An ordinary week....

 It all seemed a little boring last week after the previous week's magical turfy trails around St Martin's, long stretches of dazzling shell sand, boundless blue skies, balmy breezes, extraordinary turqoise seascapes, exotic flowers, gulls crying and the company of many other friendly little birds that fed from our hands on the 4 star campsite.

Goldies outside my window on a rainy morning.......(Click on pictures to enlarge)

 Back home in Yorkshire most of the hay has been gathered in, the cuckoo that called across the valley to enhance my morning runs has gone silent, frivolous beasties are back in the Castle Hill fields, elder flowers are ready for making wine, goldfinches have at last discovered my nyger seeds, a neighbour's hens have been killed by rogue dogs and I was twice bitten by an uncontrolled dog on Castle Hill. No damage was done and I managed to chalk up 22 glorious miles. And on updating my Running Diary at the end of June I was delighted to learn I'd reached the amazing figure of 38,000 miles since I began running in April, 1986.

Test run selfie with TZ70 on Grassington Moor.......

But a major catastrophe occurred. After years of excellent service and thousands of pictures, my trusty old Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS16 camera finally gave up the ghost.  It was featherlight and went with me on most of my runs and to all our holiday destinations, including our recent jaunt to the Isles of Scilly. Tucked into it's little holster on my belt, I hardly felt it was there but was always handy when the need arose.

Lapwing over the wall.......

I've replaced it with a much more complicated Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 which, among its many functions I'll never understand, boasts a 30x zoom together with relevant image stabilisation. I took it for a seven mile rest run round Grassington Moor on Sunday and, apart from increased weight, was fairly happy with the results. Attracted by the concerned piping of a golden plover, no doubt telling me in birdie language to beggar off, I zoomed in to what was little more than a tiny speck on a hummock in the distance. And here is the result.....

Golden plover, scolding me on Grassington Moor.......

The TZ70 is probably twice the weight of the FS16 it's replaced, most noticeable when it swings from my side round to the front and flaps on my belly, so must find a way of fixing that. A safety pin?
Here in Yorkshire I reckon temperatures rose higher than in the Isles of Scilly last week, much to my delight as a sun worshipper. With hardly a soul around on my 6am off-road runs I'd no qualms about running topless before spreadeagling on the lawn after breakfast.
I suppose that was summer!