Butterfly, Stones, Cherry Blossom Petals

Eagle Owl 3

This Eagle Owl, as far as birds is concerned, is the real McCoy, unlike my beloved product of the taxidermist, Marvin the Barn Owl. Apparently the wing span is something to behold.  Far as I am concerned, the eyes have it….

Eagle Owl 2

Eagle Owl 1

 

Looking Towards Cornhill

To me  the light in this photograph reminds me of the background to a 19th Century landscape painting, apart from the bright yellow patches of oilseed rape. The brilliant yellow of the rape is given a blueish tinge by distance, but still maintains the acidity of its yellow, so different from the colour of wheat or barley. The earth here is chestnut colour when it is turned over, and at this time of year the Cheviots on the horizon appear in a variety of delicate blues.

 

 

 

 

 

The Weir

 

Strange how the panoramic view distorts the shape of the weir, and yet this is what the camera sees from a single  wide viewpoint. A kind of fishbowl effect.  This is looking down the River Tweed. There were several boats on the river, and a total lack of herons – they were obviously keeping a low profile.

Cherry Blossom: “Loveliest of trees, the cherry now”

 

 

From “A Shropshire Lad” by A.E. Housman

 

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Is hung with bloom along the bough,

And stands about the woodland ride

Wearing white for Eastertide.

 

 

 

 

Now, of my threescore years and ten,

Twenty will not come again,

And take from seventy springs a score,

It only leaves me fifty more.

 

 

 

 

And since to look at things in bloom

Fifty springs is little room,

About the woodlands I will go

To see the cherry hung with snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young Chaffinch

He (or probably she) looks so sweet and dandy, but maybe that’s because I’ve been listening to Toots and the Maytals….

Cheviots and a Yellow Field

Even driving in the car, with the windows closed, one can smell that rank, sweet, pervasive scent of the oilseed rape. He said to me: “I wonder what Van Gogh would have made of these fields,” just at the same time I was wondering the same thing. Nothing as yellow as this, bad for the breathing, but astonishing to look at (through itchy eyes).

One Sparrow in the Hedge