Where you work - Thematic Photography

Not an easy theme when you have retired. If I said where I work is in the house, this might be challenged. Anything I do at my computer is classed as 'playing.'

I guess that where I work must therefore be restricted to outside in the garden - quite a pleasant occupation at this time of year when it is sunny and warm. So here's some shots from today.

With one or the other and often all three the 'day's work' starts here.

Wheelbarrow, (hidden tool store) and garden shed

In  the front garden - 

The green waste bag awaits

and waits along with - 

A fork

It must have been warm for that coat to have been discarded. Perhaps I was waiting for my female assistant.

Mrs Blackbird

It's a good thing that she will work for the minimum wage of a worm or two with this lot to tackle.

Shrubs to trim and snowdrop leaves and weeds to remove.

Can you see that flowering dandelion?

Of course there's the lawn to cut

And sycamore seedlings to take out of the gravel

You might think that this is not much of a task but the sycamore count has passed 170 in the last week. There will be more tomorrow.

Then of course where I work will move to the back,

Back lawn

If you are eagle-eyed you might just see the toe of the lady of the house who is lapping up the sun.

All this is a world away from where Carmi works at Thematic-photographic-334.

Birds of a Feather - Thematic Photography

Carmi couldn't have made a better choice of a topic for me this week.

Feathers abound on the grass by the side of the road along which I take my morning walk.

A feather down

And if that is not enough - 

Four feathers

But not from a thrush.

Tail feathers

However there is a sad tale to this as these feathers are all that remained of a wood pigeon demolished by a hawk.

Man, the worse predator of all, can also have a devastating effect.

Owl - a road kill victim

Other birds play hide and seek behind - 

The chimney pots

Jackdaw viewing spot

Discussing last night's soap

While sparrows watch the children cross

Some just watch the world go by.

Young blackbird on kitchen window sill

A much better place to be than behind glass at - 

Detroit Zoo - King Penguins

Some birds just have to pretend while - 

Waiting for the mail.

Meanwhile there is a work in progress for me - I'm trying to get a decent shot of this bird.

Nuthatch (image scanned from a bird book)

This is the best I have done so far from 50ft away and through a double glazed window.

Nuthatch clearing ivy from a nesting box

We saw this bird for the first time in our garden only last month; now it is a regular visitor.

Fortunately it's a little smaller than the bird we saw at nearby Preston Park.

However my favourite so far this year is one some of you have seen before.

Male Bullfinch

It was making itself comfortable in a hand towel while it recovered from the argument it lost with our lounge window.

Now is the time for you to recover to and fly over to see other 'Birds of a feather' at Carmi's Thematic-photographic-307.

More Favourite Photos of the Year - Thematic Photography

Carmi has continued the 'favourite photo' theme for a second week, so here are another six from 2013 - three from Michigan and three from our Yorkshire garden.

Michigan Deer

And another shot of that grasshopper that appeared in my previous set of favourites.

Grasshopper in the sun

While on a walk from my daughter's home we came across a colourful postbox.

Red Cardinal Postbox

Back in my Yorkshire garden I soon had a helper when I turned the soil.

Female Blackbird waits for worms

This is what a butterfly bush (buddleia) attracts.

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

When I opened up our compost bin this came out the bottom.

Garden Frog

Hope you like these further favourites of mine. To see what others have selected just check out the links in the comments at Carmi's Thematic-photographic-277.

A-Z Challenge 2013 - 'B'

My A-Z posts this year are based on  my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies - with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat somewhat – wishing they were here.

B - Bluebell, Begonia, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Bumble Bee

One day, one day, I’ll climb that distant hill

And pick the bluebells there!

Bluebells

 We inherited lots of bluebells when we moved into our house over twenty years ago so we do not have to climb those distant hills. The flowers have spread so much that we have had to thin them out when they begin to swamp the borders. 

There are some plants that thrive in pots or  tubs..

Begonia

However they all welcome the humble:

Bumble Bee

The pedigree of honey

Does not concern the bee

A clover, any time, to him

Is aristocracy

It’s always a pleasure to hear them buzzing around as it is to listen to the birds.

O blackbird! sing me something well:

Blackbird (tuning in!)

Of  course you just have to stop and watch:

Blue Tit

 Lithest, gaudiest harlequin!

Prettiest tumbler ever seen,

Light of heart and light of limb

What has now become of him.

But by far the most colourful bird that visits us occasionally is:

Bullfinch

We may have to wait till May before we can say

See the bright bullfinch now,

High on the apple bough.

Poems

• Bluebells – George Barlow
• The Bee – Emily Dickinson
• Blackbird – Alfred Lord Tennyson
• Blue Tit – Wordsworth
• Bullfinch – Anthony Rye

Photo Attribution

• Blue Tit – Jan 2011 By Tony Hissett – CC BY-SA 2.0
• Bullfinch – Mark S Jobling – Public domain

Straight Lines - Thematic Photography

I've tried to keep on the straight and narrow to meet this week's theme and started off in a modern art direction.

Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art

Where it was the building itself that caught my eye with its mixture of straight lines.

During the Queen's Diamond Jubilee last year she opened the revamped white water rafting site on the River Tees at Stockton; I didn't manage to get a ticket for the event but later obtained a shot along a footpath in front of the Talpore pub.

Union Jack Flagpoles

 

 

 

I don't have a flagpole at home so this songbird has to make do with this:-

"If I were a blackbird, I'd whistle and sing"

Meanwhile my daughter's dogs looked out in hope.

Sam and Maxie - 2008

Now I suggest that you make a beeline over to Carmi's Thematic-photographic-233. to check out the straight lines there.

Bad Birdwatching

I have been a ‘fan’ of The Times columnist Simon Barnes for quite a while. Simon is a well known sportswriter, but his columns that interest me most are those on wildlife, especially birds. His book ‘How to be a bad birdwatcher’ was serialised on Radio 4; I have been fortunate enough to obtain a copy courtesy of a Mind charity shop.

Last January I posted a piece Watch The Birdie on my Writelink blog about the birds I saw in my garden in 2009. I have just collated my records for 2010. This year they cover 339 days (330 in 2009).

 

As in the previous year I have seen 35 different types, averaging 22 (23) and month and 8 (9) per day.

There has only been one change in the top ten most frequent visitors with the robin entering the list in place of the greenfinch. Top of the pile again is the wood pigeon on 95% of the days (93 in 2009), followed by rook 93% (78), blackbird 85% (89), starling 67% (69), collared dove 64% (72), sparrow 60% (41), robin 53% (29), gull 44% (48), hedge sparrow 42% (40) and the blue tit 40% (34).

A tree creeper put in an appearance in December; newcomers during the year were owls, fieldfares and the most spectacular arrival, a woodcock which crashed into the front window on December 27^th.

 

My favourite photo was of the goldfinches in the conifer in our front garden on Boxing Day (See Boxing Day Birds). Did you know that the collective noun for them is a charm of goldfinches?

However my favourite birds of the year were not in my garden but the sand cranes on Oxford Hills golf course in Michigan. They were quite content to share the course with us.