Litter bin robin

Robins actively seek out human company it seems. But, like most animals it only does so in the hope that it will result in some food coming its way. This robin was flitting to and fro, in and out of the slots of a litter bin, but wasn't looking for food. It had its eye on us and it let us approach quite closely before concluding that we had nothing to offer and it might have better luck elsewhere.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Kitchen garden path

English country houses generally have three types of garden. The best known is the landscape garden, the remodelling and improvement of the middle distance and far distance landscape by, for example, creating lakes, planting trees in clumps and as individuals, and adding "eye catchers" such as classical temples, Romantic ruins and interesting follies. Then there is the formal garden that can be seen from the house windows and when walked through. It will have plants, shrubs and small trees, all arranged in beds that frequently organised geometrically. Then, usually hidden behind a tall wall all around, there is the the kitchen garden where vegetables and fruit are grown for the table of the owners. This may have small workshops and glass houses to enable tender and non-native foods to be grown. Today's photograph shows part of the kitchen garden at Croft Castle, Herefordshire. The rustic path is made of bricks, pebbles and tiles, and on either side, with name tags dangling from them, are different kinds of apple trees.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Fog at Croft Castle

There was a familiar tale recently - the weather forecaster said unbroken sun but we, the weather observers, saw nothing but fog (until the afternoon). Consequently our day out at Croft Castle produced photographs that I hadn't imagined. For much of the time the details of the building's facade were lost and it became a monochromatic, looming pile.

Only when we walked round to the terrace on the south side did we see something of the structure we recognised.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Camellia bloom

People with little interest in gardening frequently mistake the Camellia for a rose. There are some similarities: the flower is like the red/pink roses and its petals are somewhat similar. The strong, shiny leaves can remind one of roses that have foliage of that sort. However, the Camellia flowers early in spring when most self-respecting roses are dormant. In fact, the Camellia's flowers are often damaged by early frost. That has happened this year when many have flowered a full four weeks earlier than usual.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Exodus

It is quite common to find a Bible on a lectern in a church - chapters and verses are often read weekly as part of a sermon. And even where that frequency doesn't prevail a lectern looks empty without a Bible on it and so one is frequently placed there simply to make the place look "right". The chosen version of the Bible is often one of the C20 editions. Where that isn't the case, the King James version is often to be found, and this can be Bible of great age, commonly dating from the C19. The photograph above is just such a version. We came upon it open at the book of Exodus, its great weight comfortably held on a solid wooden support.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Dockside crane and tracks

Gloucester Docks and the adjacent shopping attraction, Gloucester Quays, are an interesting mixture of the old and the new. The warehouses and the water of the docks attract people who want to know more about the area's past. To help kindle the atmosphere a few old cranes are parked where once they would have busily shifted goods from dockside to ship and vice versa. The tracks set in the tough granite setts make a good foreground for one of the most interesting cranes.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Quince

The first time I saw quince in flower and subsequently in fruit was when visiting our oldest son at Oxford University. It was growing against the sunny wall below a window. I knew of the quince because it was the fruit eaten, sliced, with a runcible spoon, by the owl and the pussycat in Edward Lear's poem of the same name. As we have moved, over the years, from the north of England to the south west of the country, we have seen more quince, in flower and in fruit, due to the more equable climate. The quince above, a flowering variety (Chaenomeles japonica), was in full flower in Herefordshire in the last week of February, the blooms appearing before the leaves, a mass of red growing on a fence.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Trailing euphorbia

The euphorbia, with a genus of over 2000 members, is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. From tiny annuals to a tree-like plant of 30m (98 feet) or more, one euphorbia can look quite different from another. The subject of my photograph is Euphorbia myersinites,  a trailing plant often found on rockeries in Britain. Like all its brethren this plant has a poisonous, milky sap that can cause a rash on the hands of a careless gardener. I have featured a Euphorbia on the blog before. It shares little in appearance with the example above.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Wet weather semi-abstract

It was a wetter than usual January and February and photography was somewhat curtailed. However, the rain itself added to the appeal of some subjects and today's photograph exemplifies this. It shows the blue painted slats of a bench in a public garden. No good for sitting on after a recent shower, but the water droplets offered the opportunity for a semi-abstract composition.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Crumpled aluminium foil

Sitting on a fallen branch in the Forest of Dean, eating a sandwich, I stopped thinking about yellow brain fungus and started noticing the way the light reflected from the crumpled aluminium foil that had been my food's wrapping. I was carrying the wrong camera for a closeup so I made a mental note to photograph the foil at home. My first effort was taken during indoor daylight and the result was underwhelming. So I tried again under the warm bulb of my desk lamp and I was much happier with it.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10