Meteorologically, at least for the UK, yesterday (1 March) was the first day of Spring. Which means Summer must surely be not far behind. This week’s photograph is another from the archive to remind us what Summer is like and what we have to look forward to.
Bats roost in big groups in caves. Wrong! If you’re a Hardwicke’s woolly bat, you prefer to sleep in a more luxurious — and private — place.
Kerivoula hardwickii roosts inside tropical pitcher plants. These carnivorous plants usually attract insects, but Nepenthes hemsleyana lacks the scents that others have, so few bugs are lured in. Instead, it benefits from the faeces of this tiny bat, which provides more than a third of its nitrogen and may be crucial to the plant’s survival.
These bats found a niche that no-one else was occupying; they are the only bat species known to roost in pitcher plants.
This week a self-portrait from several years ago. Taken, with a fisheye lens, in our hotel room when away for the weekend — I was actually going to a school reunion.
This week, time for more pussy porn. Here’s Harry the Cat sleeping the sleep of the just a few days ago! And what a super place to sleep too: a faux sheepskin, at windowsill height on some crates, by the window, in the warmest room of the house and over a radiator. Well wouldn’t you?!
This week, another photograph I took some years ago. This Red Shoveller Duck, a native of South America, was part of the collection at Kew Gardens. I love those spotted feathers!
This week another photograph from the archives, taken some years ago at Kew Gardens.
On Friday Noreen bought a bunch of flame coloured (red/orange/yellow) tulips …
This week a wintry photograph that I took at New Year.
Bradley L Garrett
Subterranean London: Cracking the Capital
Prestel; 2014
This is a beautifully produced book of photographs which peels back the layers under London’s streets and brings you clandestine views of all those things we depend on but which are largely out of sight: sewers, cable tunnels, the tube, communications hubs and even Crossrail construction.
It is the work of a group of either brave or foolhardy (depending on one’s point of view) explorers intent on making this infrastructure visible, often when the authorities don’t wish it to be. They follow on in the pioneering spirit of Duncan Campbell from 30 years ago, gaining illicit access — through manholes, ventilation shafts and derelict buildings often right under the noses of “security” — to that which is normally off limits.
The book contains relatively little text — just a single page of explanation at the beginning of each of the four sections, a couple of pages of introduction and a short foreword by Will Self. This lack of text is my only major gripe; I wanted more about the places and the exploits which got the explorers to them.
But the book is about the images, each minimally captioned, which record some of the places the group have penetrated. Much of the photography is excellent and strong; well lit, well composed and professionally produced — quite remarkable considering it was all done on the hoof, at speed and with the ever-present danger of the long arm of “security”.
A long disused Mail Rail train parked in an abandoned station which is still lit
and with a working digital clock which says 0424.
From www.placehacking.co.uk
This week I bring you two photographs of magnificent memorials from Goudhurst church in Kent, taken at the end of the day after we had been round some of the nearby villages in search of my ancestors.
[You really do need to click the images and look at larger versions on Flickr!]
The first, which dates from around 1616, is to William Campion and his wife Rachell:
