An English garden in spring

Yes, it’s true. I have been around the world and been to so many places that have really stirred the soul. Now that the jet-lag is gone and the first few days chores are done, I can write about more of them. But, before that, here’s a glimpse of the specialness that emerges in an English spring.

First flowers of spring

Around home

Today I woke to the latest in a series of dry and sunny days that we have had in the UK, after weeks of rain, snow, wind and rain, again. Finally, I had a chance for a walk in my local woods and fields, and the weather to do it in. Very few pics, but that is because I was trying to resist the camera in favour of the moments (see Cameradrama 2) of which I am pleased to say there were many.

In a couple of weeks’ time, I shall be off on my grand tour around the world, so much of it so very different, but to this I will return – how fortunate am I?

Which brings me to something that I am curious about – in each of these shots that I preserved out of so many, why the roads or corridors or pathways that go off into the distance? Is it just me, or is this one of those archetypes of imagery that everyone is drawn to? Is it what is in the picture, or what lies as yet undiscovered, just beyond that gate, those trees, that corner?

 

 

 

 

Nature’s little Christmas offerings

Today, I got outside for the first time with a new camera – intent on enjoying the first really hard frost of an English winter. With all the moisture frozen out, the air was as clear of fog and haze as you ever get it – like the inside of a temple dome of sharp, clean blue.

Now normally, I might expect to continue in this vein – after years of close-in city living, the sense of the wide roundness of the earth and our smallness within it never ceases to get to me. But today, the camera took me to a different world of miniature magic. With apologies for some of the quality issues, here is a little of what I found –

Privet rebel

Here was this small burst of growth in the middle of my neighbour’s carefully crafted hedge. It’s not that there isn’t something attractive in a well ordered garden, but surely this is what it is all about – the irrepressible and unstoppable urge for growth.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, just around the corner….

Wired

 

 

 

 

 

And, on a pathway nearby,

A starling’s christmas dinner?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What more can I say, except “Thank you”?