Tag Archives: Wexmondays

Dec 3 2018
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ShareMondays2018 – Tangled

ShareMondays2018 – Tangled

I love that there are still some leaves on the trees bringing muted Autumn colours into early Winter. This week has been hectic! I only got the camera out for a short while yesterday afternoon on a visit to the Woodland Gardens, in Bushy Park, with my hubby. It was really nice to spend a couple of hours relaxing and wandering through the woods, without any pressures or deadlines! Speaking of deadlines, it’s just one image today for all three Monday challenges, ShareMondays, Fotospeed and WexMondays. Hope you like it!

Aug 27 2018
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This Is Bliss

This Is Bliss

This Is Bliss

This image just had to be the one to share today for ShareMondays2018, Fotospeed and the WexMondays challenges! We’ve been away to Shropshire and Worcester this weekend visiting parents-in-law. Driving over the Long Mynd on Saturday afternoon was glorious! Fast-moving clouds shifting the light and shadow across the heathers and bracken, short sharp showers and a real freshness in the air. The countryside up there looks positively verdant compared to much of Surrey, still parched from the long, hot summer! I had hoped to see some ponies and got lucky near the second car park. I can’t walk very far at all, but they were just in range for me to ramble my way over. The group had five mares, a gorgeous foal and this fabulous stallion! He posed among the heather for a while, knowing full well just how beautiful and photogenic he is, but this particular moment brought such a grin to my face it became my instant favourite photo of the week. He’d wandered closer toward me and then sank to the ground to roll about with such a blissed-out expression on his face! That roll definitely hit the spot and reached that itch. They were a chilled-out family group, coming right up past me as they grazed. It was truly blissful perching on a rock watching them! Being away has limited how much processing I could get done so I will share some more images of the group later in the week, especially with the lovely foal!

Jun 25 2018
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Lost Souls Swimming In A Fish Bowl

Lost Souls Swimming In A Fish Bowl

The lyrics from one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs, Wish You Were Here. I wish I could be back down there now, under the sea, weightless, floating into the blue, escorted by a flotilla of fish.

The diver you see here, surrounded by all those fish, is Darios from the Arian Diving Centre in Kardamena. We’ve been fortunate enough to do four dives with Arian this year while in Kos. The dives were split over two days, the first a new site for us off the little island of Strongili. Fantastic spot with stunning underwater landscapes, shimmering thermoclines and vast shoals of damselfish.

On our second day out we headed west along the coast of Kos to Santa Irini, where Mount Dikeos drops down in almost vertical cliffs and gullies to create an underwater landscape full of chasms, reefs and caves. Around the reef Darios feeds the fish and they flock to him! Moving through the waters with fish darting all around you, swimming side by side with them is the most wonderful experience. I can’t thank Arian and Darios, particularly, enough for these experiences! Simon and I learn more with each dive and Arian have helped us immensely on our journey as Open Water Scuba Divers.

We’re coming to the end of our holiday sadly but it’s been absolutely wonderful again! Kos is a beautiful island above and below the waters. I thoroughly recommend that you put it on your travel list! I hope you all enjoy these images and I bet you do now wish you were here.

For WexMondays photo challenge.

Jul 3 2017
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Look Of Love 


Look Of Love 
This year at Plaka nature reserve, on Kos Island, one man has taken over the care of the wildlife and much of the habitat of the area. The cats and birds are much healthier and he has started a programme to neuter a number of the cats living in the park. 

He told us that almost every day when he arrives, there have been more kittens or puppies dumped at the main part of the park. Often it is residents but occasionally tourists bring kittens along thinking to give them a safer home. 

He’s quite overwhelmed but has strategies in place and arrangements with a local vet. I think he needs the park and the animals as much as they need someone to care for them. Widowed some 13yrs, retired from 39yrs with the military, only remaining member of his family still on the island, he lost his mother to altzheimers just a few weeks ago. He had cared for her for a long time and felt that she had at last found peace. 

He has found his own peace within Plaka and can fulfil the ongoing need to be caring for something. There is much to be gained from nature and wildlife during times of hardship, grief or illness. While local authorities do not have the funds to maintain some of Greece’s nature reserves, local people and visiting tourists can do much to safeguard these precious places. 

Jun 26 2017
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Greetings From A Grouper 



Greetings From A Grouper 

The dusky grouper we encountered during our dive on Saturday seemed to be quite fascinated by me! I was practically nose to nose with this character for quite a while. 

We did two dives from the boat off the coast of Kos with Arian Diving Centre in Kardamena. I can thoroughly recommend joining them for a day if you’re over here! 

Diving is one of the best things I have ever learnt to do!! I feel so free in the water. There’s so much beauty in the landscape, plants and wildlife. I will definitely write a longer blog about our experiences when we get back to the UK but I only have my phone with me to process images and post blogs at the moment! 

I’m posting this for both the Fotospeed challenge and Wex Mondays this week, along with a gallery of a few other groupers! Enjoy 😀