Friday 22nd August 2014, 9.30am (day 1,093)
Maybe it would be a better shot if it was just the tree, or just the gate. But it’s what it is. Last day of a week spent mostly at home.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: nature
Blackberries and barbed wire
Tuesday 12th August 2014, 4.15pm (day 1,083)
Ah, free food. Come to daddy.
They’re early this year but then again so has everything been, since February. And who needs barbed wire when you have a stand of brambles to protect your property.
Cat portrait
Wednesday 30th July 2014, 9.05am (day 1,070)
Wandered out this morning on some inconsequential errand or other and took a shot of some random vista with a cat in the middle distance. Said cat then came straight over to me and virtually demanded that I did its close-ups. Well, who am I to refuse.
Young elephants
Tuesday 8th July 2014, 11.50am (day 1,048)
I said yesterday I was off travelling somewhere, and here I am, on my second visit to Nairobi. It is for work (lucky me), but today was a morning off, so with my colleagues, we visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust just outside the city, where there is an orphanage for young and baby elephants. There are around 20 being cared for there, ranging from three months to a few years old. Some of them have lost their mothers to natural causes, but the majority are there because of human depredations. It’s a tourist attraction of course, but a very worthy one. No one needs ivory, for any reason at all.
I like this picture because of the apparently happy smile on the faces of both these youngsters. I was trying to get pictures without the crowd of people in the background (which I was, of course, part of) but here the just-visible heads give it a sense of scale, I think. May these children get the chance to grow to their maturity and live a full and happy life. What more can one ask of any living being.
Jackdaw, early morning
Friday 4th July 2014, 6.45am (day 1,044)
I like the way this bird (which apparently is a jackdaw, not a rook as I originally identified it) looks aspirational, as if it’s seen something up there and (unlike poor grounded humanity) knows that within a couple of seconds it can reach it. I also like the focus and the lines of the slates below it. All not bad going for 6.45am, the first time I’ve done a shot remotely at this time since November.
Let sleeping ducks lie
Friday 27th June 2014, 8.30am (day 1,037)
I make it there are 20 mallards in this picture, and unless I’m mistaken, every one of them is asleep. Proof of one thing anyway — ducks are sensible creatures, who keep leisurely working hours.
The cave spider, again
Sunday 22nd June 2014, 12.15pm (day 1,032)
Apologies to the arachnophobes amongst you but I think these are beautiful and impressive creatures. I have no idea whether this is the same one I’ve captured before; there is definitely more than one living in our sheds, possibly three big ones or more. As long as their webs are not disturbed they make quite willing models.
Midsummer’s Day
Saturday 21st June 2014, 3.15pm (day 1,031)
Captured while out on the second very good walk in three days, this time round Hebden Bridge with my and my sister’s families. Sometimes I wonder why I’m still doing this blog but once in a while it pays off. (When I first posted this I called it “Violet” but actually it is Wood Cranesbill (Geranium sylvaticum).)
Geese on the weir
Friday 6th June 2014, 4.35pm (day 1,016)
More greenery! More waterfowl! It may or may not rain heavily tomorrow, but after my complaints yesterday, today was a beautiful day.
Green
Thursday 5th June 2014, 3.55pm (day 1,015)
Remember, the greener the landscape, the more it rains. West Yorkshire has become very green the last couple of weeks.
Being 42 