Category Archives: photography

personal, photography, pleasures

Pictures of My Life

Over on my Twitter, I was challenged by Glynis Paxton to post seven pictures of my life. The rules were simple: one picture a day for a week; no people; no explanations; each day nominate one person to do the same.

Here are the seven photographs (all taken by me) I chose, in the order I posted them. Those who know me well will say they don’t reflect what I do and am. But each of them tells a story, or several, which I’ve noted below each image.
[Click the images if you want large views on Flickr]

Day 1

Office Varmint, Resting
This is our cat Tilly when she was much younger dozing on my desk. These are two things which are central to my life: cats and my desk. Apart from my student years and 20s I’ve always lived with cats; we had cats at home and as soon as Noreen and I got our own house we re-homed our first two cats (all our cats have been re-homes). My desk in the study is where I worked for much of the last 10 years before I retired (trips into an office dwindled to about one day a fortnight), from where I ran the Anthony Powell Society for 18 years, and where I still spend much of my time.

Day 2

Mermaid Inn, Rye
Although I’ve never stayed in the Mermaid Inn at Rye (it’s very expensive) I have drunk there and it does trigger a number of memories and many stories. I love Rye, and have known it since I was about 4 years old and it is one of those places I love and immediately feel at home. The heart of the town (the area around the church and Mermaid Street) is still picturesque. Over several years we stayed at the upmarket B&B opposite the top of Mermaid Street (50 yards beyond the photo) and became friends with the then owners. The half-timbered building also speaks to a love of history and old buildings, as well as photography.

Day 3

Crab Spider (Misumena vatia) with Prey
I found this spider whilst doing some tidying up in the garden this Spring. I’ve never seen one before, so it was an interesting discovery for someone interested in the natural world. My new, expensive, camera meant I could get this capture easily without scaring the spider away. Although I’m not a great gardener (I blame my bad back) I do enjoy the garden full of trees and shrubs as somewhere for the local wildlife – from spiders to foxes.

Day 4

Deckchair Love
I called this photograph “Deckchair Love”. It is another which encapsulates a couple of “stories” besides photography. It was taken at Lyme Regis which is another place we both love and have stayed quite a number of times; and it was here that in Summer 1983 I started my recovery from Glandular Fever. In fact we like almost the whole of the South Dorset and South Devon coast. This also reflects my slightly zany sense of humour (hence, in part, the title of this blog).

Day 5

71 Rolvenden
This is the cottage in Rolvenden, Kent where my great-grandfather Stephen Marshall (the youngest of five children) was born in November 1849. Until he moved away (to Ashford and then Ramsgate) the Marshall line had lived around the Rolvenden, Benenden, Biddenden triangle at least since 1700. They were AgLabs so moved around depending on where the work was. This is another area I love, spreading from the Weald across to Rye, the Romney Marsh and Dungeness.

Day 6

Dendrobium
My final photograph is of a Dendrobium orchid. I like having houseplants, and orchids have both pretty and long-lasting flowers. Contrary to popular belief, Phaelanopsis orchids especially are not that difficult; if you buy (or are given) one don’t throw it out when it finishes flowering as they are easy to get to flower again (see my instructions).

Day 7

Stondon Massey, Essex churchyard
This is Stondon Massey churchyard in Essex. It is one of those quiet, country churchyards full of dappled sunshine and birdsong. It’s an area which includes another of my favourite churches, Greensted-juxta-Ongar. And I was brought up not far the other side of Epping Forest and the county boundary at Waltham Cross – somewhere else steeped in history which I should write about properly. But Stondon Massey is more than this. It was where one of my “heroes”, the Tudor composer William Byrd (c.1540-1623) retired in his early 50s. Byrd was a member of the Chapel Royal while being a recusant Catholic (he was fined a number of times) and Stondon Massey was close to Ingatestone Hall, home of his Catholic patron Sir John Petre. Byrd’s sacred works are the most magical music of that period. He may be buried at Stondon Massey; no-one is certain.

So there you are. Something about lots of bits (but by no means all) of me and my life captured in seven of my photographs.

personal, photography, pleasures

Flowers

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A while ago I stole an idea from our friends Jean and Helen who had discovered Letterbox Flowers: regular delivery of a bouquet packed in a box which will fit through most letterboxes.

So every month we get a bouquet, sent on overnight delivery, beautifully packed and just waiting to spring into full bloom. The packaging is impressive with the flowers picked while still in bud and with the larger, more easily damaged blooms protected with little socks – what a fantastic idea that is! (See right for how the flowers are packed.)

