It’s that time of year. The time when everything seems to be growing and all the trees and shrubs are coming into flower.
It’s all very well to walk round gasping at the inexpressible beauty of it all and taking photos to post on social media, but it’s very frustrating not to have any idea of what type of blossom any of it is.
I think I might be right in identifying blackthorn due to its utter exuberance.
Continue reading “more or less the same”
People laugh at the British because we talk about the weather so much and so frequently. But having lived in Spain for many years, in an area where it might be hot, sunny and dry for months on end, I think I appreciate why the weather is such a popular conversation topic here. Not only can it change radically from one day to the next, but it can be completely different in two places that are only a few miles apart.
All over the festive break, I was enviously watching the social media feeds of people I know well and consider to live “locally”, as they posted the most amazing scenes of frost and snow and talked of sledging and snowmen. But until this week I didn’t have anything of the sort to post myself.
Continue reading “early one morning”
It’s the time of year when all the blogs and social media feeds of the northern hemisphere are filled with spectacular photos of trees and leaves in wonderful autumnal colours – all warm red, rust and russet, yellow and orange vermilion. Personally, I have a bit of a problem with this.
I don’t deny that the leaves turn colour. But it seems that when I stop to take a photo of what looks like a promising heap of leaves, on closer inspection it’s actually a muddy pile of decay, quickly turning into mulch.
Continue reading “autumnal colours”
In the UK, we have had the most glorious sunshine for much of the last week, although some days have been quite blustery. It’s been the sort of weather that calls to you through the window to get out and blow the cobwebs away.
Although I don’t have a garden, I’m fortunate enough to have a park just across the road. It’s a small, semi-wild park, without much in the way of attractions: no café, no boating lake, no rides for children, no exercise circuits etc. It’s a short cut for me to get to the station or to the doctor’s, and the picturesque route to the supermarket. In fact, I find plenty of excuses to go there, and it’s not usually very busy.
Continue reading “flowers and leaves”
Over the last few weeks, I’ve taken a number of photos of trees in their autumnal finery, but for the last few days it has hardly stopped raining and most of the trees are now bare, which makes them less photogenic. Not only that, but when it’s pouring with rain, it’s not always easy – or appealing – to stop and take a photograph. So this post intersperses some thoughts I had during the recent rain with photos taken during brighter weather.
I was brought up in a London suburb, but taxis were not a common mode of transport except when we went on holiday as a family, or on occasional excursions in the capital when we would hail a Hackney in the street – always the old black cab that could turn on a sixpence and that was driven by a bloke who had done “the knowledge”.
Continue reading “of taxis and trees”
don't confuse the narrator 