Taexalia

wild.life

Haiku ~ Mountain Hare

Mountain Hare moves first

Chooses direction later

Move and see what's coming...

Meeting The Standing Stones of Stenness

It's a while since we journeyed to Orkney, but it's never too late to share snippets from the journey... Travelling along the main road (which by the by is two lanes - one in each direction) we saw a howe (hillock or knoll) in the middle of a field, and we stopped in by to make arrangements. Further along the road we saw the Barnhouse Stone, protected by fencing in the middle of farmland. As we travelled towards a narrow causeway between the Loch of Harray and the Loch of Stenness, we could ... read more

Red Tailed Bee Taks A Dram

I found this little fellow on my garden path looking a bit dazed and confused. He seemed to be trying to get somewhere, but unable to fly.

Our bees are precious and they are under threat and I tried to help by sending Himself inside to dilute some honey with water on a saucer. I nudged the bee off my finger onto the plate and he immediately began to drink. It took quite a while for him to get his fill, but then a bees tongue is a ... read more

Flying Solo

I gaze out at the hazy blue sky, relishing the bright sunshine after days of wind and rain. I am up early, getting things done, energised. A movement catches my eye and I am mesmerised by the sailing shape of a Buzzard. This is the front window that looks over the town to the Forth and I am used to watching Buzzards out the back windows. I relish this unusual sight.

Then a Crow flies into the ... read more

Ice Maiden

Staying with the icicle theme because they will be gone soon enough, and I'm enjoying the challenge of trying to do them justice. The second shot involved lying on the floor under the window to get most of the 2' + length of the icicle in without a background of houses. It's a beezer! I had to shoot through glass too (there's probably a setting on my camera for that but I'm not that sort of a ... read more

Transient Pause

The icicles at my bedroom window today... They have an Otherworldy quality with the mix of sunshine and black clouds. Patience caught a drip in motion. Part of me wants them to stay forever...

The person I was yesterday is not the person I am today and in the next moment I can be different again, if I ... read more

December Window

This is the view from my bedroom window this morning. But then again, the view has changed. The sky has since filled with dark grey clouds and I played with some photo editing software to get the orange horse effect. Can one improve on nature?

Altered Tree

Just playing with an image I grabbed yesterday... experimenting with software... ... read more

Autumn Gateway

Doorways, gateways, arches, wooden doors with big iron hinges and locks, caves, animal burrows and places where trees meet across a path... These can all be liminal spaces, places where a transition is made. I found a wonderful liminal space whilst walking at Lochore Meadows, Fife. As I ambled along the path and rounded a bend, I was taken with the vision of the natural archway that the Hawthorn and Scots Pine made, and the way they framed the Sycamore ... read more

Life Death Rebirth

Samhain, Hallowe'en, the end of summer...

The life force is ebbing inward

The oak leaf is reborn with each new colour

When it is gone

The acorn holds

A promise

First Frost

I remembered to take my camera with me this morning, but I forgot to take a pair of gloves. I will have to give in and accept that summer is officially over, and go in search of my winter warmers.

I don't think that Jack Frost arrived so early last year, yet the Hawthorn and Rowan are laden with red berries and this suggests a hard winter. Folklore, I'm told, and yet the early frost suggests there might be some truth to ... read more

Dance of the Red Fox

We went for a walk yesterday morning and one of the differences between the greyhound and the humans was highlighted as we climbed the steps to the high field. His nose engaged and his body language hinted at the traces of something interesting that happened earlier, he sees first with his nose, then his eyes. With us, our eyes engaged first with him and then with the changes in the landscape we noticed... a small area of ... read more

British Weather Photographer of the Year

Weather. We talk about it. We moan about it. We live our lives, even in the 21st century, largely at the mercy of it. It never ceases to surprise us, and it can grind our lifestyle to a halt with the merest dusting of snow.

If, like me, you have a camera and an ounce of creativity (and I firmly believe that everyone has at least an ounce), then get yourself outside and take some pictures of British Weather. Why? Well for a start it will give you another excuse to moan about ... read more