Foxcombe Hall

Today I was at The Open University in the South offices at Foxcombe Hall, just outside Oxford. It is a stunningly beautiful setting and rather than blip any of the interiors - it's a pukka country house with loads of wonderful features - I went down to the lake. You nearly got a shot of the azaleas and rhododendrons, which are in full bloom and look wonderful reflected on the surface of the water, but then I saw these guys. This is a large red damselfly and don't get carried away by the idea that he's "large". According to the site I used to identify him he's about 36mm. For those unused to this new-fangled metric money that's eensy-weensy tiddly small. I can't tell you how many shots of empty leaves I have. This isn't great but it's the pick of the litter and after practicing Zen-like self-control in sitting still to take it I wanted to give it an airing.

In other news - the M25 sucks; a round trip of 220 miles should not take in excess of six hours. After leaving home before 06:30 this morning I'm a tad jaded so once again I'm going to have to leave you guys to keep an eye on the Internet while I grab some kip. Vaya con leche amigos!