One man went to mow

Dory raking through the grass clippings.  Nikon D7000

7th April 2013

The grass has decided to start to grow at last; unfortunately it is not growing evenly across the lawn.   There are parts that are nearly bald, but then there are also parts starting to look almost lush with new growth.

Amazingly the mower started first time, given that it has spent the Winter unloved in the shed.

The chickens were very happy to have some grass clippings to play with.

Jump!

Alex and Katie on the trampoline.  Nikon D7000

6th April 2013

The sun came out today and I thought it may be time to clean the leaves and branches off the trampoline.

After a bit of brushing and walking around to dislodge the filth, the mesh was looking bouncy.   I forgot that I am the wrong side of 40 now and had a little bounce.

I could hardly stand afterwards, let alone walk back to the house.

There are muscles in my legs that do not seem to know which way is up anymore.

Katie and Alex had some fun later but still seemed able to move afterwards; it must be a youth thing.

Images of Images: Doodles

Doodle on the Chalk Board.  Nikon D7000

5th April 2013

Photography is about capturing an image of the patterns of light at a specific moment in time.   We consider images from a camera to be an accurate pictorial representation of the world around us.   As long as the image medium is preserved, the captured image is also permanent.

Drawing however can be much looser in nature and doodles are really the ultimate in minimalist expression of the structure of the world, phenomena and concepts within it.   They are often temporary and transient and may only exist for a short time period.

I realised when I saw the doodle that often with photography, there is so much detail in an image, it is easy to miss any 'messages' or concepts that were intended to be conveyed when the picture was taken.   I have been trying over the last year to capture images that are more self-explanatory and have only the elements within them that I was interested in at the time.

With doodles however, they are stripped to the essentials of the message; which often is far more than just pictorial and can capture the other senses too such as sounds and motion.   They rely on the brain spending most of its time filling in the missing details; unlike most photographs where most of the time the brain is filtering out extraneous details to find the message.

The Bells, The Bells!

Bells at Dyrham Park.   Fuji F11

4th April 2013

The Bells!  The Bells!

I am glad I was not a servant at Dyrham Park and subject to the beck and call of the masters upstairs every time a bell rang.

I only managed to get about half of the row of bells into the picture; the line continued much further down the corridor.

The slightly 'artistic' framing is not be being clever, rather I managed to get the camera so far off straight that there would not be much image left after cropping :(

Colours: Blue with a splash of yellow

Pansy.  Nikon D7000

3rd April 2013

There are some flowers that, even despite the grim weather we have had over the Winter and the laugh that seems to have been Spring, do their best to put on a good show.

The Pansy is one of them.

The plants look quite fragile yet cope happily with a thick jacket of snow, or a pounding by rain.   It's a shame that the term 'Pansy' is associated with being less-hardy.

Ironic really.

Suckers

Aphids on blackberry shoots.  Nikon D7000

2nd April 2013

Although the weather has been cold recently, the rain has not visited for a while and the sun has come out on odd days.

The slight warming of the air temperature during the day has been enough for the Blackberry to start to put out small shoots of new growth.

The Aphid population also seems to have started to hatch unfortunately.    There are two here on this shoot; hopefully the birds will have spotted them as well.

April Fools Day Toolkit

All you need for April Fools Day.  Nikon D7000

1st Day of Year 2

(1st April 2013)

It is often the simple products that are the most versatile.   When it comes to April Fools Day, a pot of Vaseline and a little imagination can make sure you are hated within the household.

We do not have any round door knobs anymore, and you do not need to go as far as a smear of Vaseline on the loo seat.   Liz took the hit this year with the smear of Vaseline around the rim of her mug of tea :)

She got Katie rather nicely though with a mug of hot chocolate that was really 50:50 cocoa powder and gravy granules; well done Liz but I shall remember that one for next year!