A walk along the Backs

The snow showed little sign of melting on the backs this afternoon. I had my G1 in my pocket as I returned from a seasonal lunch in Newnham.

Bassingbourn Church & Harpist

A concert in Bassingbourn church on Saturday gave me an opportunity to take some pictures between the rehearsal and the concert; the harpist rehearsing on his own was a bonus. I tried to catch his hands in motion whilst he was still with mixed results!  The painted screen is beautiful.

New toy to play with

I have longed for a fisheye for years, but never got around to getting one until last week; I have bought the Nikon 10.5mm f2.8 DX format lens and tried it out at Cambridge Rugby Club on Saturday for the first time; I don't thing that I will be using it for action shots, but I was pleased with the results from my first attempt. Any do's and don'ts from those with more experience with this type of lens would be most welcome.

This is probably too close, though I quite like the way that it has turned the whole scene, appropriately, into a rugby ball

This would be nice with some serious action framed by the bendy bars, but I'd never get close enough in a real game...

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A Walk on the beach

A walk on the beach at East Mersea on Sunday morning gave the unexpected opportunity to watch some exciting sailing boats in action. There were a variety of lightweight craft sailing in a stiff breeze - whether the GBR on some of the sails was significant I don't know. The were all out from Brightlingsea which has certainly been to home of Olympic medalists in the past.

When the boats had sailed away I experimented with the reflection of the watery mid-morning sun on the sea and the salt-marshes; these two shots were taken from the same spot about 30 seconds apart

Finally some typical salt marsh (Salcott) at low tide later in the day - it all brought back happy memories of swimming and mucking about in boats in these creeks as a child.

Somerleyton Hall

A stately pile near Lowestoft made for a pleasant Sunday afternoon trip. The gardens contain some fine trees an excellent yew maze. The house is open, but photography is forbidden inside.














How should I convey the size of a sequoia? I tried the distant shot, but that lacks scale...

I tried looking up the main trunk - that's better, but still only hints a the size:

I tried it with people to give a hint of scale, but that meant that the overall height of the tree is lost.























So I went in close and just tried to show the enormous trunk in relative close-up:
















 
The topiary yews around the gardens were very smart and this double archway particularly caught my eye

















I'm not sure what the topiarist had in mind here, but the geometry caught my eye:


















Can't resist a passion flower:

Beth Chatto's Garden

Well, I've been inactive for far too long. A combination of post wedding syndrome and finding myself working for a living - far too stressful!

This weekend we ventured down to the East coast to stay with a friend in West Mersea and managed a visit to Wivenhoe Quay and Beth Chatto's Garden.

The garden was glorious, but the pollen count was high and I certainly suffered in consequence.

I decided that I should try to avoid the preponderance of green except where it was the main subject of the picture. I think that I succeeded some of the time!

Things have been a little busy recently with my son Adam's wedding on 20 June and then last weekend I was away in Henley for a dinner celebrating the Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll. Whilst voyaging downstream I spotted what I am almost certain was a Tum-Tum tree on Temple Island.

A walk by the river

A pleasant evening in contrast to the forecast on Thursday gave a mixture of excellent sport and people spotting bathed in evening sunshine.

Whoa there! The Caius cox narrowly escapes a rigger in his back.


I don't think we're too happy about being bumped!


Do those leaves go with my earrings?

Phew - that was easy - let's get back to the bar!


There are good times just around the corner....


They make such a song and dance about the simplest things...

A Walk at Wicken

We decide to ignore the weather forecast this morning and go for a walk at Wicken Fen and very pleasant it was. One side of the fen was crawling with twitchers after an African heron which had lost its bearings, but the other side was delightfully quiet with just a few walkers out for some air.

Greens in Grantchester

Passing through Grantchester yesterday I stopped by the mill pool to try to find something to test the mettle of my new Lumix lenses. I was looking for something from mother nature to determine how sharp (or otherwise) they are. I was surprised to find a horse amongst the undergrowth.