puddleshark

Followed the path beside the River Frome down to Swineham, through the reedbeds, where the breeze sets the whole landscape in motion, and you walk in a world of half-seen things and unseen things. The rattle of dragonfly flight, and a glint of sunlight on wings. The endless pent-up grumbling ("And another thing...") song of Reed Warblers. A black-capped Reed Bunting clinging to a reed as it sways back and forth in the wind - now you see it, now you don't.

( Don't get your hopes up. It's hard to photograph half-seen things... )

Wind and cloud. I am grateful. I've missed having proper weather during our recent spell of nothing-but-sunshine. Followed the ancient Roman road from Gussage All Saints up onto Gussage Down, to visit the much more ancient Neolithic long barrows.

( Long rambling post with many pictures )

Aquilegia longissima.

Another warm morning. The gardens at Holme looked lovely in the sunshine, but this harsh light is horrible for flower photography. My camera just couldn't cope with the light/shadow contrast, and none of my pictures came out well.

( Read more... )

Dancers and stalls at the Green Man Festival, Bradford on Avon. I don't remember the festival being quite this busy and crowded last year. Perhaps because the festival was being co-run by the town council this year, and the pound signs lit up in their eyes at the prospect of renting street stall spaces to as many sellers as possible?

The atmosphere was still wonderful - a little like being at a medieval great fair - but I did struggle a bit with the crowds.

( A few snatched photos )

Powerstock Common is probably the closest thing to wild woods we have in Dorset. Once a royal hunting ground, then an area of common land, never enclosed (perhaps too boggy to be worth the expense), now a nature reserve of tangled woods, ponds, rough pastures.

( The green and the blue May woods )