Saturday 8 August 2015

Will it never end?

An so as we move into August the work on the house doesn't seem to end...the last few days have been spent washing the paint off the conservatory roof... The previous owners thought it was a good idea to paint the polycarbonate roof with white emulsion, giving the impression of badly applied white-wash. It looked awful...We had intended to have the roof replaced but the cost implications lead me to casually say over tea that maybe it would wash off. "Try it then" came the reply...I tried...and it did...! Me and my big mouth..."So you can wash that off then" came the instruction. I can't begin to describe the pain in my shoulder after two and a half days of washing, scraping and scrubbing a roof - leaning up and backwards, being dripped on and covered with flakes of paint...It is so rock n roll being a pro photographer!

However, I did find time to run a workshop on nature photography (particularly insects) at Wicken Fen: a good turn out, and some great pictures taken (some of the attendees were excellent photographers)...I managed...




Some serious pollination going on here...





grass flowers...I love the blue tinge the ripe anthers give to this...grass isn't just green...





marsh woundwort - great group of plants the labiates...almost orchid-like in form and colour...





Roesel's bush-cricket; they used to be restricted to just the south, but are moving north as the climate gets warmer...




some serious photography here - peacock butterfly being the subject as Bill gets in close...





a soldier beetle reaches the end of the road...





water mint flower in detail...exquisite...





yellow loosestrife...

A pretty good day and hopefully we will be running some more. We are also looking at running workshops about Lightroom for Beginners - basically showing people how to set up the programme and the fundamental uses of the tools on offer. A venue needs to be found and the logistics working out, but it will happen sooner rather than later.

Now earlier in the week I stepped out my back door to have an early morning look at my pond and was saddened to see the corpse of a scarce chaser on the water surface. The night before was cold and I think the male had reached the end of his life. A great species to have in the garden - but preferably alive rather than dead...




Looks like the International Space Station in a dark, starry sky...



Also from the garden...




grasshopper...





back-lit leaf...

Finally, whilst cleaning the roof I noticed an emergence of ants...three separate colonies in our garden. Always joyous to be able to put down the scraper and pick up my camera I took the chance to burn some pixels...




A queen ant...after all the time and effort spent by the workers - tending, feeding and cleaning this individual, she flew straight up into a spiders web...less than a metre from her nest. Like many of her sisters who suffered similar fates...

And...so...after more painting I managed to escape into the orchard adjacent to our garden (privately owned but we have access) with my trusty Nikon and Tokina 100mm to see what I could find. After half an hour I had these...




common darter...






creeping cinquefoil...






emerald damselfly...






not sure what this blue thing is...we inherited it in the pond...if you have any ideas...?






ragwort...





sow-thistle...


Not a bad return, I am particularly pleased with the darter and the emerald damselfly...

Well. that is a wrap for this week...hope you enjoy the pictures - see you again soon - when the DIY allows...!

TTFN