Seville - early morning scenes

 

 

 

 
 

Seville

Seville, the capital of Andalucia, conjures up image of oranges, flamenco, Spanish Moorish influenced architecture, the great art works of Velazquez and Zurbran  and the variety of tapas and fish dishes,  sitting in the sunshine sipping a Campari or Sangria appears a comfortable thing to do.

The city awakes early in preparation for the tourists exploration.  Streets were washed with mops and buckets, window sills cleaned, table and chairs arranged for the days business as deliveries took place. I shall always remember the Jacaranda trees and the sensuous architecture. Arriving late in the day we were in time to find a tapas style supper in the evening light.   There was a lot to look forward to in the next days, the Alcazar, Seville cathedral, and Place Espanya to name just a few.

 

 

In search of insects Audley End Walled Garden

We thought there would be a good chance of finding insects in the warmth of the walled garden but all that could be found were honey bees, dead woodlouse and a little spider. The tulips were colourful and I tried some camera intentional movement and some shallow depth of filed to high light a black tulip. The apple blossom was almost over.

 

Cow Parsley - Cherry Hinton Hall

I ventured on foot to the park having seen the white haze of flowers from the road in the last few days. It was time to take a closer look at the Anthriscus sylvestnis  known as cow parsley, wild chervil, wild beaked parsley, keck, or Queen Anne's lace.  It is a herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial plant in the family Apiaceae, genus Anthriscus.   The trees in the park looked especially fresh with the new leaves and blossom.  It was here I met Max and his owners who were out for a walk. 

 

 

Bluebells at Waresley Woods

Venus Pools Nature Reserve ,Shropshire

 The carpark was full when I arrived at Venus Pools and the hides packed and I then understood the reason.  A "Night Heron" was in the area and had been seen and photographed by one photographer with a huge lens at 11:30 hours.  It was now 13:00 and he was anxiously waiting for the bird to fly out from the bushes. Other birders, twitchers and photographers had walked to the other side of the pools to take a glimpse of a speck on the landscape. I settled to photograph a Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)  which was disturbed by noisy Geese scrapping. An Oyster catcher was sitting on three eggs on the scrape as the Lapwings (Vanillas vanillas) flew up and down in pairs making their distinctive call. The Terns were scrapping and there was a sandpiper which I found too difficult to see to photography.