Author Archives: JDO

The best that can be said for this is that it’s only 7am and I’m posting. The next best thing that can be said for it is that it’s a minor miracle I caught it at all. Late yesterday evening … Continued

Ooof. Another busy day – this one including learning how to cut mounts. Not actually cutting any mounts, you understand, but in theory at least, I now know how to do it. Which is useful, because I need to produce … Continued

A day of busyness, and rain. I was vaguely planning an indoor shot of a tulip on a light pad – which may turn up tomorrow, if things don’t improve – but while I was squelching around the garden putting … Continued

Well, if no-one else will advertise your aerial prowess, I suppose you just have to do it yourself. And to be fair, the gliding flight she made when I approached a little too close was both impressive, and took place … Continued

Caught between having overslept after getting to bed late last night, and having an appointment with the osteopath this afternoon, I didn’t have time today to go gadding about. But the light was lovely, so when I went to run … Continued

Competition was fierce this morning for the morsels of food that were to be found around the ‘lawn’. There were seven or eight jackdaws down, and the pheasant was having his work cut out to chase them all off his … Continued

I’ve chosen to feature this photo because I don’t think I’ve ever taken anything quite like it before, and though I’m not sure why, I rather like it. I was walking out of a nature reserve in the Cotswold Water … Continued

I zoomed off to Kemerton Lake this afternoon, in search of a smew that’s been reported there over the past couple of days – and which I think is probably one of the pair I photographed at Holt last month. … Continued

When R and I went to Croome last Sunday there was hardly a bird to be seen. This week they were everywhere, I’m happy to say – including a sizeable flock of chaffinches, hunting for insects in the orchard that’s … Continued

Being an honours graduate of the Gumby School of Flower Arranging, I confess to having struggled to get these tulips to stay in any semblance of reasonable order. It didn’t help when I dropped my back board on top of … Continued