At long last, and after three days solid effort, I’ve completely updated my Zen Mischief website. And not before time either! I started the revision over 2 years ago and got as far as completing the design before I was rudely interrupted by work. Only now have I made the time to complete the job. Although at the moment the content – essentially a static backup to this weblog – is largely the same, all the text has been revised (some pages more than others), all the links checked, dead links removed and many new ones added, and all the images have been overhauled. I have ideas for new pages and I hope they will be along over the coming weeks – there’s a lot that gets an airing on this weblog but isn’t covered on the website, an omission I hope to rectify.
Category Archives: photography
Milestones Passed in the Dark
Last night I had a realisation, the way one does, that I must have written quite a few blog posts. But how many? Having awoken at stupid o’clock this morning I figured I’d use the time to try to work it out. Could I even do it? This weblog has been through at least three different incarnations and the old blogs are no longer online.
Wait! I have backups. Do I still have the old files? No, not on my current PC: well I did trash a lot of old data when I migrated to this machine recently. So let’s search the archive disks … and … Lo! we do have the old files, saved in an archive of my PC three before last. (How sad is that?!) So I was able to do a count …
“I don’t believe it!” If I go back to when I started blogging in January 2004 I reckon I’ve written 879 Zen Mischief weblog posts (this will be number 880). And we can add to this another 134 for the Anthony Powell Society. That’s a total of 1013 in 6½ years, or three a week. Not prolific by many blogger’s standards, but prolific enough for me, especially when you add in almost 2000 photos (and that’s just the edited ones!) posted on Flickr since February 2006.
While not everything I write is wholly original (whose writing is?) I’ve covered everything from beer, by way of diversions into naturism, science and Bagpuss, to zen. Hmmm … not bad!
Something for a Summer Weekend
Rose, Buff Beauty from our garden. This old rose is supposed to be a bush, but it wasn’t doing very well so we moved it to under the silver birch tree — and it is now rambling up through the tree like there’s no tomorrow. The bloom was actually at least 2 feet above my head!
Rosa rugosa
This old species rose, Rosa rugosa, is growing in our garden hedge. It is such a stunning colour.
Moth of the Week
Found this wonderful specimen of a male White Ermine Moth, Spilosoma lubricipeda, resting on our bathroom windowsill this morning. It really was absolutely beautiful.
Driving through the Forest
Here’s another experimental photo. This is a montage of a series of (disconnected) shots taken from the car while driving down the A11 through Thetford Forest near Elveden. (And no, I wasn’t driving!)
You’ll want to look at a larger version and it looks better viewed on black.
Queen's Beasts at Kew
You’ll probably want to look at this in a larger size.
We went to Kew Gardens last week, with an American friend who was staying and had a free afternoon to do something different. While there I fulfilled by wish to photograph the ten Queen’s Beasts in front of the Palm House. The beasts represent the genealogy of Queen Elizabeth II. They are (from L to R):
• White Greyhound of Richmond
• Yale of Beaufort
• Red Dragon of Wales
• White Horse of Hanover
• Lion of England
• White Lion of Mortimer
• Unicorn of Scotland
• Griffin of Edward III
• Black Bull of Clarence
• Falcon of the Plantagenet
These aren’t great photos, so I’ll probably redo them next I go to Kew.
And there’s a bit more about the Queen’s Beasts on Wikipedia.
Pink Spire

Pink Horse Chestnut, originally uploaded by kcm76.
Just to brighten up a dull and wet bank holiday Saturday, here’s a spire of Red Horse Chestnut (probably Aesculus × carnea) flowers.
Snake in the Grass
Another Spring photo to help lift everyone. This is Harry the Cat enjoying the Spring sunshine (yes we have had some!) and the daisies.
A Little Piece of Spring
Blossom on our apple tree.







