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.
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.
After the weekend away, the day spent almost entirely at home working to make up. Use was thereby prompted of a stock late October shot, but what the hell.
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.
A very pleasant day today, and these caught the light perfectly. And I got them in focus, too: there’s quite a long zoom being deployed here.
This is one of those occasions where a whole new location (the 479th, in fact) gets on the blog with a shot that could be taken anywhere. These poppies are currently flowering behind one of the stands of Brickfield Rangers FC, who play on the outskirts of Wrexham in north-east Wales, a town that had previously not offered up a picture in thirteen-plus years, and may not do so again.
There has been a long period where no herons were to be seen on the weir on the Hebden Water in town, but in the last couple of weeks there has been one there every day. Presumably, the same one: but I can’t confirm whether this is one of the two that were photographed regularly a few years back. It’s probably not. Anyway, it’s nice to see one of them again: they really are the most patient of creatures.
In training for the ongoing Pigeon-Duck Conflict (depicted several times on here), Bob completes his latest bout of callisthenics with close supervision from the sergeant-majors. He’ll soon be ready for action down at the marina, where it’s rumoured there are also geese about, so he needs to work on those reaction times.
Another day when there wasn’t really a great deal to look at, but it was a sunny afternoon with good light, so in the end, something came up. I like how the air behind it seems to shimmer with the promise of a golden summer, but of course all that is in the past — today could have been the last truly sunny and warm day until March, for all we know. And let’s consider ‘post’ as having a double meaning.
While walking, as is my wont, through random parts of the country this afternoon I suddenly became aware that what looked surreally like a set of filing cabinets stuck in a field 1,200 feet above sea level was in fact home to a very, very large number of bees. This was not just a ‘hive’, but an entire bee city. Prudently, I swung round on a considerable detour — but there’s always the zoom lens option. (A note to the managers here — please, put ‘Keep Out!’ signs at both entrances to a field…)
Being 42 