There are times...

...when I could weep at my own stupidity!

For three days I had been planning an early morning return visit to Richmond Park because the forecast had been for a sunny start to the day. Last night I made sure all my camera kit was clean, formatted my CF card, put my battery on to charge, and even found out an old pack of sunflower seeds to use as bait for better bird shots. I took myself off to bed nice and early in anticipation of a pleasant morning snapping wildlife and maybe even the odd landscape; what could possibly go wrong?

Well for starters the weather shamans had obviously misread the entrails or whatever it is that they use. Taking into account that I reached the park a lot earlier than on Tuesday it was still apparent that blue skies and sunshine were not going to be on the agenda, if anything the light was slightly worse, but what the hell I could still adapt.

The real tragedy struck when I'd penetrated some way into the park and decided to get my gear sorted out. Upon opening my bag I was dismayed to find that whilst I had with me both my long and macro lenses, my tele-converter, my binoculars, and indeed my bag of seeds, what I manifestly did not have was my DSLR. A series of thoughts and emotions came to me at this point, none of which should be shared in such a polite forum as this.

For some unknown reason I had thrown my toy camera in my bag and so I resolved to have a short and ill-tempered stomp round the park whilst mourning what might have been.

And yes, seeing as you ask, I did have some wonderful wildlife encounters, none of which are here recorded! I could have brought you cute and feisty robins, a whole host of chubby squirrels, and most gallingly of all a beautiful green woodpecker happily feeding on the ground. Instead, here's a slightly fuzzy shot of an admittedly very colourful camelia(?) which I found flowering in the Isabella Plantation - which actually seemed a bit odd to me in early January but then again what do I know?

As a final note I should mention that the sky this afternoon has been clear and blue and the sunshine has been dazzling!