Really, not an exciting Christmas Day, but are they ever, these days? A pleasant one though, and mild, so Clare and Joe were dragged out on the usual pre-consumption walk, where was captured this piece of hogweed in front of the pine (Christmas) trees, simply because I like the shape it makes. A natural candelabrum, maybe.
Anyway — a happy Christmas to you all, I hope you enjoyed the day, however it was spent.
No Christmas break in sight for the herons, who still have to fish, and thereby eat. This one, rightfully, looks with some disdain at the litter that has been chucked in the Hebden Water next to its usual spot at the weir. Bloody humans, leaving their crap all over the place. And it’ll be there for weeks, I bet.
These are the steps leading down past our allotment, which is on the right, behind the hedge. This porcelain figurine took up residence there a few months ago, thanks to persons unknown, and now seems quite at home. I’m saying it’s Beatrix Potter’s Mrs. Tiggywinkle, but C says: “that’s not a hedgehog, it’s a cat. Or a bear.” Well, whatever: none of these species wear clothes and carry around watering cans, but that’s anthropormorphism for you I suppose.
Doves have been a religious symbol for thousands of years: Christianity just adopted a tradition that had begun in Mesopotamia (according to Wikipedia, which of course is right about everything). If you ask me, though, this one has the evil eye; zoom in a bit and you’ll see what I mean.
These various beetroot all came out of the ground within a couple of feet of each other. I’m sure they were all from the same pack of seeds…. I like the diversity of colour, also that this shot does imply they had all been in the ground ten minutes before it was taken: which was, more or less, the case. I think some pickling is in order.
I assume these are sycamore seeds, and so I think they’ve missed their chance to spiral down through the air and find fertile ground on which to start producing more sycamores. I like this shot because of the vivid green contrasting with the dead brown, but posting this the following morning I already know that green is not featuring any longer in the local palette (because it’s snowed, basically). Winter is here.
Clare has just said: “That name really doesn’t suit anything else about that picture, does it?” And this observation doesn’t even account for the way the dog started snapping at the swans a few minutes later. But that’s why I chose the shot.
I’m very sure this is the latest in any given year that blackberries have featured on this blog. They really should be gone by now, and the majority of them are, having long reduced themselves to shrivelled, dusty-looking remnants. But for some reason or other, these ones are hanging on in there. I wouldn’t eat them, though.
Though we have been staying in London over the weekend, this part of the Thames is further upstream, just past Marlow, where the river forms the Buckinghamshire/Berkshire border for a while. I am very happy with this shot, as it turned out just as was hoped when I pressed the shutter. It seems to sum up two things about the Thames at this point — the wildlife and natural qualities are pretty good, and there’s certainly a lot of blatant displays of wealth around.
It’s just a ladybird, off for a walk. They can fly, they just seem to prefer walking. Another shot used mainly because the focus came out right, and the shot therefore ended up as intended.
Being 42 