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Grasses, sky and clouds on Wenlock Edge

Sometimes you need to lie down to take a photo; taking this header shot was one of those moments. I wondered how the thin stems of meadow grasses would look against the fiery sky. They had much to compete with. Some more distant treetops got a look in too. Earth to sky: we’re holding our own despite the light show.

And a different take on earthly-aerial juxtapositions; this time a barley field, sun reflecting off the tufty awns that surround the grain. I liked the contrasting textures of spiky crop and meringue-soft cloud; the green against the blue, white-grey contrast:

The colour red always makes its presence felt. Here a single red bird cherry leaf:

The showy crab apples somehow make a lowly snail all the more remarkable.

I do take an awful lot of landscape photos, but perhaps you can have too many ‘good views’. The presence of some living/moving element generally makes for a more engaging shot:

This rather strange view of a Stiperstones tor was shot in monochrome in gloomy midday light. Odd things seem to happen in this mysterious Shropshire upland: so who knows where the sky went. But then I liked the happenstance appearance of the tight-knit group of hikers. They walked into the shot, their group posture conveying group purpose: they will reach the top.

And you want to follow them.

This is another chance Stiperstones photo, taken on the same day. Despite the poor light the tor does seem to radiate something. That’s my other half on the skyline. As ever he has stopped to see what had become of me, dawdling somewhere behind. I was so pleased when he stood still. There he is – a tiny human beside a momentous stack of geology, remnant of the ancient days when this quartzite ridge was crushed and fractured during the last Ice Age.

Back then, two great glaciers (one from Ireland, the other from the heights of Plynlimon in mid-Wales) convened in the Shropshire hills. They kept the ridge company, not covering it, but nudging the tops through alternating periods of freeze and thaw. Needless to say, this would not have been a human-friendly landscape. Even now, in bad weather, it is a brutally exposed spot.

And closer to home, the not quite live elephant on Wintles Hill adds a certain something (if only viewer puzzlement) to this Shropshire autumn landscape. The different layers of sunlight and shadow also caught my eye:

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Lens-Artists: the power of juxtaposition This week Patti at Lens-Artists asks us to consider the power of juxtaposition in our compositions. Please see her super post for guidance and inspiration.

As faithful followers of this blog may have noticed: I’ve not been here lately. There is a reason of sorts. There may be signs of spring outdoors, but indoors my brain has opted for deep hibernation. I’ve had nothing to say. And there is too much gloom and mud for interesting forays with my camera. So there we have it. No posts since January 31st. And only five posts this year.

And strange to say, this does not appear to matter ‘views’ wise. In fact my rising Word Press stats from January have me deeply puzzled.

It’s true that early in the New Year, WP featured a December post in Freshly Pressed: ‘Winging it: chance encounters with aerial kind’, and the views of that particular post have risen over succeeding weeks from the original 60-odd to 213, but does that explain the big jump in daily ‘views’ – whatever these ‘views’ may be.

Already there have been 31,508 in 2026. In seven weeks. On February 12th there was the first big spike of 2,500. But the next day, – Friday the 13th – and this is what started me looking – there were a whopping 15,000, spread across that day and mostly from the USA. Since then, views have averaged around 350 a day, but with odd spikes of 800 – this when daily views used to be 50 or so.

Back in the autumn I also had several weeks of elevated stats, China being the source of the uptick, generally around the 200s. But then China tuned out at the end of last year and hasn’t been back since. I remember several other bloggers reported stats oddities around this time.

So what’s going on? Are beings from another universe thinking of visiting Shropshire and checking out the geography? Or are AI bots harvesting posts for their own educational purposes? It certainly looks like it. On any one day this year, scores of my back posts are apparently being viewed several times over, including ones ephemeral and passingly obscure, i.e. those relating to long past photo/word prompt challenges.

In an unhinged moment I thought I’d ask A.I. what it knew about me. Here’s the short version of what it had to say:

Tish Farrell is a writer known for her engaging stories and reflections on various topics, including gardening, travel, and personal experiences. Her blog often features her thoughts on life and nature, along with her photography.

tishfarrell.com

Well! A glowing testimonial surely? But do I actually need a writerly reference from some mechanistic confection; do I even admit to a flutter of appreciation when I first read it? Blood and sand! What is this brave new world that’s being foisted on us? It’s enough to return me to a state of blogging silence.

And so back to the more pleasing contemplation of rain drenched crocus. This view at least is of something real. Tangible. Growing. Actual. Not contrived, conjured or manipulated. I experienced the flowers’ existence a couple of weeks ago in our town’s ancient graveyard, and took their photograph. And now, along with the crocus, I feel an urge to sink my soul’s roots deep in the good soil of Planet Earth. Isn’t this the version of reality that most of us cleave to?

I think I’ll start a meme – if someone hasn’t already done so:

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Tish Farrell

Writer on the Edge

The Power Of Juxtaposition

‘Views’ From The Ether: AI or ET?