Sunday 13th March 2016, 11.55am (day 1,662)
Anybody who lives anywhere near me will know that we enjoyed a perfect spring day today — the sort where all of nature comes out to frolic. Look at the glint in this robin’s eye.
Robin Redbreast
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Flora/Fauna
Winter flowering heather
Tuesday 8th March 2016, 4.05pm (day 1,657)
After the beauty and interest and light of yesterday, today was a very dull day in all respects. Lucky this bush has bloomed in the garden to give the otherwise drab day some colour. If I was gardener enough, I would say I planted it deliberately in order to play this role every March, but nothing in the garden has been done with that much forethought, I can assure you.
Seagulls at MediaCityUK
Tuesday 23rd February 2016, 12.05pm (day 1,643)
MediaCityUK is something like the biggest TV production facility in the UK, or is it Europe, and the biggest property development in the North-West of England, or is it the whole of the UK. Either way, during my visit there today I decided the best photo I got was this one of the local wildlife.
Heron, Hebden Water
Wednesday 17th February 2016, 9.45am (day 1,637)
It could be sharper and it ain’t gonna win any wildlife photography contests, but I’m glad this baby was fishing in the river this morning when I went shopping down in the town, because otherwise I was home all day working and there was nothing to see…. But herons are always good for a shot. Handsome creatures. That neck-spring-and-dagger-beak combination must be a fish’s worst nightmare.
A new chilli
Tuesday 9th February 2016, 12.20pm (day 1,629)
Most of 2016 so far has been two things — firstly, lacking in any light (so few sunny days…), and second, very housebound, which this picture in its way is intended to represent. However, the latter limitation, at least, is about to change, with it being quite feasible that over the next four weeks only three pictures will have to be taken in Hebden Bridge. The weather…. well, I can be less sure about that.
Rochdale Canal at Callis Wood lock
Friday 22nd January 2016, 4.15pm (day 1,611)
Part of the reason I have felt uninspired lately is that I’ve been spending too many days at home, not going out. Also that the light has been very poor — I swear we’ve had half a dozen sunny days at most since the start of November. But both of those things changed for the better this very pleasant afternoon when I managed a stroll along the canal bank. Much of the towpath is still closed because of flood damage but this section, at the Callis Wood bottom lock, is still open.
Ex-mammoth
Monday 18th January 2016, 9.25am (day 1,607)
I bet you didn’t pass one of these on the way to your morning meeting. Mine happened to be in the Manchester Museum (last seen on here as the home of the vivid tropical frogs) — so I did.
Happy Moo Year
Friday 1st January 2016, 11.35am (day 1,590)
The first morning of 2016 was a rather chilly and grey one but it was still good to drag the family up a nearby hill and then buy them a pub lunch as compensation. Pic taken on the way round; the cow virtually demanding that I work on its close-ups.
The mallard knows
Sunday 20th December 2015, 12.05pm (day 1,578)
Ducks are always good models, well-coloured and they don’t really mind people sticking cameras in their faces. Mind you, this one was turned the other way until it zipped round and had a dabble in its wing, for cleaning purposes. Looks like it’s sweeping a cape across its face — ‘The Shadow knows?’. Before your time? Before mine, for sure.
The aliens from the planet Kohl Rabi
Saturday 12th December 2015, 11.10am (day 1,570)
“Bzzzt. Frpppp. Bzzt. Calling Purple Leader. Calling Purple Leader. We seem to have been captured by the humans, after a disastrous miscalculation of scale.”
“This is Purple Leader. I think I can get my pseudopod in place, and flip the ship over. Then they’ll be sorry…… Ah, sod it. What does ‘£1.00 each’ mean anyway?”
Being 42 