Into My Own

The place I will dream of

2012-01-16T19:05:00.005Z

I don't think I've ever felt more in love with my Northern Ireland homeland than I did just before I left it on Friday, when I cycled around the tiny country lanes beyond Strangford. The air was like spring, the sky cloudless and the sea so still. After my cycle I took a walk along the beach; I could see the Isle of Man far away on the horizon, guillemots were diving for fish close to shore. Guns Island, a stone's throw away, seemed to float. On the garden wall of a cottage three children just come home from school were eating lunch, and their little terrier dog came over to me to be stroked.

A Cold Place in Winter

2012-01-12T15:52:00.002Z

A walk along Murlough Bay through gales and rainshowers.

The frowning cliff face of Fairhead is unmistakable; from distance it constantly draws your eyes and pulls you closer towards it. The cliff is a magnet for climbers, but there is a chimney (the Grey Man's Path) up through the rock that can be scrambled up and I'm planning to do so sometime at Easter or in the summer.

All that is left of a row of miner's cottages hunched at the foot of Fairhead between the boulders and the sea. The entrances to the old coal mines are below Fairhead.

Looking back along the muddy track to the bay.

more monochrome: the weekend in black and white (beginning Friday)

Miscellany: There are two bays called Murlough in Northern Ireland, one in Co Down and one in Co Antrim. When translated from the original gaelic, the name Murlough apparently means "sea bag", rather than anything to do with a lough. It's a lovely image that's so typical of gaelic place names. The two murloughs could not be more different - the Antrim one is shown above, the one in Down is all sand dunes and flowing tidal inlets - I love them both. I'm going to start referring to bays or inlets as bags from now on, in homage to the gaelic-speaking people who named these places.

Weekend in Black and White: Honesty and Pinecones

2012-01-06T20:03:00.004Z

Paper thin honesty silliques photographed with the afternoon sun (the little bit there was) behind them:

Corsican pine cones photographed under lamplight. They were more fun than usual because of the surprising number of seeds that fell out of them:

for more monochrome please visit the weekend in black and white

The Friendly Ponies

2011-12-29T12:31:00.005Z

A small herd of Exmoor ponies are kept at Murlough Bay NNR to graze the grassland behind the dunes. Normally they ignore passers-by but on Saturday, when I stopped to watch the herd, I was both surprised (and a bit delighted) when three wandered over to me.

I like to think that because we have the same hair colour they decided to be my friend, but more probably they've become habituated to people feeding them, leading to the problem of over-friendly ponies.

for more monochrome pictures visit: weekend in black and white

Midwinter Woods

2011-12-23T16:46:00.008Z

My final year exams kept me in Edinburgh until Wednesday and I spent Thursday travelling home. Today, my first proper day of freedom, I took a walk through the woods at Mount Stewart. Apart from the occassional squirrel and the flitting shapes of small birds in the canopy, lichens, mosses and bright berries were the only obvious signs of life in the chilly woods.

Yellow Xanthoria polycarpa and pale green Evernia prunastri on a fallen twig.

Cladonia diversa lichen on a tree stump

Some sort of Polytrichum moss on the same tree stump.

Ubiquitous and highly seasonal Ilex aquifolium berries.

Glen Tanar and a new camera's trial run

2011-12-12T14:32:00.005Z

I decided to ditch my studies at the weekend and headed up north. On Sunday one of my brothers and I had an eight mile walk through the pine forest at Glen Tanar.

Dried Calluna vulgaris flowers

Along the way I tried out my new camera - a middle-aged Olympus E-300 that my brother no longer uses. It is about the same age my old Fuji, but it seemed much more sensitive to light and colour. Also, it has a wider angle lens so I was able, for the first time, to photograph whole trees.

Lots of Scots Pine

The main feature I liked about my Fuji was its macro capabilities - it focused up to 2cm without needing an additional lens; but with a 4x macro lens the Olympus beat it easily:

Cowberry plants and snow. One slight drawback of the Olympus is that it has no live-view screen so getting shots of ground vegetation also meant getting wet knees and snow and fallen twigs in my hair.

Some Evernia prunastri, more easily remembered as oakmoss

And so I am now a DSLR user. I think I will be taking more macro shots from now on, and I also plan to have a scout about for a second hand 40-150mm lens.

These Days

2011-12-06T16:45:00.002Z

...are dragging by! For the most part my flatmate and I have been stuck indoors studying (which explains my absence) and trying to keep the flat warm (although we are both ecologists, and to some extent environmentalists, there are only so many jumpers one can wear!) We had our first frost of the season last week and on Sunday morning I stood in the kitchen watching the first snowfall. These pictures were taken at Balloch, almost exactly a year ago; it's nice to think that somewhere beyond the rows of Edinburgh flats there are horses out grazing in winter sun, and frosty woods filling up with snow.

Weekend in Black and White: Summer Grasses

2011-12-02T17:06:00.003Z

When I was working on North Uist in the summer I came across a lot of grasses I hadn't seen before. I didn't have time to properly preserve them, so instead I laminated them. It's a cheat's way to make a herbarium that produces prettier, better preserved specimens; I like them so much that I've pinned a couple to my wall. I photographed them against the window earlier today, just to see what would happen. The laminate is slightly frosted, so they are not pin-sharp.

Festuca rubra

More Festuca rubra

Festuca vivipara: a pretty cool grass this, instead of producing seed like other grasses, it produces little miniature plants which drop off and continue growing in the ground. In this picture - taken in June - the grasslets are quite short; when I returned in August they had grown out to about 2".

Weekend in Black and White

Barn Owl Appeal - UWT

2011-11-22T22:12:00.003Z

I haven't been around for a bit as university's been keeping me on my toes. I'm reposting this picture of one of the few owls I've seen. I've never actually seen any in Northern Ireland where I grew up (and occassionally still live). This is probably because there are so few of them - only 30-40 barn owl pairs live in the province. Disturbingly, in 2008 89% of barn owl bodies examined contained levels of rodenticide. A further threat to this species is the demolition of suitable barns in which the roost and the removal of mature hedgerows along which they hunt.

The Ulster Wildlife Trust is running a campaign to raise £10, 000 that will be used to help save the barn owl in Northern Ireland. They will do this by training volunteers to survey for barn owls, educating communities and farmers about how they can support their local barn owl population and by installing nesting boxes that can be monitored using remote cameras. Here is a link to their campaign where you can find more information and the opportunity to support it.

Weekend in Black and White: The Seed Cupboard

2011-11-10T17:06:00.004Z

Down on the allotment most of the autumn veg has been harvested and many of the beds lie empty; robins hop along the damp paths and pheasants scuffle in the fallen leaves. In the greenhouse the low autumn sunlight slants through the side windows, ripening the late tomatoes and peppers. We have collected the seeds from many of our plants over the past weeks and now they're drying out on a cupboard shelf, watched over by Percy Thrower whose classic book "Gardening Month by Month" is kept there too.

Foxglove seeds that I sowed in a tray about 3 weeks ago have just sprouted, much to my delight; it is nice to see something growing in November:

Weekend in Black and White: Pine Forest

2011-11-04T12:09:00.003Z

Continuing on with the Glenmore photo set:

This woodland of scots pine, juniper and birch is probably very similar to the first forests in Scotland, that sprang up in the wake of the retreating ice sheets. The landscape in the Cairngorms is so carved by the slow weight of glaciers and the torrents of melt water that to stand in these forests is to glimpse the far-distance past...

