Your word of the day — xylophage, from the Greek ξύλον (xulon) “wood” and φαγεῖν (phagein) “to eat”, thus, ‘wood-eater’ — referring to the fungus that has started, slowly, to consume this giant fallen tree down by the Hebden Water. Close up like this it looks like a giant cliff, hence the title of this post.
Hint: if really struggling to find a picture for the day — go sit in the allotment for ten minutes and wait for a robin to turn up and flirt with the camera…
Our window sill, and indeed our house generally, contain more pieces of deceased sheep than most people would consider normal. Souvenirs from a few Lakeland walks….
One thing I haven’t done with the stats yet is count up the number of photos accounted for by different types of animal. I suspect that over the last 1,953 days, ducks will win, probably just ahead of dogs. Why? Because Hebden Bridge has plenty of them, and look — they’re basically photogenic.
While trying not to repeat myself on this blog, sometimes the locations and subject matter will be the same… thus this is much the same as this shot on Boxing Day 2013, poked through the window of my in-laws’ front room. But it doesn’t matter, this shot has a movement to it that I like, despite the black pole separating it into two parts.
Celebrated the first day of my Christmas break by doing what I often do, go for a walk in Cumbria. But this was not ‘fellwalking’ by any stretch of the imagination: not in the National Park today, even. This picture is taken in the flat hinterlands by Morecambe Bay. Though a bit fuzzy, it’ll do I think — I like its painting-like quality. And anyway, you try taking a picture of deer, particularly when they know you’re there (as these three clearly do) — and through the mist, too.
Time for my annual trip down to Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, Kent, where I sit on an exam board for reasons lost in the mists of history. But I don’t mind going down, and it’s always good for a photo opportunity thanks to being located in the middle of the very pretty Lamorbey Park, the natural life of which has graced this blog before (like the parakeets, and the fly agaric). So here’s some more.
Taken on campus; there is almost no green space there, but if you point your camera up at a high enough angle, you can occasionally get shots of trees with no buildings behind…
There seemed to be a lot of ducks around this afternoon, including this line of at least 15 in a row here (this is only part of the posse). Then again there were a lot of pigeons around too. Perhaps there has been an escalation in the ongoing Hebden Bridge pigeon-duck conflict. These guys certainly look extra-attentive.
“Hey baby. You’re cute. Wanna come see inside my shell?”
“Actually I’m more interested in how we both ended up six feet up a stone wall…”
Being 42 