Through the window

Encouraged by an earlier pic I took from the bus window in Andalucia, just above, last week I tried to photograph the partridge family from here inside the house - they are too shy to follow round the garden. As you see, it wasn't a great success. If you look very carefully you can see the four partridges, just. The camera looks weird suspended on its own, doesn't it? I'm posting it as an example of alternative photography - I suspect it's deeply artistic.

Reading. Still going through a Mary Wesley phase at the moment, studying her novels from the writer's viewpoint. Her use of specific detail is excellent, and in the latest one I'm reading, An Imaginative Experience, I'm especially enjoying her characters who sometimes seem somewhat remote and unlikely in her other books. I'll probably reread Patrick Marnham's biography Wild Mary at some point.

Garden. The wild plum tree in the top hedge has a bumper crop of small sweet yellow plums this year so that's satisfying. Meanwhile last week I took the visiting children to pick-your-own raspberries. They had a wonderful time in the pouring rain, but I hadn't quite taken in how much small children can pick and our soggy bounty cost over £15. Well, I know it's cheaper than Tesco's but... Then they quarrelled all the way home about who had picked the most and who the raspberries belonged to. I wish I had noticed the plums were ripe before they arrived - would have been a lot cheaper.