Brightening the day....

Is there anyone who actually like pigeons? (even in a pie?) They perch on the roof, just outside the bedroom window, coo-cooing. Okay, perhaps this is what pigeons were designed to do, but do they have to do it 20 minutes before the break of day?
Every day?
I am not a fan (you guessed?), so this made me smile.

(I would like to think perhaps it is adventurous taxidermy, but probably not.....)

  While there, we did the culture thing, visiting an exhibition on at the Walker gallery (liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/rankin). Thought-provoking, particularly the life masks. Most of us have seen the occasional death mask. By their very nature, we expect them to be lifeless, no longer dancing under the influence of our conscious and unconscious thoughts. But these too, were free of expression. Then, reading the names of those featured, the realisation that some are now deceased.
Mildly disturbing.
But definitely worth a look, if you have the chance.
Also explored the new library, just down the way. Brilliant, will have to go back for a proper shufty.
And the view from the fourth floor? Well worth the climb.
Recognise it?

Of course you do!

..stop and stare..

We have all been there, caught in the temporal displacement activity known as gardening. The call to those inside -"Wont be a minute, just going to dead-head the roses/buddleia/geraniums...." The greenery enfolds one, peace descends and time is somewhere else.
The buddleia did need tidying up, sky-searching branches only just within reach so when pulled down showered me with bits of goodness knows what; mostly greenery but also, as it turned out, wildlife. Shield beetles, which I had  previously only found on the loganberry canes, landed on me and the ground, as though dead. No scurrying away to safety, just still. Maybe stunned, because they were still there when (more than an hour later) I eventually tidied up and took the trimmings around the back, so I found the camera and took some piccies.

 

 

 

A little rain, a little sun and the butterflies and bees are back, feeding on the purple mass swaying in the breeze.

Oh, and the beetles had gone (so not dead!).

 

A moment in summer...

Muggy, misty sky, peppered with wheeling gulls and terns. Swooping, diving, turning, sweeping. Soaring up and screaming down, skimming over the sands. Frantic activity in that usually empty space between sky and land.
Perhaps the insects are rising in the summer air, flying ants taking advantage of the still warmth.
Or maybe it is just the annual avian re-enactment of that famous Hitchcock thriller.