Not far from our house

Maybe if I close my eyes he can't see me?

Just outside our back door - I looked outside to see what the commotion was about, Skip was circling our cherry tree looking very excited and I spotted this terrified looking squirrel rigid with fear in the upper branches. Or perhaps it was quietly relaxing thinking that the silly dog that it had just baited would sooner or later go away - and indeed he did and next time we looked up the squirrel had disappeared.

Follow the brown granite road.

Took a run up to Yarner Wood which is a nature reserve a few miles from us on the edge of Dartmoor. Part of my route went along the Haytor Granite Tramway which transported high quality granite from Dartmoor to the Stover Canal and thence to Teignmouth docks. This was built 200 years ago and the rails were made of that local hard wearing product.....granite. The empty wagons were towed ten miles up to the quarry by trains of 18 horses, on the return journey the horses were turned round and stayed at what was now the rear of the wagon train - their job was now to stop the trucks from gathering speed and flying off into the distance on the downward slope (1300 feet or 400 metres of descent). Some of the huge granite setts still remain as can be seen in my photo. The row of huge trees on the right may well have been the line of an old hedge which, once the tramway was abandoned, was no longer maintained and carried on growing upwards!

Replaced with a stamp machine.

Here's a fine building in London, actually what I should be saying is that here was a fine building in London. This was the General Post Office in St Martins le Grand, proudly built in the early 19th century from Dartmoor granite but demolished in 1912 after less than 100 years. Now why would they knock down a beautiful building like that - they must have needed the granite for something else more important!

Cheep.

Our cherry tree has been a haven for various assorted creatures including this regular visitor which is one of our large local population of greenfinches. Every morning I hear their unmistakeable wheezing as they sit strategically not too far above my head. They're well camouflaged so it's not easy to spot them. However on this day I heard a trilling and whistling from this bold greenfinch in plain sight at the top of the tree singing loudly all about the glories of spring.