Harlequin Centre Watford

A quick visit to the Harlequin Shopping centre in Watford on my way to lecture at Croxley Green Camera Club and a chance to test the camera in my mobile phone. For a small camera it does a pretty good job.

Large Red Damselfly

 A couple of Large Red Damselflies hatched from nymphs during yesterday afternoon. The one above emerged successfully but the one below failed to extract the wings completely. With today's cold wet weather, I doubt either will be successful in surviving to mate.

Hanningfield Reservoir

The rain stopped yesterday morning and so I visited Hanningfield Reservoir Nature Reservoir. The Nature Reserve is an ancient woodland with Hornbeams, Beech, Oak and Ferns. Around the centre are Horse chestnut and Sycamores,  all in fresh green leaf. One area is carpeted in Buebells

Wickford is Ready for the Jubilee

 A very dull morning in Wickford was cheered by the Jubilee-themed window displays ready for June.

Garden Bugs

At last it has stopped raining so took a walk round the garden with the macro to see what was lurking in the foliage. The dandelions attracted two very attractive species of solitary bee and there were lots of nursery spiders warming themselves in the sun.

Orange Tip, Nightingale and Snail

 Some images taken in the rain over the last two days. The Orange Tip was in the garden on a scabious. The first is natural light while the second has a bit of ring flash to allow smaller aperture. The Nightingale and the snail were shot at Paxton Pits this morning in the rain.

Ampthill Rainbow

I stopped to admire a wonderful rainbow on the way to lecture at Ampthill Camera Club last night. The football match continued on a dandelion-covered pitch under leaden skies. The young man in red scored twice from this spot outside the box while I was watching.

 I had some fun in the adjacent poplar wood moving the camera to distort the shapes. The flag of Finland arrived in one of the images

Drought ...What Drought?

I know that we would need much more rain to refill reservoirs but it was not really the best timing to receive this leaflet this morning after almost 48 hours continuous heavy rain.

Meredith Comes Home

Meredith had to stay in intensive care for a few days because of jaundice but came home on Sunday afternonn  and yesterday she had her first bath helped by Sadie.

Busy Weekend

It has been a very busy weekend starting with Frances and Christopher's wedding to photograph on Saturday. The weather was definitely April showers but, kindly, the sun shone for the outside photographs.

London Salon Entries

Phew- just made it in time for my entry for this year's London Salon . On-line entry closes this weekend (22nd) but also time to enter manually and the prints have to get there by 27th April. The prints are designed to go side-by-side and that is what took the time!! I am influenced by ancient Chinese paintings where perspective is very different to Western art. They do not have single point, linear perspective but  the perspective points shift as the viewer's eye moves through the landscape. So a scene may include a lake shore, above which tower mountains; yet both the lake and the mountaintop pavilion will seem to be at eye level.

Newest Family Member

Grandaughter number two, Meredith, was born yesterday (18th April)and looks amazingly similar to Sadie as a new born.

 I visited the National Trust Landscape gardens at Claremont on my way to talk at Epsom Camera Club - thanks for your hospitality and especially Rosemary for the meal before the meeting. The gardens have features from leading historic landscape gardeners including John Vanburgh and Capability Brown but are somwhat spoilt for me by the masses of rhododendrons blocking the vistas. Two birds that don't feature in our local gardens - the Ring-necked Parakeet and the Mistle Thrush were making a lot of noise in the trees. An obliging Heron kept moving ahead of me round the lake.