Many of you may remember I have posted several pictures of the common grey squirrel. Extremely common around south London

What you also may or may not know it that along with loss of habitat the imported grey has almost totally wiped out the domestic red squirrel in the UK.

Except in a few places. The Isle of Wight being one.

Today as I was reversing my car out of my dads driveway, I finally saw this on the neighbours lawn



Wonderful!!



"The Isle of Wight is one of the few places in England where the red squirrel is flourishing, with a stable population (Brownsea Island is another), and unlike most of England, no grey squirrels are to be found on the island"

I finally saw this on the neighbours lawn

Look at the tail on that inquisitive little fella!

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I finally saw this on the neighbours lawn

Look at the tail on that inquisitive little fella!

It is a counter balance

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Would it be a help to ship Canadian Reds in to buck up the
population, or does the language thing come into play?

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It's always sad when a non-native species is introduced and forces out
the indigenous animals. Will we (humans) ever learn?

Lovely photos, btw.

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~Sue~

I bought some red clover a long time ago from, of all places, Publisher's
Clearing House. It has done very well over the years. I haven't had a lot
of flowers this summer, but I have one now. Maybe more will follow now that
the sun hits the plants directly for several hours each day.

The leaves "close" at night.

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~Sue~

I haven't had a lot
of flowers this summer, but I have one now. Maybe more will follow now that
the sun hits the plants directly for several hours each day.

The leaves "close" at night.

That's pretty. I don't have a green thumb at all, but there is one low growing groundcover that does well with me and flowers intermittently all year(even occasionally in the winter!), and it's called dianthus.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I took this with my cell phone. It started as a miniature rose and this year has been popping blooms left and right. I think this is the 5th round of blooms this year. Probably the last as the temperatures are dropping.



Gordon. I have not done a thing to it since I repotted it last year. Just bought a pot and some miricle grow potting soil. Then I let Mother Nature do the rest. This is the second winter on the front north facing deck.

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I couldn't resist sharing this view of my neighbour's Yucca (?) plant, flowering this week outside my kitchen window.



I don't think I'd have expected to see that at nearly 54° N - and it's still growing.

I couldn't resist sharing this view of my neighbour's Yucca (?) plant, flowering this week outside my kitchen window.



I don't think I'd have expected to see that at nearly 54° N - and it's still growing.

Yes, it's a Yucca plant. I'd love to have several of them in my front yard.
Don't know why I don't. Just haven't gotten around to it, I guess. They're
quite popular down here in Texas, and they grow wild in many places.

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~Sue~

I keep meaning to post a pic or two here but it photobucket is such a pain these days. I finally got round to uploading a few.

The weather here on the Isle of Wight has been a bit changeable.

This was an interesting sky last week..




Then a day or two later the wind got up a bit.



Luckily I didn't get wet on my walk!

In the absence of any local trains, I have taken to watching for the more interesting ships and boats. There are several websites that show the position of most ships in real time.

This is the Sea Cadet Training Ship Jack Petchey, manoeuvring in Yarmouth Harbour.



On weekends, the yachts come out in force, this one caught my eye.



And in full sail.



No doubt a Doctor fan.

This picture I quite like, taken at Colwell Bay on Sunday.



The Trinity House buoy laying ship Galatea passing the needles ahead of the rain.

The "season" here is nearly over, but as the island's main industry is tourism, there are still a few events.

This past weekend there was a "Beer and Busses" festival, where older busses were running eleven special routes all round the Island stopping at various towns and villages that had pubs that were all serving "real" and "local" ales

Yarmouth had two routes passing through and I saw a few old busses, amongst them was this

A 1953 London Country AEC Regal



This morning I noticed an interesting ship had moored overnight just outside Yarmouth harbour.




It was the Dutch 3 master Eendracht






And occasionally the combination of light and sky, can make even the mundane interesting.




The Whightlink ferry Whight Sun the 10:05 saling from Yarmouth to Lymington

Nice pix, as usual, Bernie.

A green bus. My favorite color. I've never seen a green bus before now.

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~Sue~

Nice pix, as usual, Bernie.

A green bus. My favorite color. I've never seen a green bus before now.

In my youth, many years ago, I thought all busses were green in the UK, My maternal family location.Southdown busses, my Paternal family location Blackburn busses

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I've never seen a green bus before now.

Ipswich buses are green ,overpriced unreliable pieces of crap ( but that's the council for you )

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Life is what you make of it :-)

When i'm good i'm very good , but when i'm bad i'm shi#eloads better ;-) In't I " buttercups " p.m.s.l at authoritie !!;-)

Nice pix, as usual, Bernie.

A green bus. My favorite color. I've never seen a green bus before now.

In Chicago, the public transit (surface) Streetcars were nicknamed "the Green Hornet" and later on the CTA buses were nicknamed the "Green Limousines".

They were always painted a dark green color until some time in the early to mid 80's if my memory is correct.

CTA Trolley Coach/Green Hornet Streetcar #4391, preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum:
http://media.chicagobus.org/photos_buses/historic/4391.jpg

Vintage Green (and chrome) CTA bus:
https://www.facebook.com/VintageCTABuses/photos/a.595313790529922.1073741828.595293447198623/1196193273775301/?type=3&theater

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Growing up in London throughout the 60's only saw the big red ones. Until visiting relatives on the edge of North London & saw a Green Routemaster for the 1st time.

Since then saw many whenever I worked the Baker Street - Amersham run on the Metropolitan Line.

Nice to see they're still in use :-)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/andysbusphotos/30215364845/in/pool-londoncountry/

I think here in the UK outside of London green is more prevalent.

Southern Vectis the island bus company is light and dark green



This was taken today.

And they use very narrow county lanes!!

PS Vectis was the Roman name for the Isle of Wight

and in Brum there was/is "Claribel's" who are a third level(class) operator. It was once said that their buses were green (inside and out) so the passengers wouldn't see the copious amounts of mold...


(They do appear to have repainted some of their buses in various shades of blue, perhaps to indicate that they now clean them sometimes)

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

We have a green line in the Los Angeles area.
But the trains are yellow?

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Double decker bus:)
That's quite unusual.
Beside Britain I know only two cities that have/had them.
Stockholm and Hong Kong.