A-Z Challenge 2013 - 'C' Chaffinch ...

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 – a sort of wish they were here.

C - Chaffinch, Clematis, Cabbage White, Canterbury Bell 

It’s not just for A-Z that we can say,

Oh to be in England

Now that April’s there.

Chaffinch

 And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning unaware

That the lowest bough and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm tree hole are in tiny leaf

While the chaffinch sings on ordered bough

In England now!

Chaffinch

When it comes to climbing plants not many will say they will wear purple when they grow old . Here’s one that tries every year.

Clematis

  Purple and green the clematis
Leans down my lady's mouth to kiss.

 Meanwhile:

The butterfly, a cabbage-white

(His honesty of flight)

Will never now, it is too late,

Master the art of flying straight,

Cabbage White butterfly

  Is it him I wonder who has changed these flowers from blue to white?

Canterbury Bells

 I think the Canterbury bells are playing little tunes.

Poems:

• Oh to be in England – Robert Browning
• A Song of Clematis – Ethel Clifford
• Flying Crooked – Robert Graves
• Madonna of the Evening Flowers – Amy Lowell

Strong Lines - Thematic Photography

One of the things I like about thematic photography is the different ways in which you can interpret a photo - after you have taken it. Most of Carmi's themes have forced me to do this and this week is no exception; strong lines couldn't have been in my mind at all when I took these.

All I wanted here was to capture the flower.

Clematis

But is it the strong lines or the obelisk that is the star? And what about those between the boards of the fence.

You may have to work a bit harder to see the lines on the next shot of follow my leader.

Geese on the River Tees at Yarm

The original idea on the next shot was to photograph the gull.

Bedruthan Steps Hotel, Cornwall

Window frame, railings and line of surf on Mawgan Porth beach all make different types of line.

In Mallorca it was the jacuzzi I meant to snap.

Jacuzzi room - Mallorca hotel

But if you strain your eyes you can see a line of yachts on the horizon.

Back in Cornwall the lines make up a geometric shape.

Eden Project

The only shot where I can say that it was the upright columns were the intended lines is this from Fountains Abbey.

'Temple' in grounds of Fountain's Abbey

For the life of me I cannot remember the correct name for this.

If my lines are not strong enough for you and even if they are you should make a beeline for more at Carmi's thematic photographic 194