best part of the day: light and shade

Friday October 11th
I was going to call this Simply Reds but the association with Mick thingy was just too discouraging. So brace youself for too many Red Admiral photos, taken in a frenzy, in the Botanics mostly back on what seemed like the last sunny spell in October. The following day was also very cheering but it seems to have been overcast and drizzling since. Just as well, work has been pretty full on, and the daily commute so long I've had no energy or enthusiasm for running when I get home. Running has dropped to once or twice a week. Oh well. Here's some Hucknall Admirals.

First a quick fly-by of the buddleias on the WoL near Logie Green Rd where there were a small colony of Reds hanging out. Often soaking up the sun on the leaves or nearby nettles. It is also a spot well known to the birding community as a kingfisher or 2 frequent the area.

Then along to the botanics. My heart always quickens as I enter the place in anticipation of what I will come across. If the sun is shining then there's always some spectacle worth shooting, even if it is only some exquisite flower blooming or some leaves turning to gold and red in autumnal splendour.

I have got into the habit of walking round several hotspots, in search of butterflies and birds. The Chinese Garden has been less productive recently. No sign of the robins who will handfeed there and I haven't seen anything of the heron, who has been known to stand motionless and aloof at the far end, occasionally stabbing a large frog from out the slime. I suspect the covering of fallen leaves makes fishing less attractive for the kingfishers. However, while there, I was approached by a young couple and asked could I take their photo. They had just become engaged. I kept my cynical thoughts to myself and congratulated them, taking photos of them, in both landscape and portrait format, because young folk don't realise what it is to sit in front of a monitor that is always landscape and will shoot video in portrait, a crime they should be imprisoned for. Yet another way iPhones have ruined the planet.

2 young people, in love
and ruining their relationship by getting engaged

Now if you think I am just a grumpy old curmudgeon, I would suggest we all take a moment to consider just how ridiculous marriage actually is. This was recently pointed out by a comedian I think on some podcast I was listening to and only some time later did I think I should actually have been paying attention. They were saying how all the speeches at a traditional wedding were done by men. The father of the bride talks, he is selling off his daughter; the groom talks, he is getting a woman who is likely going to change her name to his, like a piece of property or luggage; the best man talks, not sure why, to big up the man in the stupid cravat. And the women all stay silent (perhaps the comedian suggested, because the new wife is so miserable.) Of course I'm sure we are all more modern and can, and do, change the ceremonies to match how right-on we are these days and all marriages always work out fine. And a lot of people like conventions so what do I know? Anyway that is only the tip of the marriage iceberg. A contemporary warehouse marriage has all sorts of hoops to jump through including themes, seatcovers, table-centres, floral emotional blackmail, a month of photography in a single day the price of a circus, obligatory tributes, mourning candles and an entire sweet shop of sugar based crack for the children to regurgitate mid-morning. But you know this already. That's what makes relationships work.

long tailed tits
my second favourite kind

cunningly dodging the autofocus

I usully take the same line from the East Gate to the herbaceous border. I often forget about this chap (if he is a he) on the Bergenias on a corner. He will fly up do a couple of circuits then settle again on a flower or leaf. Sometimes a couple of RAs will be there. He was very obliging and didn't mind me setting the camera to macro and shoving it in his face. Nice to get some blue sky in the background.

those love hearts on the underwing are echoed in

shades of dark brown on the upper hindwing just inside the orange border

the holly hedge spider was still there

and had something nice for lunch

When I passed by the Tahoma Star Dahlias (above) an Admiral flew off. I waited for a while but it didn't return and I felt I had missed the photo opportunity of the day. After that I met up with Ken and Andrew, looking for kingfishers at the duck pond. After a while Ken and I did another tour round some of the likely places to find butterflies. I approached the dahlias with more caution this time and sure enough an RA had returned. No sure if it was the same one but it may well have been.

There is a thin rather straggly buddleia at the glasshouses usually devoid of butterflies. However for a change there was a lovely dappled light falling on its flowers and a couple of RAs had lit upon it. When they weren't nectaring on the flowers they were sunbathing on the leaves and on the shrub next door. Further along the front of the glasshouses there is a border full of interesting flowers that should attract butterflies (whites would fly along and back during the Summer months) but rarely do.

back to the bergenias

Ken having a nice lie down by the Bergenias

a solitary Painted Lady was fluttering around the demonstration garden

Back past the Tahoma Star Dahlias and bingo, another RA. It was flitting from one to another and so quite tricky to get a decent shot. I didn't want to move in too close as it had proved easily spooked last time. I didn't quite get the ideal photo of it, centred squarely and up the right way but it sat long enough to get a couple of shots.

We ended up back at the duck pond looking for kingfishers. There have been regular sightings but they can't always be counted upon to either appear, or better still, appear on a branch in the sunlight close enough to get a decent photo. This is where the boys (and girls) with big cameras and long lenses do have a real advantage. Ken and Andrew showed me some shots they had taken and they were like portraits with every feather showing unlike the smudgey record shots I have got so far. Still, it gives me something to do during the Winter and so far the birds are behaving pretty well about regular appearances. The obvious difficulties involved make it an interesting challenge. They are such different creatures from all the other more modestly coloured garden and river birds we get here. They are almost tropical in their brightly coloured plumage. Worth a stand and wait. Although that is not my forte.