My blog is mostly about wildlife, particularly birds, walking, days out, all growing things and anything else that comes to mind.
To view pictures in larger format, just click on any picture for the picture gallery....

Sunday 16 August 2009

Here and then - an eventful week

Well - what a week. On Monday, Virgin Media arrived to install Broadband, phone and TV. TV seems to be OK although Virgin have had a fault, but it was general and not "me" specific. Phone is working OK BUT.... I was advised that yes, I could have caller display..but when ringing to activate this, I was advised that it is not yet available in my area!!!! Ring back in 2 months in case anything's changed!!

Broadband... Installed OK and wireless connection is working. The router is not as good as the one I had (Belkin) in that I'm experiencing more "drop outs" than before; a remedy needs further investigation.

BUT the very enthusiastic installation technician suggested (from something I said about IE always crashing) and then downloaded some Adware detection software and ran this. I should have said "NO". Since then I've had a PC problem in that when I "click" to select and item (whether on the PC or the web) it takes forever to activate!!! If I use a keyboard shortcut there isn't a problem. The software found Adware in some files and quarantined them. They are registry files. I'm slowly losing the will to live but hope an IT friend of mine can advise me tomorrow!

That aside, the week has been a goodie with a very good friend staying for the week. This visit ended this weekend (which we spent down in Sussex with my Mum) and I got back home later this afternoon. I'm now catching up.

We did visit RHS Wisley where the bees and insects were visiting too.

This youngster I found in my garden; it looks as though it's been attacked by something - sadly.

Warty Frog or Toad?

Walking in Bushy Park, this Common Darter posed for us.

Then a visit to Wisley produced, a "woven" sculpture of an Oak tree emerging from an acorn.

Sadly a rather tatty Red Admiral

and a Meadow Brown on Buddleia Bicolour. Wisley were trialling buddleias and I rather liked the soft colours of this one.


Down along the River Wey the sun reflecting on the water, gave this lovely view.

In the glasshouse, the water lilies were blooming




and back outside the bees were enjoying the flowers

and the hover flies kept them company..



Up on Battlestone Hill the feeder's area was well attended...
by a Great Tit

and a Blue Tit

A flutter was enjoying the Verbana (a green-veined white????)



A good week with my friend - thank you K :)

19 comments:

Midmarsh John said...

Seems it is not just your computer playing up Tricia. Blogger seems to be very lax in propagating new entries and I only found this one by accident.

Lovely set of photos. Love the 'little' oak tree :)

Are those bicolour Buddleias later flowering than others as mine finished ages ago? They do look pretty.

holdingmoments said...

I hope I've not started a trend with this 'pc problems'. Hope you get it all sorted soon Tricia.

The little injured party is a warty frog, by the looks of him.
That Buddleia Bicolour looks very nice. Wouldn't mind one of those.
And the flutter looks to be a second generation Large White. Had a look in one of mt books; best match I could find.
Those Lilies look beautiful.

Glo said...

Glad to see you are up and running and hope your computer glitches are soon sorted out. It can be a royal pain when they are aren't working their best. Lovely photos of the flowers, birds and other creatures. Sounds like you had a lovely time with your friend.

swatson said...

good luck with your IT problems.Marvellous photos once again
Sheila

John said...

Hope you get your pc problems sorted. Technology is great, when it works.

The photographs from Wisley are very good.

John

ShySongbird said...

Lovely photos Tricia, I especially liked the Water Lilies. I think the butterfly is a Large White rather than a Green Veined White. Hope you get the technology sorted soon, have you considered Firefox? I much prefer it to IE and it has some great optional add-ons such as an ad blocker.

Anonymous said...

Hi Tricia, Keith is right about the Large White and perhaps you need to ask him if you can borrow his sledge hammer for that PC of yours.{:) and then buy a Mac.

karen said...

A lovely set of photos Tricia. Love that buddleia with the different shades on, very beautiful!!!x

oldcrow61 said...

Beautiful photography as always. That's an interesting sculpture.

Tricia Ryder said...

Will I ever catch up?

John (M) - Thanks. Frustrating when things go wrong...and irritating too.

Most of the buddleias that were being trialled were definitely past their best. The Bicolor though seemed to be in its prime. If they start selling them as garden plants I think one may its way to my garden.

Keith - So do I Keith and thanks!

I think you may be right about the warty frog - I've certainly had a similar adult!

Thanks for the flutter ID - I was put off by the lack of black spots. Note to self "must try harder"!

Glo - The PC problem still isn't resolved by at least the laptop's running properly. Yes - a great time had with my friend.

Sheila - Thank you :)

John - thanks - Wisley does provide great photo opportunities!

Jan - Thank you and thanks for the ID. I sue Firefox and Google Chrome and haven't used IE for ages! Both much better than IE!

Roy - thank you - think the sledge hammer might be the best option yet Lol

Karen - thanks - it was such a pretty buddleia.

OC - thank you. The sculpture is a new one since my last visit. Quite clever in it's construction.

Jan said...

Wonderful photos, so clear, a real pleasure to see. Sounds like you had quite a week.

Richard said...

The ‘warty frog’ is actually a common toad and the injury to its head is caused by the larvae of a species of green-bottle fly. This nasty parasite lays its eggs on the toads head and on hatching, the larvae crawl into the toads nostrils and start devouring the soft tissue. They will eventually devour the whole animal. Isn’t nature wonderful?

Tricia Ryder said...

Hi Richard and good to see you here again. I had a toad visiting a while ago and the consensus was a warty frog - I feel now that it was a toad. It's always easier when you see it "for real" rather than just a picture.

I've been trying to find out the basic differences in appearance between frogs and toads apart from the wartiness (or not) etc.

The green-bottle fly's breeding ground sounds horrid for the poor toad. It's sad they can't get rid of the larvae; but, as you alluded, that's nature after all.

Thanks for your help with this.

Tricia Ryder said...

Hi Jan and thank you. Yes it was a good week - we did so much!

Tom said...

Excellent picture Tricia.. all of them.

I hope your PC woes are over soon.... I have had trouble in the past with Adware and Spyware... and even more trouble from the software to shift them.... I now use.. AVG's Anti Virus Here (free download version)and have been doing now for 18 months or so... It scans the PC daily at a time I want it to, and let it update itself as it wants to.

The other thing I use every few days is another free one called 'C' Cleaner (Crap Cleaner)
Here

I use 'NO' other Anti Virus software apart from Windows Firewall.... since using these I seem to be having trouble free internet use... I have the PC and Internet on from first thing in the morning to going to bed at night.... Jane and I use it so much now...
One of the very worse things I have found is any site the uses 'file sharing'.... I give them a wide birth.... I never download music, films and such like... and use gmail and never download attachments apart from family and friends pictures... and they get scanned beforehand.

avalon said...

So frustrating when computers go wrong, but brilliant when they work. Glad you had a great time with your friend. Your photos great as ever.

Neil said...

Great photos tricia :)

Chris said...

Hi tricia,
A wonderful post, I love the whole flower insects set. It is just wonderful. It looks like you got a nice time.

Tricia Ryder said...

Thanks Chris and good to have you back again!

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