Wildlife Weekend

I went to Memphis for the weekend (at a cost of 72kg of CO2 emissions). Without any real intention on my part it ended up being all about the wildlife. Spring is in full flower here (unlike snowy London, as my brother is experiencing), and all the animals and birds are out of hibernation or back from their winter holidays and ready to party.

The parade of wildlife started with American bison, in a farm park in Memphis. Interesting fact: bison like to wallow in ponds. Not many people know that. And boy, do these things have big heads:

Then a basking turtle in another pond in the same park. Rod and I had planned to go for a short walk around the pond but the path had other ideas, and we clocked up more than 16,000 steps according to my pedometer... the turtle hadn't moved when we got back to the pond after 90 minutes. Rod thought it was fake:

I know these ones weren't fake, because just after I took this photo (waaaaayy zoomed in) they took fright at my presence and splashed off the log into the water.


And this one dove for the bottom a microsecond after I got this shot. Turtles are scaredy-cats....


...unlike midges, which are suicidal little sods. Front grille of my car after the 170-mile trip back to Pine Bluff, at speeds in excess of 75 mph for much of the trip. I had to re-fill the windscreen washing liquid.


Just to remind you that it's not all bugs and bison over here, here's another shot of my workplace. Pretty, isn't it? It's a sunrise, by the way, just as I arrive at work.


And, not that I want to bring you down after all those cheery wildlife shots, but here's a pic of our project room. Yes, that's a bucket in the corner below a missing tile in the ceiling. We've had a little trouble with leaks lately and I don't mean the media.


That's all for now. Back to work for me.