Wednesday 31 August 2016

Seven Day Nature Photo Challenge - Day Six

Over on that there Facebook, I have been challenged to post a photo of nature every day for a week (seven days), and to nominate others to do the same. I've accepted the challenge and to make matters more difficult for myself (why do things easy, when you can make it hard) I'm going to try to post only genuine seasonal photos (i.e. seasonal as of now).

Day 6: It's blackberry season, so I've included a photo of ripening blackberries with cobwebs, because, of course, it's soon going to be huge spiders coming in out of the cold season.


Tuesday 30 August 2016

Seven Day Nature Photo Challenge - Day Five

Over on that there Facebook, I have been challenged to post a photo of nature every day for a week (seven days), and to nominate others to do the same. I've accepted the challenge and to make matters more difficult for myself (why do things easy, when you can make it hard) I'm going to try to post only genuine seasonal photos (i.e. seasonal as of now).

Day 5: Field after harvest - a seasonal landscape.



From "Harvest Festival" by J.S.Watts

We are approaching harvest time,
Or maybe it is approaching us
But no one is loudly thankful for all good things abounding;
The bright sharp pain and the beauty of the blood.

"Harvest Festival" appears in the poetry collection Cats and Other Myths by J.S.Watts (Lapwing Publications, 2011)

Monday 29 August 2016

Seven Day Nature Photo Challenge - Day Four

Over on that there Facebook, I have been challenged to post a photo of nature every day for a week (seven days), and to nominate others to do the same. I've accepted the challenge and to make matters more difficult for myself (why do things easy, when you can make it hard) I'm going to try to post only genuine seasonal photos (i.e. seasonal as of now).

Day 4: Wildflowers on a gate beside a harvested field. I took the photograph in South Cambridgeshire this weekend. It seemed appropriately seasonal.


Sunday 28 August 2016

Seven Day Nature Photo Challenge - Day Three

Over on that there Facebook, I have been challenged to post a photo of nature every day for a week (seven days), and to nominate others to do the same. I've accepted the challenge and to make matters more difficult for myself (why do things easy, when you can make it hard) I'm going to try to post only genuine seasonal photos (i.e. seasonal as of now).

Day 3: Yesterday there were three (three!) buzzards soaring over my house. This is one of them.


It is moments like these which have led to buzzards insinuating themselves into my poetry quite so often, as in the poem Replacing Helicopters With Buzzards. Here is an extract to show what I am talking about:

From "Replacing Helicopters With Buzzards" by J.S.Watts

Across the empty sky spread
above my roof, the hollow mew
of the buzzard calls out now.
Steady feathered fingers reach
towards the chimney, but do not touch.
The buzzard is intent on the fields
behind the house, hovering
to snatch a rabbit,
or other small creature,
living and dying out there.
The heavy beat of large wings clearing
the sky of smaller birds.

"Replacing Helicopters With Buzzards" appears in the New Ulster anthology, "Voices For Peace".

Saturday 27 August 2016

Seven Day Nature Photo Challenge 2016 - Day Two

Over on that there Facebook, I have been challenged to post a photo of nature every day for a week (seven days), and to nominate others to do the same. I've accepted the challenge and to make matters more difficult for myself (why do things easy, when you can make it hard) I'm going to try to post only genuine seasonal photos (i.e. seasonal as of now).

Day 2: It's Rowan Berry time. They are everywhere at this time of year. The Rowan trees are heavy with berries ranging in colour from yellow, through orange to deepest red. My Rowan does orange.


Friday 26 August 2016

Seven Day Nature Photograph Challenge 2016 - Day One

Over on that there Facebook, I have been challenged to post a photo of nature every day for a week (seven days), and to nominate others to do the same. I've accepted the challenge and to make matters more difficult for myself (why do things easy, when you can make it hard) I'm going to try to post only genuine seasonal photos (i.e. seasonal as of now).

Day 1: It rained last night. These are the morning's residual rain drops on a leaf.




Wednesday 24 August 2016

Round the Church Towers of Norfolk

Wikipedia says something like, round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England and mostly in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, 6 in Essex, 3 in Sussex and 2 each in Cambridgeshire and Berkshire. 

I managed to visit three of the Norfolk round towers the other week. Here are some of the images I captured. N.B. there is a Norfolk square tower church included for contrast. Oh, and yes, there are also some graveyard chickens.






































Monday 22 August 2016

A Day At The Harbour

If you have been following this blog, or have seen recent previous posts, you may have realised that I have spent a little while up on the North Norfolk coast recently, particularly, but not exclusively, on the Brancaster Estate.

The following photographs were taken one blue afternoon at the rather lovely Brancaster Harbour: boats, sea and sea gulls.