On the difficulties of photographing bees

The ceanothus in our garden is in full bloom and the bees are in paradise, you can hear them buzzing as they nimbly work from flower to flower.  Looking closer you can see that their pollen baskets are bright yellow and full, so full sometimes that I wonder how they can still fly.  But while the bees are great fun to watch, they are most difficult to photograph, being small and fast moving.  My camera is good, but not state of the art, so it struggles to focus fast enough and accurately enough.


Despite being a failure at its main aim, I rather like this photograph as it shows the problem, the bee appears as a sunlit blur in the centre of the picture, while the camera has focussed on the flowers.



These are probably my best pictures of the lot.  I think I shall have to send my sister out there with her big camera while I read up in the manual of my camera to see if there is anything I can change in the settings to make photographing these amazing creatures easier.



Then my next challenge will be learning to identify the different varieties, I find that a real struggle.

Out like a lamb

As the old saying goes, March went out like a lamb; last weekend was glorious, warm and sunny and I revelled in being able to sit outside.  I also remembered to take my camera out with me and got some lovely shots of one of the robins.  Both were about and I love their trust and curiosity.  They are starting to spend time closer together and yesterday I saw one feed the other.  While I was sitting outside last weekend I was surrounded by birdsong, every bird in the area was singing and singing, I could distinguish the robins, a wren and blackbird, but there were also blue and great tits and a surprisingly assertive dunnock around.  Normally the dunnocks we have in the garden are most inoffensive and spend their time creeping about in flower beds, but this particular individual is not afraid to boss other birds off the feeders.  Watching the birds brings me such joy, it is one of the few times I find myself smiling, broadly and spontaneously.  Anyhow, photos...










One of Dad's beloved cowslips and its red genetic variant







So next time it is beautiful weather and I am sat inside, please remind me how much joy I find outside among the birds and send me outside.

Spring

Although today has been distinctly wintry on the whole we are surrounded by signs of spring.  Our pond was a ferment of frogs last week, at one point we counted twelve in there, which was quite something as it is not a large pond, only just over a metre long at most.  They have mostly disappeared now, leaving the pond full of frog-spawn.  I love spring, watching the cycle of life getting started again, plants appearing, first as tiny green spikes, then emerging into their full identity, small crocuses or full sized daffodils towering higher and higher.  Watching the buds on the trees, there all winter as tiny promises of the renewal to come, slowly swelling and breaking and the bees emerge from their winter quarters and begin to visit from flower to flower.



This has been a good weekend for spring things, despite today's weather, yesterday there were times of gorgeous blue skies and bright, warm sunshine cutting through the crisp breeze.  On my way out I noticed among the many crocuses that have naturalised and are spreading across the front garden most efficiently, one which is striped in purple and white, something I never knew crocuses could do.  On my way home, after dawdling to listen to a blackbird and watch some great tits in the trees - one of them flew close enough past my head that I heard its wing flutter in flight, the first time I have heard that this year - I discovered that crocuses seem to close for the night.  All the flowers had shut in the time I had been out.



We have lots of narcissi in the back garden as well as more crocuses, the occasional tulip, a few hyacinths and glorious clumps of primroses.  I adore the "proper" pale yellow primroses, so sunshiny with heart-shaped petals.  Their cousins the cowslips are beginning to flower too.  Continuing the yellow theme we have sighted a yellow butterfly at the bottom of the garden, probably a brimstone I think.



Everywhere is new life and this morning's great excitement was the news that we once again had two robins, our robin has been doing some valiant singing recently hoping to attract a mate.  There were two robins in the garden in January but it was probably a bit too early for them to be together and one left again.  So we have high hopes of baby robins come the summer.  However, there have not been as many goldfinches around lately, I hope the robin's aggression has not scared them off.



My knitting is keeping with the spring theme too as I am now on the top shaping of the Peerie Flooers hat by Kate Davies, the decrease sections do take some concentration and I have been back re-knitting most rows at least once.  But the finished result is looking beautiful and most spring-like, the Rowan Fine Tweed yarn is gorgeous, with a wonderful lustre.  Hopefully it will be finished soon and my head will match the spring around me.

