Farmleigh walk

We went for a walk in Farmleigh this morning. If the sun wasn't exactly shining, at least it wasn't raining. I wouldn't mind some tonight, mind you, or I'll be out watering the garden.
I'll leave some of the photos for another day, but here are a couple of some water striders on the pond in the walled garden. I was lying on my front over the stone rim, with a firm grip on the camera, because if I'd let go of it, the strap wouldn't have been short enough to hold it out of the water. I am fascinated at how you can see the dimples in the water surface where the strider is resting on it without breaking the surface tension. It was a bit problematic to focus while leaning over the water, but I was pleased with these photos. You can see the sun reflecting in the surface of one of them. It makes such a defined shadow that when we looked at the photo on the camera, we thought it was two insects mating.


We seemed to spend a long time walking round the walled garden, which is where the potentilla and rudbeckia were. C thought there was another way out, which there wasn't. At least the sunflowers I'd promised him were still in full bloom - mine aren't even budding yet.

And we got some lovely apple juice at the organic farmers market, which was more than welcome when we got home.
On an up note I've managed to restore all my emails except for a few days worth, and all my Firefox favourites, so my PC is just about back to normal. Hope to goodness I don't have to do all this again when I upgrade the motherboard soon. I shouldn't...