Nature's Magic

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.
Henry David Thoreau

On Saturday I went on a macro photography workshop at a nearby nature reserve Langford Lakes. It was a revelation. I have always enjoyed watching and photographing butterflies but had not realised how many other stunningly beautiful creatures there are out there vying for our attention. However before you can see you need to look, and in looking move slowly through the world. Our leader for the day was wildlife photographer Iain Green who introduced, what was for some of us at least, a new wonderland.

Fat-legged Garden Beetle on a Briar Rose

I love the iridescence of this garden beetle and the way in which it brings something new to the flowers it alights on

The day wasn’t perfect for this kind of photography. It was cold for June, we had to dodge the showers and worst of all it was windy. It turns out that winged insects really don’t like wind!

Thought this was a mayfly but having looked on the web not so sure!

I love the delicate tracery of the irridescent wings on this little one.

ladybird mating.jpg — Stages of the ladybird’s life cycle:
Mating

Something else I knew nothing about till Saturday! I included the picture of the ladybirds mating even though it’s not very sharp as I thought it would be fun to show the whole cycle.

I love his little face. when you look at the faces of moths, butterflies and damselflies close up you can really see where people got the idea of fairies from.

Finally to sign off, a plant that tries to fool you into thinking it’s an animal - the Bee Orchid. When I was a child there were fields full of them and pyramid orchids where we lived on the Isle of Wight. Sadly nowadays they are much more difficult to find. Apologies if any of the info about insects in this blog is incorrect. If you spot any mistakes please feel free to highlight them in the comments. In the meantime happy insect hunting!

Open to the Unexpected

I have just bought the book ‘Adventures in Seeing’ by one of my favourite photography tutors Kim Manley Ort. I have taken several of her e-courses and found them inspirational. The book suggests a series of challenges or ‘Calls to Adventure’ which can be shared through social media (there is a private Facebook group) or one’s blog. This challenge, which is adventure number three seems to call for a blog post. the challenge was to notice what surprises you and let the photographs come to you (of course there is a lot more about this in the book but for the purposes of this blog this captures the essence of it)

The photographs below were taken during the course of a weekend on the Isle of Wight, following paths I had followed many times before but with what you might call enhanced noticing.

The two images above are of water seen through holes in the wooden floor of a bird watchers hide on the Newtown River (we didn't see much in the way of interesting birds!). To me they look rather like planets.

the magpie and periwinkle I came upon the following day while walking on Headon Warren

These final two are from an evening stroll along the beach. A boat trailer half buried in the sand beginning to rust and early evening colours on sand still wet from the receding tide.

Wishing you all a week of 'enhanced noticing'!

New Discoveries

One of the great things about moving to a new place is discovering new things about the environment. Today we went for a country walk in the city and the possibility of doing this is one of the things I love about Salisbury.

We started off on familiar territory going through Elizabeth Gardens on our way to the industrial estate. There we followed a grassy track down the side of one of the units which led to the river. It was like entering another world, green peaceful and a million miles away from the industrial estate we left behind. During this part of our walk we only came across two other groups both walking in the opposite direction.

On the other side of the river were stunning views of the cathedral across the water meadows.

There were lots of wild flowers but my favourites were these yellow 'flags' or irises

Then there was the wildlife, families of geese with their goslings,

I love this one with mum (or dad) eating a fish,

A beautiful grey heron,

and last but not least an egret.

Across the river we entered a more wooded area where we spotted some magnificent fungi

Finally on the way back more views of the cathedral this time with sheep!

In all a fabulous country walk without leaving the city boundaries, or having to get into the car.

If you are in Salisbury and would like to try this walk it is detailed in the Salisbury & Wilton Walking map available from the Tourist Information Centre