Astrid's Photo Scavenger Hunt - week ending 13/08/2021

This weeks word set by Astrid is 'Things beginning with S'.  I had no idea how many pictures fell under that heading.  Below are a few I have selected from my vast archives.

This is Casper, young Katie's cat, so named because of his white face.   He just loved lying across the corner of the veranda's walls.  When he did so we would say Casper is being a Suspension Bridge!!.  Apologies for quality of photograph but it one of those old ones that have gone purple and I have had to adjust it considerably.

In 2011 our friends from South Africa came to stay and I was intrigued by Lynette's knitted Slippers.  She told me how to do it, I think it is a rectangle, with the end not cast off but pulled tight, then the edges were turned over, the base joined together and the heel stitched up and finally a plaited cord was added. 

My next S picture is a Silhouette of Katie and eldest grandson  many years ago.  The dog is Cleggy, Moss's predecessor. 

This picture is of the Stocks in Berwick-on-Tweed town centre.   Makes one think, public punishment may have been humiliating, but I would imagine preferable to be locked up in terrible jails of that era. 

This picture brings back memories, wet memories!!  We wanted to walk to Dunstable Castle, Northumberland but should have taken note that all other people were walking away from it.  They had seen the Storm coming, we just strolled gaily on and then the heavens opened and we were a long way from the shelter of the castle and although we had rain coats they were obviously shower proof, not heavy rain proof.   It was a long walk, further than it looks and we were soaked through.  After the rain subsided we made it back to the car, absolutely saturated through.  I took off all my clothes other than my undies and put on another coat B fortunately had in the car. Talk about being wet to the skin....I really was!  B's coat was longer and kept him drier.

PS.  After this we bought proper Pac-a-Mac's to keep in our back packs!! 

Still in Northumberland but this time on Lindesfarne, or Holy Island, one of the Farne Islands.  We were lucky enough to be there while this beautiful carved depiction of the monks lovingly carrying St Cuthbert in his coffin from Lindesfarne to Chester-Le-Street then eventually to what is now Durham Cathedral was displayed in St Mary's Church on Lindesfarne.   This carving was huge, larger than life. 

For more information on why he was declared a Saint follow this link to Durham Catheral/St Cuthbert    It makes very interesting reading. 

S is for Squirrel, two in fact.  The first, peering through our lounge window was of Emma, so named as the first squirrel to come into our garden was blind in one eye so we called him Nelson then when he turned up with his lady friend she just had to be called Emma after Lady Hamilton, Nelson's Mistress.  Emma became very tame, even sitting on B's knee, eating nuts.  But like all our squirrels over the years she moved on when her daughters took over her patch.  Though she did came back to visit occasionally. 

Emma's daughter became known as 'Little Em' and was even more tame than her mother.  She would come right into the passage and inside our flat if she felt we had not fed her.  While Jak our cat tolerated her presence outside  he objected strongly when she came in the house.  We had to keep the door shut to keep her out.   Here she is eating peanuts.

Although we still feed the squirrels with a proper squirrel feeder (keeps them from stealing the bird's nuts)  we do not try and tame them.  It's not fair as many see them as vermin and they may be a bit trusting of humans. 

The next set of photographs were again taken some years ago in Northumberland, this time of our son burying his dog Roxy in the Sand and then executing his nephews!!  

He could do anything with

Roxy, she was so patient.

Off with his head!! 

Eldest grandson is balanced with his head in a hole in the Sand and youngest is completely buried with the exception of his decapitated head!!  Amazing what you can do with Sand. 

Our daughter-in-law is a geologist and always has a lovely collection of Stones.  Going on a walk with her is fascinating as she will tell you all about the stone you have picked up or rock formations.  These are a few of her collection of small stones around a Clematis in a pot in her garden.  

 

This is daughter-in-law with a tiny Starfish found on the beach near Berwick-on-tweed.

This picture is of a Sign in Tembe Elephant Reserve in South Africa.  I just love it.  It is not one of my pictures but one off their web page, I just could not resist it when I saw it. 

Another picture taken using my camera to take pictures off my computer from the web site Africam.com  that we watch so much.  I just love the way the baby blends in with the mother.  As a point of interest no two zebras have the same pattern stripes and those brown Shadow stripes between the black ones are particular to the the zebra in Southern Africa, further north they are just black and white like the ones in the Serengetti which is where most of the game programmes you see on TV are filmed. 

This picture has both S for Spots and S for Stripes on this Civet Cat out hunting at Tembe.  We often see him at night as  he stalks any small mammals he can find. 

A post by me would not be complete without a picture of Jak.  I have avoided using Snow as a topic - I have too many pictures to choose from but this I could not resist when I found it.  Jak just loved the snow and would run around like a crazy kitten playing in it.  Here he has just been let out and found that it has snowed overnight!!.   Its not the best photograph, but when I saw it it just brought back happy memories of a lovely cat.

I must stop now - I have taken up too much of your time looking at some of my pictures beginning with S.   Have a good week.  Thank you Astrid for hosting this weekly fun.  See you next Friday. xx