Mono Monday- light

It was exactly this time last year I spent the first day of the summer holidays in hospital having my gallbladder removed. I'm pleased to say this year I am fit and well and plan on enjoying the summer holidays!

I really wanted to rise to today's challenge but had so many photos I wanted to share that I thought hard about how to include them! So here goes!

I was up a few hours before the children today and let them sleep in - the weekend clearly tired them out! Once they were up and dressed we went out for a little walk, as my son wanted to explore locally and see if he could catch any butterflies. Whilst walking down the path with butterfly net in hand he spotted this bee on a flower and I had to snap it. It does look lovely in colour but works in mono too. Just then, a lady stopped us and asked my children what he was looking for. We started talking about wildlife in the area and how my son loves animals and ended up all chatting for at least half an hour. She recommended local areas that she has seen lots of butterflies as she likes to walk every day. Her name was Ann and she told us she is 71 years old and loves to walk everyday. My children chatted to her about their recent wildlife encounters and I was really proud of them. Ann said she was really pleased she stopped to ask about our net as she enjoyed talking to us and we enjoyed it too. This bee represents our morning and the chat we had as it was the highLIGHT of the morning.

This afternoon I had an extra child to look after as a friend was attending a funeral so I took the three of them to a local "pick your own" farm. We picked plenty of strawberries and spotted this really unusually shaped one which we added to our punnet. This is a reminder to us all that things come in all shapes and sizes and everything is beautiful in it's own way. 'LIGHT' or dark, round, long, tall, thin, everything has its purpose.

We then walked around the small animal farm. The children fed the goats, and stroked the Shetland pony. My son, who has always loved nature, once told me that he talks to the animals (especially goats) and that they listen to him. On the face of it this sounds impossible but at a deeper level he feels he is able to communicate with them and I do wonder if this is true. We are all connected on a deeper level than we can understand and he certainly has a way with animals that seems so natural. Animals 'LIGHT' up my son in so many ways that I had to include this.

After this we strolled to the dairy farm area. Every time we walk this route I spot this 'LIGHT' aircraft and wonder why it's there and who it belongs to. So today I asked a gentleman who worked in the dairy area. He told me it is a Tiger Moth and is privately owned (he didn't say by who). Later on I looked it up and discovered it was involved in a landing accident in 2001 at the farm! Whilst at the dairy farm we bought some milk (the children say it is the best milk ever) and they drank it as we headed back.

Before we headed home we walked the nature trail up to the bird watching Hut. This is where I took my main blip photo for today! Inside next to the small windows these materials were draped to disguise watchers from the birds. The natural 'LIGHT' was streaming in and I thought it was perfect for today's challenge! Sadly we didn't see many birds, other than some ducks on a pond. But it had been a long afternoon and the children didn't have too much patience!

Today has been a reminder to me that being outside is making my life and my children's life much richer and more enjoyable. My daughter isn't as keen on wildlife as my son but once we are out she does enjoy it and her appreciation of the world is growing, as is mine. I feel so much more connected to real life and hope I can inspire my children as much as they inspire me.