Hi everyone,
Just popping by with a collage of nature photos - which I took this morning here in Guernsey, whilst enjoying a walk - plus I'm also linking to a photo of the duck with her ducklings enjoying a swim, incase you would like to see that as well:
healthunlocked.com/health-w...
Wishing everyone the best.
Zest 
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Beautiful bright photos. I love them! Ali
What a lovely assortment. I love nature in all forms.. What a l Great walk you must have had to take thse pictures. Thanks.
Xx
Hi RoadRunner44
Yes, it was an enjoyable walk - I wanted to focus on the flowers and any wildlife that I spotted, and the colours were lovely.
Zest xx
I enjoy getting out in nature and we are lucky in Cardiff that we have some lovely parks we can visit.
Before lockdown I didn't know the proper name of a little park by the Brook up by the doctors surgery and I had thought it was the newminster road open space but no it's official name is the minsters and Sandie's and back in February it was on the local news as the Brook had flooded and I had gone there that afternoon and had turned round when I had seen it had flooded and gone home!
Better safe than sorry!
Definitely, better safe than sorry.
Great that you have some lovely parks to visit in Cardiff. A lovely city.
Zest
Hi Zest
Glad you got out, it was very wet and windy here so a day in the kitchen for me.
What gorgeous photos, thank you for sharing, lovely colours.
Alicia xx😊🌈🌱🌳
Nice photos Zest, thanks for sharing.
lovely collage, the duck looks well placed. 😊🌼
Thank you for posting your lovely nature photos they made me feel calm.
Hi catblue1865
I'm really glad that you like them, and that they made you feel calm.
Zest
Good morning Zest
Thank you for posting these lovely photographs from your walk with the additional two. Guernsey is looking beautiful as usual. You are very lucky!
You really bring home to me what l am missing daily. Just watching nature, beautiful. I have been in lockdown since 12 of March.
Enjoy!!
Lovely photos, your blackberries are better than ours, on our walk yesterday they were small and very green, but keeping our eyes on them.
A lot of jam makers in this area.
Hi Blackcat1M
I bet all your jam makers will be keen to get them at the right moment!!! It's a long time since I made any jam, but the last pot I made was from blackberries.
Zest
Brilliant photos
Lovely photos. Great start to my day, thank you. X
They are lovely, vibrant photos. Thank you for sharing. I have never been to Guernsey but believe it is a beautiful quiet island. x
Beautiful..bright and cheerful..thanks for sharing 🌻🌷🌺🌼🦋
That is enough to give anyone the 'feel good factor'. Beautiful pics. 😊
Hi marigold54
Really glad they added a 'feel good factor' - that's a nice feeling.
Zest
Lovely pictures, looks like the duck is getting ready to eat that blackberry. Thank you for the link its a long time since I took pictures of Ducks and ducklings . Last time was at Arundel Castle on the walk upto the bird sanctuary.
Hi katieoxo60
It does look like that, doesn't it. I visited Arundel Castle, but it was a few years ago now. I don't think I saw the bird sanctuary though, that sounds like a nice walk that you had, when you went there.
Zest
hi Zest, it was quite a walk but it is some years ago now. If you ever go there do walk down to the sanctuary , its a fair walk but lovely way to spend an afternoon or a whole day if you like birds.Most people go for the castle but thats a bit steep . I've done most of Arundle its well worth more than one visit and the local bus service is very good, if you fancy a break from the car.Of course it has lots of scenery too for photographs. Plus old worlde teashops & pubs.
That sounds lovely, I will certainly try to visit it if I'm in that area again.
You are about a month in fornt of us - I think it is September when blackberries get ripe here.
How lovely! It's so nice to be included in your morning walk. Thankyou! 😊 I'm in Australia 🇦🇺
Beautiful photos. Thank-you 😊
Hi Poppy_the_cat
Glad you like them. I am admiring your photo - such a lovely cat.
Zest
Hello Zest,
This is how important and exceptional my cat was.
Poppy was 17 when she passed away; she was one of the most incredible 'beings' I have ever met.
She was a rescue cat as as such due to her hard knocks in life, blossomed into the most extraordinary being. The small word pet just would not cover her depth of character. She was extraordinary. Exceptional.
She knew what I was thinking.
She observed me like a hawk... We adored each other.
On one occasion my partner and I were not going through a good patch at all. In fact the only reason I stayed was for Poppy because she was my partner's cat. I know that may seem strange to some... But the thought of being parted from her left me bereft. So I stayed.