Sheep!

Of course, an important part of our visit to the farm was seeing the lambs while they were still little and we took endless photos.  At the start of the week the lambs were still very much at the tottering stage but by the time we left they were venturing further from their mothers and beginning to career around the field, jump and play.  Not much more to say, but here's a selection of photos, you can see the full set here on flickr.






I love how their tails wag when they feed.







Lastly not the greatest picture, but I feel it is very expressive.

More of our holiday

Despite all my best intentions I did not get any more blogging done while in Sussex, so here belatedly are a few highlights of our holiday.  I may split the posts up into subjects.

First some pictures of where we were staying and the view from our dining table:



And there was a lot of visiting wildlife including a very sweet rabbit and two strutting pheasants, watching a male pheasant run makes me laugh every time, there's something most Captain Mainwaring or Mr Pooter about a male pheasant.





There were well visited bird feeders on the trees fairly close to our dining table window, we saw a robin, blue and great tits, a nut hatch, greater spotted woodpecker, magpies (alas) and chaffinches.  While I thought we had problems keeping our feeders filled, there it was a several times a week job!  My sister got some great shots of the blue tits bickering and feeding - she has more great photographs on her flickr photostream.



The farmers are delightfully welcoming and encouraged us to walk around the farm as much as we liked, an invitation we took up eagerly.  This is one of my favourite views out across their land, looking vaguely north across the Low Weald.



Most evenings there were the most wonderful sunsets, it is truly a lovely, if windy (being on top of a rise in the landscape) spot, I was so sad to have to leave.  Next time: lambs!





For those who are interested, we stayed at Heath Farm near Plumpton Green, they are comfortable, spacious cottages and the farmers are lovely people, I would definitely recommend them.  They are quite disabled friendly, being on one floor with flat access and wet rooms.

Arrived

Magnolia

We are blessed with a beautiful magnolia tree outside our house in the front garden and in front of that on the kerb some variety of cherry tree and right now both are blossoming magnificently.  It's a wonderful sight and the bees seem very keen on it all although they show a marked preference for the cherry tree, partly I think because of the profusion of flowers very close together.  Anyhow, I managed to get some photographs today and I thought it might be cheering to see them.







Expect the next post to come from deepest Sussex as I am off on my holidays to a farm - with sheep!

A time of firsts

I am sadly aware that I have slipped well behind with my blogging, this is mainly due to life appearing to move at a far faster pace than I can keep up with and to feeling very tired, not that I should be surprised about that, it does go with the territory.  In the meantime I have been watching an astonishing number of spring firsts emerge as the weather has finally warmed up a little.

We have had the first blossom on lots of the trees - wild and flowering cherry, plum and magnolia all out together - cherry and magnolia shown here outside our house.



The first cowslips flowering, they have taken to the garden, from the two plants put in a few years ago we now have nine in the garden, in addition to the couple we have given away.  My dad is a great advocate of the cowslip and I do love their cheery flowers, yellow is so sunshiny, although we also have the genetic rarity of a red cowslip.



The first bees emerging, I adore watching the bumble bees proceed from flower to flower.  They are nigh on impossible to photograph however.  This year there have been many flowers out awaiting them, including the lungwort, not the world's most prepossessing plant perhaps, but a hit with the bees over many weeks.  The other evening the cherry tree pictured above was abuzz with bees, such a joy to see.



The first fritillary of the year, part of the William Morris theme to the garden, fitting in with the period and style of the house.



The first days of sunshine and sitting outside, watching the birds and remaining still so that they will approach and feed while I am there.  As always the robin is first down, often coming very close in the holly bush to see what I am doing and to twitter softly and sing, but blue tits, dunnocks and even the gold finches have been joining him.  I love seeing both robins together at this time of year, one has started feeding the other with choice titbits and various birds have been spotted with nesting material.

