Hello August

Hello there. All is fine here. I haven't posted in a while, there is a lot going on at the moment in my non-blog world and I couldn't seem to find the space in my head to think about blogging.

As it is the first day of a new month I wanted to try and get started again. These are a few photographs from my walk yesterday.

The countryside has changed over the last few weeks as we move past midsummer into harvest time. The wheat is ripening, the barley was cut a few weeks ago, and the verges are full of tall grasses and hogweed. The rain earlier in the year seems to have made everything grow vigorously this year.

I usually post pictures of the landscape and mainly flowers so for a change, some cows having their breakfast

a butterfly sunning itself on the brambles

and this little bird who was singing his heart out yesterday morning.

I'm not very knowledgeable on birds, is it a greenfinch?

I am hoping to get back into the habit of taking photographs and posting again. Susannah Conway is hosting  "the August Break" again this year and I'm intending to post a few pictures to the flickr group  - always interesting to see how others interpret the prompts.

green and white

stitchwort

hawthorn

elder

white campion

rowan

water dropwort, hemlock (caution- extremely poisonous)

goose grass

meadow foxtail

dandelion

cow parsley

The weather is turning warmer and the bright lush green and whites of late spring/early summer will be replaced by darker greens and bright summer flowers. A few photographs recording this wonderful time of fresh green foliage and white flowers.

evening light

The longer days give an opportunity for evening walks. The light at this time of day is so beautiful. These photographs are taken from the roman walls at Silchester.

August

Back from holiday, a wonderful break from the overwhelm I was feeling before we went. Hope the sense of calm will last for a while.

There is already a feeling of late summer here although school summer holidays go on for another three weeks. School holidays have been part of life for so long that even without children to consider it tends to be the way I mentally divide up the year.

As I took this picture of the first blackberries and the ones below of ripe wheat, maize, and the stubble remaining after harvest, I realised I take similar pictures each year. Most of my blog posts now record the changing of the seasons and the countryside throughout the year. If I look back at posts from a few years ago, my life was full with the boys and their school and after school activities. Now they are grown and life is less hectic, I have time to walk and to notice the details and changes happening throughout the year.

Late summer has a slow feel to it, the growth and flowering of spring gives way to a gentler pace, fewer flowers now as seeds are forming ready to complete the cycle for another year. 

As I get back into my home routine and the worries and concerns resurface, I must find time for my restorative walks and remember that seasons change throughout the year and throughout life. I need to remember that after busy energetic periods, all living things needs slower, quieter times.

evening sun

A few photographs from an evening walk. Photographers talk about the "golden hour", the time just after sunrise or before sunset when the sun is low in the sky. The colours are softer and more red/golden and there is less contrast between areas in and out of shadow. Sunset is just after 9pm here and so the magic time is between eight and nine.

early summer

Almost a month since I last posted and the countryside has moved from spring to summer. I like the Scandinavian five season year, spring, early summer, late summer, autumn and winter. There is a difference between early summer when the foliage is fresh and green and the drier dusty image I have of late summer, with yellowing fields of cereals and verges full of seedheads as well as flowers.

These photographs are from my walk yesterday. Early summer is here, the wheat fields are still green and elderflowers, foxgloves, honeysuckle and wild roses are all at their best. I'm noticing the elderflower blossom so that I know where to go to collect elderberries to make cordial in late summer.

mid May

A few photographs to capture the middle of May. The countryside is coloured so many shades of green. The wheat and barley fields are solid mass of mid green, almost tinged with blue contrasting with the acid green of the young leaves on the oak trees. In the woods the bright yet pale green of the silver birch and the beech stand out against the dark pine trees.

Sprinkled in amongst the green, splashes of white,

horse chestnut,

hawthorn,

even a couple of white bluebells amongst the fading blue

and of course May wouldn't be complete without frothy masses of cow parsley taking over the verges.