For my fellow writers at Camp NaNoWriMo (April) . . .
The Common Mallow, one of my all-time favourite wildflowers: Photo 21 June 2018.
The Common Mallow, one of my all-time favourite wildflowers: I haven’t tried it toasted. Though this isn’t the ‘Marsh’ mallow, which is now quite a rare plant.
Common Mallow close up: Photo 21 June 2018
Taken on a windy day, I think those white dots that spray out from its stamens could be a dusting of pollen, captured in action.
Every autumn the sycamore keys spin down from the trees, each to cast their unique divination. I’m keen to see what becomes of this post-rooted seedling.
Sycamore seedling in post: photo 30th May 2018
Will it devour its host in years to come? Or will it fail to flourish due to an unforeseen lack of essential nutrients?
#2018picoftheweek: Something Grows
A poem reposted from 2015
image by “gere”
A broken house and a broken life
Of a broken man with a long-lost wife
The springs of bed and sofa’ve sprung
The stair-rods all are fitted wrong
Around the table chairs are chipt
The carpets all are rucked and slipt
The garden’s unkempt
The fences bent
The windows are grubby
(The cat is tubby)
In the bathroom:
The toilet seat’s loose and moves about
The tiles are skewed for want of grout
In the kitchen:
A lone hob-ring works
In the larder:
Fungi and black-mould lurks
But what’s in the old man’s broken heart
Are memories too dear to ever depart.
The many wildflowers of the umbellifer family that grace our English countryside are seldom easy to tell apart (except for hemlock and hogweed). Here … I think it’s Cow Parsley though it could be an early flowering Hedge Parsley. The lack of bracts suggests the former while the lack of red stems suggests the latter. Ho-hum.
Cow Parsley (probably): Photo 7th June 2018
The delicate lace-like flowers are easily tossed in the wind, so I reckon it a triumph to achieve (almost) a full head in focus.
#2018picoftheweek: Out of Focus
June. And the English hedgerows are threaded with roses. I brought home over a hundred photos of the wild and delicate blushing dog-roses. Which one to show you? A difficult decision.
English dog rose: Photo 7th June 2018
I chose this one. And this one . . .
A hedge of roses . . . Photo 7th June 2018
There was a mummy, laid in a case.
Perfect legs, but smashed-in face.
What’s to become of him when he reaches eternity?
He’ll walk around in graceless anonymity.
Down below the water, beneath the bridge where once was a ford, the chalky bedrock glows.
An unexpected view of the much-photographed River Wensum: Photo 30th May 2018
#2018picoftheweek: Looking Down
The view is deceptive; the bridge is at least 10′ above the water; the water here is 4′ deep.
This delicate blue-petalled (perennial) cornflower sparkled star-like from the hedgerow, calling to me, ‘Please take my pic’.
Perennial Cornflower: Photo 30th May 2018
Although a ‘garden escapee’, the Perennial Cornflower has become a naturalised wayside flower, though far from common.
Humpty Dumpty, we’ve all heard of him,
Sat on a wall to tipple his gin,
Fell off it backward and cracked his head.
Altogether a very bad egg!
First posted: 2013
While my usual photography subjects are wildflowers, landscapes and rivers, with butterflies and swans (if they present and stay put), very occasionally I happen upon something man-made (the lighthouse, the pier, the tractor previously featured here) and can’t resist it. But seldom do I find the perfect shot, set up and waiting for me.
Crossed rods on Cromer Pier: Photo 8th May 2018
#2018picoftheweek: Opposites … aka two anglers in friendly competition.