All this has brightened a tough few weeks, with spiritual and physical struggle all ongoing.  On the knitting front (this is supposedly a knitting blog after all), I have finally finished a cardigan, but not managed to photograph it, and started a new one, double v, from an Interweave knits magazine a couple of years ago, in Vinni's Colours Nikkim, which being a cotton can be hard on the hands.  The colour is wonderful though, called peacock, it is rich and deeply saturated.  Hopefully it will not take as long to knit as the last cardigan, which I started last May.



Onwards and upwards as they say.

52 weeks of happy - week 12

It has been a bit of a miserable week, well, miserable few weeks, so all the more reason to look for the positives that have been there.  This project is helping me to see that there are good things in my life, so it is working in that respect, even if it does take quite an effort for me to keep it up.

1. Frogspawn - we have a small pond outside the back door that is able to support a community of somewhere around half a dozen frogs who appear as if from nowhere at this time of year to spawn in the pond and who can be seen on summer evenings out catching insects.  Watching the frogspawn grow is always fascinating and has become part of the cycle of the year.  With considerable diligence my sister has managed to get some good shots of the frogs and frogspawn and she has kindly allowed me to share her pictures.



2. Lunch out - at the pub with my sister, a quiet relaxed lunch and the discovery that the pub now does sweet potato chips.

3. Sock knitting - one of a pair finished, the second on the back burner while I make some swap socks.  Unfortunately I cannot share pictures of the swap socks yet, but I am pleased with them so far, it is going to be hard parting with them.  The on hold socks are Elm by Cookie.a in some sock yarn beautifully dyed by Countess Ablaze.



I also finished another pair of the baby bootees that actually stay on, though I am slightly worried that one of them looks a bit bigger than the other, hopefully they will still work to keep a baby's feet warm?  They took longer than they should have done as I cast on too few stitches on the second bootee and had to start again.



4. More bird watching - there have been a lot of them around this week because of the cold weather and they are fascinating to watch.  My sister got some photographs of them too, the robin in particular was keen to pose, they are such little attention seekers.



It is not always peace and harmony among the birds though.

52 Weeks of Happy - Week 10 (also belatedly)

I am still behind with blogging, this time because of a week effectively wiped out by a cold in the head, a minor affliction that is capable of making one feel disproportionately unwell.  However, this post belongs to the week before this just gone, the week of toothache.  My life has been so full of fun lately.  But it is good to look for some positives even in the middle of the nasty stuff.

1. The 109 bus - I have never been so glad to see a bus in my life.  I was on my way to the dentist and had arrived in the suburb by train, walked out of the station and become completely disorientated (note to self: next time take a map).  So I managed to go the wrong way out of the station and walk for what seemed about a mile in the wrong direction.  The penny was just dropping and I was getting dangerously close to my appointment, when I found myself beside a bus stop for buses running towards the direction I had just come.  To my intense relief there was a 109 bus crawling along the road towards me that delivered me to the dentist's just about on time.  Mercifully the toothache and general jaw pain seems to be inflamed gums, rather than the more serious problems I had been imagining - note to self: do not immediately leap to the worst possible conclusion over *everything*.

One of my dad's toy buses for illustrative purposes

2. Confusion by Elizabeth Jane Howard - I have been deep in the Cazalet novels lately, devouring them greedily.  I cannot remember when I was last so engrossed by a series of books or a fictional family, I found myself truly caring what happened to them and whereas in the earlier books I had been enjoying and taking note of the writing and narrative devices, all that detail began to fly out of the window as I got further into the story.  I cannot recommend these novels enough.  For so long I have been limited in my reading by brain fog and tiredness, so to be able to regain some of my previous capacity for reading is a real joy.



3. Robins - out in the garden during some rare sunshine I saw both robins, the first boldly sitting on a branch just above my head singing lustily, the second creeping about the undergrowth and holly, battling curiosity and cautiousness, unable to resist taking a look at me despite nervousness.  I have great hopes of a nest of little robins.



