Long May She Rain : photography

Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts

June

Hard to believe June has flown by so quickly! Here are some photos from the trusty Olympus XA3 this month, lets start with some botanical beauties:

Grandads Lupins, see last years version HERE

We had to build this "bedouin tent" style arrangement over the plot for when the scorching sun was killing off the seedings, needless to say it went on to protect them from drowning too! Time to take it down this week, but doesn't it look nice and green? Certainly looking fuller these days!

The toughest part of this month was that my best friend Claire finally followerd her dream of moving away from suburbia and into Brighton. Big change for us, and considering we worked together too, it's now very strange to not see her there, but I am very excited for her, and can't wait to visit! Here's my fave 'gal before she went!

And finally one of our weather vane, I can't bear to think that the nights will start drawing in again now, not fair!

Hope you're having a good week! I'm a bit frazzled myself, counting down the days until seaside-holiday time!

Weekend in Kent

I'm lucky that i get to escape work at the weekends and head to Kent instead! This weekend, Bruce and I managed to get out in the sunshine and visit Coldrum Long Barrow, the best preserved of Kent's megalithic tombs. Bruce's Grandad first visited this site around 50 years ago, and it seems it's changed a lot even since then, he is particularly interested in the ley-lines that appear to connect the stones to several churches in the area. We had a fantastic walk up to the stones, past a very nice church, horse paddocks and then these stunning rapeseed fields, very picturesque indeed!

At the turn of the century there was still a medial stone in the burial chamber, and the site has been excavated many times, one excavation producing the bones of 20+ individuals of varying ages and both sexes. Nowadays Coldrum is still used as a place for meditation and quiet thought, and the solstices and equinoxes are celebrated here. The overhanging tree was full of ribbons, corn dollies, and other little gifts from visitors.

Bruce always attracts attention by using the 10x8, the usual 'hilarious' remarks of "That's nice and compact" are always popular, yawwwwwn! Sorry, but I don't have as much patience as he does with these things! Either admit you don't know what it is and be interested to learn, or don't make silly remarks! Sorry again, I'm a grump. He doesn't mind the attention really! ;)

We also headed to some beautiful bluebell woods, glad to see this latest monsoon weather hadn't washed them all away! This is definitely my favourite aspect of spring, very special ideed.

Nice to see 'Blighty looking so bloomin' gorgeous eh? :) As ever, thanks for popping by!

Katie

End Of March

I decided to swap back to my Olympus XA3, well after my trusty Yashica gave up the ghost (despite Bruce's best attempts at fixing it!) I needed a trusty replacement! It can be a bit annoying to change the focus each time, but you can mostly trust it to behave! Just a few springtime shots from mine&Bruce&Jocks weekends in Kent recently, lots of walking, lots of rocks, and lots of trees! Bliss!

Jock enjoying himself!

Harrisons Rocks, Tunbridge Wells

Broadwater Warren - RSPB site

First sighting of frog AND toad spawn this year!

Broadwater Warren's amazing trees, can anyone explain why?

Eridge Park

Eridge Parks highest point in Kent, hello Surrey!

Eridge Park was a particularly good place to explore, the fantastic tower was built just before the turn of the 20th century, despite it looking rather mythical and medieval! The woods themselves were full of Yew trees, a very gothic and striking landscape - we'll be heading back there soon!

Now, lets see what April has to come!

Katie

"Blooming Britain" Photographs by Julie Henry and Debbie Bragg

Today I was lucky enough to assist Julie Henry and Debbie Bragg with their "Blooming Britain" exhibition at RHS Wisley. I had never actually visited the site before, so what better time to go!

I first met Debbie and Julie last year at their exhibit at The West End Centre in Aldershot. I had contacted them to say how much I enjoyed their series of the Rushmoor in Bloom competition, (I said I'd never seen photo's of Aldershot looking so lovely!) and offered to help with any further developments, and luckily, after being granted funding from the British Arts Council, they were able to visit RHS competition gardens around the Britain, and present these great photographs, including a selection of weatherproof outdoor prints! (For the tech geeks: Lambda c-type digital prints mounted on PVC with a outdoor crystal wrap!)

"Striving for the pastoral idyll is one of the country's most popular pastimes. For this new body of work, Henry/Bragg have turned the spotlight onto competitive amateur gardeners who enter their local RHS Britain in Bloom campaign. Blooming Britain is an enquiry into the dynamics between public display and the gardeners social standing: gardens are a blank canvas for peoples stories and imaginations"

It was great to meet some of the gardeners featured in the photographs, and I think everyone had a really lovely time at the Q&A session, the rain even held off for a while! I was even given a very snazzy Uniqlo "Pansy" t shirt especially for the occasion! It drew quite a few admiring glances!