Tag Archives: Skies

Nov 5 2018
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Standing Sentinel

Heron at Bushy Park

Standing Sentinel

I’ve been enjoying watching the birds at Bushy Park recently. It’s quite amazing the number of different species I see in just a short period of time around Heron Pond, which is near the main car park. I’m working on a collection of images to share with you all but I start with the pond’s namesake, the grey heron, standing sentinel on the dead tree beside the car park. They’re such striking birds and a joy to watch.

Mar 12 2018
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Blue Monday: View From Floor 21

The View From Floor 21

Blue Monday: View From Floor 21

Blue skies over London as seen from the twenty-first floor of Guy’s Hospital Tower. When you’re having a complex dental appointment with the restoratative care team, a view like this is a great tonic!

Nov 6 2017
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Living Lawnmowers

Living Lawnmowers at Heather Farm Wetlands Centre

Living Lawnmowers

I went for a short walk with the hubby at Heather Farm yesterday to capture the fabulous skies over the Autumnal landscape for today’s Fotospeed challenge. I actually ended up with added extras to the scene that I had had in mind! The Horsell Common Preservation Society (HCPS) is based at the Heather Farm Wetland Centre near Woking in Surrey. You can see the building that they use, alongside the cafe, at the back of the landscape within my photo. The Society’s landholdings include 916 acres of high forest, woodland, meadows and lowland heath that form a part of the internationally important Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area. Heather Farm riverside meadows and wetlands were developed as a SANG (Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace), which provides a less fragile landscape for people to enjoy walking through. Part of the site is now a much loved dog walking route. Dogs also receive a warm welcome, water, biscuits and towels at the Water’s Edge cafe! Owners are being asked to be extra careful with their four-legged friends at the moment. Within the fenced-off wetland area, Badger Face Welsh Mountain sheep are grazing the grasslands as part of the natural land management and conservation work done by HCPS. Larger areas of grassland within the common are grazed by Aberdeen Angus cattle. These living lawnmowers are the most natural, environmentally friendly way to manage grasses and scrub, maintaining the habitat for a large variety of wildlife. They’re also really very attractive sheep to see! On Saturday the ewes got to meet a rather important new member of this little flock. His name is Hector and you can see him just off-centre in my image. Once all the ewes have fallen pregnant this winter, the farmer who owns them will collect them from the site, so they can lamb safely in the Spring. For now they seem to be greatly enjoying their job and visitors are definitely enjoying them!

Apr 3 2017
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Blue Monday: Lapwing Dance

Lapwing Squadron

Blue Monday: Lapwing Dance

Blue skies, with a bit of moody cloud, provided the perfect backdrop to the spectacle of two male lapwings, dancing in a display of prowess for the prospective females watching below on the nesting grounds. My composite image shows all the moves these beautiful birds went through during their display and is my entry for today’s Wex Mondays challenge. The one thing missing from the image is the distinctive sound of the lapwing’s call, a loud peewit peewit, that carried clear across the wetlands of Pulborough Brooks RSPB Reserve in West Sussex. I grew up calling lapwings by their colloquial name, taken from their call, Peewits. One of my favourite birds ever and a real treat to watch on my birthday last week!

Lapwings

Feb 27 2017
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Blue Monday: A River Runs Through It

Canary Wharf from The Thames Path

Blue Monday: A River Runs Through It

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

Also part of WPC: A Good Match. The quote just came straight to mind as I looked down the Thames toward Canary Wharf. It seemed the perfect match!

Jan 4 2014
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Beginning

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beginning

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beginning

Our fabulous holiday in Kos last year began with a flight across Europe. So often when I’ve flown it’s been at night but this time we flew in the afternoon, arriving in Kos just after sunset.

As we crossed the Central Eastern Alps, then flew south along the ridges of the Balkan Mountains we were treated to the most magnificent views!

The landscape below became an otherworldly vista, reminiscent of the finest artworks by fantasy and science fiction visionaries.

I wished for dragons to come soaring up through the cloud banks, carried on warm thermals, delighting in the freedom of flight, bellowing their joy and lighting up the skies in bright conflagration.