Tattoodave

I thought I knew the area, old stamping ground for me.

I was thinking that too Steve, but was hoping to narrow it down a lot further, looks like the River Nene, somewhere around Thrapston, but I could be way of course.

It looks familiar territory, but I could be, and probably am, very wrong.

I did try to shoot my brother when I was a teenager, but that wasn't at Christmas

I continue to be amazed by the power of nature, yet we seem hell bent on destroying the beauty of this planet we call home, sometimes I think we're the aliens. I'm not a fan of daffodils, but the specie Narcissus is incredibly vast and beautiful, I still have one or two to find in Spain, and as one is a late autumn flowerer I have that as an excuse to keep searching next year. Bytheway, I was wearing shorts and sandals on my foray yesterday, it was like a late spring day in the UK.

Think yourself lucky, I gave up on Christmas when I was 3, I was given a functional carpenter's set complete with hammer, nails, and best of all a tenon saw, sadly wood was overlooked, so I used my initiative and used it on the wood to hand, lunch time came along and the dining room table was minus 3 legs at different heights. I found out then that the idea of "peace and goodwill" doesn't exist even on the day let alone the season when facing down one's parents. That was my first emotional scarring, of which there have been a plethora over the ensuing years, it's all part of life's rich Aubusson.

A rare find today, and only one flower where I was told in previous years they were abundant, the white hooped petticoat narcissus, Narcissus cantabricus

I'm led to believe one must look underneath a tree of some kind.

Congratulations, perfect timing!

Hope the baby arrives in time for Christmas lunch, good luck

Ooh Baby - Deon Jackson - best played during contractions

As a non Christian and a non meat eater I don't celebrate the season, but I wish all those that do a Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year. Tattoo Dave

Here's one of the Riviera del Sol sunset a couple of nights go, not taken by me though

Ask politely for the seller to put a very low value on the customs declaration, some of them do automatically, some refuse, in which case I have them sent to a cousin of mine in New Jersey and she sends them on with a value of $2. Sometimes the POHC is in excess of the import duty.

I'm with you all the way there Peter, I have arguments with them all the time.

I would if that included no import duty and infuriating post office handling charge.

I guess it would take longer going via China/ Hong Kong/ Taiwan.

I think it might be in Spain Peter, Repsol is a Spanish petrol company with higher than normal prices (called ripoffsol by me and others), where whether dogs are good looking or not they need a lot of luck to survive, at the end of each hunting year lots of dogs are just turned out into the countryside where they soon perish as roadkill or die of starvation. There's definitely a 1000 Euro fine imposed on people feeding feral cats, which I do daily, and it may well imply to dogs too. You get small semi rural packs of dogs terrorising neighbourhoods all because they are hungry as on the whole the Spanish are not animal lovers and haven't the sense to placate them with food, trap them in cages and have them neutered, thereby preventing unwanted offspring to continue the bad habits. I have a feral cat that I used to feed about 200 yards away that is now a resident on my doormat, her brother has come about half way, but he's more adventurous and knows where there's other food available. This ridiculous country has communal waste bins that it's illegal to deposit rubbish in during the day, and recently someone wrote into the paper about the police telling him off for deposit a bag of dog poo during the day while out walking his dog. They still condone the needless slaughter of bulls for public show, so you can't really argue with them as their mentality is barbaric.

That's one lucky dog

I've a degree in botany, grown bonsai for 45 years, and can guarantee it's not a lime. Populus tremuloides, the quaking aspen, would be my bet, but that's just from the photo.

Looks like a quaking aspen, notoriously shallow rooted and grow by water, not a clever place to pitch a bivvy.

No I wouldn't, I can't even look in a butcher's window

Yaffles are my favourite British native bird, mostly because I don't like ants.

strangely it comes up as this on mine Postage: £20.00 Economy Shipping from China/Hong Kong/Taiwan to worldwide (11 to 35 business days) | See details Item location: Leigh, United Kingdom Posts to: Worldwide

yes, and did you check out his postage, that is quite bizarre!