Back to Normal

I don't know, you nip away for a few weeks and the blogosphere traffic goes crazy, but I think I've caught up with all my reading of posts, replying and commenting.

The Tense Towers Team have had a break in northern climes, still on British soil, but with a much different biota to sleepy Buckinghamshire. In fact, returning to MK on Saturday afternoon was a bit weird, as we saw birds that would've been regarded as quite rare for the last fortnight.

"Look! A Magpie!"

"Wow! There's a Blue Tit!"

"Listen to that amazing call, what it is it? Oh, a Goldfinch!"

So back to normal felt a little abnormal for a while, but I think we've got it out of our systems now.

As the photos featured on I&T rarely show the team, regular readers may wonder if we spend our nature-watching time back to back, in a small triangular shape, cameras pointing outward. I have to inform you that we're not such a regular polygon as that, as a scroll down this webpage will testify, taken on holiday, doing what we do best... drinking tea!

Yep, the unholy triumvirate of the Our Lass, the Admiral and myself ventured to a few of the islands of Orkney, first North Ronaldsay and then Westray. The photo in the above link is courtesy of the staff at the Bird Observatory, where we spent a fantastic week, soaking up the wildlife, local cuisine and not a little Dark Island ale. If you're ever in Orkney, I would recommend a visit.

I'm working my way through 14 days of photographs, so there's much more to come, however, by necessity, it might be more interactive than usual as there were lots of flowers that were new to us. Any help with ID in the upcoming posts will be gratefully received.