great damson tree to scrump from - until it got chopped down…

If you think you're seeing double, you are - these folded gates often make me check my glasses and rub my eyes. 

Today is yet another birthday - Su gave me this card, the advice of which I will do my best to follow. Not sure about going naked on swings in this chill wind, mind you :-)!

Also got this hi-tech card from Ben & Lena. I only posted this photograph on the blog a week ago - sneaky stuff! 

Lots of lovely presents, including this classic in an enamelled tin. I don't know if they induce the episodes, mitigate them or just give you something to do while they pass.

Off to Prior Park to get Bella some food (and a cup of coffee en route), saw this triptych of wheelbarrows (some a bit rusty…) 

Great name for a hairdresser, but not quite sure what the name actually means. What does hedonism hair look like? 

Out with Bella again this afternoon, strange markings on the pavement just up the street. Runes, Neptune's trident, or what? 

Along from Perfect View in a very cold wind, spotted this and several other arrangements of fallen branches. A budding Andy Goldsworthy at work? 

The scaffolding and protective screens have all disappeared from the hillside where the boulder crashed down. You can now see clearly how close to the edge this has left the house. Just a bit of netting to catch the next landslip…

This is the view from the top of the hill - scarily close to the precipice!

I presume this is some of the decking that was taken up in the process of making the hillside safe. 

Another triptych - this time of bollards stopping cars using this path as a shot cut? 

More pavement markings, this time more readable. The joys of chalk and youth! Next step felt tips, then spray cans for these taggers of the future? 
I think that I actually prefer the skeletal forms of hydrangea flowers to the actual blooms themselves. Look at the exquisite detail on these specimens. 

This day last year, we were in Hong Kong - Su spoilt me with birthday presents before and after my teaching stint while the hotel laid on lots of treats for me, including this delicious baked cheesecake. Today I am not teaching on my birthday for the first time in about five years (a really big treat!).