My Village Over Time

This afternoon, I am presenting the Friendship Club in Toft, Cambridgeshire, with a Photoquiz about our village and, for interest, I have included some images from a few years back. The church image is from 1900 and has changed so little, the next two are from the 1970s about 5 years after I moved to Toft and these all show how the pace of change has increased. The rest are various comparison images from this year and the archives  (some images from Toft Historical Society).

Recent Garden Records

Latest batch from the garden - still producing some new records like the first image which identifies as Haltichella rufipes which hasn't many observations in the UK though common in continental Europe, the furrow bee species Lasioglossum sexnotatum Ashy Furrow Bee. and Southern Hawker dragonfly.

Fun with Cyanotypes

Spent an enjoyable day running a Cyanotype Workshop. I printed quite a few images onto paper but also onto a cotton square and a T-shirt, which worked very well, giving a 3-D result 

Welney RPS Nature Group Visit

We were surprised at how few insects there were at Welney - hopefully it was the cool showery weather that had driven them deeper into the foliage. I did enjoy photographing this Speckled Bush Cricket (didn't notice the Spider!), two species of Leaf  Hopper, a Picture-Winged Fly, Hoverfly, Nettle Leaf Beetle and an Ichneumon spp. The Reed Warbler was probably a young one as very confiding and very pristine plumage.

Paxton Safari

A very pleasant morning spent at Paxton with Jo yesterday seeing what was lurking in the vegetation and, as usual, the number of insects was outstanding including this Musk Beetle, Banded Demoiselles, Migrant Hawkers, Common and Ruddy Darters, Brown Chinamark Moth (only moth where larvae are completely aquatic), numerous fly species and Wasps but also a Grass  Snake and White-lipped Snail. The images were taken with two extremes of focal length for 'macro' - 23mm with Supplementary lens (eg beetle) and 450mm telephoto (demoiselle etc!).