...with a few differences of course; the fabulous Irish elk that once roamed free in the Caledonian forest (probably occasionally getting its 6-foot antlers stuck in the trees) has been replaced by its slightly lesser cousins the red and roe deer, the beaver and the wolf have long gone.

But this part of Scotland is going back in time. Sheep and the all-pervasive red deer are being removed from the hillsides and the trees are creeping back, the hills are purple with heather in summer. The beaver and the sea eagle (but alas! not the Irish elk) have been reintroduced.

The lochan

2011-11-01T15:29:00.006Z

On Sunday we munched lunch as we sat among the spreading roots of ancient scots pine that grew beside this lochan. We had been informed earlier that it is called the Green Loch, and were well impressed when we arrived to find that it was really and truly green.

High Autumn

2011-10-30T20:14:00.002Z

Autumn colours on the hillsides of lovely Glenmore; we walked single file up a narrow, winding track through woods of ancient scots pine, bright birch and holly, juniper and aspen. At the top of the path, we had views across to the distant slopes of Cairngorm.

Weekend in Black and White: Scruffy

2011-10-21T17:04:00.005+01:00

I do love the attitude of autumn, a kind of scuffed, scruffy season where nothing looks its best. The trees are rusty, paths silted up with leaves and the skies over run with clouds. And people too, blown sideways by the wind, all coats and flying scarves and tangled hair.

The last few tatters of summer sunshine.

Threadbare leaves of a hydrangea.

Something (a mouse maybe? Not me!) has been munching on the sweet chestnut on the right and then abandoned it. Sweet chestnuts are always a bit disappointing - I think it's too cold for them to ripen properly here.

One of a disreputable band of mallards on the lake at Mount Stewart; at least trying to make himself presentable.

More monochrome?

Camera Critters: Old Friends

2011-10-15T21:37:00.003+01:00

Every year the brent geese fly in to Strangford Lough from Northern Canada. The folk who live beside the lough count them as they arrive, we who live near the lough travel to see them, to welcome them back like old friends.

And I saw some other friends too - the red squirrels at Mount Stewart:

Weekend in Black and White: The small things of autumn

2011-10-06T20:52:00.002+01:00

I realised this evening when I looked through my photo albums that I have none of my home in autumn; I have missed the Irish autumns for 4 years in a row now! There is a print on my wall of one of my favourite paintings (The Fox) by a Belfast artist; I imagine my native county probably looks a bit like that just now. Actually autumn doesn't seem to be coming to Edinburgh this year; most of the trees are still green and I've heard rumours that some elders are in flower again! I found just one unpublished "autumny" picture from NI:

This is my youngest cousin gathering pinecones for me; either the pinecone-gathering habit is genetic or he already knew that I liked pinecones. Possibly I was gathering them too. (I think it was maybe a day in early spring)

Weekend in Black and White (starts Friday)

The hunt for autumn

2011-09-30T19:39:00.003+01:00

After lectures I cycled to the woods today for a walk to see if autumn was happening yet (and also to work off excess consumption of delicious Swedish waffles). I even wore an autumn-yellow jumper to look the part. Sadly there were only a few trees that were also wearing autumn-yellows (and oranges and reds) and all the hazelnuts and sloes were high out of my reach (the urban hunter-gatherers are a pretty thorough bunch). But I did see some teasel heads, the flowing roots of a beech, and a large flock of geese high, high above, flying towards the sea.

Weekend in Black and White

Weekend in Black and White: Diversion

2011-09-24T16:15:00.003+01:00

It has been several years since I last found Edinburgh an interesting place to be. My studies here are fascinating, but I've really fallen out of love with the city itself. I've always liked the museum, though. The old part of it closed several years ago for renovation work and has only just opened up; I can't compare the exhibitions with the old as I don't remember them, but it was a pleasant surprise to visit once again and find the huge galleries just as inspiring as before.

An Irish Elk skeleton reminded me of home (there is one in the Ulster Museum too)

The strange inner workings of the Millenium Clock, sadly not keeping the time anymore

Bronze Age shields in the Early People gallery.

A wall of glowing stars in Science/Astronomy gallery.

Weekend in Black and White

Journey IV: Knapdale

2011-09-10T10:59:00.004+01:00

I'm just back from an eventful fieldtrip over on the western coast of Scotland: I saw my first otter, got up before dawn everyday to survey bats and had a close encounter with a short-eared owl at 5.30am. We carried out a small mammal survey - something which has been done every year for 15 years by students on the same fieldtrip - and so I got to handle (and photograph) woodmice and bank voles:

Traps baited with oats were set every evening; the trapped mouse or vole then spends the night in the trap which is lined with fresh straw and contains pieces of apple for them to eat. In the morning the traps are carefully emptied, the mammals are then weighed and a tiny piece of the fur is clipped (to ensure they are not counted twice) and then they are released. The woodmice were incredibly fast lively, but the voles were much more chilled and just continued eating or grooming themselves during the weighing and clipping process.

We paid a visit to the Knapdale beaver trial site and I marvelled at the beavers' dam, which is 30m long and about 1m high. The resulting flooding had filled a valley and made a strange landscape, the like of which has not been seen in Scotland for 400 years:

I savoured the early autumn atmosphere:

Camera Critters

The end of another summer

2011-08-31T18:34:00.004+01:00

A small field of ripening oats and barley, and konik ponies at Portmore Lough.

Young swallows flexing their wings and demanding food on the telephone wire outside an upstairs window.

A quick visit to Audleystown court tomb.

The oldest part of Castleward.

Watched by a blue damselfly with glassy, marble-like eyes.

Berry picking; ripe elderberries a rich red among the green. Relinquishing the sloes to those who can come to pick them at the end of September.

Through the Forests

2011-08-26T20:46:00.006+01:00

Autumn is starting to creep nearer; nippy mornings and darker evenings, the maple tree slowly starting to shed crinkly leaves, the odd flame coloured leaf up in the green wood canopy. But the warm, bright noon sunshine and flying butterflies are all summer. I haven't seen much on my walks lately; after the nesting season birds are much more dispersed and less predictable or noticable in their foraging habits. I recently stood in a beech wood and watched a rain of beech mast debris fall to the ground, dropped by a red squirrel gorging on newly ripened beech nuts. But the squirrel itself was hidden by the leaves. One squirrel I did see, perched high in a beech munching what must have beed a welcome feast after the lean months of June and July:

Also in the squirrel woods, in a quiet clearing far from the eyes of most other visitors, are some beehives. When I first saw them in winter, one or two sleepy bees stumbled about the hive entrances, but now, in the summer heat the air was alive with them:

In sweet little Ness Wood I found an oak leaf wearing the colours of my jumper and a Pleurotus(?) fungus surrounded by green mosses caught my attention:

And finally today, I scampered about Tollymore with a bunch of dear old friends one of whom, in typical Irish style, is practically emigrating to Japan. Although silly pictures were very much the order of the day, I found time to snap some scenic shots:

Please visit: Scenic Sunday

Weekend in Black and White: Reflected Light

2011-08-12T18:03:00.003+01:00

Weekend in Black and White

Journey III: North Uist Revisited

2011-08-11T13:48:00.003+01:00

I'm just back from doing dissertation fieldwork research on the island of North Uist. Ecology fieldwork is a lonely thing and I spent the week in almost complete isolation, blissfully unaware of events in the wider world. I and my bicycle caught the ferry from Oban to Loch Boisdale; a five-hour crossing that I've heard can be a nightmare if the sea is rough. Luckily for me, the sea was completely calm. Guillemots soared overhead and great flocks of manx shearwaters lifted from the water as ferry approached. Dolphin fins broke through the water and resubmerged in one smooth beat. We sailed close by rocky cliffs and lonely lighthouses on misty islands. The evening skies beyond the Uists were clear and golden as we arrived in the harbour.

