Song Thrush a Singing

This Song Thrush was in full song when we went walkabout at 7 a.m. and still singing when we returned so I set up the camera:




Background songs include Blackbird singing, Wood Pigeon droning on and House Sparrows chirping.

Wordless Wednesday

Horse Chestnut (conker) tree flowers

Monday Montage

Last week's WidsMob montage was more difficult:



Wilma's description was closest:



as it is a storage box with lots of small clear plastic drawers.
As always my thanks to all who gave it a go.

Maybe this week's montage photo will be easier to identify:



If you would like to make a guess please leave it in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the original photo, next Monday.

Cactus

When I bought a couple of what were supposed to be Christmas or Easter flowering cacti one had 'leaf' sections which are longer and thinner than the usual varieties:



A couple of focus merged close shots looking inside one of the flowers:

Wordless Wednesday

Spanish Bluebells

War Graves

Whenever we take the footpath through the back of the churchyard we pass next to a war grave:




Inscription reads:
42564,  Private J W Turner, Durham Light Infantry, 2nd May 1918, Age 34
It looks a bit unkempt in the photo but has been tidied up recently.

War graves are cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. A few years ago I saw a person from the Commission cleaning the headstone. This got me to look a bit further in to the CWGC. Their web site lists the war graves they maintain around the world, where they are and who is buried in each. According to the list there are four in our local churchyard.

On a nice sunny afternoon a few days ago we had a wander round the churchyard. I looked at every headstone in the newer section and those I could get near in the old part but so far only found one other war grave:



Here the inscription reads:
7615923, Private S A Forman, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 12th March 1943, Age 21.

I will make another attempt at finding the other two on some future occasion.

As well as the actual graves there is also a memorial to all those from the village who lost their lives in the 1914-18 war:





The village was much smaller then.
The 1911 census returning just 280.
Now there are estimated to be around 1,000.

While I was looking at the headstones two others caught my eye.
This is the oldest person's grave I have spotted so far:



This one in the older part of the churchyard is almost buried under nettles and covered in lichen.
I was particularly drawn by the carving:



There is a wild variation in colour as some were taken with the 'full spectrum' camera.

Monday Montage

 


Last week's montage was:



... a WidsMob Montage modified version of:



which was correctly identified as a frog by Adrian, Wilma, Weaver of Grass and Ragged Robin.
I agree it was more difficult when you couldn't see the texture of the skin.

A new one for you:

 

The background is my conservatory window but what is the orange coloured object?
If you would like to hazard a guess please leave it in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the original photo, next Monday.