Friday, January 24, 2020

Five years ago today

Sunrise, January 24, 2015:
Later that day I got the following, more abstract view of a tree in my village:

Thursday, January 23, 2020

New Order is 40 this year

My first lucky shot revisited

In April 2014, I was out in the garden photographing non-native bluebells. They had attracted me outside because they were back-lit by the morning sunlight. When I turned to go back inside, I noticed this fledgling, watching me from the hedging. I slowly lifted my camera and the automatic focusing of my Lumix FZ18 worked like a charm:

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Three years ago today

Custard on ice, January 22, 2017:
In November, the pond had been a lot wetter...
And in July, the pond had been reflecting greenery...
In May, Custard had been much fluffier...

Monday, January 20, 2020

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Red Dragon


This is a picture from Carl Jung's Red Book (which I just heard about via the blog that nobody reads); here is the picture in the book:

Three Years Ago today,

the pintail was still on the village duck-pond...

 

Friday, January 17, 2020

Five Years Ago Today


 

Five years ago today

we used to have bullfinches in our garden
(not any more because of the new houses)

 

Wednesday, January 08, 2020

Sunday, January 05, 2020

Three years ago today


 

Why mermaids need combs

2016 revisited

Another of Custard's baby photos below, and above: when she was a young adult

Saturday, January 04, 2020

The first time I saw Custard

3 Years Ago


Three years ago, I was photographing the village duck-pond.

A leucistic female mallard had hatched out in April 2016, looking very cute and yellow. The village called her "Custard" and I took a lot of photos of her, the best of which I shall dig out and process and post here later (at the time I was sharing them on google+).

By January 2017, I would have been at a loose end had it not been for this unusual arrival: a male pintail. He was able to fly, but he stayed for a few weeks. Villagers feeding the adorable Custard would feed him, and it was Winter, so why not?


Wednesday, January 01, 2020

Carl Bovis Nature Photography


These two photos are from Carl's top 100 photos of 2019

Haikoo


 A moo oozes out
of a cow's mouth, in a fog
            that is not too odd.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Friday, December 13, 2019

Should Brexit get done?

Was Boris's "Get Brexit Done" position endorsed by the British people in this election?

Well, it was a Brexit-dominated election, and 52% of the votes were for pro-Remain parties and 48% for pro-Leave parties (according to John Curtice), the reverse of the result of the original referendum, regarding which:
Cameron promised to be bound by the original referendum result, but he immediately resigned upon hearing what it was. And that referendum was, in many ways, flawed, even as a measure of the will of the British people which is all that it was in itself. The winning margin was small and the winning side was found to have cheated a little. Furthermore, many of the votes for Brexit were votes by racists, for what they took to be a racist policy.
Should cheating, and the wishes of racists, have been allowed to determine our country's future after the person who promised to be bound by the result had resigned? Well, it was his decision, and then it was the will of parliament, via their decision about who would replace him.
Interestingly, Jeremy and Jo are now resigning, having lost the election, but their parties got 32.2% and 11.6% of the votes, which add up to 43.8%, which is slightly more than Boris's party's 43.6%.
Another interesting statistic (via The Outside) is: 2005 — Labour party vote share in England, 35%
               Labour seats in England, 286
2019 — Labour party vote share in England, 34%
               Labour seats in England, 180