photography

Today In My Garden ~ SUN!

It’s hard to believe. The tulips can’t believe it either. Sunshine. Warmth. Blue Sky.

Cee’s Flower of the Day

Collision Course?

Somehow I feel this image says much about our relationship with planet earth. I’m wondering what you think?

Location: Little Haven, Pembrokeshire

Baleful is Debbie’s word for today

Last March Square: Bouquet For Becky

Well, it’s almost a circle, this gorgeous tulip. And it does come with its own bee. And I’m sure everyone who has had fun with March squares in squares and circles in squares will want to say a big ‘hurrah’ and thank you to BeckyB for keeping us so alert and amused with this challenge even as she’s moved between two countries and not been very well.

Not only has it been fun, this challenge has also opened my eyes to the quite surprising compositional dynamic of the square format. Laura (at Eljaygee) and I have been having a bit of chat about this. If you go to her post linked here you can see a range of photos that she feels have been given new life by applying a square crop. It’s all fascinating stuff, and anything that makes you LOOK with fresh eyes is always a bonus.

THANK YOU BECKY AND HAPPY EASTER

March Square Please visit BeckyB for her final March Square

Six Word Saturday Debbie has also been doing some fine squares so I’m also linking to her 6WS – another challenge that keeps us thinking as well as viewing.

Solar-Powered Apple Lanterns As Repurposed By Blackbirds ~ Thursday’s Special

Sometimes it takes me a long time to reach the allotment. I set off with great purpose, shouldering a big bag of vegetable waste for the the compost heap. It is only a short hike across the field, although after rain it can be treacherously slithery, thus requiring due care and attention to avoid all outbreaks of undignified slippage. And then there are the distractions. And if I happen to have a camera in my pocket: well then, gardening must wait.

So that’s what happened when I spotted these apples that someone had slung over their hedge in the autumn. During the winter the blackbirds had nibbled the insides so neatly that only the skins remained. Not only that, the delicate apple ‘shells’ had now accrued quite new and surprising properties. Lying scattered in downtrodden grass and browning leaves, they were now capturing and emitting that too rare glow of winter sunshine. Thank you, blackbirds. A fine light show.

Thursday’s Special: recycled

Ice Magic

The continuing freezing temperatures in the Britain made me think of this photo, taken back in December. Now I have cropped and enlarged it, it looks like a Christmas Tree bauble, a piece of intricate glass. I also imagine I see a cloaked figure, a woman I think, fleeing for her life on a galloping horse. Or else it looks like a Victorian woman’s reticule, soft velvet with a drawstring closure. Or perhaps one of Scrooge’s stash of money bags.

How it formed like this, suspended from a coat thread caught on a barbed wire fence up at the allotment, I have no idea. It just goes to show that we do not need to know the hows and whyfors and whats of something to see its wonder. When I found it, I thought the elements had left me a gift.

Daily Post: out of this world

Wordless Wednesday ~ Well Apart From A Bit Of Shakespeare

I am a feather for each wind that blows.

The Winter’s Tale Act 2 Scene 3

Portraits Anonymous ~ On Winter Beaches

Explore the use of anonymity to express both that which is common to all of us and the uniqueness that stands out even when the most obvious parts of us are hidden.

Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge

Red Admirals ~ Hitting The Sweet Spot

WRITING ADVICE: Note to self for 2018

SPEND MORE TIME AT DESK AND LESS TIME CHASING BUTTERFLIES

Daily Post: Sweet

Six Word Saturday

Yesterday Along The Lanes In Wenlock

I don’t remember ever seeing lesser celandines flowering in January. They are at least a month too soon, and this one has clearly been around a while, and much rained on. Snowdrops, though, are timely, and they are cropping up everywhere in gardens and wooded margins around the town.

All the footpaths are very waterlogged and slithery. On our walk yesterday it was necessary to stop at intervals to de-mud the boots and stop growing giants’ feet. This also gave me the chance to photograph the highland cattle in the Cutlins meadow, the sheep in the Priory park, and puddles on the track to Bradley Farm. Welcome to Much Wenlock in January.