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Pack The Tree With Tasty Treats
Boxing Day is a day for snacking and sharing. The redwings suggest you place a few tasty treats on your tree (out of the reach of pets!) to feast upon during the day. Remember to put a few treats out for our feathered friends too!
Hanging The Baubles
The Wisley redwings have their third bit of advice for dressing the tree this Christmas! Once the tree is perfectly placed the next step is to start hanging the baubles up. All the birds agree that red is an excellent colour 😉
Hope you’re all having a cosy winter solstice. The shortest day of the year was a dark and dismal one here! Don’t forget to feed the birds, you may get a lovely song of thanks as I did today from our local robin.
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The Keep
This wasn’t my intended entry for the Fotospeed challenge today but it’s alway good to have a backup plan! It was my hubby, Simon’s birthday on Saturday so I resolved to leave the cameras packed away and refrain from doing any work. We went into Guildford for lunch at Meat The Greek in Castle Street. Wonderful little place with proper gyros and Greek lemonade! Simon dropped me off nearby while he went to park the car, so I went for a little wander through the Castle Grounds. It all seemed rather sombre under the grey skies, with bare flowerbeds and no visitors! Of course when there aren’t any visitors it’s actually a good time to photograph the castle. Well, I still had my phone. I love this pathway through to the dry moat from the arched underpass. The way it reveals and frames the view up to The Keep is like a little bit of magic. So yes, I did sort of work on my husbands birthday! He understands 😉 I took five images with my Sony Xperia Z5 and the sent them to the cloud so I could merge them and process the scene in Photoshop and Nik Software. I really like how it turned out, matching the mood of the scene that day. We did have a lovely lunch and a family meal out later on, saving Simon from having to do any cooking on his birthday! Exactly as it should be 🙂
Also linked to WPC:Windows
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Angels Above Me
I have been watching these beautiful terns at Thorpe Lake, where I do my open water swimming, from the shore and from the waters, wanting to capture their beauty and elegance in flight. I decided that the best way to achieve my goals was to take my toughened Olympus out swimming with me! This pair are nesting on one of the pontoons that divides areas of the lakes. Over the last few weeks I have seen them take to the air whenever a swimmer, or the other lake residents, come anywhere close to the pontoon. I have absolutely reveled in these aerial acrobatics, performed right above me as I glide through the waters. A couple of times I have turned onto my back and floated, gazing up at these angels. To capture these images last week I trod water for a while so that I could turn more easily and track their flight with both hands on the camera. I can’t tread water for long without using up all my energy, so it actually helped that terns fly fast and low! I ended up with three images, that had both male and female in the frame, and just couldn’t pick a favourite to enter into this week’s Wex Mondays challenge, so I created a tern triptych. I will post all three of the images for you to check out individually. Perhaps you will have a favourite?
I’m also posting this as part of the WPC: Ooh, Shiny! Pretty much anything with wings distracts me, as those of you who follow my work, or come out on photography trips with me, know already 😉
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Wordless Wednesday and WPC: Wistful Wisley
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WPC: A Good Match – Jonas And Jane
Jonas and Jane performed on Saturday night at The Wilfrid Noyce Centre in Godalming alongside Backwoods Creek and The Nefarious Picaroons. A night of Americana, Country and Stomped-up Pop in aid of Skillway, the charity chosen by the Mayor of Godalming.
Jonas and Jane are an Americana Duo from the UK who consist of harmony driven and bluegrass influenced folk. They have toured Texas, Colorado and Arizona and have played many UK festivals including two stages at Maverick Americana Festival in 2015 and the main stage at Carfest South 2015 to over 35,000 people, following a live performance of their song ‘Whispered’ on the Chris Evans BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show in August 2015.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Graceful
I think one of the most graceful sights in all of nature is a bird in flight! From the smallest; our little goldcrest, who flits about so quickly among the trees and shrubs it’s hard to keep track of them, to one of our largest; the grey heron, with a giant wingspan that allows them to soar for miles traveling between bodies of water. I can never tire of watching birds in the wild! This weekend I will be doing my bit to help the RSPB collect data that is so important in conservation work, The Big Garden Birdwatch. Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing this weekend, perhaps you can find just ten minutes to stop and watch the birds too!
Graceful Goldrest
Graceful Grey Heron
Sustainable Land Project in Surrey
Modern headshots and creative portraits for business and the performing arts.
Neurodiversity training and consultancy
VCE Chemistry teacher in Melbourne, Australia
Photographic diary of flora and fauna in the United Kingdom. Written by paulfarnfield.com
NATUR - HIGHLIGHTS - SÜDSTEIERMARK - KUNST trifft NATUR
Birds, Animals, the Occasional Dash of Whimsy and lots of Pictures.
by Sam Allen
Taking One Day At A Time 