The Humble Dandelion

Last Wednesday night was full moon and the next day a nice day. Cloudy, yet the wind had died down a little. Francis warned me it was going to rain, but I just needed to go. Last year I had trouble with photographing Dandelions and Hawkbits. Ordinary weeds in most people's eyes, but in mine these are lovely flowers.
At the roadside I spotted about half a dozen of Dandelions in various stages of opening up. I was thrilled to bits with my find! While I was trying to find my best position for my photography, and then during the clicking of my shutter, the rain came down. well, it started as a lovely drizzle or a nice summer shower. Whilst trying to protect the camera, I kept clicking.
Here are just a few of those on the ground:






Gorse flowers is another of those flowers which I find very hard to take pictures of, they are often too many bunched together and you need to be close to focus on just the one flower. So imagine my joy when I found this single one right above the Dandies!





And these are hanging from the little tree in front of my house in the garden below us.


This one I found this morning, growing immediately in front of my gate. A nice sunny good morning.

Along the road the Blackthorn's flowers are almosdt ready. Making me very anxious for their beauty.


Nina was curious about this vent one day, trying to climb up over the outer wall of the house. Later it seemed that she had heard the buzzing of a Bumblebee which must have gone inside to wait out the shower. It is of course a nice sheltered spot!

Mistle Thrush in the Conifers

I spotted these Heather and Gorse on Christmas Eve on my way to the bay. I think Heather is one of the more difficult wild plants and wild flowers to photograph. Yet I could not resist taking a few images.
The Heather was more of a challenge I think because it was popping out of a wall so to speak. Plus I was trying to stick as much to the edge as possible and parking alongside the wall rather than with my back wheels parked on the very narrow road. Bsides I was underneath the Rookery and the noise was deafening.







Yesterday I watched two Magpies fly along the fence and smiled at that odd vertical and 'haughty' way they fly with head in the air and their tail straight downwards. I'd expected them to have landed on the street light or on the fence, and as I looked out of the window, I spotted two large Thrushes. At first I thuoght them to be Song Thrushes as we do have one on the estate, but when I looked closer, I realised they were too big and the colouring also looked as if it was just speckles or streaks on a whitish body. It was just too far off for a good and clear picture, so I also took a few pictures with the digital zoom on. It does miss the buff colouring of the Song Thrush. And like I said before, it was way too large!

Autumn; Nature's Skeletons and the onslaught of summer

I did not have much chance yet for enjoying and photographing Autumn's colour. Down here in the South West of the Republic of Ireland, Autumn starts only mid November due to the warm climate.
The other fact is that along the road and along the coastline here, all those leaves, which were only just starting to think about turning, their transformation was disrupted when they met with the enormous force of the gales being brought about by the changing weather conditions. You have to feel sorry for our trees, their rhythms being thrown overboard with flooded summers, leaving no time for their roots to dry out. The extra gales we've had during spring and summer, mean trees being stripped bare with no warning and at a time when the tree is relying on its her leaves with which she can convert the Sun's energy into a chemical used as food for the tree.
You'd have to think then that by the end of summer this same tree is short on energy reserve to face the coming winter.
And just thinking of the harshness the winter's climate will throw at our tree makes you shiver. And then poor tree has to find some energy somewhere too, so she can produce her leaves for spring and next summer.
And then imagine this on a yearly basis! Not just this once.

I have always been struck by the white skeletons in the fields here in winter, and often enough, I tried capturing these in my watercolour paintings and sketches, with either my nails or a small stick trying to scratch these into the washes. Or in the washes of ink if I was painting with black indian ink. one of my favourite mediums. (media?)
Now I am trying to capture it with dear Lady Lumix.




Do you like this one

Or perhaps the -edited version in which the branch is coming more to the front?

I took these a week or so ago, when I had been out shooting the Mosses. Now, with bad weather around us, I have a few minutes to doing them in a post

I was captivated by those 'strange green and overgrown vertical structures which make up the hedgerow in the field below, so

I zoomed in to get a better look at it;

I should have taken a better look at the wobbly little tree, but maybe next tine I'll remember?


My favourite of the lot:
Here, the beautiful white flowers of the Blackthorn will enlightening me sgain next spring:


And this House Sparrow I caught the other day


And this Hooded Crow I spotted along the road.