Weather forecasters had predicted localised snow showers for the 19th February, but I can’t believe that even they had anticipated just how “local” those showers would actually be, at least not up here in the Cotswolds. I took this picture just as one such shower proceeded to envelope a distant farm, but less than a minute later, the sun had taken refuge behind the mother of all black clouds and a veritable blizzard suddenly hammered into Maddy, Tess and me. Within Five minutes…

Normally, by this time of the year, our parks. gardens and roadside verges are ablaze with the yellow of countless Daffodils, but all the snow of late has held them back and these are the only ones that I’ve actually seen in bloom so far. They were growing on a south-facing grass embankment in Wiltshire, but even these have been taken by surprise by more snow that fell overnight and throughout this morning (19th February).

The sun made an unexpected appearance in the bluest of bright blue skies in Gloucestershire today (9th February), though it was quite late in the afternoon. Still, it gave me the opportunity to take a few landscape-type pictures, including the one shown above and the four efforts below. It had been an eventful day too, especially with regards to the weather because Tess and I had already been subjected to heavy spells of rain and snow during the morning while working among the high rolling hills…

The poor old Alder tree was, for centuries, considered to be the embodiment of evil, playing host to the malignant spirit of the much-feared Alder king, King Erlkonig (more commonly known in popular literature these days as the Elf King). I should imagine though that this was a legend simply born out of the fact that when you cut into the wood of the Alder tree with a knife, it goes a deep orangey-red colour rather as if it’s bleeding (the wood that is, not the knife), a feature…

I’ve already spoken a fair bit about Long-Tailed Tits here and there on my websites, but I added these two pictures (taken in daylight this time) to compliment the two night-time shots below. It wont be long however, before all the little flocks of Bumbarrels will be separating into pairs and disappearing from our gardens back into the countryside in order to build their extraordinary flask-shaped nests so beautifully constructed as they always are of moss, lichen and spider’s silk…

(First Effort, but Possibly with the Camera Positioned a Little Too Close to the Bird-Table)

The first (shown above), which I photographed yesterday (10th December), was a typical December, “red dawn in the morning” type of sunrise, but which actually heralded a beautiful sunny day, the first half of which I spent with Tess at the Cotswold Water Park in North Wiltshire and the second half on Cleeve Common above Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. I snapped the second dawn image however (pictured below), the following day about an hour or two before taking my Daughter to school…

A big, bold and beautiful beast of a bug, the Southern Hawker is presumably so-called due to the fact that it can be found just about anywhere from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Arctic Circle (so you work it out).Anyway, I saw this one (about the length of my middle finger) “resting” in a hedgerow half-way to the top of St Agnes Beacon and managed (I don’t quite know how) to get close enough to get a few shots without it sensing I was there and flying off. Typical of…

My wife had a multitude of tests last week to determine whether or not she’s progressed at all since her intensive chemo session during her time in hospital last March/April. Well, it seems to be very good news so far and the medical team are extremely pleased with her, praising her positive attitude and sheer determination to overcome such a potentially devastating multiple myeloma.We’re not out of the woods just yet however, but the tests have shown that, not only has her platelet…

Taken in the back garden yesterday evening (29th June, 2009), Tess will be ten months old on the 1st July. She’s lost most of her physical puppy characteristics now, but mentally and emotionally she’s still very much a child. . …She’s also one of the brightest dogs I’ve ever known and intelligence just shines out from those big, dark. doe-like eyes.

I have just returned from eight days working in beautiful South Devon (early June 2009) from my motor-home and I took my wife and Daughter with me to give them a bit of a break. The Swallow photo above is just one of hundreds of photos I took while I was there and I’ll be uploading some of them (including a couple more Swallow shots) mostly to the “My Office” page over the next few days as I gradually manage to sort them out.