Burnham Bramble Burning and Butterfly

I drove down to Burnham to offer help to my nephew, Alex with his somewhat overgrown garden, so as I broke for lunch, I went to the car and took out my EOS7D Mk II camera and the 100mm macro to grab a few shots whilst the lighting was good.

I had spent the morning hacking back brambles that seemed as if they had been fed steroids for the past several years, until the break when I was able to reveal two tree stumps and two remnants of a privet hedge, one fairly healthy, the second less so; but at least now they stood a chance of survival, unimpeded by the thorny clutches of the brambles.

The abundance of roses, a buddleia and numerous other flowers demonstrated that the garden had once been well-stocked, so these hopefully will be returned to their former glory. The Peacock butterfly certainly felt the buddliea warranted its attention.

It is a shame that both he and his sister Virginia are now so more distant than hitherto, as it would be good to have spent more time there to help in the task of restoration, but I think I made the most of the short time I was there, helping him and his colleague from his nautical days, Amrit.

In his enthusiasm to burn the spoil I would have been grateful to be asked to move the car beforehand as it is now covered in white ash, and when I opened the boot, much that had been on the bootlid  was sucked into the boot space! I'll forgive him this time as he did provide me with a lunch and cups of tea. And, I now have a few more images that will serve as greetings cards at some future occasion – perhaps in the design of a Wedding gift label when he and Palka tie the knot.

Mishmash of Subject Matter

Dripping Taps to a plumber represent a potential for earning, however for myself they represented an opportunity to check out the alignment of a lens and camera, and once I started trying to capture it, it became a fascination in what is actually happening. I know it all has to do with surface tension and a battle between those forces and gravity, but to see it in action is endlessly intriguing; what to our eyes is an intermittent stream is often fast moving globules of water, that as they start their downward journey stretch the surface envelope to breaking point.

Where was I whilst watching all this unfold? Well, it was a 300mm lens on a Canon 7D which meant the first major issue was getting far enough away from my subject, and yet be at the closest focussing distance of that combination, and the tap was in the downstairs shower room basin and in order to be low enough and distant enough I was seated on the closed loo, pressed firmly against the wall behind me and handholding the camera. Hardly ideal from the point of view of my study, but at least I was able to check whether what I was viewing was represented in the image file, and it was!

The rest of the shots in this small gallery represent a trip, possibly my last to my sister-in-law at their pile near Cliveden, as it has been sold, and is scheduled for demolition – it will then truly become a pile; this time, of  rubble. Sad, as the house has seen some happy times over the years of Richard and Glory’s ownership. Daughter, Virginia was over from India and we all sat around the kitchen table chatting in low warm light in the late afternoon, and Joshua who is fascinated by my cameras and in fact anything mechanical or technological was hell bent on taking some pictures so I positioned the camera on the table to so he might be able to look through the viewfinder and once he found the shutter release went at it as if it were a machine gun – the scatter approach managed to capture one shot of Gloria and Virginia as they patiently awaited the release of the shutter, that was both correctly focussed and steady, and the patience in the subjects’ expressions is fairly obvious and rather nice!

Big Al who was against the large window was less easy to capture but is an  interesting study of concentrated disinterest. Taking any shots of Joshua under such circumstances was impossible short of flooding the area with light and trying to keep him far enough away to be able to be able to focus on anything more than a pointed sticky finger or a snot-laden nose!

It was a short but enjoyable visit along with Lizzy who is wishing the arrival of my next grandchild will hurry up and arrive!

Boxing Day at the Holmes

I travelled to Burnham to my sister-in-law Glory and Richard’s house to celebrate Boxing Day with Virginia, back briefly from Mumbai, Alex once again on dry land, my mother-in-law up from Dover, together with assorted friends: Grace, Alex’s current girlfriend from Korea, Rechna from India, briefly Anders from all over the world, Ursula from nearby and Jan and Norman from London.

A more eclectic group is hard to imagine. It was a time of much catching up, reminiscing and jollity with some splendid food and wine. Sadly Renee, my mother-in-law was in pain and confined to a wheelchair and it has been a tiring time with all the necessary preparation for the holiday period, and Catherine chose to lessen the burden by not coming over at this time, so my time with her was to be the following day.

I hope I will get to see Virginia before she heads back to India, but I think it unlikely, but perhaps I might at least see Alex.