Sick visiting...

Arrived back home a lot later than planned, after a double dose of visiting the sick, hence my blip today and the follow-up to Tiny Tuesday have been somewhat delayed!
After last month’s visit to Bob in Preston Hospital when we were delayed for ages on the M61, we were determined to arrive on time for visiting today. We decided to leave home early, and call in to Brockholes Nature reserve for lunch and a bit of a stroll. Today’s blip is of the centre at the reserve, which is built on floating pontoons. The dark line of trees marks the M6 at junction 31, and the hospital is only 10 minutes or so from there... but the best laid plans and all that…
First of all we took the wrong turn out of the reserve and had to double back, then it was impossible to park at the hospital – we did a full round of all the car parks, with nary a space to be had. By the time we reappeared again, the queue to get in for visiting stretched back as far as the motorway…
Plan B kicked in – we have some friends who live fairly close to the hospital, and we thought we could park in front of their house and leave them a note – we expected them to be at work – and have a brisk walk back. Their car, however, was on the drive – and Martin invited us in to inspect the damage… Denise took a tumble off her bike about a month ago, and was in Preston hospital as we visited Bob last time, having screws and plates inserted into two broken arms… She is now in a very fetching pair of purple arm braces!
Before this turns into an epic – suffice to say that Bob is much improved, but still doesn’t know when he might be released. Denise & Martin insisted we stay for a meal, so we have just arrived home late, but comfortably full of bread & butter pudding, and with an arm full of vegetables from their garden. Good job I prepared the following before we left home this morning…


Tiny Tuesday follow-up

Thanks to everyone who took part this week  - I have enjoyed my first ever stint at “hosting” a challenge, and looking in close detail at so many lovely shots.
Many thanks to osuzanna for her invaluable advice…  but my, isn’t it difficult to award just 5 hearts? I’m not very good at being ruthless, so I’ve also added some  “Honourable Mentions” to extend my choice – here they are, in no particular order.
 
First the hearts, for five beautifully composed, colourful and sharp shots:
 
dbifulco's trio
V1K1's hellebore
Helwild's bee
JDO's hoverfly
WharefdaleBex's spider
 
And  Honourable Mentions for images that were a bit different in some way:
the lovely light on Mrs Linda's spiderweb ; davidc's tiny shiny mystery bean ; …and two lovely “abstracts” from Riwaka and Majoayee
 
I’m already looking forward to hosting next week’s challenge  – it’s interesting to be on the other side of the fence!