4. Beautiful yarn in the sunshine - this is Mind the Gap by Trailing Clouds, Blue Faced Leicester wool yarn dyed in all the colours of the London Underground lines.  As I have plans (or hopes?) of casting this on soon I had been winding the yarn and thought the opportunity for photographs was too good to miss.

52 Weeks of Happy - week 9 (belatedly)

Life has somehow overtaken me and I am now two weeks behind in "52 weeks of happy", it may be challenging remembering what happened in the week before last so you will have to bear with me!  I did consider doing weeks nine and ten in one post, but that seemed somehow to be cheating.

1. Camomile Tea - recommended by a friend because I was so stressed and tense I could not relax, to the point where I was rigid with tension or shaking.  It worked almost at once, unlocking the tension enough that I could then work on relaxing and could cope again.  Since then I have had some every day and while I am not completely sorted, it is helping.

2. More signs of spring - some more tree prunings, this time from the magnolia tree outside the house.



3. Marking Time - the second of the Cazalet novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard.  It is ages since I was so lost and absorbed in a book, or a series of books.  They deal with the life of an extended family in the years surrounding and during the second world war, there is so much skill in the way she tells the story from different perspectives and managing to produce an ensemble work in which there are no weak or under-developed characters.  I have ended up caring about these characters intensely, truly caring what happens to them.  The novels are being beautifully dramatised on radio 4 across this year to mark Elizabeth Jane Howard's 90th birthday.

4. Apple loaf - from the Edmonds' cook book, essentially a soda bread with grated apple added.  It was moist and tasty with a dense but not heavy crumb.  Even better it was not hard to make so hopefully I will be able to make it again soon.  I am considering whether some spices and sultanas would make good additions, sounds like experiment time!

52 Weeks of Happy - Week 8

Posting a day late this week because I have been a little (more) under the weather (than usual), nothing major, just a low level virus I think but enough to be annoying and make me even more tired.  It is also increasing my brain fog so that I am finding it hard to think clearly or focus on things at times and I have felt a bit down about it at times.  However, I am trying not to let this take over, so I am writing this post for a start, although I do not appear to have taken many or any photographs this week so you will have to excuse the blog's dull appearance for a bit.

1. Talking - talking to someone wise with whom you feel safe to say how you really feel and who makes you feel like you are not doing so badly after all.  The sort of conversation that leaves you with a lot to take in, think about and pray over.  Oh that there were more people like this in the world and oh that I could help others in the same way one day.  Such a precious opportunity.


From a previous year but still delightfully sunny.

2. Potato farls - where have these been all my life?  They feel like the perfect food for this grimly cold weather.  I got the recipe from this brilliant feature in The Observer by Miss South of the blog North/South Food, not only is the recipe simple and effective, there are a number of the other recipes on my "to try" list and the piece is thoughtful, thought-provoking and well written.  Do go and read it, then try the recipes.

3. A gentle, silly film - this time a 1970s film-of-a-sitcom: Bless this House starring Sid James (who also came up last week), which was on Film 4 this week and is bound to be on again.  It was just right for an afternoon on the sofa knitting.  I am considering checking out the original sitcom.


Again not this year's, but I am beginning to see snowdrops and crocuses and must get some photos of the primroses.

4. Friends - I have been lucky enough this week to have a couple of social engagements, which I managed to fulfil despite feeling under par, and there really is nothing like sitting around a table eating and talking.  I can see why Jesus is so often found eating with people in the Gospels, be it up mountains, beside lakes or after inviting himself to someone's house, it can be one of the best ways of getting to know people and deepening relationships.  There is a special warmth and vulnerability to sitting down to eat together, like the Vikings leaving their weapons at the door when they sat down to eat or King Priam going to eat with Achilles when he goes to him to ask for Hector's body back in the Iliad.  What made this dinner even nicer was that it was utterly unexpected, my neighbour called around and invited me that afternoon.

My other social occasion this week was having coffee with a knitting friend, a form of socialising I enjoy very much and we had a good chat about stranded colour work and other knitterly topics of conversation.

So, on with the rest I think.