A prosperous New Year

Its great to be back home in the UK. Living abroad has made me appreciate what we have here especially in the back garden. With the sweet scent of Mahonia in the air and these busy honey bees to watch life is good.

Our garden visitor

I haven't been back in the UK long this summer but this fox seems to visit most days. Yesterday it came up to the back door as if asking for its dinner. Of course I obliged and afterwards it just laid down in the garden allowing me to photograph it. Its such an unusually tame and pretty fox.

Ice Ice Baby

Its been a freezing cold week in Iceland. Unfortunately the weather has been against us and we have only seen the slightest of northern lights. On the positive side we have seen lots of ice.

Weekend wonders

The weekend bike ride was a bit of an adventure. We ventured down unknown dirt tracks and pot hole roads which ended up in tiny villages scattered with a small numbers of houses and people. They were quite surprised to see these crazy westerners cycling through in the midday sun but were friendly and happy for me to take photos of them.

This man owned the small field of marigolds below.

Biking in Bangalore

Occasionally my husband can persuade me to ride out on our mountain bikes into the countryside and today was one of them. You certainly have to have your wits about you to avoid motor bikes, cars, cows, pot holes and the barking dogs along the single unfinished tracks. But you do see a different side of  Bangalore. Young children shout bye or hi as you ride through the run down villages or try to race you. The air feels cleaner and you are surrounded by greenery.  You come back hot and covered in red dust but you do feel very lucky to be able to get on your bike and see the sites we do. I love this tree is next to a temple we ride to and have a short break. It's on a river banks and you can quite happily sit and watch the wildlife and the locals coming to the river to wash their cows.

Washermans Village

A friend and I visited a dhobi ghat in Malleswaram, Bangalore. There are many of these manual laundry sites around Bangalore, generally washing the laundry of local hotels and businesses. They employ hundreds of local families offering multiply jobs like washing, rinsing, hanging the washing and then ironing. It's hard work and the exposure of harsh soap powder to their hands and feet over time result in a lot of skin problems. The local government have installed some automatic machines but the manual work provides many needed jobs.

Starting the day

It took us over 25 hours to travel from from India to NY for a crazy 48 hour stay. So what  better way to start this fresh clear day than a coffee and muffin in Starbucks!