12 April, 2008

Early evening stroll



Tranquil track through the woods.

















Late afternoon light on marsh grass. In summer there are sometimes sheep in this field. It's flat and low-lying with a couple of streams running through it (one of which spreads out to form these pools), so it's part way to being a water meadow.










Cormorants drying their wings after fishing in the reservoir and nearby river. The odd-looking contraption they are perched on is an artificial island built by conservation volunteers for terns to nest on in the summer. In the winter the terns have migrated to wherever they migrate to, and the cormorants find it very handy. I wonder where the cormorants go in the summer?










A swathe of daffodils in the parkland surrounding a large country house.













Sunset light on a veteran oak in a laneside hedge.

6 comments:

Gabriele Campbell said...

You live in a pretty countryside.

Rick said...

Cormorants hang out in Morro Bay, though presumably not yours. Other than that I agree with Gabriele!

Bernita said...

"Water meadow" is such a nice term.
Here, the area is often called an interval(e) or flood plain.Blah.

Unknown said...

Lovely photos, thanks for sharing them, we had a pretty miserable weekend in Yorkhsire, snow, rain, hail, you name it.

Meghan said...

Lovely pictures. I love the light in them too. Now that I have a digital camera I feel I can join all the bloggers out there who take pictures of their environment and things they're interested in. I hope to see more pics soon.

Carla said...

Gabriele - to be fair, it's a highly selected sample - I only post the pretty pics :-)

Rick - no, I doubt our cormorants fly halfway round the world to California! Though I'm now curious as to where they do go. I must see if I can find out.

Bernita - Flood plain is used over here too. I always thought a flood plain referred to an area that actually got covered by water, which this doesn't as far as I know. We also have the unromantic term "wet grazing", but like you I prefer water meadow.

Carol - We had some very heavy showers - I spent 20 cold and boring minutes hiding in a bus shelter from one on Sunday - but luckily they fell as rain rather than snow :-)

Meghan - thanks, and good luck with your camera! It took me ages to learn to work one, technological klutz that I am. I can't take any credit for the light, that's just the way it was :-)