On the island I had not much time for anything other than working; recording vegetation, soil moisture and depth data and frantically trying to identify mosses.

But there were some happier moments. I went for a late evening cycle and met a highland cow...

...and had to turn back at a roadblock.

I discovered a love of sphagnum mosses:

One day I worked beside a remote loch and had it all to myself.

I found time at the end of all my work to sit and watch the sea.

Journey II: Haweswater

2011-07-30T14:03:00.006+01:00

This is the beautiful area where I have lived, really lived, for the past three weeks:

Life had a a slower pulse here. I spent the days either bracken cutting (with a scythe - sadly no photographs of this exist!) or in the tree nursery, potting up native trees of local provenance to help reforest hillsides that have been scraped bare by decades of overgrazing. We helped with two bird surveys, one up on the high fells and the other by the sea at St Bees. In the evenings I usually went cycling with the other volunteer along Haweswater Reservoir. Despite it being July and the Lake District there were few people, and even fewer cars (wildlife watching from a bicycle is really quite fun, except for when you hit a cloud of midges at high speed..). Instead there was lots of wildlife; red squirrels, owls, redstarts. It is so remote that an eagle has settled in one of the valleys.

Like many reservoirs, there is a drowned village under the surface of Haweswater. It was strange to see boundary walls disappearing into reservoir.

High Street - a ridge with a roman road.

Nesting kittiwakes at St Bees.

The sun sets on the Riggindale Valley, Kidsty Pike and High Street.

Off on some travels

2011-07-07T16:41:00.004+01:00

Dear all, I am leaving on Monday for my summer travels; 3 weeks on an RSPB reserve in England and then back to Uist for a week. It's not that I'll abandon this blog, I just very much doubt I'll be online at all during this period! Hope you all enjoy the summer :)

back in a while

kitty
xx

All the lovely things of summer

2011-07-04T08:56:00.005+01:00

Most can't be photographed: the warm sunlight on my back, sweet scents from the grassland flowers and sea birds calling. But many can: butterflies (Common Blue)

and day flying moths (Six-spot burnet).

One of my favourite grasses, Quaking grass. (I have several favourites and a hitlist of "must-see" grasses; I should dedicate a post to them sometime.) Quaking grass is frustratingly hard to photograph as it does actually tend to constantly quake.

And a new orchid! A frog orchid! It's new to me anyway, and it's one of those ones that once you see one, you see them everywhere and wonder how you've never noticed them before. I'm not convinced its flowers look very like frogs, though, but apparently some can be bright green in colour.

From Killard NRR - also home to bee orchids

Orchids in a meadow late on a summer evening

2011-06-29T22:15:00.003+01:00

I was up on Slievenacloy Nature Reserve this evening for a short stroll to look for orchids. Standing on Slievenacloy you can see much of Northern Ireland spread out before your feet; a patchwork quilt of fields, Lough Neagh golden under the evening skies, the distant Mournes and beyond them in the South, the hazy Carlingford Mountains. But if you actually look at your feet you will see they are surrounded by loads of amazing wildflowers.

Butterfly Orchids (which smell delicious)

Common Spotted Orchid

Oxeye Daisies

The Boat-Builder's Workshop

2011-06-24T11:39:00.000+01:00

The shed where the last of the Grimsay boat-builders worked

Everything has been left as it was, it felt as though he had just laid down his tools and popped out for a cup of tea

And the rain rattled down unto its tin roof

Weekend in Black and White

Journey I: North Uist

2011-06-20T12:26:00.004+01:00

I and a fellow student drove the long miles from Edinburgh to a croft on North Uist (via the Uig ferry) in a car borrowed from the university, loaded up with lots of equipment. He was just finishing his research, whereas I was only beginning. At times the road was no more than a capillary through a giant landscape of mountains and deep forests, half hidden under rainclouds. The skies cleared as I drove round the edge of the towering Cuillen mountains on Skye and by the time we reached the CalMac ferry pier, the weather was perfect. We sailed west and I fell asleep on the ferry, curled up in a patch of evening sunlight. My first view of Uist was the mountain of Eabhal, its conical shape outlined by the setting sun.

In between my work I was able to travel a little bit, and gain an impression of the island. I met a crofter digging peat by hand and whenever we drove anywhere, it was along single track roads and we had to be careful of the sheep which grazed on the verges heedless of passing traffic. The tiny local shop was well stocked (I was impressed to find it had 2 types of pesto!) but groceries were very expensive. Everywhere on the island were traces of past cultivation - faint ghosts of lazy beds and the tumbled stones of ruined crofts. The old fields were full of nesting birds which rose up screaming as I walked by on the road.

Woodland Flowers

2011-06-10T19:50:00.003+01:00

While I was up on the Black Isle I took a bit of a wet walk through the Fairy Glen (one of many so-named places in Scotland). It was a lovely walk. A little stream flowed along the valley floor and all along its banks were masses of water avens (Geum rivale) and wood avens (Geum urbanum) and they had hybridised like crazy! I spent ages photographing as many different hybrids as I could; they were rarely two identical flowers.

Another lovely quirk of the woodland was the masses of some fennel-like plant; after the rain it filled the air with faint scent of liquorice:

And lots of other fresh green plants:

Scenic Sunday

Today's Flowers

*Apologies for the rather rubbish formatting today: I cannot access my photobucket account*

Feathered Alarm Clock

2011-06-04T14:40:00.000+01:00

At 8 o'clock this morning I woke to the sound of loud cheeping. At first I thought somehow a bird was in the room, but when I peeked through the curtains I saw this grumpy little chap sitting outside on the windowsill:

"So finally, you're up!"

I think it's a juvenile blue tit, presumably annoyed because it has to find breakfast for itself.

Camera Critters

The Lonely Sea

2011-06-02T13:19:00.005+01:00

Last week I drove up along the coast on a wild and windy day to take a friend to see the great places of Northern Ireland. We stopped at Carrick-a-Rede and crossed the rope bridge, trying not to look down at the raging sea below as the wind howled around us. And then we visited the Giant's Causeway where the high seas rolled in and crashed on the causeway stones and the air was full of spray (and most of my pictures turned out to be a bit misty looking because of the salt on my lens).

I remembered when I was younger I borrowed a book of Irish fairy tales from the local library. The story that lingered with me the longest was the tale of the Children of Lir who were turned into swans by their jealous stepmother. As swans they had to spend 300 years on Lough Derravaragh, 300 years on the Sea of Moyle and a further 300 on Inish Glora. The author described called the Sea of Moyle "lonely" and I imagined standing on an empty, rocky shoreline looking out at 4 swans on a grey sea under dark skies.

It was not until recently that I discovered that the Sea of Moyle is actually the narrow sea between Northern Ireland and western Scotland, and called the North Channel on modern maps. So my pictures today are (almost) from a fairy tale.

