What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
John Steinbeck

I really haven’t had anything to say recently.  Well, don’t let that lull you into thinking I’ve been silent; far from it.  But I just haven’t had anything interesting to contribute recently.  Certainly nothing anyone would want to read about.

But I’m feeling much more inspired after some days of early summer sunshine (and quite warm some days too), extra hours of daylight giving rise to long evenings and remembering that I love photography again.  The winter with its early wetness and later cold and lack of light wasn’t one for getting out very far and I just stopped carrying my camera routinely, so didn’t have anything to show you – I haven’t taken a photograph for weeks.

But I’ve made up for it recently.  My husband recently bought me a pocket camera – I’d had one that simply proved too large for a pocket and we found one that was much more ‘fit-for-purpose’ and I’ve reawakened my enthusiasm for photography by getting to know it properly.  Unfortunately I’ve not been outside the garden much recently, so my pool of subject matter is somewhat limited.  But it has been a joy to have some flowers to photograph and consequently they’ve attracted some visitors too.

The large red damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) shown wasn’t photographed with the new camera, but with my DSLR with my close up set up – the speed of focus and subsequently taking the shot can sometimes only be achieved with a DSLR with skittish subject matter.  It still wasn’t fast enough – or at least I wasn’t – a few days later when I realised I was looking at a large chubby dragonfly at rest on one of the canes in the garden.  I had my camera in my hand at the time and as I raised it to try and get a shot, it spooked and flew straight out of the garden and I’ve not seen it again since.

I’d hardly touched the garden all winter and it was in dire need of a good sort out – it was looking positively scruffy and there seemed to be piles of dead leaves everywhere. I’d lost quite a few plants with the ‘Beast from the East’ cold snap we had – plants that had previously survived several winters.  But that gave me the opportunity to refresh a few spots that were looking tired and treat myself to new things instead.  Because my entire garden is in pots, they don’t have the protection of much ground around their roots, so I’m surprised that I haven’t lost more over previous winters.

But thankfully the glorious weather we’ve had recently allowed me get a good run at it.  I think we’ve had more nice days already in 2018 than we had all of last summer – we’ve certainly eaten out in the garden more times already than we managed last year.  I really hope it continues, it’s a joy to have a leisurely weekend breakfast al fresco!

Testing the camera at full zoom:

We did escape for one evening out and a picnic – which resulted in wrestling bread and cheese inside the car as the wind was so severe it would have blown supper right down the valley.  We do have a picnic rule; that if the wind is stiff enough to blow crisps off the plate, we eat inside and this certainly qualified.  It was a favourite spot where we’ve spent many hours watching hares over the years, but last year we had hardly any sightings and I was worried that they were no longer resident in the area, so it was a real joy to watch them again.  I saw three individuals in total.  The one I photographed below got up to stretch at one point and did a large twisting leap into the air, something I’ve not seen them do before, other than when ‘boxing’.

I wanted to test the focus at distance with the new camera as it has a 30x zoom which is a 720mm equivalent focal length.  It’s really frustrating to be chasing a squirrel up a tree or something and the camera failing to focus where you want.  The hare shot below was a proper test in truly demanding conditions – late evening light (and through a car window) with wind blowing the grass about and an area of cow parsley in the foreground that periodically blew right in front of the scene and there was fencing and blowing reeds between me and the hare, yet the camera managed to lock and retain focus where I wanted it to and whilst some of the shots were dire for other reasons, in each case, the focus was at least on the hare.  If you want to imagine the scenario, the landscape view to the right of the hare shot in the gallery is the scene – the bright green patch of grass just about in the centre of the frame is where she was and you can perhaps identify the wire fencing and patch of angled reeds.  So you can see that it was a bit of a stretch for a camera that will slip into my shirt pocket.

I’ll pop my recent photographs into a gallery below, they have captions with them, should they be of any interest.  I’ve enjoyed thinking about photographs again and tinkering with settings and getting to know a new camera.  I’m hoping that we have a good summer and I can continue to bore you with flower and insect photos.  I might even get out and about once in a while too.

Gallery:

We do see some fabulous sunsets in this spot – perhaps because the area to the left is heading out towards the sea.

Not a very good photo in any way as the wind was brisk to say the least, but I was happy to see hares again in this spot, we hardly saw any last spring.

I’ve taken this scene many times before, it’s one of my go to spots when testing a new camera. But the scene is slightly different every time.

The plants shown have already doubled in size since I took the photos. I can’t wait for more flowers to emerge.

These daisies are quite yellow when they open and as they grow, the outer petals get gradually paler.

I’ve been delighted to see these visiting large red damselfly in the garden this spring. I think I’ve identified 3 different individuals.

A new plant in the garden, a Ceanothus with tiny indigo florets – which are the most complicated and delicate structure.

I love how complicated the structures of flowers are once you get a bit closer for a good look.

Another ‘Crazy Daisy’. I just hope that the snails don’t love it as much as I do.

A Jacob’s Ladder that has just come in to flower – I think they’re the first flowers of my own to emerge this year.

I love daisies and this is a new one I treated myself to, called a Crazy Daisy.

A blue hosta that I added last year and it’s already massive this year. I love the abstract of the shapes they form.

I have a couple of gorgeous hostas and thankfully this year, the snails haven’t done much damage and it’s looking fabulous.

I loved the colour of this flower, but I didn’t read that it was early flowering, so it looks like it’s done now until next year.

A female large red damselfly that has visited me a few times now and it’s a delight to see.

My garden is very green still, but there will be a lot more colour shortly.

I’m dying to see what this hosta flower looks like, it didn’t flower last year and it’s a massive bud!

I only went out to bring in the wheelie bin and was rewarded by a spectacular display of raindrops.

I’ve always loved photographing raindrops on leaves and this blue hosta is especially good at presenting them for me.

I seem to have waited a long time for this clematis bud to open, but I think it’ll be worth the wait.

A tiny little emerging hosta leaf has trapped several little raindrops.

This plant is called Physocarpus opulifolius [ninebark] ‘Dart’s Gold’ and gets a fabulous flush of these domes of tiny blossom, unfortunately, there’s only one flowering and it’s all over too soon.

I do love hoverflies – this plant Dart’s Gold has a mass of these domes of tiny white flowers and insects just love it.

I watched this hoverfly for some time and he methodically worked from one bloom to the next.