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A male Orange-tip (Anthocharis cardamines) from this morning's session at Loddington
The back drop is a field of Dandelions
I have a dream, in a galaxy far, far away! Once upon a time, in a mightily different world we could and did travel to places that could blow our mind. This was one of those places.
When we are planning to go somewhere on a holiday we have never been before, we often envisage it in our mind. Look up photos somewhere on the net, read Lonely Planet books (probably a bit old fashioned now) or just get tips from others. But some places are just so far from what one imagines, you are left in awe. And this was one for us, a mouth gaping and unexpected place.
While this photo was taken on our second visit in 2015, this city left us breathless in its majesty whenever we stood on its main street and looked around. We could never have imagined what the eye could see that little else could demonstrate the reality of.
This tram or light rail vehicle if you want to use the modern nomenclature is descending the hill down South St. Andrew Street, Edinburgh, Scotland and is about to turn to its right into the main thoroughfare of town, Princes Street. It's in what is known as the New Town. If I turned 180 degrees I could look across Princes Street Gardens in the valley below and then up to the rear of the buildings lining the Royal Mile on the rise on the other side, the famous street (really six streets in one) that runs uphill to the right and Edinburgh Castle sitting on its rock high above the city. A truly magnificent sight.
COVID-19 has changed our world in ways we see and in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It's been some 18 months now and grappling with an ever mutating virus and populations who are ever more wary on one hand and ever more anxious to break out on the other, we still see no end. It's taught us a lot, much of it worse than a big policeman's boot up the backside but I know one thing when I look back at pictures like this, I am thankful for the life and opportunities we had in life and hope and pray that one day, especially for those yet to experience them, whatever they are that at some stage we will get back to normality or even better than what we would regard as normal. That's my retrospective and introspective for today.
By the way, before I leave this minor tome, I should mention that the good food people of Edinburgh who serve up some mighty fare round town think the electro-magnetic fields caused by the trams have acted rather like the Pied Piper and stirred up the rats. At least they told us so and we saw and we believe! To be fair, we saw one rat in a cafe close to this spot and that's what the staff told us and the others who were standing on chairs while they "dealt" with the problem! One of those funny travel experiences. We had more than one in that cafe but the other is for another time.
At last the Orange-tips (Anthocharis cardamines) have emerged at my local patch, which is near to Loddington, Northants (approx 600ft ASL)
Here is a rather handsome male from yesterday morning
Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time, like dew on the tip of a leaf.
by Rabindranath Tagore
The unusually smooth water of the Courtenay River estuary was a mirror to catch this Common Merganser wings tip-to-tip with itself.
The deep-freeze is coming upon us... stay warm, everyone! Here's some hoar-frost coated leaves from western Texas last month, on the Lost Mine Trail in Big Bend National Park.
Colotis danae
A prize find on an early morning search for butterflies, insects and other natural spectacles.
A close profile view revealed some precipitation on its eyes. Here, as several other butterflies seen that morning, it was basking, intent on getting a right dose of vitamin E (or warmth) in readiness for a good day of flight and flowers.
Lake Orta, Italy: A True HIdden Gem You Didn't Know Until Now Travellector #lake #Orta #TravelTips - ift.tt/2dgv6QV
Back Garden - one from a couple of days ago, unfortunately I was unable to get at right angles to him.
A selection of my photo's can be licensed for public use in high resolution via Picfair (www.picfair.com/users/mpsamuels). If there is a particular image you wish to license that is not already available please feel free to contact me.
I photographed this female Orange Tip butterfly nectaring on Forget-me-nots in my garden yesterday. Females lack the orange tips to their forewings which makes them more difficult to find as they are easily overlooked as Green-veined or Small Whites. Its scientific name is Anthocharis cardamines. The first bit means "rejoicing in flowers" while cardamines is the scientific name of its other main larval foodplant; Cuckoo Flower.
I caught lots of moths last night and its frustrating trawling through books to name them but good fun as well and rewarding when you can be sure of the species
I blame my brother for encouraging my son's obsession with shoes, including these, fresh out of the box.
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Une autre vue du Bassin Minier d'Aniche, ancien terril aménagé en parc de loisir View of an old coal tip, successfully tranformed into a recreation area. HDR, 3 raw.