Flamingo Bookends

By bookends I do not mean to say that I have added to my collection of flamingo miscellany with a pair of flamingo bookends (though that would be something), I mean that today my day started and ended with flamingos.

new flamingo miscellany 

To start my day the flamingos manifested themselves in a piece of writing I am working on. A travel piece for a writing competition, which I have decided.... surprise surprise to base on one of my flamingo expeditions. So I have been going back over some photos and notes and memories, and generally putting myself in the happy flamingo zone.

Cappadocia, Turkey, 2011

It is the Diamond Jubilee long weekend in Britain and it could not be complete without afternoon tea, so after lunch I went out to meet a friend and we went on a little expedition to a tea shop in Gullane, passing by many little towns strung with bunting.

Bunting explosion

Bunting close up

more bunting...

After a very hearty dose of lemon sponge and a good gossip we got back on the road. On the way home we stopped to walk off some of the cake at the Longniddry Bents, and while we took in the sea air we learnt that the strange concrete blocks littering the coast were old tank blockades put up to stop German tanks rolling into Scotland via the Forth.

The grassy rocks of Longniddry Bents

anti-tank devices on Longniddry Bents

Educational and tasty - a perfect afternoon.

Home again home again and what do I discover... that a crafty blog I am quite partial too has been transformed into a flamingo blog and is full to the brim of brilliant flamingo pictures taken 2.5km from the bloggers house! So, many thanks to natural suburbia for allowing my day in Scotland to be bookended by flamingos!