genialgemsandothergabblings

 A beautiful crisp and sunny Spring morning had us up and out early to head down to the boat. Our intention was to go up to the woods about an hour or so from base to see if they were in flower with all the Bluebells.  The journey up was lovely, the ducks were swimming about with their tiny fluffy offspring in tow, herons were feeding at the waters edge and swans were sitting proudly on huge nests of reeds at the canal side. I had not expected to have the woods to myself as it was such a beautiful day but it seems that the lure of the canal pubs is where most people preferred  to be,which was just fine by me. There cannot be many things as good for the spirits as a walk amongst the Bluebells with birdsong in the air and the sweet aroma all around you as the sun dapples everything in glorious light as it filters through the tree top canopy. People once believed that the bells called the fairies to meetings in the old woodlands and it took a brave pers...

I thought I would share some of the view around Keswick that I took when we were up there earlier this year. The snow on the top fells had  been melting and making its way down the waterfalls and streams and came in a tremendous rushing ,frothing ,foaming torrent into the River Greta that flows through Keswick. The banks soon became emerged under the rapid like water and if anyone had fallen in they could easily have been swept along. The noise was quite deafening I had never seen the river in such a state as usually it is in the calm at the end of summer when I visit. Down By the Lakeside the jetty  was submerged as the lake water was very high and it had a really different feel to the holiday season when there are so many people milling around or queuing to take a boat ride around the lake. It was quiet, peaceful and atmospheric and I enjoyed photographing the play of light and clouds across the water, a forever changing scene. Rowing boats sitting idle at Derwent...

We all put a lot of planning ,thought and expectation into our festive celebrations and sometimes it all goes just perfectly  and other times we can feel a bit let down. Like the wartime diarist Nella Last said, it sometimes all feels as if it's not living up to the promise. In 1940 on Christmas day she wrote that she had cooked chicken ,sprouts ,brown  sausage , potatoes followed by pudding and rum sauce and cheese and biscuits. But because she was aware that her son had his eye on the clock to leave later that day, she felt it might just as well have been hash and bread and butter. Not one of her happiest Christmas days for sure. The last few Christmas days have been a bit like that for us with family not in the best of health and trying to spread ourselves about but this year it was lovely as we had family fun with our new grandson and his mum and dad and then visited the rest of the family in their own homes. It has been a year full of all that Life c...

 Short Days mean that if you want to get anything done you need to get at it in the earlier part of the day, as once any winter sun goes in after 2pm then it gets chilly pretty quickly.    So last week just before the big Storm, that did so much damage over the East coast came in, I tackled the mountain of leaves that covered our garden. It was an afternoons work a bit of much need ed exercise and I soon had things looking much better. We seem to be having some really mild weather but surely it can't last and we have ventured out and about,down to check on the boat and up to Myerscough College a couple or so weeks back. Everything looks so different at this time of year with all the vegetation dying down. We stopped  there to look at the sheep and we were taken aback by the whole field which was  covered in a mass of webs that were showing up so clearly with the sun shining on the dew on the grass. So two weeks to go, presents bought, wrapped and...

Avocet    It never ceases to amaze me that after all the years we have been visiting Martin Mere RSPB reserve ,there is always something with the WOW factor and this week it was this fantastic Crested Crane. Over the summer months a lot of work has gone into providing a very visitor friendly viewing enclosure so they can be seen easily and I was able to take these great shots The Flamingos were also looking wonderful and had walked over the pond and were feeding on the main pathway so again It was a great camera opportunity. A pretty white backed duck  One of the loveliest places we like to visit when we go to Cornwall is Fowey.  Looking over the water you can spot a rather old house with a boat loft and it was here that the author Daphne Du Maurier put pen to paper and wrote her first real novel and best seller in the 1930s, The Loving Spirit. She loved it here with a passion and infact  came back to live close by until she died. ...