One day we had one final terrible row, over something so pathetic (under times of considerable stress my partner manifests OCD behaviour patterns that can totally overwhelm me). I snapped. Selfishly unaware of anything or anybody else he can drive me up the wall.
My anger and rage just fizzed right over. I couldn't stay any longer. I spent all day while he was at work packing all my belongings into trash/bin liners. 10 years worth. My dear brother came and helped me, ferrying to and fro car load after car load, back home, all day.
To my surprise, when I'd taken all my art & antiques, my paintings and everything that was mine, the house looked so naked, so ordinary, so void of anything interesting, I suddenly realised how much I had contributed to his quality of life & our surroundings and our home.... It was a very sad moment. I knew I was taken for granted... Surprised at how much I'd put up with, and how I'd acquiesced. . . I felt liberated. I couldn't put up with these stupid, childish, uncultured, restrictive, dictatorial megrims anymore. I had taken my decision.
I sat and waited on the sofa until he came home from work just after 6pm...
When he came in I was sitting very still on the sofa and was very quiet..
He still came in with the same 'closed & angry' face he'd had in the morning when he'd left, thinking that he could still throw his weight around and bully me into submission.... I remained motionless and waited...
Then suddenly he noticed how stark and empty and how boring everything looked and demanded to know where everything was? To which I replied with one word "gone" as indeed I would be soon too!
I had put up with having my beautiful, valuable possessions, having to 'pass approval' & frequently failing; my precious, valuable paintings had to be dangerously stacked away in the loft because I wasn't allowed to hang them without consulting him. I had to put up with framed posters of Marilyn Monroe taking présidence over my post impressionist French paintings - as lovely as she was and as much as I like her photos of the lovely Marilyn, each one has its own place.. Culturally we are very different and the differences has just become a gulf... Keeping in mind that I was trained in oil painting restoration & conservation, it hadn't dawned on him that my 'pictures' as he decided them, were 'that' important to me. Pictures, I detest that word used to describe Art and Paintings! I'd been trying to show him and to explain to him for years how important they are to me!! But he wasn't listening.
Well he was listening now!!!
He spent the next 7 hours begging me not to leave. The both of us were in tears throughout, and at one point I was crying so much, I was inconsolable, nothing he could say was going to stop me . . . AND then.... suddenly Poppy climbed up onto the sofa, up onto the back and came up to my head, and put her paw on my shoulder, and buried her face into the side of my neck and wouldn't move.
I was astounded.
Poppy understood the depth of my distress. She didn't go to my partner, she came to me, because I really do think she understood I was intending upon leaving for good.
Needless to say, the only reason I stayed at that point was for dearest Poppy.
Relieved in the extreme, my chastened partner apologised for his dictatorial attitude and admitted that he had never realised how beautiful our home had looked and how beautifully I had "dressed" it until he'd seen it all without.... That was 5 years ago.
I stayed against my better judgement, not believing that leopards could change their spots... But I was wrong thankfully; my partner has grown emotionally and matured. His career has taken off and he only admitted a short while back, that he could never have achieved what he has, without me and the advice and support I have given him. He has his qualities too, that's also why I stuck with him. Only recently has he realised how much he has grown, how the way his career has progressed has given him opportunities that even his family cannot understand or grasp. With time and patience and accepting his OCD tendancies for what they are, he has improved immensely to practically overcome them.
Now I even add to my beautiful paintings collection all the time and he's okay with that. He's even allowed me to French Grey the bed (which was an ugly pine)... And create an upholstered headboard, covered in antiqued olive/grey linen with faded antique roses drawn on the design. He sees how beautiful things can look! And it's ALL down to our darling Poppy.
We both miss her terribly.
When she passed I mourned her very deeply. I still cry for her loss, as she was as important to us as a human being. She had to be put down, in my arms on 12th February 2019. When she saw me come in to the little comfort room at the vet's, where she had spent the weekend, on a saline drip, she raised herself painfully and came to greet me, all the while showing me the nasty painful drip that was in her arm; showing me so I would take it away. She came into my arms and buried her face in the crook of my elbow, asking me to take the pain away.
She somehow understood the word for 'pain'... Actually she was 'bilingual'! In Catalan the word used to describe 'pain' for small children and pets is 'poo-paa'... And when I said I knew it was "poo-paa" for her, she understood. She knew, that I knew how much she hurt and I know she was asking me to make it go away.