On calm, sunny summer days when the tourists arrive in bustling crowds the sea is friendly. But on stormy days when all that can be heard is the roar of the wind and waves and the few people that are out are muffled up in scarves and coats it is at its most lonely.

Weekend in Black and White

*Apologies for my lack of visits and comments recently. I have no internet access other than from the university library*

Red Squirrels in a Green World

2011-05-28T22:07:00.005+01:00

Last week a friend and I walked along the edge of a hilltop forest while a wild wind rushed through the trees and I wondered if the whole wood would blow away. And then, just a day later, we walked through a wooded valley where the softly falling rain made the earth smell sweet. The trees stood quiet and still; large droplets splashed to the ground from the leaves or trickled down the bark, darkening the trunks to black.

Our walk took us out to one end of the valley and back again. Near the wood's end there was a brief flurry of red movement a little way ahead. We peered up into the branches and saw a sweet little whiskered face peering down at us:

And we met another red squirrel, rather preoccupied with eating, on the return journey:

Scenic Sunday

Weekend in Black and White: Fortresses

2011-05-20T17:55:00.003+01:00

Earlier this week I visited Fort George near Inverness. It was built to pacify the Highlands just a few years after the Jacobite Uprising and the Battle of Culloden. Its massive walls are backed up with solid earth and bristle with canons and watchtowers. Needless to say, it was never attacked. Standing on the walls I had a good view across the Moray Firth and down the Great Glen, where the clouds and the mountains seemed to merge into one. A pair of Common Gulls watched for a while, then flew away.

A few days later I visited a much older fort on top of Ord Hill, just across the firth from Fort George. No one knows for certain what happened here; at some point during the Iron Age a fire burned so fiercely that some of the stones in its timber-laced ramparts melted and ran together. There is not much left to see - the trees and the mosses have all but covered it. In the centre of the fort there is a cairn to mark the top of Ord Hill.

The Weekend in Black and White

Watery Wednesday: Stormy

2011-05-10T13:44:00.004+01:00

The first part of this post is about droughts and how beautiful storms are when the rain splatters down unto parched ground, watering the crops and quenching the wildfires. The news of the last week has been a bit heart breaking; wildfires springing up, first flashing through the homes of groundnesting birds, and then burning slowly down into the fragile soils beneath. Animal death, heather death, tree death, landscape death, as this article laments.

We have finally, thankfully, been sent some rain, and thunder too, for good measure! Although I fear the damage has been done. These pictures were taken last April, just after a big storm:

Looking out across Lough Erne. This is Crom Estate, by the way; it contains lots of amazing parkland and is also the home of one of Ireland's oldest, wildest living things.

Fresh damp oak leaves and flowers.

An avenue of bluebells.

Watery Wednesday

*****

The second part of the post is about how I'm going away for a while. Exams at the end of this week, then my brother's wedding up in the north, then home to Ireland with a friend for a few days. And then it's back to the city, changing flats and starting my dissertation! Hopefully I'll be able to sneak a post in here and there, with some *new* pictures!

Dream of the Sea

2011-05-03T19:26:00.005+01:00

I am woken early these spring mornings by the cries of the gulls and for a second before I'm fully awake I think I'm beside the sea. I have not been outside or online very much lately as I have studying to do but, as always, the thought of summer freedom keeps me going.

Yellow buttercups, pink thrift and a gentle sea at Killard Point, early Summer 2010.

Please pay a visit to Watery Wednesday!

Green Depths

2011-04-26T18:57:00.003+01:00

The willows and the waterlilies meet again:

Watery Wednesday

Garden Party

2011-04-22T23:31:00.003+01:00

It is in early spring that the earth is at its barest; the dead leaves have returned to the soil, and the new greenery has yet to replace them. The shreds of last year's leaves and seedcases that still cling to the branches, mere ghosts, are pitifully obvious. But wow, aren't some of them lovely!

I don't know what flower these skeletal seedpods belong to, but they looked like tiny paper lanterns strung up for a garden party.

The monochrome party continues here all weekend!

Update/Edit: They are Chinese Lanterns, Physalis sp. Thanks to all!

Down to earth

2011-04-15T20:53:00.004+01:00

I find more and more that I look at the ground when I walk through the countryside; on beaches I look for smooth pieces of glass and bird bones and in the fields and woods I look in the freshly ploughed soils or turned earth outside animal burrows in the hope of finding worked flints or other lost things. But most usually what I find are the more simple beauties of nature. The fragility of the decayed leaf and the strength of the twisted ivy stems.

More monochromes! - The Weekend in Black and White

The First Bluebells

2011-04-10T14:05:00.000+01:00

Tollymore Forest, 8 April 2011

Please visit Today's Flowers!

The Boundary Walk

2011-04-08T19:17:00.004+01:00

My favourite walk at Tollymore is the Boundary Walk. As it winds along, close to the edges of the park, in some places you can see the old boundary wall, in other places the only sign there was ever a wall are the scattered stones among uneven hummocks of moss. Best of all, you can walk for miles without seeing another person but you will hear lots of birdsong and maybe startle the odd red squirrel on your travels.

Where the path crosses out of the park, the wall is solidly built with steps running up and over. Beyond are farms, half forgotten by time, and beyond these are the Mourne Mountains.

Please pay a visit to the marvellous Weekend in Black and White.

The Strange House

2011-03-31T11:30:00.002+01:00

A few days ago I wandered around the ruins of Linlithgow Palace, my footsteps sounding loud in the deserted chambers and cold stone passageways. Once, it was a beautiful place filled with firelight and rich tapestries, kings and queens and all their lords and ladies and servants. But now it is so quiet; a confusing maze of spiral staircases and doorways leading from one empty hall to the next.

In the courtyard there was an elaborate fountain surrounded by statues of mythical creatures alongside more prosaic figures:

Weekend in Black and White

Pale Spring

2011-03-12T10:38:00.005Z

As I post these pictures taken last week, the wind is howling and the snow is falling outside, but I know that it can't stay for long; spring is already here.

Today's Flowers

Weekend in Black and White: The Three

2011-03-04T20:06:00.005Z

Three red deer on a farm in Scotland

More Monochrome? Weekend in Black and White!

A Happy Spring Post

2011-03-02T18:29:00.004Z

A long overdue flower post!

For part of an assessed lab class I had to submit diagrams of a flower. I picked the wildest looking, a sprig of wych hazel, from amongst the tamer snowdrops and crocuses provided and spent the afternoon being very impressed by the unexpected loveliness of these little flowers. I meant to pick another branch yesterday evening so that I could photograph the flowers in the morning light, but there were a lot of people around and I didn't want to be seen as some kind of shrub-vandal. I waited until today to get my twig, but the afternoon light is just not so good.

But still! The flowers can still be seen; yellow petals like ribbons against a background of dark purple sepals and brown furry bracts. Amazingly each bud holds three flowers, but I would never have noticed had I not looked closely.

Weekend in Black and White: Planting willows

2011-02-18T10:24:00.003Z

I learned on Saturday how easy it is to propagate willows; just take some cuttings and stick them end first into the ground and hey! they will grow into trees!

We cut armfuls and armfuls and planted them between vegetable beds to protect the vegetables of the future from prevailing winds; permaculture in action. And then we tried to weave the remainder.

More black and white scenes from all over the world can be found here - Weekend in Black and White

Weekend in Black and White: The Sheltering Arms

2011-02-11T18:53:00.003Z

As always, when I visit Castleward, my feet take me away from the main path and up the track to the standing stones. However, it took me until my most recent visit to notice how big and wild-looking the neighbouring oak trees are...

