Monday I overslept, Tuesday it was rain, this morning even though slightly breezy it was dry and so I was able to get out for a walk.
My reward for bothering was a lovely sky over Portsmouth. I love mornings like this. Mind you, I like a clear blue sky as well, but that is slightly less exciting.
Bob and Sue weren’t outside Greggs. Had I missed them, too late or too early? Who knows, I don’t know them that well, so if they are there I’ll just say “Good Morning.” – that’s assuming I can get out myself.
The bird table is at the bottom of the garden, I can’t see it from the office, so I miss out on activity on it. I installed a Neos camera and bought a cheap tablet to watch it. I haven’t quite worked out how to get photo’s from it to my collection – easy with an iPad.
This afternoon has been an absolute hive of activity. I first noticed a solitary starling, stuffing its face. Normally, there’s a gang of them. Not only on it’s own, but it stayed for a long time, almost an hour. During that time it defended robustly against invaders, including another starling and a pigeon. At one point about a dozen starlings landed, it didn’t look as though they ate anything, but they had a massive bundle and flew of as abruptly as they arrived leaving a solitary starling. Was it the same one?
For a short period of time, it allowed a pigeon to share the table. Then the squirrel came, and the starling admitted defeat and they both flew off. I watched the squirrel for a few minutes. It was a bit nervous and would dash off, only to return seconds later. It made sure though that it had a good feed. What a fascinating afternoons viewing.
Just a note to add; I didn’t go for a walk this morning. It was chucking it down. It was also blowing a gale, but I don’t mind that, I quite happily go out when it’s breezy. Not going out twice in two days is seriously disrupting my weekly step count.
We booked a meal out at a decent steak restaurant. We were celebrating two birthdays and Anniversary which we had saved up over the lockdown. We felt quite safe there. The tables were a good distance apart, and only the one waitress came anywhere near us.
No something we will do very often, but it was nice to do something “normal”.
For today’s tale, it helps if you are familiar with the lexicon of Star Trek, The Next Generation, for today I am relating to you the story of the Battle of Fallopia Balschuanica.
Fallopia Balschuanica might sound like the name of a remote stellar system, but in reality it is a garden plant . Like Star Trek’s The Borg, the plant is invasive, instead of assimilating people, it assimilates garden space.
It doesn’t matter how much you cut it back, it lives to grow again. Prolifically. Warranting it’s other name; Mile-a-Minute, and it does grow very fast.
It is only a few weeks ago that I last encountered the The Borg of the Plant world. It had been invading the fence between us and next door. The plant is so determined that it is invading the brick wall.
Today I spent two or three hours cutting it back, quite a cathartic period really even though it rained several times, once quite intently such that I had to abandon the battle. Nonetheless, I persisted.
Today I decided to do something drastic. I think I may have cut out the centre of the hive of the Borg Plant. Have I hit it fatally? Who knows. Only time will tell whether or not it’s heart, the centre of the hive has been removed.
We have a pumpkin growing in the garden. We’ve had some marrows in the past that got to a reasonable size. I wonder how big this will get? It is always interesting to follow the progress of these things.
I had to do a little bit of scrabbling around to get a picture. I went in to the garden hoping that inspiration would come to me for good, gimmicky photo, but no, it didn’t.
Weekends can be a bit like this, not making enough opportunities to take what might be a reasonable photo.
IT looks like they’re going to collide doesn’t it? They aren’t. It’s a very well coordinated dance. The captains of the Gosport Ferries are very skilful. They know exactly where and how to direct their ships. The Harbour Spirit here is just being lined up to continue the crossing as soo as the Mon St Michelle has gone past.
It’s relatively rare for me to see the Brittany Ferries at the moment, not just the fact that the number of crossings has been reduced because of Covid, they seem to have changed their times slightly, and are now earlier than usual. Nice to see.
It was a breezy walk this morning., and a very nice walk.
I feel a bit guilty. I should be going to the radio club tonight. I’ve bottled it. Not quite ready to go.
You might get two photo’s tonight. I had lunch in the garden, There were three or four whites. Of course I was rushing because of work so didn’t do a Big Butterfly Count. When I finished, There were still a couple of whites flitting around time to do a count. My reward was to find two Red Admirals. This one was quite happy for me to get close for long enough to get several pictures.
After I wasn’t able to get out yesterday because of the rain, this mornings walk was very welcome. I almost made it to the waterfront to see the Normandie coming in, the Brittany ferries have been getting earlier. It’s normally easy for me to get there in time but recently I have been getting there too late. Perhaps one day, they will return to normal. At least there was a little bit of a dramatic sky.
It’s a thing that I don’t go for walk if it’s raining. Of course, I would expect your response to be “Well, wear a rain coat then”. I have a threshold – sometimes there is just water in the air, in which case I do walk, on the hope that it doesn’t get worse.
If I don’t go for a walk, I don’t get photo’s. I would much rather use a photo that I’ve taken today rather than one from my archive. A quick dash then in to the garden.
My eye is drawn to the water droplet to the left of the tomato, clearly there is an image there. I’ve seen it happen, but never noticed it before. I’ve tried expanding the imagine, but it becomes very grainy. It’s clearly there though. Interesting. I’ll have to try to do that again.
When you go for a regular walk, and you follow the same route you see the same people. It only takes a smile, and a “Good Morning” and before you know it, you are friends.
So, on my morning walk there’s Mike (although he’s retired during the lockdown), Ray, Bob & Sue and Drone Boy – don’t know his name. He looks about 20 and is there a couple of times a week flying his drone.
Bob & Sue have only introduced themselves this week, after the rough sleeper episode, they sit outside Gregs having breakfast as I walk past on my return journey.
I would have preferred a bit more light behind the clouds, but I’ll take what I’m given. I do like to see a nice dramatic sky. I like to see the drama in the sky. Hence today’s picture – Angry clouds over Portsmouth.
Really, this is all about Street Photography. Wonderful landscapes are of course a joy to behold, but people add the interest to a lot of photographs. Like a lot of things, I can’t explain any of my obsessions, and street photography is certainly among them.
How much have I done? Possibly a dozen pictures, not many at all really. Too scared, nervous about confrontations with subjects, not very good. Why bother? The desire to do I suppose.
A couple of weeks ago, I took a picture of a runner, from behind and had one of those lightbulb moments, don’t face, don’t confront. Do it from behind. Then, I was reading somewhere, that this was a recommended way of starting in the genre. So here we go. Look for the red in the picture, not just the lady. It is there.
Hi! my name is Sebastian (You can call me Seb!) ...welcome to my Blog. I'm a photographer from Worcester, Worcestershire, England. Thanks for dropping by! I hope you enjoy my work.
I'm here to work on fiction. Occasionally I'll blog but that's certainly not my focus. You have a specific fiction genre or format you can't find enough of? Ask me. Maybe I got it. I migh share it with you. Otherwise, leave me alone; I'm toiling away at my workbench.
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