Changing Lights

The good folk of Cambridge were out in force last night to enjoy the lights of the 2016 e-Luminate festival. Local families mingled with students and tourists and got thoroughly chilled to the bone while familiar buildings were artfully lit with low-energy LED lights.

There were people with big tripod-mounted cameras and others hopefully waving their phones around intending to capture the evening. It seems odd that only two years ago I took a rather bad video of proceedings and put it on YouTube, only for the artist who designed the work to e-mail me asking if he could use the video as it seemed no one else had thought to film it.

Last year I took a rather better video which you can see here if you missed it. I wanted to do something different this time and came up with the image below. You're supposed to scroll down to see the changing colours on the University Senate House, though you can of course click on it if you want to see the whole thing in one go.

Take care.
(and if you were there last night I hope you've thawed out).

Odd Shots

Odd shots....some very odd indeed! The question which interests me at the moment is this: When I go out to take pictures is it better to have a preconceived idea of what I'm after - or not? Well, first of all if I don't have some reason to go out then I'll probably sit at home drinking tea and eating biscuits. But once I've got the boots on where shall I go? Then should I stick to my original idea? - Can I stick to my original idea? I've never been a man to get all his ideas from one place. The fact is I always wander off track, literally and figuratively, and I sometimes end up with - well, odd shots.

I went out to photograph some snowdrops

but of course I digressed

(somewhat)
to other flowers

dying roses

take on the appearance of 

rusted metal

and rusted metal takes on

an appearance

all of its own,

except when it looks like a prehistoric bird

a cormorant perhaps

and speaking of birds

the robin,

there's one singing in every cottage garden

it seems

and often there's

snowdrops too

or were those in

the Botanic Gardens

in Cambridge?

 there's certainly a fountain

where children play

(and grown-ups play

with images on their laptops)

letting imaginations run wild

so here's

another strange bird

from a tropical forest

perhaps

and there's a tropical storm brewing

or else

it's just evening falling over

Cambridge

'Night-night, little snowdrops'

Take care.

More Gifts From The Garden

In the absence of anything else to show you at the moment here are a few more pictures from Cambridge University's Winter Garden:

.

Take care.

Wintergarden

As promised in the last post we're heading today for the Winter Garden, part of the University of Cambridge Botanic Garden. This year, thanks to our bizarrely mild winter, there are spring flowers blooming in February - in fact many were on flower in January or even back in December.

scale

detail

light

structure

symmetry

texture

strength

delicacy

contrasts

colour

Take care.

A Garden In Winter

No, not mine! There's nothing in mine apart from a few rather sad snowdrops amongst the moss and mud. So I went for a stroll around the University Botanic Gardens in Cambridge. 

What? Pay good money to see a garden in February? Surely there's nothing to see....

Well, the lake and rockery are always pretty whatever the season, particularly on a bright sunny afternoon like we enjoyed yesterday, even if flowers are few and far between. But what's this.....?

Some of the trees are already showing a little blossom. But there's something even better...

Although nobody ever seems to mention it, the Gardens have a wonderful display of snowdrops, not just the patch I'm showing you here but throughout the gardens. It's every bit as good as the snowdrop walks advertised by other gardens in England. And if it's chilly you can always warm up by visiting the tropical flowers in the glasshouses.

Spectacular colour is guaranteed at any season of the year. Occasionally you might find a little fungus taking advantage of the warm, moist micro-climate.

A few spectacular orchids were also making a show....

I'm always attracted by the structure of these tropical beauties....

Anyone who will be in Cambridge during the second half of February may be interested to know that there'll be an Orchid Festival taking place in the glasshouses, which should be worth a visit - and possibly a blog post if I manage to get there myself.

But none of this was what attracted me to the gardens this week. For although the University uses the gardens as a teaching and research facility, there's plenty of room for decorative and artistic horticulture too, and I was really on my way to see the winter garden. I'll show you in the next post.

Take care.

A Place In The Country

Work, the weather and other commitments have prevented me 

getting out and about recently.

So here's a selection of photos taken during the last year or so

showing some of the cottages to be found in the villages 

that I've walked or cycled through.

Some are beautifully maintained while others need a little help.

Take care.