More monochrome pictures are here - The Weekend in Black and White

Time for some Sunshine

2011-02-05T22:13:00.003Z

This is how I've been for the last month:

(One of my favourite trees, Castleward, Northern Ireland)

For me, January is never a great month for photography; it's a cold, dark month taken up with settling back into the life of university. I celebrated my 21st birthday at the end of the month, and I have been trying to make some plans for the nearish future, so now I feel as though something is actually about to start. And now already it is February, and the mornings and my heart are lighter.

So some sunny pictures are called for, I think:

Rays of sunlight on some moss, Fraser Castle, Aberdeenshire

And these two very old pictures - some of the first I took with my trusty Fuji FinePix. Anemones and snowdrops in the woods around Culzean Castle, Dumfries.

Weekend in Black and White: Study of a Waxwing

2011-01-07T19:52:00.003Z

The background to how these pictures came about is explained in full in this post. Otherwise, here is an extract:

Waxwings are winter visitors to Northern Ireland, migrating south from Norway. Normally only a few small flocks need to travel as far as Ireland to find food, but the colder winters have forced more and more unto our shores. That said, they are still a rare treat and this has been the first winter that I have seen them...

Unfortunately for the waxwings, the road they were grazing beside is one of the few roads that runs inland from the coast. It is not busy, but drivers do travel fast along it. As the waxwings were in such large numbers, and seemed to be rather clumsy flyers, sadly there were several casualties strewn across the road and in the verges. I brought one of these dead ones home with me to look at more closely; there was not a mark on it, the merest glancing blow from a passing vehicle had been enough to kill it. Of course, accidents like this are no-one's fault; strangely I felt rather thankful that I had been given the opportunity to hold one of these birds, to feel its lightness, and to marvel at its beautiful feathers. I brought it home and photographed it carefully and then buried it gently in the garden.

The Weekend in Black and White

Camera Critters: Two Flocks

2011-01-07T18:33:00.005Z

On Wednesday we heard that a large flock of waxwings were feasting on berries in an area on the north-east coast of Ireland. So we loaded up with binoculars and camera gear and set off to look for them. It didn't take us long to find them; they are medium sized, light grey birds and they were feeding on hawthorn berries in hedgerows beside the road, and on Cotoneaster berries in a garden. Waxwings are winter visitors to Northern Ireland, migrating south from Norway. Normally only a few small flocks need to travel as far as Ireland to find food, but the colder winters have forced more and more unto our shores. That said, they are still a rare treat and this has been the first winter that I have seen them.

We parked in a gateway to a field and walked back down the road to photograph the waxwings. Curiously, they did not seem to mind our presence near them; so intent were they on the berries.

However, a flock of sheep in the field beside us came for a closer look:

More Critters? Camera Critters.

Unfortunately for the waxwings, the road they were grazing beside is one of the few roads that runs from the coast inland. It is not busy, but drivers do travel fast along it. As the waxwings were in such large numbers, and seemed to be rather clumsy flyers, sadly there were several casualties strewn across the road and in the verges. I brought one of these dead ones home with me to look at more closely; there was not a mark on it, the merest glancing blow from a passing vehicle had been enough to kill it. Of course, accidents like this are no-one's fault; strangely I felt rather thankful that I had been given the opportunity to hold one of these birds, to feel its lightness, and to marvel at its beautiful feathers. I brought it home and photographed it carefully and then buried it gently in the garden. The photographs are here, in black and white, if you would like to see them.

Watery Wednesday: Droplets and a Splash of Sunshine

2011-01-04T20:36:00.004Z

I like the woods just after the rain; the damp earthy smell from the leaf litter is so comforting and the droplets drip off the branches like jewels.

Yesterday, however, was a lovely dry, bright day and I took myself off for a walk at Strangford Lough. Although the air was sharply cold, the sky and lough were as blue as if it were summer.

Watery Wednesday continues here.

Old Year's Day and New Year's Day

2011-01-01T21:24:00.006Z

As always at this time, between one year and the next, time seems to have stopped altogether. With the lack of routine, life seems to just hang; suspended, inanimated. The weather also, seems hesitant. Low grey clouds and the light always dim. Sometimes the sunlight is bright below the clouds on the horizon, but always far away.

Yesterday I watched some wildfowl at Castle Espie; and photograped the ones with too big feet or awkward feet, and the shy ones that stood by themselves.

Later on in the day I walked up the hill to the ruined 5th century monastery at Nendrum; here the clouds seemed higher, there was more light.

New Year's Day: a damp walk at Lough Neagh where the waves washed piles of broken, splintered ice unto the shore. The ice looked like shingles on an undulating roof and sounded something like windchimes, or waves on a pebbly beach.

(Make sure the volume is up for this one!)

And so a year has ended and a new one begun in a slow, interesting, contemplative way; I hope the rest of the year will be the same, if only with a little more sunshine. I have lots to look forward to!

All the best for this year!

Watery Wednesday: Thaw

2010-12-28T19:47:00.003Z

So many weeks of frost, ice crystals formed like trees in frozen forests, things struggle beneath a weight of snow:

Then, a night and a day of rain and the land is green once more:

A Christmas Post

2010-12-24T10:58:00.002Z

It has been the coldest winter I have known and it is far more tempting to stay indoors and look out at the snow, rather than venture out. But yesterday it seemed slightly milder, and I wanted to photograph the snow before it thawed too much.

Not too far from home is the Quoile River; it flows so slowly that it always freezes completely. Dead reeds and bulrushes marked where the banks ended and the ice of the river began. We heard the whooper swans long before we saw them wheel overhead, following the curve of the river.

I peeked through the windows of the Quoile Countryside Centre (which only opens on Sunday afternoons) and saw a bunch of bright green holly, sitting just where the sunlight fell.

And of course there were lots of robins waiting, completely unabashed, for me to throw nuts to them.

Have a lovely Christmas!

Home for Christmas

2010-12-22T09:58:00.003Z

Merry Christmas!

I made it home on Monday, with little difficulty in spite of the snow. I am thankful that I usually travel by ferry and that, although slow, it is usually reliable. I feel so sorry for those who are stranded in places far from home. Today I am going for a proper walk in the snow, and of course my camera is coming with me! Northern Ireland is beautiful at all times of the year, but the snow makes it a little more special.

Stay Warm :)

A walk on a cold morning

2010-12-13T17:04:00.002Z

My favourite time of the year, and my favourite weather...

The town at the heart of winter

2010-12-08T18:28:00.002Z

The heaps of snow beside the roads and on the rooftops keep getting higher, and the icicles above my window keep getting longer!

Part of SkyWatch Friday!

Weekend in Black and White: Bitter Cold

2010-12-03T13:48:00.002Z

In and around the Botanic Gardens, Lund:

More monochrome? There's tons here - The Weekend in Black and White!

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This morning I submitted the last two assignments of the semester, so hopefully now I will have a bit more time to give to photography and blogging :)

The Traveller's Return

2010-11-29T15:31:00.004Z

I am just back from a few days in Sweden with lots of beautiful memories; the comfort of being with friends I hadn't seen for awhile, the cosiness of the houses and shops with lights in their windows and candles at their doors, delicious food, a cathedral draped in icicles and vast forests full of snow.

