Cellpic Sunday: Mossy
Posted on February 4, 2024
Perhaps it’s just my imagination, but there seems to be more moss than usual at this time of year, perhaps accounted for by the very wet winter we’ve had.
Lens-Artists Challenge – Day and night
Posted on January 28, 2024
I took this photo in Australia’s Hunter Valley as storm clouds gathered. It wasn’t shot in black & white and nor have I converted it to monochrome.
It was actually mid-afternoon, but as those menacing clouds rolled in, they had the effect of turning day into night.
Cellpic Sunday: The Uninvited Guest
Posted on January 28, 2024
As I’ve mentioned on many occasions, out here in the sticks we are surrounded by sheep. They easily outnumber the human population, not only of our commune but all those for miles around.
The nearest sheep to our house are actually just across the road – a small flock of about a dozen that belong to our neighbour. This ewe must have been feeling particularly adventurous, because it somehow slipped through the gate or over the fence (or under – they can be quite enterprising sometimes, although mostly they’re just terminally thick) and came trotting down the side of our house. She cropped some grass and then turned round and went back home.
Cellpic Sunday: A warm glow
Posted on January 23, 2024
In the past week or so we’ve had a fresh delivery of logs for our wood-fired stove, and we’ve had its chimney swept. So what if it was -6C outside?
Lens-Artists Challenge: Illustrate a Favourite Poem
Posted on January 21, 2024
Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,…
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
Keats: Ode on a Grecian Urn
One of my favourite poems by one of my favourite poets, John Keats. The entire poem consists of five stanzas of ten lines each and is well worth reading in its entirety.
The urn in the image is an authentic museum copy.
Lens-Artists Challenge: Dramatic
Posted on January 15, 2024
The stark Hajar Mountains form a dramatic backdrop to the mountain town of Hatta, in the emirate of Dubai but well away from the city.
Cellpic Sunday: A Little Job For You…
Posted on January 14, 2024
Last week, we needed to top up our supply of logs for the woodburning stoves, so we got in touch with our friendly local farmer, J-C. As usual, we sent him an SMS and he turned up at our back door (he’s not big on technology – apart from farming equipment).
The very next day he rocked up with this delivery: two cords worth of dry logs, cut to our exacting 25cm lengths. If you’re wondering what two cords is, it’s about six cubic metres, and if you’re wondering what that equates to, it’s something comfortably north of 2,000 individual pieces, which all have to be neatly (-ish, in my case) stacked under cover.
About an hour after he dropped these off, it started to snow and the temperature was -6 Centigrade, but I made a start, and I’m still plugging away at them (I’m not as young as I used to be).
Cellpic Sunday: Submerged
Posted on January 7, 2024
We’ve had an inordinate amount of rain here recently, so this old cast-iron cooking pot, repurposed as a garden ‘feature’, is full to the brim with water and autumn leaves.
Lens-Artists Challenge: favourites of 2023
Posted on January 7, 2024
The first Lens-Artists challenge of 2024 is to select some favourite images from 2023.
Madame and I visited the city of Albi in October last year and I took rather a lot of photos, partly because it is a very photogenic place but also because I wanted to put the camera of my (relatively) new smartphone – an iPhone 14 Pro Max – through its paces.
I’ve already featured quite a few of the pictures I took on this blog, but not this one before. It was taken in one of the stunningly decorated rooms of the Henri Toulouse-Lautrec museum and features yours truly being unable to resist the slight ‘weirdness’ of the reflections in the large mirror over the fireplace.
You could call it ‘portrait of the artist completely out of his depth’.
Murano Glass
Posted on January 4, 2024
A close-up view of a piece of glass from Murano reveals its extraordinary intricacy.
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