Nethercourt Blossom

Nethercourt Estate in Ramsgate is lined with trees that are now in blossom.

It is very pleasant to walk around the estate and see all the blossom on the trees. These two trees are close to our house.
It will not be long before the wind blows the blossom off so we’ll enjoy it while we can.

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Worth the waiting for!

It arrived this morning!
What arrived this morning? I hear you ask
My long awaited ‘close-up’ lenses. Extensions tubes really. I bought them through an on-line web site from China (saved a substantial sum by doing so) and they took just over a week. I think they were worth the wait though.
These extension tubes allow me to use my ordinary lenses as the primary lens so retaining autofocus if I want (most times not recommended for close-up work) but more importantly allow full control of aperture and shutter speed settings.

I then spent the rest of the morning stalking the garden looking for an interesting subject.
These are the results (I said you would be the first to see them):

And this is a closer image of the same Hover Fly:

I also tried a close-up of a flower:

To take a close-up photograph it is advisable to put the camera lens on to it’s closest focus point then gradually move the camera closer to the subject until the desired focus is achieved. So, as you can imagine I have lots, I mean lots, of unusable shots. But they are all worth while for the one shot that is spot-on.

I am so pleased with the results. I hope you like them.

I then had to spend the afternoon doing the ironing!

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Yellow Fields and Gold Hill

This last weekend saw us in Ringwood, Hampshire visiting my brother Michael and his wife Frances. A nice time was had by all.

On Saturday Michael took us on a tour of the local countryside, and what a lovely area they live in.

We went to Win Hill and saw this view:

A short drive then saw us in Shaftsbury and the well known Gold Hill:

The Fields of Rape are a spectacular colour this time of year and cover the landscape in a blanket of golden-yellow. The narrow lanes we were driving along prevented me from stopping every hundred yards to take a photograph. We stopped when we could and I took this photo.

It was a lovely, relaxing weekend.

Thanks for looking after us so well Michael and Frances.

You must visit us soon so that we can show you the lovely sights that Thanet has to offer, such as …….mmm……….let me think……..no, no prompting………..Don’t worry I’ll think of somewhere to rival the views you have!

Added 2nd May 2009 (after correction from my Twin brother Michael):
Shaftsbury is in Dorset not Hampshire.
Win Hill is in fact Win Green and in Wiltshire.
Ringwood is in Dorset (yes, the postal address is Hampshire – are you as confused as I am!).

Apologies for getting it all wrong except for Ringwood that is. My Satnav says it is in Hampshire – so that is where we went!!!!

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Apple Blossom and Sycamore

Apple Blossom – lots of it is surely a sign of an abundance of fruit later in the year.
Unfortunately, they belong to our neighbour!

This apple tree is just out of our reach so we can look but there will not be any ‘tasting sessions’ later!

I saw this ‘photo opportunity’ of the sun showing through a Sycamore Tree we have in our garden.

It is one of my Bonsai Trees that I have developed from a stripling found growing in a crack in our front path.

Isn’t spring a nice time of the year?
The sun is warming the earth, the trees are in bloom and new leaves are forming.
We have our House Sparrows back in their ’summer quarters’ (a corner of guttering) and it is a joy to listen to their twittering as they gather bedding material.
The Common Gulls are hanging around my pond, children are squealing several garden down – no, no, no, lets stay positive!!

Have a good weekend and I hope the sun shines on you.

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Hover Flies and Some That Don’t!

There is a lot of insect activity in our garden that I had not really appreciated until I got the photograph of the Bee Fly (see earlier post) and decided to see what other insects etc. are visiting our garden.
I have been pleasantly surprised by the variety of flies that can be found – yes, flies!
Hover Flies ( known in America as Flower Flies ) belong to a large family of small to big flies. They are true flies or Diptera, with only one pair of wings in the Family Syrphidae. ( Wasps and bees have two pairs )

Some are welcome while others are considered pests.

Can you guess which are the unwanted ones?

The Hover Fly, and there are numerous ‘types’ are abundant this time of the year:

Of course you know the unwanted ones – they are the Blow Fly and the unfortunately named (but apt) Flesh Fly but they are just as colourful close-up.

I have now embarked on another ‘hobby’ – that of insects and photographing them.

