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| This is where I went for a walk today. |
It's hard, currently, not to be overwhelmed by heat. Today is sunny and clear. Bef
ore that the weather was heavy and oppressive. And before that the sky was dull and overcast. A letter arrived from the hospital with a list of nine series of vaccinations I will need to replace my immunities but my new GP practice seems to have shut up shop. I don't understand! There was a leaflet with the letter. I mustn't forget there's still time for me to get Graft Versus Host Disease and because of the transplant I am more at risk from a selection of cancers so I must use high factor suncream, wear sunglasses, get out of breath for thirty minutes a day to keep myself fit (this can be in ten minute chunks) and have ten minutes a day with my skin exposed to sunshine (for the sake of vitamin D).
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| Butterfly being observed by a fly. June 24th 2020 |
So when I go for a walk I feel like the invisible man - my woolly hat has been replaced with a flowery sunhat and I wear large dark glasses in between it and my flowery mask. The sunglasses change how I see the world. They enrich all colours. Butterflies, pretty at the best of times, become absolute stunners. The sky is bluer. Clouds more dramatic. Leaves greener. The earth is enriched and warm. Photos don't look the same when I get them home! This butterfly was bright orange when I saw it through my glasses!
It's
National Insect Week. I spent an age before I set out, trying to photograph bees on local poppies. Bees never stop moving and when they ping off the poppy and on to the next one, its petals are left vibrating. It's easier to photograph bees on sturdy bramble flowers I have discovered. However fiercely the bee wriggles, the flower stays still. (I've used one of the blurry poppy photos for a temporary header in honour of
National Insect Week.)
Today's walk was in the country, through some woods between the moors and a stream. There was bracken and there were ferns, This, I think, is bracken. Who knows the difference between bracken and ferns?
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| Wasp pollinating a wild rose. June 24th 2020 |
There were wild roses and brambles.
Here, a rose is being pollinated by a wasp.
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| Moss in woods on dry stone wall. June 24th 2020 |
And in the woods, perhaps my favourite observation today, this little moss on an old dry stone wall.
