Learning in the u3a movement

One morning recently this little fox was looking through the glass in our back door. I managed to take a few photos before moments later our cat leapt through the cat flap and chased it away.

On a local walk this herd of cows was nicely separated from me by an electric fence until the last 100 yards, when it was necessary to enter their area and soon they all wandered over and hemmed me in against the hedge. I was very glad to get over the stile and to have the adjacent gate separating us when I got out my iPhone to record their inquisitive behaviour.

An alpaca at Vauxhall City Farm. We visited there while doing one of the Hidden Walks of London.

Walking along a path towards a farm I spotted an Ostrich in an adjacent field. It spotted me at the same time and came bounding towards me. Luckily there was a fence between us and I just had time to focus before it was too close.

One of my hobbies is cultivating bonsai trees, and one responsibility is looking after two young granddaughters from time to time. I thought that this would be an interesting project for them and me. The bonsai pot was buried in topsoil, and then moss added to give the appearance of grass. Finally, animals from my granddaughters' collection were added. I would have liked to have the background a different colour so as to differentiate it from the tree. It was also a photographic educational project. We tried different lenses so as to blur the background as much as possible, and concluded that the best result was from a telephoto lens.

I thought these Mandrill monkeys at Colchester Zoo looked slightly mystified, or even maybe a little apprehensive, at the appearance of post-lockdown visitors, many of whom are now wearing face masks.

This young Moorhen explores its new world, stepping from lily pad to lily pad on those amazing, almost comical, giant feet. Enjoying the many young animals around has been a lifesaver during lockdown.

On a visit to Folkestone on the recent bank holiday we stumbled on a car rally on the Leas. Amongst the cars was a fabulous vintage Jaguar with the emblematic big cat on the bonnet. As you can tell the bonnet had been polished meticulously.

A wet afternoon saw me playing around with light and shadows. The result was this somewhat eerie image of a stained glass hare's head lit by a torch. No fancy equipment involved - just a cheap torch and a mobile phone so this is something that anyone with time on their hands could easily do - and probably do much better!

These are two of the four cheeky squirrels that have been visiting my garden this summer to partake of the food provided for the birds!

Fortunately for the Water strider this frog only had eyes for me when I took this photo.

I have attempted to approach "Animals" from a different perspective, although I suspect pub signs could be popular. We have the occasional heritage locomotive steaming on our suburban line, but I don't think there is any call for a cow catching, wood burning, monster. The Iron Horse Pub is situated by the side of Sidcup Station, often hosting live music pre Covid.

These beautiful cows were enjoying lush grass in a field in Hampshire.

As I was walking around Hook in Pembrokeshire, I spotted some sheep in a field that were standing in a line. It looked as though they were waiting for their photo to be taken. A surreal moment!