I saw these water birds yesterday afternoon (Saturday) on the lake at Wollaton Park, Nottingham – one of my favourite haunts, as some of you know. I think they are quite young seagulls who are finding the winter coastal weather a bit rough, but I’m not exactly sure what kind they are. If anyone can enlighten me, I shall be delighted!
I found this bracken earlier today, and thought, at first, what a powerful single-colour study it made. Looking more closely, however, I saw that it wasn’t entirely brown; here and there were several intriguing little green shoots. I thought this was surprising, considering the recent very cold weather. The water droplets you can see are from frost that is only just melting!
Some of you already well know my fascination with reflections. This one caught my attention the other day; the rather surreal look is due to a thin film of ice on the surface of the water of the lake. I’m not always fond of winter, but this kind of thing makes me feel it’s worth braving the cold weather, and going for a walk!
Last week was a very busy one for me, but finally, yesterday, I made time to get some fresh air for a few moments. And once again, I found the joy of just noticing.
This shot is not of a craggy cliff, nor is it an aerial view of a pond (or of anything else.) It’s a close-up view of the bark of a young oak tree. Nature never fails, eh?
Just a day or two back, a morning frost occurred in the area where I live. This, in itself, isn’t particularly remarkable: it’s winter, after all. But what is more special is that the cooling must have happened quite slowly, because the crystals were much larger an usual, even though the frost was not particularly severe. The result is this effect where the grass looks like candied angelica – rather pretty, I think.
Looking upwards can be especially good when you think you’ve run out of ideas – in photography, or more generally! Oh, how we tend to look just in front of us! This shot was taken on a bright January day, last year. The view made me stop and think, before I raised my camera.
Look ahead, look down, look sideways, look behind you, even. But don’t forget to look up.
No, that isn’t sugar. At last, a ground frost made this little artistic creation in my back garden. The cooling through freezing point must have been quite slow, to give quite large ice crystals like this. They were just melting as I took this shot.
For my last Sunday Photo of 2015, I found this tiny bud on a fuchsia plant. After all the recent bad news of all kinds, it just seemed like a message of hope.
We cannot foretell what 2016 will bring, but I am often grateful for the mental uplift that living things can give us.
Best wishes for the coming year to all my readers.