Finding Silence

2010-11-19T21:06:00.004Z

Recently there was a programme by the BBC called "The Big Silence" in which volunteers spent eight days in almost complete silence. The rationale behind this was that all the noise and distractions and busyness of life is making us lose touch with our own selves. While I think complete silence and isolation is too extreme I do long for a more simple, gentle life. Sadly, these days, the nature of my studies demands that I spend hours and hours each day in front of computer screen and it becomes increasingly hard to just switch off. May you have a peaceful weekend!

From various churches in Norfolk, July 2010

More monochrome? Visit The Weekend in Black and White!

Damp and Cold

2010-11-12T20:30:00.005Z

"When winter first begins to bite
and stones crack in the frosty night,
when pools are black and trees are bare
'tis evil in the Wild to fare."

~Tolkien

Photographed in and around Castleward/Strangford Lough sometime at the beginning of the year, on a day when a walk in the country turned into a trudge through the drizzle.

More in monochrome? Please visit the Weekend in Black and White!

Where it is Winter

2010-11-05T20:53:00.006Z

The burial mounds of the long departed. Kilmartin Valley, Western Scotland:

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For more monochrome: Weekend in Black and White

Winter Larder

2010-10-31T15:45:00.004Z

For the last few weeks I have been a bit apple-mad! A large crate of foraged apples caused some excitement so a group of us got together for some communal chutney-making. 30-odd jars of chutney later, there were still a lot of apples left, so we divided them between us and since then I have had a bag of apples sitting amongst my shoes beside the door. Because of the time change I had an extra hour to play with, so late on Saturday night I cooked some apple butter - an intriguing old recipe I've only recently heard about. I only filled one jar, but it was nice to waken the next morning to the lovely smell of apples and cinnamon. With the chutney and some delicious parsley honey that was given to me I'm building up quite a collection of jars - next on the list to make is red onion chutney.

Keep Warm!

Weekend in Black and White: Greylags at Snettisham

2010-10-29T15:26:00.002+01:00

(From Norfolk, Summer 2010)

The monochrome theme continues here.

Skywatch Friday: October Sunset

2010-10-28T18:22:00.003+01:00

I love the sunsets the autumn gives us:

Photographed Edinburgh, October 2010

More skies? Skywatch Friday!

Quickfeet, Bushytail and Lightheart

2010-10-24T19:16:00.002+01:00

These were three of the squirrels I met at the Botanic Gardens. I gave them hazelnuts, which they crammed into their mouths before scampering off to bury them in the flowerbeds. They had such dear little faces and their snouts and paws were smudged with earth; they know how to charm a soft heart!

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Elsewhere in the gardens, everything was pure autumn. I scuffed through orange drifts and looked at the sun through a leaf.

The Ropeswing/The Foragers (Part 2)

2010-10-19T17:34:00.006+01:00

Continued from Part 1

The mushroom forage is temporarily forgotten as everyone dashes to the ropeswing. From the banks we have a good view of the trapeze artists (one of which happens to be my Plant Lecturer):

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All too soon the woods begin to darken around us and it time to turn for home.

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We spread out the day's finds on a table:

Wood Blewits (Tricholoma nudum) or possibly a poisonous Cortinarius? It is hard to tell without a spore print to check the colour of the spores; Wood Blewits have pink spores, Cortinarius have brown spores.

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A last look at the tiny Green Woodcups (Chlorosplenium aeruginascens):

Watery Wednesday

The Foragers (Part One)

2010-10-17T15:55:00.005+01:00

We're going mushroom hunting - join us! Grab a basket and grab my hand and we'll follow the Mycologist closely...

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One of our first finds is this Porcellain Fungus (or Poached Egg Fungus) - Oudemansiella mucida. Best not to touch it, it's as slimey as it looks:

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Things get even wilder with this Wood Blewit (Lepista nuda): for some reason it has sprouted another mushroom on top of the first! Wood Blewits are very good for eating - but this one is not for the pot; the Mycologist wraps it in paper to preserve it for the Royal Botanical Gardens' herbarium.

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These Green Woodcups (although I think they are more blue), Chlorociboria aeruginascens, are some of the prettiest things we find. They and the green moss make an attractive pair! You can see that they also stain the dead wood blue (or is it green?) as well.

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We crunch and scuffle on through the fallen leaves. Above us the trees are a riot of colour and...hang on, is that a rope swing I spy...?

Photographed in Vogrie Country Park, 16 October

Skywatch Friday: The Sky Whispers

2010-10-14T20:33:00.003+01:00

Photographed Edinburgh, October 14 2010

For more lovely skies - please visit Skywatch Friday!

Weekend in Black and White: Staying Cheerful

2010-10-08T13:25:00.003+01:00

The weather is dull and damp and most people in my class at University have coughs and colds. Including me. But finally we have reached the weekend; time to put on my wooliest socks and cook some thick, veggie soups :)

My monochromes for this weekend are of some medieval carvings on the ceiling of the cloisters in Norwich Cathedral; they are full of life!

The Black and White Weekend continues...

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In other news: there have been a few additions to the sidebar on the right. One is an award! -for which I feel quite chuffed. The other is a banner for the International Fund of Animal Welfare. I feel I should explain this - I don't normally like adverts on blogs but 1) wildlife conservation is important to me and anything to raise awareness is a good thing and 2) as it is a charity banner I am not being payed for anything.

Harvest Festival

2010-10-06T17:33:00.007+01:00

I have started to work at a communal allotment located on some disused ground at the science campus of my university. Never having grown vegetables before, I find it exciting to hunt through the foliage to see what's growing...

The herb patch: the broad leaved sorrel on the left is delicious to nibble!

Proof that tomatoes can grow outside in Scotland.

Nasturtium - we had a few of these beauties in a colourful salad at the end of the summer.

Radishes - a little bit munched-upon, though.

The pond. A few frogs were sighted here recently, and the strawberry plants around the edges did produce a few strawbs.

My favourite veg is this squash - it's so autumnal and redolent of halloween.

Now, if ever, is the time to buy and eat seasonal, local and fresh food!

Scenic Sunday: Rest for the Tired Mind

2010-10-03T20:37:00.003+01:00

My head has been spinning all week (think I'm getting a cold...). So I visited the Botanic Gardens just for the quietness; to gather up my thoughts, to breathe some fresher air.

I walked through groves of trees...

...and along quiet alleys of hedges...

...where the last flowers still bloomed.

I saw mushrooms (Coprinus micaceus) sprouting from the neat lawns...

...and a tree looking into a sad pool.

My face was warmed by the autumn sun.

For more scenery go to Scenic Sunday!

Weekend in Black and White: Dalliance with a Lightbox

2010-10-01T19:13:00.002+01:00

"The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely" ~ Oscar Wilde

Pictures from an experimental photoshoot involving a lightbox (homemade from a cardboard box), some beans, sea glass and beads. Summer 2010.

More Monochrome this way!

Say Goodbye

2010-09-25T15:32:00.005+01:00

The chances are that it will be almost a year before I see one of these lovelies again!

Incidentally, this is the best picture I've ever taken of a dragonfly. I was out on a cold wet day and spotted the dragonfly just sitting quietly in some grasses, saving its energy. My dad, who was with me, identified it but I have forgotten what he said its name was. No doubt he'll remind me :)

More critters of all sorts - Camera Critters!

Update - thanks to the Wandering Photographer for identifying it as a female black darter!

