A Don’t Look Now moment? Who is that small, retreating turquoise person?
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This week’s Lens-Artists’ challenge is from Tina. She asks us to think about ‘the rule of thirds’ in our photo compositions. Please go and see her very striking photo gallery (link at the end). As for me, I thought I’d feature some of my too many Windmill Hill photos. It’s the place where I go to play with my camera.
June is orchid time, mostly pyramidal (above) and spotted, and a small population of tiny bee orchids which are very hard to find (below)
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The grassland on the Windmill Hill is a rare survival – a traditional limestone meadow: clover red and white, bedstraw, orchids, agrimony, ragwort to name a few of its summer floral inhabitants.
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A profusion of Lady’s Bedstraw. Its subtle fragrance is delicious.
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After the flowers, a host of grass species
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A seat in winter
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Girls just wanting to miss netball practice
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Little ponies once used to graze the hill in autumn
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Early spring Cuckoo Pint
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Blizzard!
Tish Farrell 
Fantastic captures, Tish. I loved all of your photos, but especially the bench with a view to die for.
That is a good view, isn’t it. Thanks, for popping over to Wenlock, Sylvia.
A splendid collection of your lovely windmill hill throughout the seasons. I particularly like the wildflowers and grasses and orchids – and the bench, naturally 😊
Oh yes, that bench. I think that was the first one I posted with your benches theme.
What a great idea of. Using Windmill Hill through the seasons
Thank you, Sue. The old windmill does rather lend itself to the topic.
Indeed
Love your photos. Thank you for sharing.
Cheers, GC.
Obviously, from your photos, this is a lovely place to visit often in every season.
There’s always something to look at up there.
So it seems. Anywhere that features wild orchids does it for me.
The orchids have been spreading too. Since the Windmill Trust could no longer have the ponies grazing off the summer growth, they’ve taken to harrowing. And the effect of this has been the spreading of flower species across the hill.
Oh, my, that shaggy pony!! You have a plethora of perfect photos for examples, Tish. I like how you caught that person in the blue in the first shot and I especially enjoyed the shots of the windmill from flower-level. Happy Sunday.
Happy Sunday to you too, Janet. So pleased you liked these. And yes, I miss the autumn arrival of the little ponies.
Excellent Windmill Hill images! I love how you captured with the beautiful foreground. Little ponies made me smile. 🙂
Those little ponies were such a treat, but they did escape from the hill and their owner grew a little too elderly to keep them order. So now the hill is mown and raked at the end of summer instead. This has actually had the effect of spreading the orchids and cowslips.
Thank you, Tish, for sharing these beautiful scenes through your lens.
Thanks, Amy.
Beautiful examples Tish, how lovely to have such a perfect compositional element so close to home and so picturesque no matter the season! If forced to choose I would go with the first snowy image but the flowers are glorious as well.
Thanks, Tina, for your thoughtful comments and the challenge.
GREAT selections. I like all the angles with windmill in the background. Excellent.
Many thanks, John.
That’s a wonderful series. Four seasons with the old windmill. Such a lovey place, no wonder you keep going back
So pleased you liked this post, I.J. We’ve been lucky to enjoy a spot so close to home.
Ah, pyramid orchids! Saw some just the other day. Had to move very swiftly on when it came to the white stuff, Tish!
I think you have a pretty good show of orchids in Portugal, don’t you, Jo. Here, they are not so plentiful. Dr. Penny Brooks created a pressed flower collection back in the 1860s, and it seems back then we had several different species around the Edge that are no longer with us. A green flowered one, if I remember rightly. Habitat interference I guess is the most likely cause for their disappearance.
We do have them for a short time in the Spring, Tish. Always exciting to spot one. 🤗💗
Yes to the rule of thirds. You think there’s some equivalent in writing, I wonder? I think there must be. Where to angle the subject, how much of the foreground to expose? Thanks for sharing Tish. We are not old as much as we are “aged.” Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
I like that thought, Bill – an equivalent perhaps in writing. You can imagine it working where PLACE is ‘a character’ in the narrative – how light and shadow fall across a square, the human events at the peripheries. I also like ‘aged’ – lots of ‘depth’ to savour. Or at least there could be if one’s appreciated before the vinegary stage.
The vinegary stage, too true. Or when it starts to flake and cloud over right?! Ha ha ha
Flaking and clouding over – that’s rather worrying 😉
Great examples, and it’s fascinating to the see the same place from so many different perspectives. I especially like the shots taken from low down, with the flowers in the foreground and the old mill beyond. And those cute ponies too of course!
Thanks for you apprecative comment, Sarah. I like the low down shots too, though when taking them, one has to be careful not cause alarm among the dog walkers and their canines, i.e. emerging suddenly from the vegetation 🙂
A study in windmills. Le moulin à vent… 👏🏻
🙂 🙂 🙂
Beautiful photos! I love how you used the windmill to demonstrate the rule of thirds. The ponies are also super cute.
Thanks, Dawn.
Striking images.
Thanks, Pete.
So beautiful, and an excellent idea realised! i’d love to sit on that bench too. And I love the little ponies.
Many thanks, A-C. And yes, those little ponies were so sweet. They brought the hill to life in the winter months.
♥