I have a ‘close-up’ lens on it’s way from China via a well known on line auction site but as I am saving a substantial amount I am willing to wait the two weeks before it arrives.

So, watch this space as there are many more interesting insects, spiders and creepy crawly things to which I can point a camera!
I am looking forward to getting really close to the wild life in our garden. Of course, you will be the first to see them!

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The Hairy Caterpillar and the Speckled Wood Butterfly

Being short of opportunities to photograph birds as they have been noticeable by there absence lately I have been looking at other flying things in our garden, namely bees, flies etc. and while ‘lurking’ around I found this little fellow munching it’s way through a leaf in our garden on Sunday:

Now, I am no expert on caterpillars, and I have been having great difficulty identifying this chap:

So, if there is any-one who can help identify this caterpillar:

I would be most grateful.

Today, Monday, I saw this lovely butterfly:

I was able to identify this Speckled Wood Butterfly but I wonder what it is doing in a garden in Ramsgate. My reference book says they can be found at the edges of forests and glades or small clearings. It is not related to the caterpillar – I’ve checked!
Is it not too early for butterflies to be ‘on the wing’ anyway?

I am amazed by the variety of insects, flying or otherwise, inhabiting our garden and I will show you some of them in my next post.

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The Bee-Fly Flies By

I was down on my tummy taking photographs of the Grape Hyacinths…………

……..when I heard this buzzing close to me. I looked around and saw it was this Bee-Fly:

I managed to get this image as well:

Also ‘doing the rounds’ of the Grape Hyacinths was this Hover Fly:

I have not seen a Bee-Fly in our garden before so had to check it up in my Book of Insects.
The Bee-fly (Bombyliidius major) is an expert flyer and resembles a male bumblebee. It plunges it’s long proboscis into the flower to suck the nectar.

I hope to see it again and be in a better position to obtain clearer images.
How I long for a close-up lens!

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Callum – The Champion!

Sharon and Callum came to see us on Friday and Callum challenged me to a F1 Grand Prix Racing Car Championship on my Scalextric track.

He chose the Renault F1 Racing Car while I had to settle for an ‘ordinary’ racing car as the front wheels of my McClaren F1 car were not touching the track (something I will have to look at). It proved to be a decisive mechanical defect. The Renault F1 car proved to be 2 seconds faster per lap than my car which, even in scalextric terms, is a huge margin (can you see where this is going?).

The four races of the Callum and Gramps GP F1 Racing Championship were over 25 laps per race of the specially designed track and was under strict (harsh Mae says) racing conditions.(If your car goes off the track – tough – the race still continues)
The results were as follows:
Race 1 – Callum (4.3 secs fastest lap)
Race 2 – Callum (4.5 secs fastest lap)
Race 3 – Callum (4.1 secs fastest lap)
Race 4 – Gramps (6.4 fastest lap – Callum went off track – it stills counts as a win though!)

I was a ‘good loser’ and congratulated him on a ‘good drive’ – he did have the fastest car though!!!!!

It was Callum’s request that this Scalextic F1 Championship be the subject of a post on my blog. He arranged the poses for the photographs you see here.

Thanks for a great weekend Callum.
Now, I’m off to buy a new F1 Scalextric Racing Car – I wonder if they have a BrawnGP F1 car for sale, with Jenson Button at the wheel!

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The Overnight Cob-Web

Cobwebs!
How come they can appear overnight?
This cobweb was found by me this morning:

It was in the doorway to Mae’s Patchwork room. It wasn’t there yesterday – or could it have been last week?
Anyway, Mae never noticed it and I rarely go into this sanctum. It does look a bit dusty though!
I quickly got rid of this incriminating evidence that would tend to prove my lack of dusting (not one my favourite jobs on the house-work front).
How fortunate am I that we both missed it?

Mae will never know – she doesn’t read this blog anyway!

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blog.davidclare.net

I know this is an unusual title for a post. It was the web site of my blog before I moved onto a new server using a new domain name. This occurred last year but it was only recently that the thought struck me – I hadn’t told readers of my posts that I was moving. My old domain name (davidclare.net) is now defunct.

I am hoping that previous readers searching via Google (there are other search engines) will find this post, accept my apologies, and go to http//blog.davidclare.me.uk

If you are a returning reader – thanks for coming back. I will do better in the future!

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