Monochrome Theme: Low to the Ground

2010-09-24T21:35:00.004+01:00

The uplands of Northern Ireland are windswept and waterlogged. For the most part the moors are bleak and empty; a few hardy cattle graze and the occasional bird of prey may wheel overhead. Most of the people left long ago. There is beauty, but a strange kind...

Willows and low skies. Below, some Cladonia lichen on an old tree stump:

I'm not entirely sure, but I think that these lovely lichens are Rhizocarpon petraeum:

A little extra: I would probably have missed seeing this little frog had it not leapt out of the thick vegetation at my feet and given me a fright:

The beating heart of The Weekend in Black and White is here!

Dappled Light

2010-09-24T19:24:00.002+01:00

Sunlight and trees - what better?

I posted this shot last week in monochrome - but it is definitely one for colour:

More beautiful places can be found here - Scenic Sunday.

Weekend in Black and White: To Another Place

2010-09-17T18:38:00.003+01:00

A few weeks ago, when summer was not quite over, I walked slowly along an old sunken roadway. Hawthorn branches laced overhead and all around me the light was dim and green. Between the trees I could see rippling swathes of barley and from far away across the fields came the sound of tractors and farm dogs. At the end of the tunnel, close to a red-rusty gate lay a dead magpie; its tail plume still held at a proud angle. Beyond the gate the hawthorn tunnel ended and the countryside opened up around me. There in a green field was a stone circle with swallows swooping low over the stones.

Photographs from Ballynoe Stone Circle, August 2010

More in Monochrome - The Weekend in Black and White!

September Colours

2010-09-15T08:15:00.002+01:00

I love to watch how the seasons change the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens; just now, there is a lovely mix of summer and autumn colours...

This cat is another of the Gardens' frequent visitors; I stopped to stroke him as he passed but, after he had wiped his nose on my trousers, he just continued his inspection of the wildflower meadow.

Weekend in Black and White: Time for Tea

2010-09-11T10:17:00.003+01:00

Sorry for my absence last week! I returned to normality just yesterday after spending a week in the Scottish Highlands doing university work. I am catching my breath again, trying to get used to the noise and crowds of the big city...

A cup of rooibos tea in a coffee shop in Dublin, August 2010

The monochrome theme continues over here - Weekend in Black and White

Watery Wednesday: Struell Holy Wells

2010-08-31T19:47:00.004+01:00

I visited the site of Struell Holy Wells late this afternoon. It's a fascinating place, sited in a narrow, steep sided valley. The wells were first recorded in the 13th Century and the buildings still standing date from the 16th Century. Up until the 18th Century, pilgrims used to visit in the hope of curing their illnesses: two of the wells were for bathing in, one for eye illnesses and one was for drinking. The wells are situated in several buildings and are fed by the swift stream that runs through the valley.

Here is the building housing the bathing wells:

Here is the changing room for the womens' well, and then we head through the doorway to the womens' well:

And the womens' well itself (I just had to try the water since there was no one else around! It was freezing cold!):

More Watery Wednesday shots can be found here!

Edible Trees/Rowan

2010-08-30T20:35:00.003+01:00

I am making rowan berry jelly this evening!

First the hard part, the berry gathering: the only rowans in Tollymore Forest with berries were on the other side of a ditch, amongst brambles and bracken, and were very tall. They were also home to lots of insects.

I then removed the leaves and stalks from the berries (and rescued a few unlucky spiders from the bag), washed them, then added apples and boiled them together with water:

The fruit is now being strained in a muslin bag overnight:

I am using this recipe, although with much reduced quantities.

Festival of the Trees 51: Edible Trees/Hazel

2010-08-28T15:15:00.010+01:00

At this time of year it is impossible to stop the "hunter-gatherer" instinct creeping into my bones. Usually my mum and I only gather blackberries (which my mum's culinary magic turns into bramble jelly) but the cold start at the beginning of the year has resulted in an abundance of many other fruits and nuts. I have stacks of photographs of berries, but since this is festival of the trees, I think I'll restrict my celebration to the hazelwoods.

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This afternoon I took a short visit to an ancient hazel wood. There are no paths and the hazels grow wild; it's a good place for a wander...
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There was lots going on on the woodland floor:

Most of the hazelnuts were well out of my reach. The ones on the floor had already been eaten:

I think these were eaten by squirrels - they tend to crack the shells whereas mice nibble holes through them.

I nodded respectfully towards the well-kept badger sett and scrambled ungainly up a steep earth bank and out of the woods.

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I gathered just a small handful of the green hazelnuts from trees at the edge of wood where the branches were lower. The nuts won't fully ripen until late September, but the unripe ones can still be eaten (once the shell has been gnawed through!)

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This month's Festival of the Trees is kindly hosted by Orchards Forever

See also: Edible Trees/Rowan
The Festival of the Trees hub is here

A Day's Journey

2010-08-23T21:16:00.005+01:00

Follow the old wall up the hillside

Up, up, up into the clouds.

Follow the path as it winds down through towers of stone

(Don't follow the pink sheep; they are quite wild)

Through the grey mountains

(A much abridged account of a hill walk I took up Slieve Binnian in the Mourne Mountains at the weekend)

See also: Skywatch Friday (starting on Thursday evening)

Weekend in Black and White: An Evening at the Dolmen

2010-08-20T16:36:00.005+01:00

I think I have now photographed Legananny Dolmen from every conceivable angle!

Another post about the dolmen from an earlier visit, including information, can be accessed here.

The monochrome theme continues: Weekend in Black and White

Skywatch Friday: 1000 Greys and Greens

2010-08-19T20:08:00.003+01:00

Cloudy evenings are far more interesting than sunny blue-sky days!

The Mourne Mountains as seen from the Windy Gap, Dromara Hills.

More skies from all across the world - Skywatch Friday!

Watery Wednesday: Washed by the Sea

2010-08-17T21:31:00.002+01:00

A study of some old posts in the sea at Murlough Bay, Northern Ireland:

More watery shots - Watery Wednesday!

Time to move on

2010-08-16T10:26:00.004+01:00

My blog has been a little neglected of late as I was away from home all of last week, on what turned out to be a rather stressful and disappointing journey. My camera has remained tucked up in its case all this time. This morning, though, I decided to edit a set of photos I took at the beginning of August. They reminded me that that the transition between summer and autumn is one of the most interesting, exciting times of the year and that I should be outside photographing it!

Pictures 1, 2, 3 and 5 from Mount Stewart Gardens. The rowan tree closeups from Hillsborough Forest Park.

Weekend In Black and White: Solway Firth

2010-08-06T10:49:00.003+01:00

A grey day on the south-west Scottish coast:

The Monochrome continues - Weekend in Black and White

Camera Critters/Norfolk Part 3: Birds, familiar and unfamiliar

2010-07-31T14:56:00.004+01:00

Birds were one of the main features of my holiday in Norfolk - the fact that the county is one of Britain's birding hotspots for birdwatching was what drew us there in the first place. Armed with a guidebook to birdwatching in Norfolk we set out everyday with high hopes of seeing some different birds (such as barn owls which are quite rare in Northern Ireland) and some of Norfolk's specialities such as the incredibly rare bittern and the elusive but adorable bearded tit...

Greylag Geese: It was quite a common sight to see fields full of these geese, but I never tired of seeing them. They are lovely birds, and very spectacular when they fly together in long skeins.

