helenclayton

helenclayton, 5 months ago to random

View through the top front window of a double-decker bus 🚌 (I like to pretend I’m driving 😂). If you squint I reckon it’s a bit like impressionist art 😁. Monet would be proud.

#FensterFreitag

helenclayton, 3 months ago to random

Just your usual happening in a Devon hedge bank.

helenclayton, 6 months ago to animals

Looking for a photo earlier I came across this in my collection…

I can’t credit the source unfortunately, but it’s very accurate.

#Novennber
#CatsOfMastodon

helenclayton, 2 months ago to random

Floofy gatekeeper

#SheepOfMastodon

helenclayton, 4 months ago to random

And breathe…

helenclayton, 3 months ago to random

With all this talk of snow in the UK 🙄 here’s a snow-themed #ThrowbackThursday to March 2018 when we even had enough snow in Devon to make a snow #Totoro!

helenclayton, 1 month ago to random

I’m out, out, out! And sheeeeps!

I stopped at a gateway to say hello and they all ran over to me with much baaing. I apologised for getting their hopes up that I might have food, but there was nose booping and head skritching.

The lambs were more interested in play.

#SheepOfMastodon

Photo of some of same sheep, up close to the camera. A ewe is in the centre of the frame looking straight at the camera. She has a notch out of her left ear. Others watch on.
Photo of grey lambs clustered around a pile of logs in the field. Most are lying down on the far side, just their faces peeking over, but one is standing on a log with its back to the camera. It is about to leap off. Trees and the roof of a house in the background and distant fields.

helenclayton, 1 month ago to random

#SilentSunday

helenclayton, 4 months ago to random

#SilentSunday

helenclayton, 4 months ago to random

Final #SilentSunday for 2023.

helenclayton, 3 months ago to random

I don’t often have anything for #StandingStoneSunday but happened upon this impressive double stone row on Friday - Hurston Ridge at the south end of Chagford Common near the Warren House Inn on Dartmoor.

helenclayton, 7 months ago to random

This lot look like they’re plotting something.

#SheepOfMastodon

helenclayton, 17 days ago to random

Just a frog, sitting on its lily pad.

#frogs

helenclayton, 12 days ago to random

Had a bit of a ‘sound of music’ moment in this wildflower meadow. In beautiful sunshine we watched the thunderstorms roll over the Pyrenees where we would have been walking today, pleased that we’d changed our plans…

Then got caught in the middle of our own thunderstorm! Running hell-for-leather through another meadow feeling very exposed as the storm was right on top of us. We got absolutely soaked to the skin. The paths down the hills were running like small rivers. Quite exhilarating though!

helenclayton, 6 months ago to random

#SilentSunday #StandingStoneSunday

helenclayton, 9 months ago to random

#SilentSunday

helenclayton, 4 months ago to gardening

I was idly reading our local newsletter at lunchtime. In between the garage door /new kitchen type adverts was the news that our town council has declared itself pesticide-free! It will stop using pesticides and reduce mowing etc to help pollinators. It is also going to produce a pesticide-free gardening guide for residents and run a kerbside pesticide amnesty so people can dispose of pesticides and weed killers. Good things do happen in Newton Abbot!

#Gardening #Bees #Pollinators

helenclayton, 3 months ago to random

Nice hair-do.

#Mosstodon

helenclayton, 7 months ago to random

Another lovely holloway & into the week we go.

#Holloways

helenclayton, 2 months ago to random

Because there can never be too many lamb pics, here’s another from my walk the other day. Quite apt for Mother’s Day…not that sheep care what day it is!

#SheepOfMastodon

helenclayton, 4 months ago to random

I didn’t get to posting these yesterday, but maybe it’s still #FungiFriday somewhere 😉.

Jelly ears in the sunshine and what appears to be some mossy birch mazegill.

#Mushtodon #Fungiverse #Mosstodon

Close up photo of lots of bracket fungus growing on top of a log. They are like ruffled rosettes, pinkish grey bands radiating out from the centre, which appears to be covered in a felty growth of green moss. They are dappled in sunlight. Much of the log is hidden but bark exposed in the foreground is rough textured and fissured, dark grey with a smattering of moss.

helenclayton, 26 days ago to random

A throwback to two years ago and this wonderful wild garlic-lined bridleway. It was part of an absolutely cracking 15 mile walk I did from Kingsbridge to Dartmouth on a perfect May day. Need more of those now!

Also, a reminder that the weekend is in sight!

#ThrowbackThursday #Walking #Devon

helenclayton, 14 days ago to random

A couple more photos from yesterday’s walk near Minerve. What they can’t show is the wonderful scent of thyme, honeysuckle and broom flowers.

#walking #occitanie

Photo of a wide track through garrigue landscape on a high plateau above the gorge. The ground is carpeted in wild flowers, mostly blue with a scattering of yellow and pink. Scrub and small trees line the sides. The sky above is cloudy.
Photo of a rocky footpath gently descending the side of a gorge. Small trees, shrubs and flowers grow up between the rocks. A footpath waymark is painted on a pillar-like rock on the right - red and white parallel lines and a yellow line indicating different routes. The minervois hills ahead in the distance. The sky is cloudy.
Photo of a view over a valley on the opposite side of Minerve to the first photo. It is spanned by high stone bridge with rounded arches. In the top left of the frame the side of the castle tower is visible. The houses clustered on the promontory between the two rivers have terracotta roofs sloping over cream stone walls. The valley is green with vegetation and hills stretch into the distance. The clouds have cleared revealing blue sky.

helenclayton, 12 days ago to random

This swallowtail #butterfly was a beauty. I hope it found safe refuge from the storm.

helenclayton, 9 days ago to random

Another lovely walk…another day playing with thunderstorms! A 15 km walk from Rennes-le-Chateau to Espéraza (where there’s a quirky market on a Sunday - great stop for lunch and gift shopping). ‘Weather’ was forecast for late pm but storm clouds rolled in just after lunch so we hoofed it back to Rennes. Some big fat raindrops, thunder rumbling and lightening flashing on the next hill over. But as we reached Rennes the sun came back out again and we enjoyed a beer on a sunny terrace.

#walking

Photo taken from a high view point over a market place thronged with people. Colourful umbrellas and awnings throw shade over the stalls. The square is lined by pale stone buildings, one with beautiful teal shutters. Trees grow in the centre of the place - stalls continue in all directions. The sky is blue with a few white clouds.
Photo from a view at the edge of a hilltop town. A couple of houses and gardens in the foreground on the left, a wooded slope dropping down steeply to the right. The foreground is bright but the valley and hills beyond are obscured by thick grey rain clouds in which thunder rumbles.
Photo of a bottle of French saison beer on a table overlooking a landscape which had recently been under storm clouds but is now bathed in sunshine. The bottle has a red label with the name La Mandra and an illustration of a fox on it. The Pyrenees mountains are a dark line in the not-so-distant distance, under white cloud.