Ceci n'est pas une huppe

This is not a hoopoe. For the fourth time this week, I missed a hoopoe. Previous times they were too far away/flying too fast/my camera was in my bag. This time I had the camera in my hand, the hoopoe was strutting about 30 metres away ... and I had the wrong lens on. Result, tiny brown blob in a sea of grass. Note to self: put the zoom lens on before leaving the house in future. Here's a blooming mass of roses instead; I like the varied colours.

S got up early and went for a very pleasant walk around Vernet with four other members of his walking group (around the cascades, a walk I'm sure TickyTocky must have done). The president of the group didn't join them because despite all his scientific evidence to the contrary she insisted that it was going to pour with rain all day. It was a lovely sunny morning, with literally three drops of rain later on. They did get stuck in the "long weekend" 10 km traffic jam on the autoroute on the way home though.

It did rain, well, drizzle for much of the day here, so my walk was shorter than it might have been. I read my book and vaguely tried to plan a new mosaic idea. 

The book is Demain la Brume, mostly set in Yugoslavia in the summer of 1990.  Strangely familiar as we were on holiday there in 1990. My dad lived in Zagreb at the time and I remember him pointing out on the map the places not to go because they were full of angry Serbs. A very strange and unforgettable atmosphere (we had left before the shooting started).