Oh heavens, I'm crying now as I write this.
It was so difficult but we had to let her go. Even the vet I've known for years, was in tears.
It was a very tough bereavement.
When eventually we decided to get a new cat, we opted for a kitten because nobody could ever compare to Poppy. We tried and tried to get a rescue cat, but we were constantly missing out... So we took in, a kitten 'in need' of speedy rehoming due to the older resident cat not accepting her.
It had by a very tough 6 months after Poppy's loss. We were both very depressed and distressed.
Sadly when I attempted to express my loss on this forum and how it had affected my health, followed equally by an upturn in my spirits with the arrival of our new kitti, my post on this forum was deleted; deemed 'irrelevant' because I had attached a photograph, it was considered as a furry animal post and not pertinent. I was most disappointed but did not stoop to reply for Brit too distressed. So many people everywhere, in all walks of life, read in haste without grasping the essence of the words written.
I consider the animals we label as pets, the animals on our farms, the birds in our gardens and all the other animals we have around us as relevant. Even the Robin that during lockdown has ventured to sit on your knee asking to be fed... is relevant!
The loss of a pet who is a close member of your family is also most relevant. We are all form a part of this glorious planet and all connected. The connection of Loss, bereavement and lowered spirits as a direct consequence do most certainly take a toll on our health and thus are all relevant in my understanding.
My heart goes out to all those who have experienced loss throughout this nightmarish time . . . Loss of family, friends and of court pets. 'Grief' such a sharp, jagged word, just the very sound cuts like a knife.
Sorry this was so long. I have a lot on my mind as Imy sure do most right now...and I miss my rock, my Dear Poppy.
Take care and stay safe
Poppy the 🐈
I have read your reply, and appreciate everything you wrote within it - it's emotive, and I felt emotional reading it. Thank you for sharing your memories of Poppy the Cat, and your other thoughts too. I'd like to extend a virtual hug, if that's ok.
Thank you also for teaching me some Catalan - "poo-paa" - I shall remember that.
Hope that your week is ok, and wishing you the best for today.
Zest
Hello Zest,
I instinctively felt you would understand. Thank-you.
Last week, the youngest one of our two kittens, 9 months old Kikki went out for the first time; due to lockdown and no vets, she'd come into season so we couldn't let her out, and she needed her course of vaccinations...so everything for her was delayed. So finally the big day came and it was amazing to watch her sheer excitement. 5 days later she fell so ill, vomiting so badly she was bringing up nothing but pure yellow bile. Of couy she couldn't or wouldn't eat anything... She was just following us around, sitting hunched with small scrunched non expressive, slitty eyes just like animals do when they are in pain; they look away from you, but keep wanting you to do something... Of course we took her to the vet.
Oh dear it seems she ate something really bad. Possibly a poisonous slug killing pellet? I hate them with a vengeance. One of our neighbours uses the horrific Glyphosate weedkiller, Roundup! When he does, the pungent bike smell invades our own garden; I have to shut all the windows because it gets in the house. I know he also uses slug pellets. Only in the last few weeks have we had the arrival of a little family of hedgehogs! Something I've not seen in at lest three or four years! Oh dear, as much as I hate slugs, I could never bring myself to use any of these highly toxic carcinogenic substances.
Anyway our great relief has been overwhelming. Our little Kikki is now eating again and appears well. I just pray she will not have long lasting effects to threaten her health. She most definitely is akin to Poppy on an wonder-scale! She is amazingly loving, affectionate and intelligent and understand so much! She has a huge vocabulary!
So last week on top of everything else was very worrying for us. But thankfully she will make a full recovery.
Much to do today.
Building a glorious website! I have discovered so many tools that I can use for an alternative purpose to create beautiful effects!
I hear tomorrow Friday if will be 31° here in mainland Wiltshire!!! Phew, we might be running for the shade; Kikki loves the courgette forest! They've grown so big as have the squash, I think I know how Cinderella felt! We shall surely see a coach appear any day now!!!!
Enjoy your day too and keep the artistic grey cells challenged! The benefit are beyond measure!
Poppy x
Hi Poppy,
I'm glad that Kikki is now eating again, and that she appears well. That's good news! Your courgette forest sounds great!
Glad you're enjoying your day - so am I, it's a glorious sunny day today 
Zest x
OMG these are absolutely lovely pictures.
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Proud of myself!!,happy wend 😋😊😉