RogerBW's Blog

Yesterday was sunny, and we went for a walk in one of the local woods. (Images follow.)

I've just acquired a new camera, on the basis that while the Pentax K10D is still a lovely piece of kit it doesn't do a lot of good if it's not round my neck when I see a thing I want to photograph. So thanks to a friend with one to sell I now have a Canon Powershot A1300; it's not as manually-controllable as I'd ideally like, but it does have a plain viewfinder as well as the screen, and it's small enough that I can drop it in a pocket and forget about it. So this was an excuse to try it out. (Each image links to the original. cc-by-sa on everything.)

We were expecting a flurry of rhododendronage, but this was the only impressive blossom:

while most of the rest were more like this, not yet out:

though clearly the buds are nearly ready, and in another week or two I should think they'll all be open:

The ferns were making a good start. I like ferns; they're plain, old-fashioned plants that don't need any of these new-fangled insects to pollinate them. And when they're opening they look like the end of a cello. (Focus isn't all it might be on this one; there wasn't much to lock onto in the foreground.)

We rounded a corner and saw a more enthusiastic rhododendron:

and this one a little further up:

but that was about it as far as the flowers were concerned.

Over at the pond, the water was writhing, and this turned out to be a mass of tadpoles, big and fat but not showing their legs yet:

Further out in the pond, a rhododendron was trying its luck:

Although the rhododendra were only just starting, the bluebells were going pretty well. Here are some through beech trees:

And a fine low haze:

While this particular wood is "managed" by the Woodland Trust, they don't do a terribly good job. Here are some typical major paths, still not recovered from the heavy machinery they (or rather their contractors) have been using to grub out the pines:

Sadly, their approach to this has been to declare that adjacent trees are what make the paths muddy (yes, the trees that suck water out of the ground are apparently what makes the ground damp) and cut them down. When this doesn't work, they cut down more trees.