August (sort of) in Photos

August has been a funny month, periods of lovely hot weather followed by periods of relentless rain, cold and grey, I am ready for it to be over, roll on September.  We had some fun adventures, despite that, not all these photos was actually taken in August, some are from the past year.  I have noticed that I have taken far less photos since I stopped blogging, but now that I have started again I am sure that the camera will out and about far more often.  Joining in with I live, I love, I craft, I am me... here are my photos inspired by words and words inspired by photos.

Mark

When we stop and really look, we notice.  A small patch of grass growing in the sand, small and seemingly insignificant. The wind blows and its delicate ends have traced a wee pattern.  The charm of nature.

Duck

A mother mallard and her chicks.  A rather charming duck house floating in the middle of the Shropshire Canal built to carry tub boats of coal, ore and limestone, now a very quiet place but once an epicentre hustle and bustle carry the fruits of industry in Coalbrookdale.

Window

A beautiful ornate window on a Victorian industrial building, in Coalbrookdale, where tiles were once made.  This is now a fascinating tile museum which sounds like the most unlikely place to while away your time but we spent many hours there on a recent holiday in the area.

Arm

A supporting arm for the wealth of growth in our poly tunnel without which we would not be able to venture into.  It is really full of tasty growth and bounty this year with courgettes, summer squash, cucumber, tomatoes, lettuces and salad leaves for the eating.  My garden would not be quite so productive without this wonderful space.

Straw

Straw in the making.  This is in my front garden, a seed most likely dropped and germinated from the bird feeders which are attached to the post in the background of this picture.  A few years ago this area was covered in sunflowers which again were seeds dropped from the bird feeders.  We have several ears of wheat this year.  I love how much of what grows in my garden comes from the birds themselves.  We are leaving this wheat for them to pick at.

Rare (Own choice)

Cameron is working towards the last level of the John Muir Award, this requires him to spend a minimum of 160 hours Exploring, Discovering and Conserving wild places.  We have spent many hours this summer attending events hosted by our local wildlife trust, it has been a real privilege to be involved in some of the important work they do to conserve our local wildlife. One of these events was a butterfly walk along an abandoned railway line which is now a beautiful nature reserve with a large number of butterfly species including this rather rare beauty the Scotch Argus, one of only two populations to be found in England (the other just south of this) most of these butterflies are found in Scotland. I was amazed at the other people on this walk and how far they had travelled to see this butterfly.  There were very few local people this walk. In truth this made me a little uncomfortable, whilst I am sure as a butterfly enthusiast it is great to see an unusual and rare butterfly, but from a conservation point of view is traveling hundreds of miles to see it a good thing?