The Coronavirus Quarantine Picture Show

Local to us in The Hague

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You should make time for a short walk
Weymouth has 3 Nature Reserves and Portland has some great coastal paths and interesting historical quarry paraphernalia

 

I get down to the coast a couple of times a year as I've got an old friend just outside Weymouth so I know the Dorset coast pretty well. Portland is one of my favourite places, be it for fishing, wildlife or walking. I'm not as familiar when you get inland as I said previously.
I haven't been to Maiden Castle since I was at school (40 years) but have driven in the area hundreds of times. Life gets in the way sometimed

 

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That’s a really nice spot

 

Longleat House from Heaven’s Gate this morning:


And Shearwater Lake with no sailing or fishing happening:

 

Yesterday at the beach, Zuiderstrand Strandslag 10. Busy, it's a bank holiday, but plenty of space no one closer than 10 meters. Mrs Jab happy with the new beach tent, excellent picnic washed down a robust red and Palm beer. The 18K round trip on the bikes won't have accounted for all the calories.

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Can't see any of the images, just ...

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I could see them when first posted. I emailed them to myself as reduce size images I'll have a fiddle about or maybe we have a mega techie who can help. Off out to meet the wife for another picnic, this time in the Haagse Bos - The Hague forest.

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Cerne Valley Way -
Saw a Fox in the woods as we started early, also Buzzards, Kestrels, Skylarks, Nuthatch, May Flies
Butterfly-wise we've seen Large & Small Whites, Orange Tips, Speckled Woods, Brimstones, Red Admirals, Painted Ladys on various walks including this one
We get Lulworth Skippers on this walk in June

Wheat field


River Cerne entering Charminster


My Post-Impressionist moment

 

This may be OK

 

This is what I have to do
On my iPhone email the images from to myself as reduced size images (medium)
On my iMac copy the images from the email to 606

If I email them on the iMac or Copy them on the iPhone, it fails
I have no idea why

 

I downloaded the photos from android phone to a Win10 folder opened the image, right click, resize, save as new name, open the file, copy and paste.

 

I've bought myself a grow bag greenhouse, 1 m x 0.5m base. Using a load of old stuff I had lying around, I've built a hydroponic system to grow leafy veg, like kale, lettuce, spinach plus I'll try a few chilli plants.
Can grow up to 60 plants I reckon which will be great in such a small area.
Greenhouse thing cost me £30 so am hoping it will work. It's very much a prototype and will eventually become a vertical system made out of drainpipes...

The wind is really strong here at the moment so haven't put it in its correct place in the garden yet as it tries to turn into a kite

 

regular updates would be much appreciated

 

Many years ago I built a similar structure in my back garden to house some plants of a certain kind which friends gave us who had to move house due to work requirements. Worked a treat!

 

I have been trying to upload some photos that I took whilst out birdwatching on Thursday evening but I cannot get the pictures to reduce in size and they cannot be posted as a consequence.

I actually did ok with the number of species I saw. Got up to 24 nr. My best for the patch in 28 so was really quite pleased with what was around. There was nothing more unusual than Sedge Warblers and a Grey Wagtail.

I was interested by Spider's list of butterflies as I have hardly seen anything this year. The only species I have seen so far are Brimstones, the Large and Small white, a Small Tortoiseshell and a Holly Blue. The area around the pumping station at Otterbourne is actually pretty decent by June as you tend to get Smaller Skippers, Marbled Whites, Common and Chalkhill Blues whereas you might see Clouded Yellows (if you are lucky) and Painted Ladies later in the summer. Late summer just seems to be Gatekeepers an Meadow Browns. I have not seen a Orangetip this year and I don't think I am going to get up to the reserve at Magdalen Down to see Green Hairstreaks. This is the only location where I have seen them although I am regularly told that they are common. Seeing that they are so small, I suppose they are easy to miss.

The moths and dragonflies will be in abundance later on and this is the point at which I tend to panic because they are so difficult to identify.

 

Back in 1995 I was involved in a project in Exeter which meant that I needed to drive along the A35 and through Dorchester where I was always stunned by the about of prehistoric sites along the road. Maiden Castle always fascinated me but it was several years before I went there instead of driving past. The site is huge and the finds for Sir Mortimer Wheeler's excavations can be seen in the Dorchester museum which is currently being refurbished. If it is going to be half as good as the newly refurbished Corinium museum in Cirencester, it will be really impressive.

There are loads of Bronze Age tumuli around the football stadium in Dorchester too which predate Maiden Castle by several hundred years. I also remember that there is a very small, stone henge monument behind some iron railings by the side of the road. I believe that this is at Winterbourne Abbas. From recollection, there are also some medieval field systems visible as you drive in to Tolpuddle. I think they are terraces from 13th century when farm land was in short supply and the slopes of hills were farmed for crops because of the need to feed the burgeoning population.

 

Similar problems overcome thus:-
From shoot_spiderman
This is what I have to do
On my iPhone email the images from to myself as reduced size images (medium)
On my iMac copy the images from the email to 606

If I email them on the iMac or Copy them on the iPhone, it fails
I have no idea why
My solution resizing from win 10 files.
I downloaded the photos from android phone to a Win10 folder opened the image, right click, resize, save as new name, open the file, copy and paste.

 

Using my phone, if I view a photo in my gallery, and then take a screenshot, I can then go to that screenshot, edit out the top and bottom of the screenshot image and I find most photos then get under the max size.