This is our second monthly delivery. To be honest I wasn’t very impressed with our first delivery as the flowers didn’t seem to hold up well (but that may be the way we handled them). But this month’s is just fabulous …

Letterbox Flowers

This is 2-3 days after we received them. They look wonderful! Even Noreen is impressed, and that’s from someone who’s parents were florists and who grew up with floristry.

Letterbox Flowers have a variety of options from a selection of one-off bouquets to a year-long weekly subscription. For my money they aren’t out of the way expensive: a decent bouquet from a good florist would cost around the same (at least in London).

personal, photography, pleasures

More Maytime Flowers

More Maytime flowers from our garden …

[As always, click the images larger views on my Flickr]

Fuchsia
This fuchsia struggles on as a small standard in a
shallow planter; and it has survived the winter
unprotected although in a fairly sheltered spot

 

Buff Beauty (Again)
No apologies for another shot of the absolutely glorious
Buff Beauty which is ramping up through our biggest
silver birch: a profusion of so many flowers some of
the stems are threatening to break under the weight

 

White Dog Rose
Like all the dog roses in our garden this is another
sucker from an unknown rose. We appreciate the dog
roses as much as the cultivars, so where possible tend
to leave them to clamber naturally through the trees

 

15 Feet of Rose
Rose (variety forgotten) flowering 15 feet up one of
our silver birch trees

 

And finally a different sort of flower …

 

Tilly Investigates
Birthday Cat: Tilly is 7 years old today (as near as we can know),
not that you would think it. She’s still a big kitten (when she chooses),
inquisitive (as here, investigating the new planters), picky, skittish
and a rascal in her own quiet way
photography, pleasures

More from Our Garden

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A few more photos of flowers in our garden this afternoon.

Click the images for larger views on Flickr

Buff Beauty
This is our Buff Beauty rose, which did nothing until we moved
it a few years ago and has now gone mental, scrambling
up through our largest Silver Birch with the lowest of
the wonderfully scented blooms well above head height
Buff Beauty
Buff Beauty: gorgeous scented flowers
Dog Rose (with Tennant)
This Dog Rose is a sucker from Buff Beauty: both are
growing up through our largest Silver Birch tree with
the Dog Rose flowering at the top of the 30 foot tree
Lady Hillingdon
Climbing rose Lady Hillingdon is absolutely smothered
in large (but not very fragrant) apricot blooms
Philadelphus
Philadelphus flowering in the shade of the trees
amusements, natural history, photography

Squirrel

In the latest episode of photos from my Flickr, we have the local squirrel and it’s hunters – finally captured on film this morning thanks to my new Canon 90D and a mega-long zoom lens.

[Click the images to get a larger view on Flickr]

Squirrel 1

We have this grey squirrel around the garden who has almost no hair on its tail. It looks very odd, especially when he sits around doing that squirrel thing of waving its tail. It’s been around all winter and otherwise looks to be in good health, so there’s no obvious reason for the hair loss.

Squirrel 2

As this next photo shows he’s male, and has been observed knocking up the ladies!

Squirrel 3

While he’s happily devouring our bird seed, Tilly cat approaches from starboard …

Squirrel Hunt 2

… and Boy cat undertakes a blocking manoeuvre to port, while desperately hoping the squirrel falls off!

Squirrel Hunt 1

Needless to say, the squirrel won with a good six foot leap from the top of the feeder pole to the apple tree. But it needs to be careful as Tilly is known to have caught a squirrel in the past.

And notice the wildlife-friendly, aka. unkempt, bottom half of our garden. It is sort-of half intended to be woodland floor!

photography, pleasures

Horrible Times 5

And it goes on, and on, and on … and t will do for a long time. So I thought we’d have something to cheer us up.

It’s a lovely sunny, warm Spring day, and this tulip was flowering in the planter outside our back door:

Tulip
Click the image for a larger view
personal, photography

A Birthday Present

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Having had a birthday recently, I bought myself a present. As as one of my aims for this year is to do more photography I bought an expensive new camera: a Canon EOS 90D and three lenses (plus some bits & pieces), to replace my ageing Olympus E620. The Canon’s a beast of a 32 megapixel camera with far more facilities than I’ll ever understand, let alone use – although it’s going to be interesting trying.

Of course having got the camera it has had to be tested. So here are the first four serious shots I’ve taken with it: of our cats, of course.

Click the images for larger views

Boy cat washing paws
Boy cat looking astonished:
just look at those curly whiskers!
Rosie trying to charm tea from the food provider
Tilly looking cute and trying to doze

Now all I have to do is to get out and get my money’s-worth from such an extravagance! So hopefully more images to come during the year. And possibly a photographic 100 day challenge.