Photo a Day Year Seven

George Takei and Walter Koenig at Destination Star Trek Europe

Dragonfly close-up

Red Admiral Butterfly

Spock

Jay

I have been working on a photo-a -day project for seven years now – that’s 2548 pictures posted to date. I post the pictures weekly on my Facebook page and, intermittently, here and on Flickr.

My only rule is that I take at least one picture a day – no cheating. Sometimes I have a theme – owl of the week – sometimes I’ll have a weekly theme. This year Spock and Kirk have featured heavily in honour of Star Trek’s 50th birthday (and mine).

As has also become a tradition, at the end of the year I make a mosaic of all 364 pictures.

Onwards to Year EIGHT

Nature photos 2015

Twelve nature photos I took this year. What with the weather, work and life generally I haven’t taken as many photos as I did in the last few years. I bought a second-hand 400mm lens a few months ago, but I haven’t had the chance to take it out yet. And I finally got my 24-105mm fixed after it broke when I was in France in summer 2014. So here’s hoping 2016 will be a good year for nature and wildlife.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

March – First butterfly of the year. Small Tortoiseshell

June – Banded Damoiselle

August – Migrant Hawker dragonfly

January – Robin (one of many I photographed this winter)

November – Goldfinches in the mist

February – Muntjac deer in my garden

May – hares. Taken through a hedge

July – Swallows

September – Silver Y moth

October – young goldfinch

December – Blackbird

April – Fallow deer herd. Taken from a moving car.

Mar 7

First Butterfly of 2015

This year’s winner is the Small Tortoiseshell in my garden on March 5th.

Jan 10

First hare spotted this year

First hare spot of the year. It ran as soon as I got out of the car. They are amazingly fast – it was in the next field in moments.

Jan 6

Robins

Yesterday I went for a walk at Priory Country Park in Bedford. One of my favourite places at the moment. You can always guarantee seeing something whether it’s swans, grebes or ducks, or butterflies, dragonflies, squirrels, rabbits … or robins. I’ve never seen so many robins in so short a time. Here’s a few that I managed to get a picture of. A couple are ringed.

Robin one

Robin two

Robin three

Robin four

Dec 31

2014: a year in photos

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Wishing everyone who looks at my blogs and very happy and healthy New Year. And thank you for stopping by.

It’s been a funny old year. Some lovely moments and some not so lovely, and on balance I’m glad to wave it bye, bye. So here’s to 2015 – onwards and upwards!

January
A very wet Priory Country Park in Bedford.

Flooded Priory Park

February
A family ‘in joke’ It comes from the 1990’s TV Show Fist of Fun.

The moon on a stick

March
Another visit to Bedford. There is a huge swan population in the Bedford area, but I had never seen a black swan among them before.

Swans

April
My husband was on tour in the Netherlands with the Bootleg Sixties. The band’s families caught up with them at Easter in Leiden.

Leiden, The Netherlands

May
We went to a family wedding in May in gorgeous Gosfield Hall in Essex. Thanks for inviting us, Leigh and Stefan!

Cosmopolitan

June
I went on a butterfly watching trip to La Brenne in France. I met some great people and saw loads of butterflies including the increasingly rare Large Blue. This one is an Ilex Hairstreak, and not found in the UK.

Ilex Hairstreak, La Brenne, France

July
A summer view from the edge of town.

View from the end of my road (nearly)

August
Four days in Cornwall thanks to our lovely friend, Eric.

Punches Cross Fowey Harbour, Cornwall

September
The second family wedding of the year at beautiful Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire. Thanks for inviting us, Lauren and Jamie!

Chandelier in Brocket Hall ballroom

October
A mystery moth on the side of a UPS van.

Moth in October

November
The Bootleg Sixties did a mini tour in the UK this month.

Bootleg Sixties show in Rotherham

December
One of my Christmas presents.

Lego Research Institute

Nov 15

Black-and-white week

I’m now on to year six of my photo a day project. This year I am trying to do themed weeks. This week was a black-and-white week prompted by a black-and-white challenge on Facebook.

Spirograph wheels

House in Buntingford

Husband sound checking

Garden

fireworks

Feather

Windowsill

Apr 10

A flash of blue

Now that spring is well and truly here, my thoughts have turned back again to butterflies. In amongst the flashy Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells and the butter-coloured Brimstones zooming about, I’ve been really pleased to see the first blues of the year – Holly Blues. These are tiny wee things – probably the size of my fingernail. On the ground – with wings closed – they are a very light silvery blue and could almost be petals, but when in flight and when they (rarely) open their wings they become the ‘sky-flakes’ of Robert Frost’s poem.