Avocet: They are not found in Ireland and I'd been looking forward to seeing them in real life, after learning about them on SpringWatch. They have a distinctive upturned beak that they sweep through the water when feeding.

Arctic Tern: This one was looking for its supper and had just come up after plunging into the water.

Little Egret: A gorgeous, snow white bird a litte smaller than a heron. They have only just started breeding in Ireland, but are very common in Norfolk. I was lucky to snap this one just as it flew past the bird hide.

Barn Owl: It wasn't until the second last evening of the holiday that we saw barn owls (two in total). In the rush to photograph it sitting on the fence post, I forgot to change the shutter speed and ISO settings which is why the picture is so dark and grainy!

Bearded Tit! These birds live in the reedbeds that Norfolk is famous for. We spent hours looking for them but it wasn't until the very last day of the holiday that we got a clear view of them! The six in my picture (three in the middle, three on the right) are all juveniles. They were a wonderful sight although sadly we didn't see any adult males (they're the ones with the beards!)

The Camera Critter theme continues here!

Monochrome Weekend/Norfolk Part 2: Bircham Windmill

2010-07-30T10:51:00.002+01:00

Bircham Windmill is one of many windmills in Norfolk. However, unlike the majority of the other windmills, Bircham mill is open to the public and is still in perfect working order! I was able to climb a series of steep wooden ladders right to the top and stand on a platform among the sails.

Bircham Windmill from the ground - you can see the balcony (left at top of windmill) that I climbed to, and also the balcony around the middle of the mill that I walked around.

The lower floors were more spacious than those at the very top and they were full of interesting objects and details like a miller's jacket and old advertisement (above) and the windmill's shutters neatly stacked against the wall (below). These are attached to the windmill's sails when the mill is used for grinding.

Two of the ladders inside the mill.

From the balcony around the middle of the mill I was able to look up to the sails.

At the very top the sails weren't turning. This smaller wheel, the sail wheel, was turning. It is used to keep the main sails pointed into the wind.

I mentioned that the mill is a working one; in the shop attached to it were bags of Bircham Mill flour for sale, and also a small bakery where we bought some sweet little loaves of Bircham Mill bread for lunch.

The monochrome theme continues - The Weekend in Black and White!

Watery Wednesday/Norfolk Part 1: Blakeney Point

2010-07-27T19:29:00.004+01:00

While on holiday in Norfolk I took a boat trip with my parents to see seals at Blakeney Point, the tip of a long spit of sand and shingle. On the way to the Point, our boat passed the iconic Blakeney Lifeboat Station (now a visitors centre):

A colony of about 500 seals (both common and grey) live at Blakeney Point. As the boat drew closer to the point, we began to make out the shapes of about 40 seals. Fortunately, they are habituated to boats and our presence in the sea in front of them did not disturb them. A few of them kept a lazy eye on us, but most just kept on dozing. (Boats do not land at the point).

More wonderful wateryness can be found here - Watery Wednesday!

Hello Again!

2010-07-26T10:01:00.003+01:00

I'm just back from some Summer wanderings in Norfolk!

Although it was a very restful time...

...I am a little tired...

...but very pleased to have sackfuls of pictures to sort through!

I'm buzzing with inspiration and very excited to share my pictures and catch up with all your blogs!

Pictures (from top): Cromer beach

Seals at Blakeney Point

A young black headed gull yawns as it waits for its parents, Wells

Bags of flour from Bircham Windmill

Two dancing musicians on the ceiling of the cloisters in Norwich Cathedral

Back Soon!

2010-07-08T20:54:00.003+01:00

Just a quick update to say that I won't be posting on this blog for a few weeks as I'm off on holiday. Hopefully I will return laden with lovely pictures - I'm going to a place in England of fens and windmills, strange birds and barges...

I leave you with some bright flowers and a dusty blue-coloured butterfly from Rowallane Gardens, County Down:

Watery Wednesday: Splish Splash

2010-07-06T11:06:00.002+01:00

I think Northern Ireland got three weeks' worth of rain on Sunday and Monday - I knew the sunny spell had to break at some point! Still, I'm sure the plants are very grateful for the water:

This dear little snail was a bit camera shy at first, but he eventually decided that fresh juicy maple leaf was worth coming out of his shell for:

More watery wonders can be found here - Watery Wednesday!

Camera Critters: A mixed flock!

2010-07-03T11:37:00.007+01:00

Just a few of the birds I've encountered in the past few weeks...

A young chaffinch on a bench outside a cafe waits for me to throw crumbs of shortbread to it...

A sleepy fulmar sits curled on its nest, in a niche near the top of a sea cliff...

A juvenile swallow lets me get close to it, as it waits for its parents to feed it...

And finally, in the late evening warmth a cormorant dries it wings as a common seal looks on.

More critters of all shapes and sizes can be found here - Camera Critters!

Scenic Sunday: The Whispering Wind and Willows

2010-07-03T11:25:00.004+01:00

I strolled through some green woods on the shores of Lough Neagh when the wind was rushing and rustling through the leaves. In the cool green light beneath the canopy I paused to say hello to the willows.

Please visit Scenic Sunday for more scenery!

Today's Flowers: Wild Poppies

2010-06-27T20:01:00.002+01:00

I spied these frail lovelies in a little hollow of disturbed sand at Killard Nature Reserve:

More flowers from all over the world can be found here - Today's Flowers

Scenic Sunday: Solstice Stroll

2010-06-25T16:47:00.002+01:00

I just can't stop photographing the beauty of the summer evening sunlight!

Photographed at Brackagh Moss, 22 June

More shots of beautiful scenery can be found here - Scenic Sunday

Watery Wednesday: A weather-worn coast and its inhabitants

2010-06-22T10:46:00.006+01:00

Rathlin Island lies just off the northeast coast of Ireland. It has a small, thriving human population (of about 100) and a massive colony of seabirds (population 100,000). The ferry to the island leaves from mainland Ballycastle, passing the fearsome cliffs of Fair Head which rise to 196m above the sea:

The ferry then crosses the Rathlin Sound - a narrow stretch of water through which the tide pours, sometimes creating very rough seas. Fortunately I'd a fairly calm crossing which allowed me to snap this shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) skimming the waves:

Once on the island, I headed for the Rathlin Island Seabird Centre (RSPB). Here is Northern Ireland's largest seabird colony, home to puffins, razorbills, guillemots, razorbills and kittiwakes (second picture down) which nest precariously on the sea stacks (below). The air was full of wheeling birds, and the cries of the kittiwakes - which seemed to be calling to me - kitti-wake! kitti-wake!

I caught the bus to Church Bay, the human hub of the island. Just beyond the skein of houses in Church Bay is the quiet little Mill Bay, where the seals live. I ate lunch at the top of the beach and watched the seals; most were laid up on the rocks, gradually letting their smoothed, wetted fur dry out to a speckled brown fuzz. A few were in the sea, huffing and blowing or slapping the water with their fins.

The sea journey back to mainland was rougher and splashier than the previous crossing. The only photo I took was of the island's East Lighthouse before tucking the camera into its bag, safely away from the seaspray:

More watery shots can be found here - Watery Wednesday!

Scenic Sunday: The Harbour

2010-06-19T09:13:00.003+01:00

Come home from the sea...

Photographed in the harbour at Church Bay, Rathlin Island (just off the coast of Northern Ireland), 18 June 2010

For more scenic shots, please visit Scenic Sunday!