Fern – after the Winter
The Workers Are Out
Apis mellifera
The first Honey Bees were out making themselves useful in the unseasonably warm garden this week. Admire those full pollen baskets.
- Aperture: ƒ/4
- Camera: DSC-RX10M3
- Focal length: 216.72999552973mm
- ISO: 160
- Shutter speed: 1/800s
Bloodroot
Sanguinaria canadensis
Clumps of these beautiful spring ephemerals are coming up this morning all over the garden.
- Aperture: ƒ/16
- Camera: ILCE-7M2
- Focal length: 100mm
- ISO: 125
- Shutter speed: 1/100s
Photograph is a composite focus stack from 8 original images
Sanguinaria
Bloodroot
Yesterday there were the very first signs of Sanguinaria shoots pushing up through the cold earth. Today there are extensive clumps of green “fingers” and the first evidence of folded flowers. Almost there.
- Aperture: ƒ/4
- Camera: DSC-RX10M3
- Exposure bias: +3/10EV
- Focal length: 205.60000610352mm
- ISO: 1600
- Shutter speed: 1/160s
Elder Bud-burst
Elder
I am currently preparing a daily sequence of elder tree leaf buds opening … this is a sample; day 6 of the series
- Aperture: ƒ/4
- Camera: ILCE-7M2
- Exposure bias: +3/10EV
- Focal length: 100mm
- ISO: 100
- Shutter speed: 1/100s
Easter Hare – Wild Peace
The above image is a ceramic plaque that we purchased years ago from a gallery in Suffolk. The quotation, I discovered, is only a part of the original (by Yehuda Amichai, an Israeli poet)
Not the peace of a cease-fire
not even the vision of the wolf and the lamb,
but rather
as in the heart when the excitement is over
and you can talk only about a great weariness.
I know that I know how to kill, that makes me an adult.
And my son plays with a toy gun that knows
how to open and close its eyes and say Mama.
A peace
without the big noise of beating swords into ploughshares,
without words, without
the thud of the heavy rubber stamp: let it be
light, floating, like lazy white foam.
A little rest for the wounds; who speaks of healing?
(And the howl of the orphans is passed from one generation
to the next, as in a relay race:
the baton never falls.)
Let it come
like wildflowers,
suddenly, because the field
must have it: wildpeace.
Leaving Soon
Common Redpoll
We are into April now and don’t expect any more snow, albeit its still very cold. A small troup of Common Redpolls are still hanging around the garden but are expected to head back north before long. Cheery little fellows.
- Aperture: ƒ/4
- Camera: DSC-RX10M3
- Focal length: 189.7400055142mm
- ISO: 1600
- Shutter speed: 1/250s
Budding
Sambucus canadensis
Canadian Elder … or whatever common name happens to be used in the area you happen to be
** For anyone interested in photography, this image was composed from seven separate photographs at different stacked focus planes to achieve without any out of focus features. Some of the new computer tools are simply remarkable.
Two days later Day (1 April, but this is real) – welcome to Canadian spring
- Aperture: ƒ/4.5
- Camera: ILCE-7M2
- Focal length: 100mm
- ISO: 100
- Shutter speed: 1/160s
Sentinel Snowdrop
Standing forth …
- Aperture: ƒ/2.8
- Camera: ILCE-7M2
- Focal length: 100mm
- ISO: 125
- Shutter speed: 1/100s