Back to work, so technically this was the first day of my 25-26 academic year. It will be a year of transition, if things pan out: but all that is to come. See this as a possibly symbolic shot, perhaps. Taken in Savile Park, Halifax, after I’d taken the car back to the hire depot. Not symmetrical, but that’s too much to ask.
“Green” is definitely the dominant theme on this shot, and the general soft-focus vibe also in evidence has been applying to all shots taken since my most recent attempt to stop the zoom lens from conking out saw me bring some WD-40 to bear on it two days ago. It’ll dry out eventually. The combination seems to work for this shot; the whole place feels very lush at the moment, alternating bouts of sun and shower are making everything grow most enthusiastically. Which is a good thing, I guess.
Anyway that’s enough Hebden Bridge, for now. Time to go somewhere else.
This little creature definitely wanted to continue its forward trajectory, only at this point the lens of my camera was less than an inch from its nose (do insects have noses? Anyway you know what I mean). Doesn’t it look just that tiny bit annoyed about the situation? On the other hand, I am satisfied that the focus is correct.
Fairly warm and dry the weather has been — and this is a spot that catches the sun. All the same, surely that can’t be a fully ripe blackberry in the first week of July? But it is. Or was, as shortly after taking the shot I ate the fruit, and very nice it was.
Must have had at least a dozen attempts at capturing this example of insectile wiggliness. Don’t know why we call them ‘bumblebees’ though — they don’t seem to bumble to me, they are very systematic. Just this much time at each flower. Which is why, once I finally got the rhythm of it, I got the shot.
“OK, are you ready? I want you to get my best side…. THAT’S the one. Send me a copy….”
A still life. Those who know New Order may see my point with the title of this post. But it is just a random flowerpot, really.
I don’t think the woodlouse is getting the best of this encounter. I’m no psychic but whatever thoughts might be going through its little brain at the moment, probably they could be summed up by the word on the poster behind.
I don’t think I have ever seen a brood of ducklings as large as this. Even though a couple of them are only glimpsed on this shot (there’s one right behind the duck, and another mostly concealed in the left-hand group) there were definitely nine of them. No wonder she looked somewhat frazzled: and there was an equally stressed-looking drake in the vicinity too. Still, they’re a good size: quite an achievement in fact.
Incidentally this was taken at Dunsop Bridge in the Forest of Bowland, a few yards from where, on 27/12/2011, I depicted Clare stood in the phone box that is still there, being the reputed “centre of Britain”. That was 4,911 days ago, meaning that Dunsop Bridge now takes over as the place with the longest gap between appearances on this blog. Can things get any more exciting, you ask? Hey, this particular journey has only just started.
I’m sure birds have just as much of a developed weather sense as do humans. Why wouldn’t they? High winds, for a start, could really screw up that trip they were planning to make to, say, the local household waste centre. These guys may or may not be trying to sort some stuff out before the latest heavy shower comes rolling in, just as we might speed up our journey home from the shops in the face of a cloud like this.
